When Jimmy Emmons talks about the major changes he’s making to his farm, he feels compelled to explain that his father and grandfather, “did the best they could do with the equipment they had.”

But when he and his wife, Ginger, took over the family’s third-generation farm in Leedey, Okla., they faced the task of rehabbing soils that were mined of nutrients and badly degraded from decades of tillage.

They’re now finding themselves in a different boat. They’ve been no-tilling for 20 years, added a rotational grazing system for their cow-calf operation and also spent 3 years implementing cover crops on their 2,000-acre farm. It’s not a path many farmers around them have chosen — yet. But Jimmy knows who he is.

“When I look at a cover crop out there, I don’t think I’m a trash farmer. I’m looking at a lot of potential,” he says. “I’m looking at storing twice as much water in the soil, and spending half as much time plowing and wearing out that equipment.”

Jimmy started no-tilling the farm in 1995 to control wind and water erosion, improve nutrient-use efficiency and increase organic-matter levels.

At the beginning, they started doing more in-depth soil testing to establish a baseline for pH levels and…