University of Minnesota Regional Educator Jodi DeJong-Hughes says there’s an opportunity for farmers to save on fuel by cutting back on tillage. “If a field is pretty good going into the spring, I would really cut out that second pass because that can be anywhere from $16 to $18 (per acre) for the shallower spring equipment that we use,” said DeJong-Hughes. “Those can use as much as a gallon of fuel per acre, and if you’re farming 1,000 acres, that’s anywhere from 500 gallons to 1,000 gallons; at $5 a gallon, now you’re looking at $2,500 $5,000 extra.”
