![Photo: Cotton bolls.](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090509202542im_/http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2009/cotton090311.jpg)
No-till cotton production yields the highest
economic return for growers, according to an ARS study. Photo courtesy of
the Natural Resources Conservation Service. |
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Conservation Tillage and Cotton: The Bottom
Line
By Ann
Perry March 17, 2009
The costs and benefits of using conservation tillage in cotton
production can be calculated a bit more precisely, thanks to teamwork by an
Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
scientist and his research partner.
Agricultural engineer
James
Hanks at the ARS
Application
and Production Technology Research Unit in Stoneville, Miss., worked with
Mississippi State University agricultural
economist
Steve
Martin to examine the economic returns for different cotton conservation
tillage practices in the Mississippi Delta.
From 2000 to 2004, the team conducted cotton production field studies
using five different management systems. The systems were conventional tillage,
no-till, low-till sub-soiling, no-till with a winter wheat cover crop, and
low-till subsoiling with a winter wheat cover crop.
The researchers calculated economic costs for each management system.
These costs included all direct and fixed production expenses related to
sub-soiling, seed preparation, cover crop planting and pre-plant herbicide
application. Interest expense, labor and the fixed costs of equipment
ownership--based on the full utilization of the equipment--were also included.
Their results suggest that farmers could realize the highest economic
return from cotton production using no-till production. This system, which
averaged a net return of $1,202 per hectare (2.471 acres), had the lowest
production costs because fewer trips were needed across each field for tillage
or cover crop plantings.
The low-till subsoiling with a winter wheat cover crop system had the
lowest net returns of any of the treatments because of lower yields relative to
the other treatments. In addition, the use of cover crops and the added tillage
increased production expenses.
This study did not assess the environmental costs and benefits of
using cover crops in cotton production, but producers who want to reduce soil
erosion might also want to consider using a no-till cover crop management
system. This system had the highest mean net return of the two cover crop
systems in the study.
ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of
Agriculture.