Record Display for the EPA National Library Catalog

RECORD NUMBER: 12 OF 82

Main Title Conservation tillage and conventional tillage : a comparative assessment /
Author Crosson, Pierre R.
Publisher U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Research Laboratory ; Center for Environmental Research Information [distributor],
Year Published 1982
Report Number EPA/600-S3-82-027
OCLC Number 09612531
Subjects Conservation tillage--United States
Internet Access
Description Access URL
https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=2000TSHQ.PDF
Holdings
Library Call Number Additional Info Location Last
Modified
Checkout
Status
EJBD  EPA 600-S3-82-027 In Binder Headquarters Library/Washington,DC 11/14/2018
ELBD ARCHIVE EPA 600-S3-82-027 In Binder Received from HQ AWBERC Library/Cincinnati,OH 10/04/2023
Collation 5 pages ; 28 cm
Notes
Caption title. At head of title: Project summary. "Sept. 1982." "EPA/600-S3-82-027."
Contents Notes
The objective of this study was to reach a judgment of the amount of U.S. cropland likely to be in some form of conservation tillage in 2010. The future spread of conservation tillage will be conditioned primarily by farmers' perceptions of its economic advantages relative to conventional tillage and by society's perceptions of its advantages and disadvantages with respect to the environment. Accordingly, the study first considers the economics of conservation tillage relative to conventional tillage, examining differences between the two technologies in the quantities of resources used and in yields. The conclusion is that conservation tillage typically uses less of certain resources and more of others, but that on balance it requires 5 to 10 percent less expenditure per acre than conventional tillage. Yield differences vary widely, depending fundamentally on soil characteristics and climate, but on well-drained soils in the Corn Belt, Southeast, and much of the Northern and Southern Plains where weeds can be controlled by herbicides, yields with conservation tillage are fully competitive with yields of conventional tillage. The conclusion is that the economic advantages of conservation tillage could induce farmers to adopt it on 50 to 60 percent of the Nation's cropland by 2010. A little less than 25 percent of cropland was in conservation tillage in 1979.