Nitrogen costs keep rising, forcing no-tillers to examine fertilization program options and their impact on crops and the bottom line. For some no-tillers, liquid livestock manure might be an option — if they can overcome concerns about odors or the feasibility of incorporation.

Some no-tillers, whether they recognize it or not, practice weed control without ever really coming to grips with the subject, says Bryan Young, a Southern Illinois University weed scientist.

Jeff Martin stays flexible, ready to ride the currents in technology and world markets that threaten some family farms.

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 small group of no-till farmers will become the first in Canada to be paid for storing carbon in their soils as part of a pilot project exploring ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.