It's interesting to see how long some ideas take to gain a foothold. I remember reading about zero-till farming in the late 1980s and how it improved yields, decreased erosion and saved on fuel. Fast forward to present day and one of the farming youtubers I watched just started no-till about 2 years ago. Last night I the same youtuber posted a video about ripping out fence lines because it causes issues with their harvest and is a source of weeds in the field, and I was surprised because farmers in the uk are now understanding that those same fence lines are an important source of biodiversity for the health of their soil and crops.
New processes in general take a while to propogate.
* working in a study is different from working on every field in the country, and some things are harder to put into practice than other
* some people have the mindset of, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, which is pretty easy to justify given how precarious and time-consuming of a lifestyle farming already is
* in particular, for changes that need capital investment, the precariousness of the field means that it can take time to secure the money to spend on major improvements
https://www.britannica.com/topic/till-less-agriculture