I started farming on the brink of the 1980s farm crisis. I graduated from high school in 1983 and was raring to continue in the farming tradition established by my father and grandfather.

I'm not sure anyone has changed their stance on no-till more than me. As the agronomy manager of Caledonia Farmers Elevator in Michigan, the farmers I advised always looked to me for the solutions to their problems. When the early innovator farmers I worked with started attempting no-till, I watched a lot of failures and I didn’t have any good answers at the time.

A kaleidoscope of soils blankets the several thousand acres Tony Wagner and his father, Mark, are no-tilling just north of Jamestown, N.D.

Mistakes have led to more than one production practice that has paid off on our farm. Replanting hailed out crops resulted in our current twin-row planting strategy and a load of fertilizer I couldn’t send back helped us achieve soybean crops capable of winning yield contests. In fact, in three out of the last five years I’ve had the highest yields for the local Pioneer yield contest and one of those years I won the territory. No-till wasn’t an accident, but some unintended lessons helped prove it was the right fit for our farm.

Kelly Tobin, 85, has long been dedicated to learning, and is still picking up new tricks to advance production on his farm and others he manages.

Cover crops, fungicides and spoon-feeding nitrogen are helping Mike Starkey push his no-till acres to produce to their highest potential.