Technological information is used to assess KwaZulu-Natal commercial sugarcane farmers' intra-plot (panel) soil conservation relative to requirements of the Conservation of Natural Resources Act of 1983. Findings indicate that farmers consider enforcement of the Act to be unlikely and that 28 percent of farmers surveyed do not meet adequate intra-panel soil conservation standards. Multiple regression is used to estimate models representing intra-panel soil conservation adoption and soil conservation effort. Results show that farmers have greater conservation adoption and effort on their relatively steeper panels and implement soil conservation plans on these panels first. Amongst other factors, education and use of extension information sources are positively related to both conservation adoption and effort, and soil conservation decisions are constrained by financial resources, management time and farmers' technical abilities.