A regular favorite at the National No-Tillage Conference, Dwayne Beck’s 2 decades of work at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, S.D., has revealed a depth of data to support his claim that, “In nature, tillage is a catastrophic event.”

“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.

Like most farms in the Midwest, the corn-soybean rotation dominates the landscape in eastern Nebraska.

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.

We're no doubt biased, but my family and I think there are few more breathtaking views of production agriculture than seen from the highest point of our farm in the Palouse region of eastern Washington. In midsummer, flowing fields of crops — which may include wheat, canola, barley, sunflowers, mustard, alfalfa, peas and lentils — stretch across the hills to the horizon.

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.