No-Till is not a machine, not a crop and not residue. Instead, no-till is a combination of all the critical things you need to produce the best crop with the least cost and the most sustainability. That’s been our farm goal for the past quarter-century.

Will a cover crop residue roller – considered essential in South American no-till fields – add value in the northern Great Plains? Dr. Dwayne Beck is studying that question under environmental conditions that are the equivalent of being several hundred miles north of tropical Paraguay and Brazil.

No-tillers once again faithfully took to their keyboards and continued to make the Farmer’s Forum on the No-Till Farmer Web site, www.no-tillfarmer.com, a huge success. Two of the more interesting topics from the last month of postings have to do with using wheat as a cover crop and if it’s a good idea to use a rolling stalk chopper before no-tilling into corn residue.

Craig Shaw farms so far north that many people believe that fall-seeded crops won’t survive because of the cold winter temperatures. But thanks to the many benefits of direct seeding, the Lacombe, Alberta, grower is definitely making fall seeding work.