Impact of stover collection on Iowa land use

Abstract

The study evaluates land use impacts of corn stover markets for the state of Iowa. To tie land use decisions to their economic basis, we use an economic model to simulate profit-maximizing choices of crop-tillage rotations and stover collection, and evaluate the impacts of the stover collection restrictions imposed on the land of lower productivity, as defined by the land with Corn Suitability Rating below 80. We find that stover collection is likely to lead to substantial shifts in rotations favoring continuous corn at stover prices above $50/ton. This crop rotation shift is accompanied by the changes in tillage rotations favoring both continuous conventional tillage and, to a lesser extent, continuous conservation tillage. The crop-rotation impacts of stover markets differ substantially between the restricted and unrestricted stover markets. This finding illustrates the importance of differentiating among the cropland of alternative soil quality when assessing the impacts of corn stover markets.