The greatest impediment to agriculture in western North Dakota was cited as being water availability. Heavy periods of rain would typically run off or erode soil. Mining companies were mandated by North Dakota law to re-establish like those prior ecosystems mining alteration. They have 10 to do this in. These reclaimed lands could be used for agriculture. A study was conducted to access on how well traditional tillage and subsoil tillage were work on compaction, root growth, soil water status and yields of various types of crops on these grounds. Several mine locations reclaimed were studied. The results from these were inconsistent due to a number of confounding variables. Repeated chisel tillage over the next several years may have aided in the increase in wheat production
