The per acre tax and insurance cost will decrease only if the adoption of no-tillage is accompanied by selling some equipment or farming more acres. No property tax reduction is associated with tractors because none were sold. Again, it is assumed that the chisel plow and disk were sold, resulting in a decrease in equipment depreciation and interest. Additionally, some of the saving is attributed to the annual tractor use decreasing by approximately 200 hours. The decreased cost will not, however, be similar to the per hour cost of leasing a tractor.
Tractors depreciate quickly at first and then very little for each additional hour of use.
Often the resale value of used tillage implements is sufficiently small that farmers prefer to keep the implements on the farm for emergency use and odd jobs. This can be a wise management decision as long as the manager understands that the depreciation cost should still be charged against the crops being grown. Summary The budgets reveal the differences that might occur as a farmer switches from conservation tillage to no-tillage corn production. Soybean costs would follow a similar pattern of similar total cost of production but different cash needs. The cost of producing corn and soybeans with conservation tillage and no-tillage differs little.