Energy implications of conservation tillage

INTEREST in conservation tillage arose initially because of the potential to reduce soil erosion and to save labor. The deterioration in the nation's energy situation that began in the early 1970s also made conservation tillage attractive because of the lower fuel requirements. Farmers annually consume about 2 billion gallons of fuel for tillage and related operations, including cultivation and planting (Table 1). The cost of this fuel, now somewhat over $2 billion a year, could be cut appreciably with alternative tillage methods. Of course, agriculture also uses energy for many other purposes, such as harvesting, drying, hauling, irrigation, and heating and ventilating livestock shelters, as well as in the form of fertilizers and pesticides manufactured from fossil fuels. Consequently, tillage-related operations consume only about 15 percent of all the energy used in agricultural production, or about 20 percent of on-farm use (Table 1). But these operations account for more than half of all diesel fuel use because diesel is the almost universal choice for primary tillage and many secondary tillage operations. While the energy saving possible with conservation tillage could be significant from the standpoint of individual farmers, the benefit nationally would be minor. All …