Abstract
The three pillars of modern conservation agriculture (CA) are reduced tillage, soil cover by stubble retention and diverse rotations (FAO 2015). The significant efforts to reduce tillage from the multiple passes practised in Australia up to the 1980s underpinned the publication of Tillage, New Directions in Australian Agriculture in 1987. Since that time Australia has led the world in the development and adoption of reduced tillage (RT) systems, but several recent reviews have questioned the drive for a complete absence of tillage (Kirkegaard et al. 2014, Dang et al. 2015a, Giller et al. 2015) and promoted its strategic use in cropping systems. The strategic use of tillage, primarily restricted to the surface soil and seedbed, is the subject of this chapter.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Australian agriculture in 2020 |
| Subtitle of host publication | From conservation to automation |
| Editors | Jim Pratley, John Kirkegaard |
| Place of Publication | Wagga Wagga, Australia |
| Publisher | Australian Society for Agronomy |
| Chapter | 7 |
| Pages | 107-115 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9780648581901 |
| Publication status | Published - 2019 |