No-Till Acres Rise 8% in U.S., 'Intensive Tillage' Sees Major Decline

By John Dobberstein, Senior Editor

Data from the 2017 Census of Agriculture shows that U.S. farmers are continuing to move away from intensive tillage while no-till, reduced tillage and cover crop practices continue to grow.

According to the Census, no-tilled acres in the U.S. topped 104 million acres in 2017, up 8% over the 2012 figure of 96 million. The number of farms reporting no-tilled practices on their acreage only grew 0.4% over 5 years, but acreage continues to increase. By contrast, in 1972 only 3 million acres of no-till was reported, and in 2000 it was 51 million.

The Census also reported 15.3 million acres of cover crops were seeded in 2017, for an increase of 49% over the 2012 total of 10.2 million acres. The on-farm average of cover crop acres increased from 77 acres in 2012 to 100 acres in 2017, or 30%.

The Census of Ag also revealed:

• Acres under reduced tillage increased 27.5% in the period, from 76,639,804 acres in 2012 to 97,753,854 in 2017.

• Acres under intensive tillage in the U.S. fell a whopping 24.3%, with 105,707,971 acres reported in 2012 and 80,005,292 acres reported in 2017. And the total farms where intensive tillage was reported fell by 140,799, for decline of 34.7% during the Census period.

• Cover crops were seeded on 153,402 farms in 2017, an increase of 20,278 farms or 15% over 2012’s total of 133,124 farms.

The wide-ranging Census of Agriculture, held every 5 years, produced a 820-page main report on numerous aspects of U.S. agriculture from 2017. More data on U.S. farming trends can be found by clicking here.