ASA Talking Points

ASA Conservation Tillage Study

November 12, 2001

§         ASA’s Conservation Tillage Study shows how the availability of soybean seedstock enhanced through biotechnology has allowed and encouraged farmers to implement reduced tillage practices that protect farmland from wind and rain erosion.

§         The study shows that 73 percent of the growers are now leaving more crop residue on the soil surface than they did in 1996. This crop residue (which consists of organic material such as leaves and stems), protects farmland from erosion. 

§         ASA estimates that no-till and reduced-till farming is now the preferred planting method on more than 80 percent of all the soybean acres in this country.

§         More than half the study group credited the introduction of Roundup Ready Soybeans as the factor that had the greatest impact on their adoption of reduced tillage or no-till soybeans.

§         Biotechnology has made it possible to develop soybeans that give farmers greater control of weeds that reduce yields and quality. Biotechnology is helping farmers improve their stewardship of the environment.

§         Almost half (48 percent) of the growers in ASA’s study said that they have increased their no-till soybean acres during the last six growing seasons.

§         Between 1996 and 2001, no-till soybean acres have more than doubled to 49 percent of total soybean acres, and reduced till acres have increased by one-fourth, to account for another 33 percent of soybean acres.

§         In the study, 53 percent of the growers said they are making fewer tillage passes in soybeans. Reduced tillage practices in soybeans saved 247 million tons of irreplaceable topsoil in 2000, and reduced the number of times a farmer had to run equipment over the field, saving 234 million gallons of fuel.

§         The study looked at the farming practices of 452 farmers in 19 Midwestern and Southern states. (Quotas were established based on each state’s proportion of soybean acres.) Participants were selected at random and included 201 ASA members. The study looked at farmers with 200 or more acres of soybeans.

§         ASA commissioned the study to compare how soybean tillage practices changed between 1996 (the year Roundup Ready Soybeans were commercialized), and present day. The ASA study provides an objective way to measure these changes and identify the reasons for them.

§         ASA hired Doane Marketing Research, Inc., to conduct the Conservation Tillage Study. Doane is nationally recognized for its expertise in agricultural studies involving farmers.

§         The complete ASA Conservation Tillage Study is available online at www.soygrowers.com