With a new administration taking over in Washington, climate change is going to get much more attention. In fact, the new presidential team has already committed to helping farmers expand the use of no-till, cover crops and carbon sequestration in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

With the expectation of increased U.S. no-till research and education funding, results from a western Canada study shows the payoff should be huge. This zero-till study (no-till here in the states) for the three western Canadian provinces showed investing $1 in public funded no-till research and education led to an amazing $109.30 in benefits. From 1985 to 2012, the benefits from adopting no-till in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba totaled an amazing $24.4 billion that flowed through various channels to farmers, suppliers and consumers.

Conducted by Richard Gray and other ag economists at the University of Saskatchewan, the study compared 1985 with 2012 to show the overall benefit of no-till in the Canadian Prairies. From 1971 to 2011, no-tilled acres in the three western Prairies had grown from practically zero to 38 million acres in 2011, making up 62% of all cropped acres.

No-Till Changed Everything

The economists cited a number of critical changes that took place with no-till in the western Prairies. Reduced summer fallow, expanded crop rotations, new weed control and disease strategies, fertility management, new machinery developments and other factors dramatically changed western Canadian agriculture.

New varieties, new equipment and improved cropping practices made it possible to profitably grow pulse crops and canola through expanded crop rotations and made no-till more feasible.

Improved no-till yields were primarily due to increased water use efficiency, increased soil quality and the reduction of summer fallowed acres, which allowed no-tillers to grow a cash crop every year instead of every second year. From 1985 to 2012, the summer fallowed acres dropped by 38 million acres in western Canada. At the same time, canola and pulse crop acres increased from 9 million to 23 million acres.

As soil quality improved with no-till, so did yields. A 2011 western Canada study reported yields on fields with a 31-year history of no-till were 14% higher than in adjacent fields with only a 9-year no-till history. These yield increases were credited to less wind erosion, a reduction in soil salinity, an increase in the flow of nitrogen from soil organic matter and improved soil quality.

Some 32% of the benefits with no-till came from increased crop production due to the dramatic decrease in summer fallowed acres. Improved water efficiency led to higher average yields across the three Prairie provinces.

There were also significant cost reductions. They included a 7% savings in machinery replacement costs, a 6% reduction in fuel costs, a 2% savings for labor and a 1% savings in other cropping costs. A 50% drop in the price of glyphosate between 1986 and 1992 along with a major drop in interest rates from 13% in 1989 to 5% in 2011 made no-till equipment much more affordable to growers. 

Long-term benefits included improved physical, chemical and biological soil properties, which led to higher yields. Reducing wind erosion made up 3% of the total benefits, fewer soil salinity worries accounted for 1% and increased soil organic matter made up 20% of the total, which was mainly due to leaving more residue on the soil surface. 

Non-farm benefits made up 4.5% of the total benefits. They included increased soil carbon sequestration, reduced fuel emissions and lower nitrous oxide levels.

Big Payoffs Coming

Without government-funded research development and education, the authors projected the no-till adoption curve for western Canada would have been delayed by 5 years, decreasing by 42% the value of the widespread adoption of no-till.

When it comes to dealing with climate change concerns here in the states, no-till and cover crops will play a major role in sequestering more carbon. In addition, more research on fully understanding what is going on in our soils and seeing what new genetic, machinery, precision and other developments will be coming should make no-till more productive and efficient.

Based on results from the western Canada study, whatever climate change investments come out of Washington should be money well-spent, with no-tillers hopefully being among the major beneficiaries.