Disease Is A Concern

In no-till farming, like ordinary farming, it is not a good idea to plant a crop back into its own residue. In traditional tillage systems, turning straw under plays a role in killing the disease organisms which overw inter in the residue. In zero tillage, attention to good rotations must be an offsetting factor.

Again it is important to stress the need for a good chaff spreading program. If chaff is not well spread, there may be a concentration of disease in the chaff row. Even where this potential disease problem exists, a disease outbreak will only occur where environmental conditions are right, control measures such as the use of fungicides are absent and a susceptible host crop is grown.

Crop residue has little influence on diseases such as rusts which are windborne but diseases such as leaf diseases can present major problems unless properly planned crop rotations are employed.

Many insect related disease problems can also be controlled through proper rotation and sanitation. Insect related disease problems such as wheat streak mosaic and barley yellow dwarf are controlled by keeping stubble free of volunteer grain and by late planting of winter grains. Insect problems such as flea beetle of canola may not be solved by rotation but their severity can be affected by rotation and other management practices such as seeding date and control of volunteer growth.