Yield drag in no till?

[Ron]

I have been direct seeding for 3-5 years on various fields. Last year it was crazy wet here and I couldnt seed 500 acres, the land I did seed was crazy with ruts and stuckholes so I disced a lot of it last fall.
My yields on tilled fields are way higher than into stubble.
Same fertilizer rates, good emergence both sites, 10 bu/ac difference on canola and 15 bu/ac difference on wheat.
My direct seeded yields were good (50 bu canola, 75 bu CPS) but the tilled fields were way better. These werent all different fields, some were split (tilled half, harrowed and seeded the other half).
I have to do some math regarding diesel cost for tillage vs glyphosate/custom application cost for burnoff.
I am north of Red Deer and moisture conservation wasnt the reason for direct seeding, reduced weed germination and time savings from one pass seeding were the biggest factors but if I am losing %20 on yield I can spend some time in the tractor again.

Anybody else see this?

[craig]

Ron
We farm in the same area and I can't really say that we noticed yield lose on direct seed land. We also had some land worked which was generally our lower land. When we got into direct seeding we compared the 2 systems for a few years. General rule of thumb wet year conventional slightly better , dry year direct seed better average year no difference. On average we could not justify the extra cost of conventional farming.

[Ron]

Thanks Craig
I know you have a pretty sharp pencil so I will have to have a hard cynical look at my openers, I side band nh3 at seeding and maybe the losses are higher than it looks like into stubble? Thats the only thing I can think of.

[furrowtickler]

Depends on the area, moisture conditions, time of seeding. This year in our area anyone that conventionaly did anything it was a disaster costing upwards $100/ac. I agree though in higher moisture areas/conditions a little tillage goes a long way. It really is a fine line. We tandem disked a large low area this spring(under water last year) and the yeild monitor doubled. But that all had to do with soil moisture in the lower levels not tillage system.