By Reagen Tibbs
Agricultural producers across Central Illinois and the United States face numerous challenges and pressures on their operations. These can include policy changes, volatile market prices, fluctuating input costs, diseases and pests, and many other factors. Of extreme importance to crop producers is soil health. As Andrew Sloan Draper, President of the University of Illinois from 1898 to 1904, said, “The wealth of Illinois is in her soil and her strength lies in its intelligent development.” Without healthy soils and proper soil management, crop producers would be unable to achieve the highest yields possible. Conservation practices, such as no-till and cover crops, can improve the quality and longevity of soil. But what is the cost of implementing these practices? A recent study by the United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service (USDA-ERS) examined the adoption of several conservation practices, the economics of those practices, and the impact on yields.
Current Adoption of Conservation Practices
Agricultural producers have employed practices such as no-till farming and cover cropping for many years. But how many producers have adopted these practices on their operations? Data collected from various surveys showed the adoption of conventional tillage, reduced tillage, no-till, cover crops, conservation crop rotation, and a combination of practices for barley, corn, cotton, oats, sorghum, soybeans, and wheat. The table below shows the percentage of corn and soybean acres that adopted each practice. The data for each crop are from separate years, as each survey was conducted for that crop at a different time.