Danny Wipf feat

Tinkering For No-Till Perfection

No-tiller Danny Wipf won't rest until every no-tilled seed is tucked firmly and accurately into the mellow no-till soils at the Lakeview Hutterite Colony.


Pictured Above: Double Down. Wipf modified his planter closing wheel design, giving it more heft and a wider, blunter tooth to solve the problem of a hopping closing wheel on the drill. He also devised a seed boot stabilizer and an angled seed firmer to help corral every last seed into place.


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NAME: Danny Wipf

FARM: Lakeview Hutterite Colony

LOCATION: Lake Andes, S.D. 

YEARS NO-TILLING: 25+

CROPS: Corn, soybeans and winter wheat

I’ve been tinkering and inventing for as long as I can remember. My early successful inventions came to be when I was about 12. They were all things that made life on the farm a little easier, more efficient and better.

Today I’m still inventing with the goal of perfecting, where I can, the agricultural practices we use at the Lakeview Hutterite colony near Lake Andes in south central South Dakota. Among other ventures, we no-till corn, soybeans and winter wheat with a cover crop of 4 pounds of radishes and 16 pounds of field peas seeded between wheat and corn in the rotation.

Danny Wipf

Danny Wipf

We went no-till in 1993. We sold all the tillage equipment and never looked back. After about 5 years, one of our neighbors asked if he should no-till, too. I joked with him, “No. We don’t want you to no-till because we want to keep getting your topsoil.” 

Wind erosion is a major problem in our region — and was one of the main reasons we went no-till. I…

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Martha mintz new

Martha Mintz

Since 2011, Martha has authored the highly popular “What I’ve Learned About No-Till” series that has appeared in every issue of No-Till Farmer since August of 2002.


Growing up on a cattle ranch in southeastern Montana, Martha is a talented ag writer and photographer who lives with her family in Billings, Montana.

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