The Multiple Bottom Line Benefits of Conservation Agriculture
Photo by Corey McKinney
Conservation agriculture delivers savings to farmers.
You don’t just need to take our word for it. One of our participating farmers in Iowa reported saving 11 gallons per acre of diesel fuel after transitioning from heavy tillage to no till:
We often speak with farmers about the economics of conservation agriculture practices. For example, if you reduce tillage passes – or transition to no till – that will produce real fuel and equipment maintenance savings. This is to say nothing of labor costs.
Based on conversations with participating growers and calculations run on publicly available farm analysis tools, we’ve found that it will typically cost around $35 per acre for a conventional baseline with a fall chisel plow and spring field cultivator pass. Transitioning from conventional till to strip till or vertical till can save in the range of $10 to $20 per acre and save you time by reducing tillage passes.
Couple these savings with the $31 per acre average payments for ecosystem benefits from the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund and a farm with 150 acres enrolled in our program in 2021 would have netted around $7,000 in cumulative savings and new revenue. These economics are compelling.
That’s especially true if we compound the input savings and ecosystem outcome payments over thousands of acres and tillage passes during the course of the next four, five, or six years.
Other farmers participating in the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund have found additional value in selling their cover crop seed locally to fellow farmers. We know because we’ve helped connect several of our participating farmers to help one another.
Farmers are always learning and experimenting to reduce inputs, increase outputs, and drive incremental value. We encourage you to run the numbers in your operation and – if you haven’t already – give conservation agriculture a trial run on some of your acres.
Reach out to us and we would be happy to share what we’ve learned through working with farmers across 120,000+ acres in the Soil and Water Outcomes Fund.
