Conservation and Crop Protection Go Hand in Hand

Every season, farmers make decisions that shape the health of their land. How they manage weeds, how often they run equipment across a field and how they protect the soil throughout the year all matter for conservation.

That is why crop protection tools play an important role on many farms.

In the video above, farmers Scott Henry from Iowa, Austin Poulson from Idaho, and Boyd Heilig from Montana explain how glyphosate-based herbicides help make conservation practices possible on their operations. By helping farmers control weeds without relying as heavily on tillage, glyphosate allows them to make fewer passes across the field, reduce soil disturbance and better protect the land they depend on.

As the farmers note, less tillage means less fuel consumed, fewer tractors in the field, reduced compaction and better erosion management. As Poulson says, “Using a product like glyphosate allows us to do less tillage passes. That means less fuels consumed, less tractors in the fields, less disturbance of the soil.”

The benefits of crop protection tools for conservation are measurable. Glyphosate-enabled no-till farming has helped farmers save 1.2 million tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions from farm equipment, capture an additional 32.5 million tons of CO₂ per year in the soil and reduce irrigation water use by 19%. That impact on CO₂ is roughly the same as taking 6.8 million gasoline-powered passenger cars off the road for a year. 

Those benefits are part of a much larger shift happening across American agriculture. Farmers are increasingly adopting conservation practices that protect soil, conserve water and improve resilience. Between the 2017 and 2022 Ag Census, acreage using conservation tillage, no-till and cover cropping all increased, even as total land farmed in the U.S. declined. USDA conservation data also show cover cropping has grown significantly, from 3.8 million acres in an earlier assessment period to 20.3 million acres in a later follow-up period. Fields using cover crops also saw nearly 30% higher soil carbon capture than fields without them. 

As Modern Ag Alliance Executive Director Elizabeth Burns-Thompson explains in an interview with No-Till Farmer, “conservation and chemistry really go hand in hand.” Many conservation-based practices depend on farmers having the ability to manage weeds and protect crops while maintaining healthy soils.

Without access to proven crop protection tools, farmers may be forced to rely more heavily on tillage to control weeds. That could mean more passes across the field, more fuel use, more soil disturbance and greater risk of losing the conservation gains farmers have worked hard to build.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to farming. What works best can vary by crop, region, soil type, weather and operation. Farmers need the flexibility to choose the practices and tools that make sense for their land.

Protecting access to crop protection tools is about more than weed control. It is about protecting the conservation practices that help farmers care for the land, improve resilience and continue producing the food, fuel and fiber families rely on.

Modern agriculture depends on modern tools, and conservation depends on making sure farmers can continue using them.