Critics of proven conservation practices like no-till, strip-till or cover crop seeding often complain there’s no evidence of material benefits to a farmer’s bottom line — that the only thing that matters is yield.

But three different no-tillers from Iowa, Kansas and Ohio recently opened their books to illustrate how no-till and strip-till, cover crops, precision technology and refined nutrient management pays off in a big way.

Released in late 2018, the report, Farm Finance and Conservation, resulted from a collaboration between the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), the agriculture managerial accounting firm K·Coe Isom AgKnowledge and farmers Scott Henry, Justin Knopf and Joshua Yoder.

It analyzes the impact of conservation on farm budgets by combining the farmers’ own records with their experience in adopting conservation practices. The cases show how they made conservation work financially and share lessons they’ve learned in the process of adopting conservation practices.

LongView Farms embraces precision agriculture technology to most efficiently use fuel and crop inputs. The information generated by this technology measures the cost and efficiency of production practices and allows no-tiller Scott Henry to adapt…