Half of Pa. Major Crops in No-Till

HARRISBURG, Pa. — In 2008, no-till was practiced on 50 percent of the major crop acreage in Pennsylvania, and other conservation tillage practices were used on 20 percent.

Conventional tillage was used on the remaining 30 percent of the major crop acreage in the state, up only slightly from the 29.2 percent recorded in 2007, according to the Pennsylvania Field Office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the second survey of tillage practices for field crops in the commonwealth was recently completed.

The first survey was conducted in 2007.

Corn and soybeans are the two crops with the highest acreages in Pennsylvania. In 2008, conventional till was used on 31 percent of the corn acreage, no-till was practiced on 48 percent of the acreage, and the remaining 21 percent of the corn acreage used other conservation tillage practices.

In soybeans, conventional till was used on 20 percent of the acreage, no-till was practiced on 62 percent of the acreage, and the remaining 18 percent of the acreage was cultivated using other conservation tillage practices.

Alfalfa seeding showed the biggest change, with 40 percent of the acres reported as being seeded using no-till practices. In order to address the problem of highly erodible soil and soil compaction, many farmers have turned to no-till and minimum till practices.

Until recently there were no survey-based estimates of how many acres had been converted from conventional tillage practices to alternative methods.

Over the past few years several industry groups, including the No-Till Alliance, Conservation Districts, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation have requested that NASS’s Pennsylvania Field Office provide information on the tillage practices used in Pennsylvania.