Economic Feasibility of Organic, Reduced-till Dryland Cropping Systems in the Palouse.

Palouse arable soils are both highly productive and prone to erosion, often requiring the use of conservation tillage practices to maintain long-term sustainability. In order for organic dryland agriculture (currently less than 0.01% of dryland crop acreage in the eastern Washington Palouse) to develop in this region, reduced-tillage practices must be included. We analyzed the economic feasibility of integrating a small portion of organic, reduced-tillage (ORT) crop production (100 acres) into a larger non-organic dryland farm (2000 acres) based on cultural practices and yield results from ORT cropping system trial plots. Four ORT systems were compared to a typical no-till, non-organic cropping system under three crop market scenarios where 100%, 50% and 0% of production is sold with organic premiums. The two most profitable organic systems included an alfalfa/orchardgrass-winter wheat-spring barley rotation (CS1) and a spring wheat-winter pea hay-winter wheat rotation (CS4). With 100% organic premiums, annual equivalent net present value (AENPV) of returns over total cost (RTC) was highest for CS4 ($136 ac^-1 yr^-1), then CS1 ($42 ac^-1 yr^-1), and the non-organic cropping system (CS6) ($31 ac^-1 yr^-1).  With 50% organic premiums, AENPV of RTC are negative for both organic systems, at -$28 ac^-1 yr^-1 for CS1 and just below breakeven (-$1 ac^-1 yr^-1) for CS4. With no organic premiums, AENPV of returns over variable costs are positive for CS1 and CS4 at $114 and $88 ac^-1 yr^-1 compared to $187 ac^-1 yr^-1 for CS6, the conventional comparison, indicating short-term sustainability when prices are low. We used a conservative price estimate for alfalfa forage, thus CS1 has potential for greater returns in years when forage prices are high. Results from this study show potential benefits for adopting ORT methods, and further production scale experimentation is merited.