Economic Impacts of Changing Tillage Practices in the Lake Erie Basin.
Abstract
Reduced tillage technologies may be the most cost effective practices for reducing pollutant loadings from agricultural lands. A model has been developed to predict the changes in net farm income in the Lake Erie Basin based on soil types and their associated yield characteristics along with commodity prices and crop production costs. Output of the model includes (a) net return per acre by crop, by tillage system, by county, and by soil series; (b) acres in each county by soil management group; (c) net return for each county by 'management scenario;' and (d) net return for the Lake Erie Basin by 'management scenario.' Soil types determine the economic success of reduced tillage farming. Well drained soils may exhibit greater crop yields under reduced tillage practices than under conventional farming techniques. Conversely, crop yields from poorly drained soils under reduced tillage are less than those under conventional tillage practices. Therefore, the quantity of well and poorly drained soils within an area determines the economic success of reduced tillage methods. The application of reduced tillage farming to extremely poorly drained soils such as certain organic, alluvial, and fine textured soils is not recommended as very large decreases in Basin net income are expected. The above findings may change if farmer expertise is greater or less than the expertise applied to the experimental plots used for input data to the model.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1978
- Accession Number
- ADA074451
Entities
People
- D. Lynn Forster
Organizations
- United States Army Corps of Engineers