Tillage is the practice of preparing soil for planting crops by breaking it up, turning it over, and mixing it. When a farmer plows a field in spring, that's tillage. The goal is to create loose, crumbly soil where seeds can germinate easily and roots can spread without fighting through hard, compacted earth.

For thousands of years, farmers used simple tools like hoes and wooden plows pulled by oxen to perform tillage. Today, tractors pull large metal plows that can turn over entire fields in a day. The plow blade cuts through the soil like a knife through cake, flipping it over and burying weeds and old plant material.

Tillage also helps mix air into the soil and can break up crusty surfaces that form after heavy rains. However, too much tillage can harm soil by causing erosion (when wind and rain wash the loose dirt away) and by disturbing helpful organisms like earthworms. Modern farmers carefully balance how much tillage they use. Some practice no-till farming, where they plant seeds directly into undisturbed soil, letting plant roots and natural processes keep the soil healthy instead.