Among the wins for conservation reported in the most recent U.S. Census of Agriculture was a 17% increase in cover-cropped acres.
By Katie Pratt from No-till Farmer USA
The U.S. saw a slight increase in no-tillage adoption during the past 5 years, despite declines in the number of overall farms and acres used for agriculture. This is according to data released by the 2022 U.S. Census of Agriculture and analyzed by No-Till Farmer. On a state level, 4 of the 7 Corn Belt states analyzed for this article reported increases in no-till acres.
Released every 5 years, the U.S. Census of Agriculture collects millions of data points about the U.S. agriculture industry from farmers and reports data on national, state and county levels.
More No-Till, Fewer Farms
Census data for 2022, the most recent survey, shows American farmers added more than 756,000 acres to no-tillage production since the 2017 census. In 2022, more than 105.2 million acres were in no-till production, compared to more than 104.45 million acres in 2017.
More farms are also no-tilling, going from 279,370 no-till farms in 2017 to 300,954 no-till farms in 2022. Farms averaged 350 acres of no-till, a 24-acre decrease from the 2017 average and significantly lower than the 1,086-acre farm size reported in the 2024 No-Till Operational Practices Benchmark Study.
Iowa: In Iowa, the number of farms using no-tillage and the number of acres in no-till were both slightly up from 2017. In 2022, more than 1,700 farms reported adopting no-till since in 2017. This is an increase of 7% and brings the total number of Iowa farms practicing no-till to 25,796. Iowa farmers reported a 3% increase in no-tillage acreage. Between 2022 and 2017, the state’s farmers added more than 250,000 acres to no-till production. In 2022, the state had more than 8.45 million acres in no-tillage, which is up from 8.19 million in 2017.
Minnesota: Minnesota has seen a 17% increase in the number of farms that adopted no-tillage from 2017 to 2022. 2022 numbers include 6,845 farms using no-till, which is up from 5,815 in 2017. No-till acreage has also had a large increase in the state, going from over 1.09 million acres in 2017 to more than 1.19 million by 2022.
Wisconsin: The Badger State saw increases in the number farms adopting no-till and the number of acres in no-till production between the 2017 and 2022 censuses. The number of farms using no-till was 14,880 in 2022, compared to 14,665 farms in 2017. 2022 no-till acreage was more than 2.4 million acres, up from more than 2.22 million acres in 2017.
Michigan: The number of no-till farms and acres have declined over 5 years. In 2022, Michigan farmers reported more than 1.38 million no-till acres on 7,896 farms, which are decreases of 11% and 3%, respectively. In 2017, the state’s farmers no-tilled over 1.56 million acres on 8,174 farms.
Indiana: The Hoosier State saw drops in the number of farms and acres using no-tillage between 2022 and 2017. In 2022, producers reported 14,892 no-till farms and about no-till 4.72 million acres. This is down from 15,867 farms and more than 4.9 million acres in no-tillage in 2017. These are declines of 6% and 3%, respectively.
Missouri: The Show Me State saw increases in the number of farms and no-till acres from 2017 to 2022. Missouri farmers reported a 6% increase in the number of farms with no-tillage acres 2022 for a total of 15,490 farms. In 2017, the state had 14,555 farms practicing no-till. Acreage is up by 5% with farmers adding 250,000 more no-till acres in the 5 years between the two censuses. This increase brings total no-till acreage in the state to 4.89 million in 2022, up from 4.64 million in 2017.
Illinois: Illinois saw a slight decrease in the number of farms and the number of acres in no-till production over 5 years. In 2017, more than 6.47 million acres and 21,979 farms used no-tillage. In 2022, farmers reported 21,631 farms and more than 6.43 million acres in no-till.
Kansas had the most no-till acres with farmers no-tilling more than 11.74 million acres in the state, followed by Nebraska (10.1 million acres), Iowa (8.45 million acres), Montana (7.97 million acres) and North Dakota (7.8 million acres).
Census data showed the number of U.S. farms and land used for agriculture continues to decline. In 2022, there were 109,000 fewer farms and 20 million fewer acres dedicated to agriculture than in 2017. With fewer acres dedicated to agriculture, but a continuously increasing world population, experts see no-till as a solution to future challenges — and a worthy national investment.
“Ballooning disaster relief payments are another trend that the next food and farm bill can address,” says Ricardo Salvador, director of the Food and Environment Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “With crops and livestock increasingly at risk due to drought, extreme heat, heavy rains and other climate change impacts, Congress must preserve and increase funding for conservation programs that will make farms more resilient to extreme weather, reducing losses and associated insurance payouts, and safeguarding the security of the U.S. food system.”
Conservation Tillage Acreage
More farms are using conservation or reduced tillage, but the number of acres decreased since 2017. In 2022, more than 11,000 farms added conservation or reduced tillage since 2017, a 5% increase. However, conservation or reduced tillage acreage has slightly declined from 2017’s 97.75 million acres to 97.06 million acres in 2022. It’s possible that some of those acres may have gone into no-till, as the no-till acreage increased by more than 756,000 acres since the 2017 census.
The number of U.S. farms and acres using intensive or conventional tillage continues to decline. The U.S. saw a drop of 6.55 million acres in conventional tillage from 2017 to 2022, an 8% decline. Conventional tillage also declined 24% between the 2017 and 2012 censuses. The average number of acres that each farm puts in conventional tillage also declined by 23 acres to 279 acres, a 7% drop from 2017’s 302-acre average.
As a result, more than 73% of all U.S. cropland used no-till or reduced tillage in 2022. This is up slightly from 2017 when around 72% of U.S. cropland was in no-till or reduced tillage.
U.S. farmers added cover crops to 2.5 million more acres in the past 5 years. In 2022, 17.98 million acres had a cover crop planted on them, up more than 16% from 15.39 million acres in 2017. At the farm level, the average amount of cover crop acreage per farm increased by 17 acres. The average amount of cover crops farmers plant is up to 117 in 2022 from 100 acres in 2017. These figures do not include lands that are in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Texas leads all states with 1.55 million acres seeded to cover crops, followed by Iowa (1.28 million acres), Indiana (988,282 acres), Nebraska (925,686 acres) and Missouri (921,222 acres).
