Farming in big sky country means a 70-mile drive between farms for Terry, Mont., no-tiller Todd Tibbetts.

“Years ago, I got lazy,” jokes Montana no-tiller Arnold Gettel of why he first tried no-till. While fewer hours in the tractor seat was a legitimate appeal for Gettel, the economical benefits are really what drove the transition.

Oklahoma is the state associated with “wind sweeping down the plains.” But near Great Falls, Mont., it does a lot more than sweep, which can create big problems for small grains producers.

Many producers may ask how continuous cropping can work in a semi-arid environment. For southeastern Montana farmer and rancher Ben Minow, the question isn’t if producers can make it work, it’s how anyone could economically raise a crop any other way.

It's somewhat ironic that trying to farm right out of college during a period of bad flooding in northeastern Saskatchewan led me several years later to cropping systems research in a semi-arid area where I could really use some of that excess water! Along the way, I did graduate studies in forage genetics at the University of Guelph in Ontario and at the University of Minnesota.

With a one-pass operation that places seed and fertilizer into an otherwise undisturbed seedbed and packs the furrow, no-till systems shine when it comes to both better yields and disease control, says Andy Lenssen, a Montana State University entomologist.