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Economics of No-till and Cover Crops
1. Datu Case Studies
Economics of No-Till and Cover Crops
Marcy Lowe
SWCS Annual Meeting, Madison,WI
August 1, 2017
2. 2014 CIG, Datu Research and NACD
Datu Research
• 4 Farmer Case Studies
National Association of Conservation Districts
• 160+ Soil Health Champions
2 www.daturesearch.com
3. Method: Partial Budget Analysis
3 www.daturesearch.com
• Focus on changes in income attributed to adoption
• Baseline is average of three years before study period
• Categories determined by literature review, consultations, interviews
• Each change in income expressed in $/acre
• Data from farmer records and in-depth interviews
• Validation by each case study farmer
4. 4 Cases
4 www.daturesearch.com
K.F. Farm Diaz Farm Willis Farm Moore Farm
Location
Effingham County
Illinois
Stephenson
County Illinois
Gentry County
Missouri
Howard County
Iowa
Years of No-Till 23 26 30 25
Years of Cover Cropping 0* 5 4 3
Crop
Corn-soybean
rotation
Corn-soybean
rotation
Corn-soybean
rotation
Corn-soybean
rotation
Livestock Hog - Cow-calf -
Acreage 1,800 25 1,500 2,300
16. 16 www.daturesearch.com
“Before, the water would run down there
and run over the road. But since Michael
did the cover crops, the water doesn’t run
over the roads anymore. It’s not eroding,
and it’s not cutting ditches.”
--Ron Hillyard, adjacent landowner
17. Takeaways From All Four Case Studies
17 www.daturesearch.com
• Economic benefit takes time and experimenting
• Incentive programs further help the bottom line
• Adopters reap rewards from self-education
• Reduced fertilizer costs can bring dramatic savings
• In all four cases, adoption reduced erosion repairs