We lease our 80 acres to a local farmer who does 40 acres of beans and 40 acres of feed corn. He alternates the crops each year.
He no tills the beans but has always tilled the corn. This year for the first time will plant the corn no till.
From my observations, no till is a ton less work - but I’m guessing the equipment costs are greater?
MoKelly
Definitely not an expert (mostly just learning myself at this point), but from what I've seen the planting equipment tends to be quite different, so independent of the cost differences it could involve replacing existing (potentially paid off) planting equipment. More likely it'd involve adding to their equipment collection (initially at least) as I'm not sure many farmers would fully switch their entire operation over to something new from what they know before trying the new methods first. ...and when the implements cost as much/more than a SCUT (or even CUT) buying something new isn't a trivial decision.
So new planting equipment, increase in chemical usage (which may also drive purchasing new/additional spray equipment as well).... and then there's the learning curve to ensure it's suitable for both the region (heavy crop residue from a prior year can delay the warming of the soil), and the crop type. For example: corn tends to leave behind a lot of residue which can create a few different challenges.
All of which makes changing over from traditional tillage practices to no-till a non-trivial endeavor and in turn plays a role in driving difference in tillage practices and chemical application.
So as noted by others no-till trades fuel and time for increased chemical usage for weed control/field prep --- and it may not be suitable for all crop types, in all soil types (thick soils that retain moisture can plug up equipment especially planters in a hurry and tillage with appropriate equipment can help dry it out enough to plant), or in all climates (e.g. delayed warming of the soil combined with already short growing seasons). ...and if the field is near an ecologically sensitive area that may further hinder no-till field prep as broadband/non-selective herbicides are typically used to kill everything on the field before no-till planting.
Apologizes for getting long-winded, but it really gets into there being cost & challenge considerations beyond just the equipment costs and since farming is generally an exercise in cost reduction (yield can only be maximized to a point for a given crop), and making major changes to method of operation may very well result in betting the farm on the outcome (given there are a great many variables - like weather- a farmer can't control or even influence) it really starts to get to a major differences between farming and gardening.
If a garden doesn't produce well the gardener can likely go to the store and they won't lose their home, if a farm doesn't produce the farmer may lose everything (more likely if it happens multiple years in a row) and the store may have reduced stock levels.
...but just to be clear this is the rambling of an engineer who grew up around some agriculture, and is trying to grow/get back into more of it. Really from what I've been seeing successful farming can be more of a challenge than most engineering since the constraints & variables in engineering tend to be more easily controlled or understood than they are in farming.