The Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance has been spreading no-till knowledge for two decades, and attendees of the organization’s recent field day helped PANTA celebrate this milestone

The agenda was packed with hands-on educational value in the form of speakers, equipment demos, soil pits and more at No-Till Innovator Jim Hershey’s Elizabethtown, Pa. farm. And cover crops and no-till were at the forefront of it all. 

The event featured several experienced speakers, but the highlight was Canadian no-tiller Blake Vince, as he gave two separate talks on his Canadian no-till journey and a more focused session on cows and crops in the no-till community. 

Vince spoke at length about significant no-till destinations he’s traveled to and people he has met, including a trip to Chile where he met with experienced no-tiller Carlos Crovetto. 

“Being a captive listener and observer on Carlos' farm for four days made me reflect on what is most important in a no-till system,” Vince says. “The smell and the texture of no-till soil remain one of the best ways to identify if that soil is healthy.”

Vince also shared stories from his visit with Rolf Derpsch, where he saw one of the longest running no-till farms in Paraguay. Derpsch had an important message that Vince took away from his time there.

IN-DEPTH LEARNING. Lisa Blazure, soil health coordinator for the Stroud Water Research Center, and Sjoerd Duiker, Penn State University…