Soil is not just dirt. When it’s healthy, soil supports living, growing communities of microbes and organisms. Besides organic matter, it’s chock-full of the minerals, nutrients, oxygen, and water that plants need to thrive.
Keeping soil in prime condition to grow crops and feed the nation is a challenge that producers have faced for generations.
“Soil is such an essential part of an agricultural system, but it’s such a complex thing to understand,” said Dr. Leo Deiss, an agronomist and visiting assistant professor in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.
In the past, most American farmers used moldboard plows to till, or turn over, their soil. But with this practice came problems: soil degradation, erosion, and declining crop productivity. So, researchers wondered, what if farmers stopped plowing altogether, instead leaving soil and roots undisturbed from season to season and mimicking how plants grow in nature?
In the early 1960s, two Ohio State soil scientists tackled this question, establishing one of the world’s first experimental no-tillage plots. Early foundational discoveries by Dr. Glover Triplett and Dr. Dave Van Doren boosted confidence in no-till systems, setting their acceptance in agriculture into motion.
In the 60 years since the plots were first seeded in Wooster and Hoytville, Ohio, the fields have supported more than 100 scientific publications, says Deiss, the new manager of the experiment. Maintained the same way they were decades ago, the plots are still providing valuable, long-term data that researchers are using to explore ways to feed a changing world.
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Ohio State’s Triplett-Van Doren No-Tillage Experimental Plots were set up to evaluate two agricultural methods: crop rotation and tillage. Researchers tested three different types of tillage intensities (moldboard plow, chisel, and no-till). Within each tillage experiment, they studied three crop rotations (continuously grown corn, a two-year rotation of corn and soybeans, and a three-year rotation with corn grown one year and alfalfa and oats grown the others).
Despite doubts from other researchers and producers, Triplett and Van Doren pushed to study these methods, and their experiments showed that no-till can change and improve soil properties over time. No-till didn't produce immediate results, so the fact that Ohio State has accumulated so much long-term data is very valuable, Deiss said.
“Sometimes in research you’re not able to capture the long-term effects of systems and generate responses that are robust enough to provide guidance to farmers,” he said. “Being old is one of the things that really attracts people because generally when we work with agriculture, one, two, three, or even five years is not enough to really evaluate the impacts of those systems.”
Today, differences among the plots are visible to the naked eye. Beyond the obvious crunchy tan residue on the no-till fields in the winter and the sea of mismatched crops stretching toward the sky in summer, if you grab a big handful of soil from each plot, the contrast is striking.
Soil from the tilled field is dusty yellow and can be pulverized with a mere squeeze, while the rich, dark-brown no-till soil stays clumped together, teeming with organic matter. The presence of organic matter can help plants absorb water and nutrients, improving agricultural performance.
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“It’s important to emphasize that at the beginning, those soils were exactly the same,” Deiss said. “That means that it matters, what we do to the fields, because it reflects on the soil condition.”
Work from the Triplett-Van Doren plots solidified growers' understanding of other benefits of no-till like the soil being less prone to erosion, having good water retention, and being more stable, Deiss says. Soil with lower-intensity tillage also has improved root health, supports more microorganisms, and can store more carbon. These qualities can reduce the impact of droughts and excessive rainfall, and on top of all that, no-till practices cut grower production costs and save time, he says.
Today at the plots, researchers are exploring emerging topics such as soil organic carbon storage, crop resilience, microbial communities, root distribution, economics and crop outputs, climate change, regenerative agriculture, and perennial crops, to name a few.
“More and more we are seeing an increasing number of scientists from outside the university requesting data or requesting to come to the experiment to sample soil for different purposes,” Deiss said.
For example, in a 2017 paper, scientists collected soil samples from the Triplett Van-Doren plots to analyze microbial communities; genes and enzymes; nitrogen, sulfur, and methane metabolism; and hydrocarbon degradation in the soil. Their results showed that there are more diverse bacterial communities and better nitrogen and methane metabolizing properties in no-till soil, and that maintaining no-till practices for a long time can offer diverse benefits to growers.
In a 2020 paper, Ohio State’s experimental plots contributed to an analysis of how crop rotations can increase crop resilience. Researchers showed that long-term crop rotation increases corn yield, accelerates yield increases over time, and reduces risk of crop failure under stress. Crops grown with these methods can also be more resilient to climate changes like increasing heat waves or drought.
The long-term experiment was also integral to a 2022 paper that evaluated indicators of soil health, especially soil organic carbon. Carbon indicators showed that practices like decreased tillage benefited soil health. Data from Ohio State’s plots helped researchers develop recommendations for growers about which indicators to use when testing their soil.
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No-till is considered a sustainable practice and is associated with conservation agriculture, Deiss says. However, it’s only one of many methods that growers can use to create a healthy and balanced field. Using no-till together with crop rotation, cover crops, or other regenerative practices can maximize soil health. And soil scientists think growing perennial crops that remain in the soil for longer periods can also help plants maintain root structure and conserve energy, which has a positive impact on carbon storage.
While many answers about soil health and agriculture have already been sown from the experimental plots, researchers like Deiss are trying to determine what still needs to be discovered as technology evolves.
“I think now we are at a point where we’re considering, ‘What’s next?’” he said. “We really need to raise questions about what’s missing, what’s the gap?”
Studying soil health is important because without soil, there would be no agriculture, and without agriculture, no one would eat, Deiss said.
“Everyone needs soil—it’s a common good.” he said. “We need to treat our soils better, or to the best extent that we can, because future generations will need it.”
From across locations and disciplines, researchers, students, farmers, industry, policymakers, and others are working together and using the Ohio State plots to make important discoveries.
“The Triplett-Van Doren no-tillage experiment has become a historic resource at Ohio State that needs to be preserved,” Deiss said. “It’s an astounding asset.”
- Explore more publications from the experiment
- Read a summary of the plots from Ohio State’s soil fertility lab
- Watch Dr. Leo Deiss give a walkthrough of the experimental fields
- Learn more about the history of Triplett and Van Doren
- Discover more no-till literature
- Explore a timeline of the no-till revolution
Dr. Leo Deiss began his position as the new manager of the Triplett-Van Doren No-Tillage Experimental Plots in June 2022. Deiss would like to thank Dr. Warren Dick and Dr. Steve Culman for their work in managing the experiment for several years prior to his start.
“They helped me a lot during the transition and remain very supportive of the experiment,” Deiss said.
In the 60 years since the plots were first seeded in Wooster and Hoytville, Ohio, the fields have supported nearly 100 scientific publications, says Leo Deiss, a CFAES soil scientist and the new manager of the experiment. The plots are still providing valuable, long-term data that researchers are using to advance agriculture.