Crawford Soil & Water Conservation District

Survey Shows Increases in Conservation Tillage Across County

Crawford SWCD staff recently completed its annual Fall Tillage Transect Survey of Crawford County cropland.  The two-part survey consists of a Fall tillage survey and Spring Crop & Residue survey.  This windshield survey consisted of 490 crop fields and has been completed along the same route around the county since 1984.  It is performed each year to show trends in crops planted, cover crops and tillage practices.  This year’s survey showed conservation tillage, those fields with >30% of the previous crop residue left on the soil surface after tillage, increased a total of 10.8% over last year.…that’s an increase of nearly 25,000 acres!  The majority of this increase was in wheat stubble which saw a 28.8% increase in conservation tilled acres, followed by a 12.9% increase in soybean stubble and corn stubble increased 6.1%.  Cover crops remained nearly the same compared with last year with 18,614 acres planted to a cover crop.  The greatest increase in untilled acres was in wheat stubble with a 15.7% increase, followed by a 9.3% increase in untilled corn stubble while untilled soybean stubbled increased 6.6%.  Crawford SWCD would like to extend out gratitude to the producers throughout our county who strive to protect our most valuable resources through their conservation efforts. If you would like more information about increasing the conservation of natural resources on your land please contact our office and we will be glad to assist you.

Click below for  PDF viewable 

 2020 Fall Transect Unofficial summary (CY 2021)