Conservation initiatives in the 1985 Farm Bill affected farmers' decisions regarding soil conservation. A farmer survey was conducted and a multi-period mixed-integer programming model was developed to determine an optimal farm plan with choices of crop-tillage combinations and land retirement Results indicate that farmers' incentives to reduce soil loss in the Sand Mountain region in Alabama are not substantially affected by provisions of the 1985 Farm Bill. The bid price for the Conservation Reserve Program will have to be considerably higher than 1988 levels to provide an incentive to remove land from production.
