Same rain left and right...
2nd year dryland No-Till wheat (Left) compared to neighbor's conventional farm (Right) during severe drought of 2020-2021 in SW Romania.
Mulch of dry crop residue soil "armor" prevented crusting of soil to allow max infiltration of moisture from scant winter snow and early spring rains, and then capped evaporative loss. More total moisture was available to the No-Till crop to make the difference.
Soils on this farm are very good, so the No-Till program here was straight forward. Soils as in SW Australia often have constraints of extreme pH, salinity, excessive iron or hardpans that require a more specified and customized design of No-Till with cover crop program to suit.
