As farm diesel prices climbed past $2.50 per gallon this fall, the fuel-saving benefits of no-till and conservation tillage began to sound more appealing than ever. Skyrocketing fuel prices have sent many growers back to the desk to pencil out their budgets for their ’06 crops, and cutting tillage is naturally getting a lot of attention.
Though the doubling of diesel prices won’t double the cost of tillage,
notes Extension Agricultural Engineer Paul Jasa at the University of Nebraska
in Lincoln, Neb., it certainly puts a crimp on profits.
At an average fuel comsumption of ¾ of a gallon per acre, today’s
fuel cost turns a $7-to-$8-per-acre tillage pass into one that costs $9 to
$10, he says. “Percentage-wise, we’re not doubling the cost of
tillage – it’s about a 15-percent increase. But the agricultural
profit margin is such that we can’t have anything go up 10 to 15 percent.”
 |
The fuel-saving advantages of conservation pencil out better than ever now that diesel prices are at a premium.
|
Higher Efficiency, Lower Bills
Eliminating tillage has a big impact on production costs, especially when fuel
is especially expensive. Working with $2.00-per-gallon diesel prices (which
probably seemed high at the time), University of Tennessee researchers determined
that the fuel cost for a conventionally tilled corn crop – including
plowing, disking, planting and cultivating – runs $14.17 per acre.
A no-till crop consumes $9.14 in fuel.
Eliminating tillage can also allow growers to get by on smaller, more fuel-efficient
tractors. The Tennessee researchers determined that running a 150-horsepower
(hp) tractor consumes $13.14 worth of fuel per hour at $2.00-per-gallon diesel.
A 100-hp tractor burns fuel (and money) at a rate of $8.76 an hour, and a 70-hp
tractor can run for $6.13 per hour – less than half of what it would
take for the 150-hp rig to pull iron through the soil.
Irrigation Costs Jump, Too
Other diesel engines – notably irrigation pumps – have also gotten
more expensive to run. Again, no-till can help. “No-till reduces the
need for irrigation,” notes Jasa. “It saves three to five inches
of water. That could be $3.00, $5.00, or even $10.00 per acre depending on
how high they’re bringing the water up.
“With no-till, we get improvements in infiltration as well, so we get
less runoff and are more efficient with our rainfall and irrigation,” he
adds. “With continuous no-till. We’re virtually eliminating runoff
completely.”
In fact, Jasa says, some no-tillers in southeast Nebraska have actually raised
dryland corn on traditionally irrigated ground because of the moisture savings
they have realized through no-till. Without drying out the soil with tillage,
they can take full advantage of the area’s 25 to 30 inches of annual
precipitation, he says.
In wetter areas, cover crops can effectively scavenge excess soil moisture
and turn it into useful organic matter. Meanwhile, foliage protects the soil
from wind and water erosion, and roots help build soil tilth.
 |
Fertilizer prices are pegged to natural gas rates, making crop nutrient decisions more important than ever.
|
No-Till Beats Reduced-Till
Jasa says he hopes that growers go all the way to no-till in their effort to
reduce fuel costs – running disks shallow to save costs or skipping
one pass could lead to trouble.
“Reduced-till is worse than conventional-till or no-till,” he
warns. “You leave the soil fluffy, but you haven’t sized the clods
and sized the residue to plant into well. Under heavy cornstalks you may have
two to three inches of fluff, but below that are clods. It’s hard to
get good seed-to-soil contact.”
Undisturbed stubble is still anchored to the soil, reducing plugging in planters
and drills, Jasa notes. Beneath untilled residue, soil is firm and moist – better
for seed placement with no-till planting equipment. The bottom line, says Jasa: “Don’t
cut a trip. Cut all trips.”
