If there were ever a theme of one of the eight annual National No-Tillage Conferences that summed up exactly what the no-tillers needed, this year's "Tough Times...Tough Decisions...Prospering With No-Till" said it all.

What should tillage and farming expenses have in common?

When our forefathers first sailed to this country and started working American soil for food, they had no idea that their methods were actually hurting the productivity of the soil. After all, the vast prairies of this continent had millions of years to build up proper carbon, nitrogen and potassium levels. If tilling the soil was actually draining those nutrients and hurting its productivity, it certainly wasn’t apparent to early settlers.

Ron Mulford is constantly looking for ways to squeeze more profit out of an acre of ground. A switch to narrower-row crop production was the method he turned to in a push to increase no-till corn yields.

While most people associate computers and advanced technologies with e-mail and gory CD-ROM video games, Marion Calmer thinks about higher profits and labor-saving practices for his 1,300-acre farm.

As urban areas stretch further into the countryside, adding more acres often requires no-tillers to buy or rent land located miles from their center of operation.

Marion Calmer knows that proper use of nitrogen leads to increased profits, higher yields and less runoff.