Each report contains information about:
• prevalent land use, cropping systems, climate, and soil characteristics,
• conservation practice adoption, and
• estimated conservation benefits related to resource concerns like erosion, soil carbon gain, and edge-of- field losses of sediment and nutrients.
What are some of the trends you discovered while drafting the new
report series? Te regional specificity of this series lets us pick up on some interesting trends, by adding the crop and climatic context that varies across the country. For example, in the Southwest region, though 80 percent of acres were still using conventional tillage in CEAP II, there was a substantial increase in the use of seasonal conventional tillage, a system in which at least one crop in the rotation is conventionally tilled and at least one crop is conservation tilled (i.e., using no-till or reduced tillage practices) with less soil disturbance. Tis increase may point to a regional conservation strategy that still meets the needs of the major crops, like cotton and vegetables, that aren’t as well-suited to a no-till cropping system.
Regions like the North Central Midwest, Southern and Central Plains, and Northern Plains represent a large part of the national cultivated cropland (i.e., about 75 percent of total acres combined) and those large corn and soybean regions tend to carry the national averages.
It’s interesting in this report series to see details on some of the smaller regions that vary more from those national trends. Regions like the California Coastal and Northwest saw improvements in nutrient management practices, such as decreased application rates, incorporating nutrients, and applying nutrients at planting. As a result, in both regions, estimated nutrient losses decreased between surveys, counter to national trends.
What new resources can we expect
from CEAP croplands in 2025? Tere are several exciting things coming up this year that we feel will really provide some valuable data and resources for conservation decision-making.
We are beginning our third CEAP assessment (CEAP III), which will take a total of three years to complete. NASS is collecting CEAP III survey data from about 11,500 farmers through February 2025.
And NRCS will launch two public tools in the coming months to provide farmers and others access to valuable conservation outcomes and benefits information.
TPI Turf News March/April 2025
Water Quality Benefits Estimator Tool (WQBE): Te WQBE leverages data from CEAP cropland assessments to estimate how the adoption of USDA-funded conservation practices impacts wind erosion, edge-of-field sediment losses, and edge of field nitrogen and phosphorus losses. Te online tool will provide numerical and graphical data as well as heat maps to spatially show estimated changes over time.
CEAP II Dashboard: Tis new dashboard will visually share trends in cropland conservation practices, on a national, regional, state, and HUC2 and HUC4 scale. Te dashboard, reflecting data from 2013-2016, includes findings related to structural practices, conservation tillage, cover crops, irrigation, nutrient management, and many other conservation actions.
There are several exciting things coming up this year that we feel will really provide some valuable data and resources for conservation decision-making.
About CEAP Cropland Assessments
Trough CEAP, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) quantifies trends in cropland conservation practices, and associated outcomes, over time. Tis data empowers a diversity of customers to evaluate conservation successes, identify potential improvements, and set targeted, measurable goals for the future.
Cropland farmers may leverage CEAP findings to inform on-the-ground decisions related to conservation tillage, cover crops, irrigation, nutrient management, and many other conservation actions. NRCS and conservation partners equally rely on CEAP assessments to evaluate regional and national conservation outcomes and to guide targeted, data- driven prioritization of future efforts and initiatives.
CEAP cropland assessments are developed using confidential farmer surveys coupled with modeling. Data sources for CEAP models include the National Resources Inventory and records from both NRCS and Farm Service Agency offices at USDA Service Centers.
Check out the CEAP croplands webpage at the following link to learn more about currently available tools and resources.
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/ceap/croplands. Additional details on this sampling and modeling approach are available on that website's Frequently Asked Questions page.
Laura Crowell is a Natural Resources communication specialist for USDA NRCS.
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