As a veteran farm magazine editor told me years ago, no-tillers have such a good thing going economically, why do they get so discouraged when neighbors refuse to switch to less tillage? Despite the fact that no-till offers tremendous economic and environmental benefits, many growers still shy away from the practice.

Data from the 2012 Census of Agriculture show 279 million U.S. tillable acres. Some 96 million acres were no-tilled and 77 million acres were farmed with more intensive conservation-tillage practices. That left 106 million acres still being farmed with conventional tillage.

Over the past 5 decades, no-till has grown from 3.3 million acres in 1972 to more than 100 million acres today. Most farmers who have moved to no-till have done so without government payments or incentives. It’s because they’ve simply recognized that no-till can result in much higher net returns.

Lots of Dollars Involved

So what would it take to convince farmers using a moldboard plow, chisel plow, field cultivator or disc system to make the switch to no-till? That’s the question Nicole Widmar, a Purdue University economist, and Ben Gramig, a University of Illinois economist, set out to determine.

They found Indiana farmers using a more intensive conservation tillage system wanted a guarantee of increased net revenue of $10 per acre to make the switch to no-till. This jumped to $40 per acre before growers would be willing to switch from conventional tillage to no-tillage.

Even with guaranteed incentives, farmers wanted to know where the money comes…