Conservation Profiles

Lynn Hoffman

During the past three decades no-till farming has gained national acceptance as a proven method to reduce soil erosion, protect water quality and improve the long-term productivity of the soil. In Pennsylvania, more and more farmers are looking at no-till as a reasonable alternative to conventional farming. They are finding that not only does no-till have multiple environmental benefits, but that it can also be more efficient and affordable than conventional agricultural methods.

Pennsylvania is home to Lynn Hoffman, recognized as one of the country's foremost no-till farming experts. Hoffman, a recently retired research associate from the Penn State University (PSU), has been a pioneer and advocate of no-till planting for more than 30 years. Throughout his career, Lynn has successfully fine-tuned the no-till technique through extensive research and experimentation involving different varieties of herbicides and planting techniques. His findings have helped convince well over half of Pennsylvania's farmers to use no-till on at least part of their land.

Joel Myers, Agronomist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, said, "Pennsylvania was one of the first states to begin studying and working with no-till. They pioneered the concept, helped to get things started here, and helped to spread the concept to the Midwest."

Hoffman worked with a PSU Agronomy team that was first interested in learning how no-till crop planting might help reduce soil erosion. Later, the team focused on developing effective no-till practices. "In time" he explained, "we were able to develop no-till systems that were also efficient, cost-effective and highly profitable."

Hoffman planted, what is believed to be, the first no-till corn crop in the Eastern United States. He explained, "Right away, we had an acceptable yield of corn. The problem was the weeds. They were out of control." Despite the complications caused by excess amounts of weeds, Hoffman realized there was great potential for no-till planting and continued to experiment.

"I could see that this could have a great impact toward reducing soil erosion. But I first had to prove to myself at the research farm that this could work in Pennsylvania, under our conditions," Hoffman said. "There had been some success in Australia and scientists in other parts of the country - particularly Kentucky - were making strides, so I knew it could potentially work here. For us, though, one of the major obstacles was the lack of proper equipment."

Hoffman explained that no-till was a new concept and American manufacturers had yet to develop equipment for it. Due to a limited variety of available herbicides, controlling weeds was an obstacle as well.

In time, agricultural researchers in the Northeastern United States were able to develop no-till systems that had a strong, positive effect on the environment and produced acceptable yields while being cost effective.

Hoffman learned that no-till was particularly well-suited for fields on the small, rocky hillsides of Pennsylvania and he worked promoting the concept to farmers throughout the region.

He became convinced that no-till farming has several distinct advantages over conventional methods. For one, no-till is cost effective. It requires less labor and time and does a better job preventing soil erosion. No till is estimated to reduce labor hours by 60 percent, due to a reduced number of trips a farmer must make across a field (several trips under conventional conditions, two under no-till conditions).

"My driving force for promoting the concept has always been soil conservation," Hoffman said. "And while everyone was interested in conservation, it wasn't enough to sell it. You had to be able to show farmers that they could use this affordably and efficiently."

Hoffman believes these advantages bode well for the future of no-till. "I have to think that no-till will be around for quite a while," he said. "I say this because more and more small farms are disappearing and it's the larger farms, that manage more acreage with less manpower, that are going to profit from using the no-till system. The system is a natural for them."

As far as the ecological benefits of no-till, research conducted by Hoffman and his team indicates that soil erosion can be reduced by upward to 90 percent by initiating no-till practices on land with a 5 to 8 percent slope. "We have documented this in the past. Soil erosion is reduced tremendously. That's not to say that it's without any problems, but to say that soil and water erosion can be reduced by 90 percent, that's a realistic estimate," Hoffman said.

In addition to his own dedicated research, Hoffman managed the agronomy research farm at Penn State University's Russell E. Larson Research Center. Working in this capacity, he cooperated with university faculty on approximately 50 different experiments. Hoffman also conducted a number of workshops on planter maintenance and adjustment through the extension program. He has led research efforts with cool-season forage grasses and provided farmers across the country with unbiased information about the yields and favorable characteristics of each variety tested.

Throughout his life, Hoffman has been recognized as a prominent member of the agricultural community. Growing up, he lived on a small farm in Southwestern Pennsylvania and worked on a neighboring dairy farm. Prior to enrolling at Penn State to study dairy production, he managed his own dairy herd. He worked for several years as an agricultural education instructor in Blair County, and eventually joined the staff of the Agronomy Department at Penn State - where he worked from 1969 until his retirement in September 1999. Today, Hoffman remains involved with Cooperative Extension and continues to farm his own land.

"Lynn is a farmer himself and a lot of his experience and credibility comes from the fact that he used the practices developed on the research farm on his own land," Joel Myers said. "At the same time he remained close with the entire farming community. In the old days he conducted a lot of workshops, outreach activities and demonstrations. He spent many hours on the road traveling across the state and the entire Northeast."

Hoffman taught agricultural education for several years in Holidaysburg, PA. At this time he was living in Blair County, where he was instrumental in helping to establish the Blair County Soil Conservation District, which in 1966 became Pennsylvania's 66th conservation district. Throughout his career with Penn State, Lynn has remained a friend to the state's conservation districts, working with many of the districts through the Cooperative Extension program.

In July 2000, The Conservation Partnership--the State Conservation Commission, Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts, Inc., and Natural Resources Conservation Service, presented Lynn Hoffman with The Conservation Hall of Fame Award, to recognize his dedicated pursuit of applied research in no-till and other conservation-related practices.