Andrew Reuschel always tells people he has about 50 years’ worth of farming knowledge and experience even though he’s only in his mid-30s. He has his grandpa, Louis, and dad, Jeff, to thank for that. They started no-tilling in the 80s and cover cropping in the 90s.  

“We have three generations of people failing,” Reuschel says. “That’s how we’ve become successful now with our system. Our family has put in the time — trying new things, failing and figuring out what works and why it works.” 

When Reuschel returned to the family’s Golden, Ill., farm after serving in the U.S. Army a few years ago, he followed in his predecessors’ footsteps by trying something new — strip-till. 

“When I returned, I went right back into cover crops and no-till, but I was having a lot of struggles,” the fifth-generation farmer says. “I was giving up yield by having to wait for the right moisture and temperature to plant. With strip-till, I knew I could start planting much earlier and get that corn up and out of the ground 3 weeks sooner.”

Poor Man’s Strip-Till

Like everything else they’ve tried in the past, Reuschel’s dad wanted to make sure strip-till would work for them before going all in.  

“I like to say that we did poor man’s strip-till at first,” Reuschel says. “We’d put down anhydrous in the fall, and then in the spring, we’d plant right on top of it. The concept was working, and we liked it, but we…