No-till Notes: 'Irrigated no-till economics, part II'

Jessica Johnson, UNL agricultural educator at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center located in Scottsbluff has compiled budgets for the majority of the irrigated crops commonly grown here in our region. I’d like to take a look at these budgets that compare strip till, conventional tillage, and no-till crop production systems.

Jessica’s budgets assume equal use of irrigation in producing these crops. When you compare these budgets you also need to factor in that the no-till crop production system actually requires less irrigation to produce similar yields. The water conservation benefits of no-till crop production have been well documented. My best estimate is that no-till crop production will save somewhere around 3-5 inches per year of irrigation on average for similar yields in a crop rotation of winter wheat, corn, and edible beans.

The budgets for irrigated corn show no-till corn production costs are considerably less than strip till and conventional tillage. Strip tillage costs per acre to produce irrigated corn with a yield goal of 190 bushels per acre are $835.12 per acre. Conventional tillage costs per acre are $837.00 while no-till production costs are $740.14. The no-till production costs are roughly $95.00 per acre less than strip till or conventional tillage.

If we plant the corn in a high residue crop like winter wheat in the no-till production system I think you would see irrigation water conservation of 5 inches per acre. Let’s assume water savings of 5 inches per acre at a cost of $7.00 per inch for a water savings of $35.00 per acre, the production costs would be roughly $130.00 per acres less for no-till corn production when compared to strip till or conventional tillage.

Dry edible bean production costs also show a considerable savings when the crop is produced using a no-till production system. The production costs per acre for no-till are $550.46, for strip till the costs are $654.32 per acre, and conventional tillage costs are $645.72 per acre. No-till production costs are roughly $100.00 per acre less and if we add in a 3 inch irrigation water savings at $7.00 per inch the costs are $120.00 per acre less than strip till or conventional tillage.

Jessica also calculated tillage budget comparisons for sugar beets. Sugar beets are not produced in no-till crop rotations due to the lack of residue after harvest and the usually heavy tillage requirements involved. I’ve always thought sugar beets could be grown successfully using a no-till production system but the lack of residues after harvest and heavy equipment involved in harvest would hurt the following crop yield in a no-till production system.

Jessica’s budgets for sugar beets show the no-till cost of production to be $931.54 per acre, strip till production costs of $959.42, and conventional tillage costs per acre of $944.62. As you can see the cost of production is fairly similar for sugar beets regardless of the production system. I suspect there would be some irrigation savings with the no-till production system.

If you would like to view these budgets along with Jessica’s budgets for most of the dry land crops we raise in this region, go to http://panhandle.unl.edu/panhandle_ag_econ.

As you can see from these budgets if you can produce corn and edible beans and even sugar beets using a no-till crop production system with similar yields to strip till or conventional tillage the no-till crop production system is considerably more profitable. Even with a lower yield the no-till system can prove to be more profitable.

Factor in the water savings and no-till crop production under irrigation really makes a lot of sense in our region. Production systems that utilize our water resource the most efficiently are going to be widely adopted and no-till crop production is the most water efficient system for producing profitable crops.