ABSTRACT
Concern has developed in recent years over the decrease in water quality and soil productivity which has resulted in the Saginaw Bay area of Michigan from excessive erosion. This concern has prompted the Agricultural Conservation Program administered by the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service to promote, through a cost share program, conservation tillage practices which reduce erosion and the associated pollution. Adoption of conservation tillage practices must continue after the cost share program has terminated. Voluntary adoption by farmers was uncertain because of the lack of knowledge of the economic impacts of such practices to the farmer. A study was undertaken to do a comparative economic analysis of the new conservation tillage systems to the tillage practices traditionally used in Michigan’s Saginaw Bay Watershed.
