Back in the mid-1990s, millions of acres of CRP land that had been lying idle for 10 years were about to be released back to landowners.

Don’t be discouraged by the challenges you faced no-tilling corn on corn for the first time this year; you’re not alone.

Continuous corn acres rose sharply this year as many growers tried to capitalize on increasing corn prices.

Ray McCormick earns a living through good land stewardship. He operates a peach orchard, maintains about 1,000 acres of woods on his property and builds wetlands and mitigation sites for other landowners.

Galynn Beer's family has been successfully no-tilling for 20 years in western Oklahoma. “We were flood irrigating when we got started, and if you want a few challenges and obstacles, try no-tilling in flood irrigation,” says the director of sales operations with Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers in Guymon, Okla.

Corn residue generates increasing interest as a source of value-added products, most notably ethanol. But before you begin to collect corn stover, it’s important to realize the value of leaving residue for your no-tilled ground. Collecting the stover might offer some no-tillers a great opportunity to pull additional income from their fields; but for others, the value of the residue is greater if it is left on the ground.

Vertical tillage is described as a system of soil management that promotes root development. It's also sometimes called "soiling" or zone tillage because it's used to fracture the entire soil profile from the bottom up using specially designed vertical tillage tools. According to the Precision Planting Co., each tillage pass is designed to increase the vertical flow of nutrients, water and developing roots. Tillage points of the tools work to “heave” the entire section of earth from just below the line that separates topsoil from subsoil.