If I had to pick out one consistent thing about no-tilling that I have observed over and over, it is that most no-till benefits come with continuous no-till — season to season and crop to crop. That’s the message I delivered last winter to attendees at the 2005 National No-Tillage Conference just a few days after I retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. And it’s the message I would like to expand upon as a private consultant: It’s time for the no-till community to aim higher.

A series of dry springs and a problem with potential carryover of a soybean herbicide back in the 1980s were the two primary incentives that drove us to try no-till.

Inspiration hit no-tiller Colin Harper as he stared at the effects of a bulldozer's track on the ground, and his problems with planting into canola stubble were soon overcome.

Given the numerous postings on the “For Sale,” and “Wanted” boards and the crowds gathered around them during breaks between sessions at the mid-January 13th annual National No-Tillage Conference, more than a few no-tillers are still looking for new equipment this spring.

How will your planter perform in no till? Today’s stronger, heavier equipment is designed to cut and handle residue, penetrate soil to your desired seeding depth, get proper seed-to-soil contact and close the seed-vee.

Some might consider Dan Peyton a “weekender” farmer, as he divides his time between no-tilling 300 acres of corn and soybeans and a full-time job at a nearby printing firm in Long Prairie, Minn.