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Indiana farmers investing are in conservation

Results from a fall tillage transect shows Indiana’s farmers are making investments in soil and water conservation practices.

A tillage transect is a survey of cropland conducted by using a predetermined route to look at farm fields in multiple counties and collecting data on tillage methods, plant cover, and residue.

State conservationist Jane Hardisty says the report shows there is a culture shift toward conservation practices in Indiana.  “They’re finding out they no longer have to go out and turn the ground upside down and leave it bare over the winter months,” she says.  “And keeping something growing all year long so that when winter comes there is something actually growing and living in that soil and it builds a biology activity for this coming spring.”

The report also shows that 77 percent of corn and 82 percent of soybean acres surveyed utilized no-till practices.

Hardisty says it also shows Indiana farmers planted one million acres of cover crops and winter cereal grains planted last fall.  “It just seems to be that missing link that we haven’t had for a while that goes into that full conservation cropping system that farmers are doing here in Indiana,” she says.  “Other states are looking at our farmers and saying they want to do what Indiana is doing.”

The transect was a collaboration between the Indiana State Department of Agriculture, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Indiana’s 92 Soil and Water Conservation Districts.