While some of you are just getting started, Tom Barcellos never stopped! It’s busy season 24/7/365 for the no-till pioneer in Tipton, Calif. He runs a big dairy operation, grows pistachios, citrus, strip-tills corn for silage and no-tills small grains.

Barcellos was the first in his area to move away from the plow when he started no-tilling 30 years ago. Now he estimates about 60% of all corn production in his area is grown under conservation tillage practices. Tom says his no-till drill, which he bought about 20 years ago, is one of the best investments he’s ever made. 

“This is our John Deere 1590 no-till drill. You just don’t find these in California because nobody does no-till grain. We use this primarily when we’re taking out an alfalfa field. It works really well. You get some moisture in the ground, and we’ll drill either oats or wheat into the alfalfa stand. And once that crop comes off and we harvest it, the soil is so mellow from that little root structure in the top. Then we can come back and strip-till corn into it, and it just does a beautiful job. This is probably one of my best investments. I’ve had this 18-19 years and it paid itself off right away. It’s one of my favorite tools.”

Barcellos learned early on that no-till and strip-till aren’t “set it and forget it” magic bullets. A lot of management is required, especially in a dry climate, where he gets about 9 inches of rain per year. 

Watch the full Video of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.