Preliminary Results From Our 5th Annual No-Till Benchmark Study
The numbers are in for No-Till Farmer’s 5th annual No-Till Benchmark Study, and editors here have uncovered some interesting findings while crunching the numbers.
For the first time in our survey’s history, yields for no-tilled corn at 134 bushels an acre edged out yields of minimum-tilled corn (133 bushels) — a result that can likely be attributed to last year’s drought.
Strip-tilled corn won the yield prize again in 2012 at 146 bushels an acre, but the gap between strip-till and no-till was cut nearly in half when compared to the last couple years.
No-tilled corn only yielded 67 bushels per acre in the Southern Plains — where no-till is the predominant practice. If that region had been excluded from the results, no-tilled corn would have averaged 138 bushels per acre across the other six regions.
Also noteworthy is that in the Eastern Corn Belt, no-tilled corn out-yielded strip-tilled corn 158 bushels to 153, and beat minimum-tilled corn in that region by a whopping 22 bushels.
More than 600 farmers responded to this exclusive survey. There’s lots more to share, and in the Spring Buyers Directory issue of Conservation Tillage Guide, we’ll have a full-blown report on financials, yields, equipment, precision technology, fertility and cropping choices in a new, easier-to-read format.
We’ll also share the “vitals” for the top-yielding corn and soybean farmers who responded. Click here to subscribe.
