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Gordon: There are good reasons both for and against plowing, and most of them must be decided based on the situation. The are places to plow and places not to plow. My guess is that plowing a strip 100' by 800' in South Dakota would be a disaster, as the water from firm soil on all the acres around would rush to that area. It would have been far better had they plowed 50 or 100 acres, then the water would have ample area to soak. That aside, I've never heard tell of plowing to plant trees. In eastern Canada we plant thousands of trees every year, and never ever break the sod or even remove the old tree stumps. Young college students go in big numbers with tray of tree seedlings and a tubular planter with a spear much like a walking stick, that has a hinged point that opens by stepping on a lever. They drop a seedling down the tube, pull the spear out. Tree farming in eastern Canada, the purest form of notill planting. I'm working in my yard here today, every arce for miles around is corn, beans or wheat, 50 acres is a small field here. It rained quite heaviy here the past two days. Several neighbors notilling are out planting. The neighbor who plows spent 3 days early part of week disking and field cultivating, today he is waiting for his 100 acres, 4" of mush to dry so he can plant, wise, I think not. Then you can get into areas with limited heat units. They are able to grow corn and beans because they do conventional tillage. I farmed such an area, land was dry enough to till by April 15th, however it was little more than 35 degrees at 4". We gained 10 degrees of heat at 4" in soil, over notilling by May 1st by tilling those two weeks. We also had acres and acres of softwood forest to hold the water back, after rains. I could go on and on, present arguments for both sides of this till-notill debate. In fact I could turn it into a book and all the arguments, both sides would be correct. Plain and simple what you have next door is a pair of dummies.
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