Status of Soil Tillage in Pennsylvania

Part 1, Section 1: Soil Management

TILLAGE MANAGEMENT

Status of Soil Tillage in Pennsylvania

Until 2004, the USDA-NRCS, in collaboration with other agencies, performs a crop-residue survey that is published by the Conservation Tillage Information Center (CTIC) located in Lafayette, IN. The CTIC defines various tillage systems in its survey. See Box 1.1-2.

Conservation tillage is any tillage system that leaves more than 30 percent residue cover at planting, or more than 1,000 lbs/A of small-grain residue throughout the critical erosion period. Conservation tillage is any tillage system that leaves more than 30 percent residue cover at planting, or more than 1,000 lbs/A of small-grain residue throughout the critical erosion period. Conservation tillage is the sum of no-tillage, ridge tillage, and mulch tillage. In Pennsylvania, the percentage of conventional tillage remained almost constant for 14 years at approximately 50 percent of planted acres (Figure 1.1-7). The area of reduced tillage also remained constant at approximately 17 percent of planted acres. The total percentage of nonconservation tillage was 64 percent in 2004. The area of mulch tillage decreased from 19 percent in 1990 to 11 percent in 2004. The largest portion of this decrease occurred between 1998 and 2004 and seems to be a continuing downward trend for mulch tillage. The area of no-till steadily increased from 18 percent to 24 percent between 1990 and 2004. Because of time and resource constraints, USDA field personnel have not performed residue surveys since 2004. However, since 2008 the National Agricultural Statistics Service included some tillage questions in its census that showed a dramatic increase in no-tillage acres in Pennsylvania (Table 1.1-4). No-tillage is now the dominant soil management practice in Pennsylvania at 63.5 percent of acres planted.