Tillage - Roughness and Residue

Both the pictures below are taken on fairly flat land, but they illustrate a point very well.  Soils this fall are for the most part very mellow.  Dry weather prevented a lot of the puddling we have grown accustomed to in the recent past wet years. Crop residue is not heavy because of drought and poor yields.  Crop residue helps prevent both wind and water erosion.  The top picture was actually from a field that had decent yields all things considered.  The producer used a vertical tillage tool to chop up his residue and then he went in a chisel plowed it.  The chisel plow buried most of the residue; in addition, the mellow soil broke apart easily and left very little surface roughness.  The lack of roughness and residue leaves the soil vulnerable to both wind and water erosion.  The bottom picture does not have much more residue that the top one, but at least there is some roughness to break up the fall  of the raindrop and slow down soil movement on windy days.   The point of this discussion is that our soils are in good shape to do minimal tillage this fall.  In addition, if your conservation plan on highly erodible land calls for 30% residue, care is needed to make sure you don't bury it all. 

Vertical tilled and chiseled

Chiseled and rough