Every youth that has heard stories of their parents walking to school uphill both ways in waist-deep snow knows that things were more difficult in the past.

Progress is great, but with the good sometimes also comes the bad. Such is the case with residue.

Making a few — or maybe more than a few — extra bucks by going corn-on-corn is a temptation many no-tillers are giving in to.

I recently attended Ohio’s annual winter No-Till Conference and picked up several tips from some new and veteran no-till professionals. Held in early December, conference attendance was tremendous with more than 200 participants — a testament to increasing interest in no-till by many producers. Here is a quick look at some of the information picked up by Ohio no-tillers.

Some 41 years ago, when a few colleagues and I began what would become a three-decade scientific effort at New Zealand’s Massey University, we did not set out to invent a new no-tillage system.

Art Schultheis relies on no-till to get the best possible return from his 1,100 acre operation, which receives an average annual rainfall of only 18 to 20 inches.

The essentials of no-tilling are severely tested in an area with a short growing season, just 12 inches of rain annually and the potential for frost 365 days a year. Those are the conditions that Tim Melville faces as he no-tills 3,000 acres with his sons near Enterprise, Ore., in the shadow of the Cascade Mountains.

Talk to any serious no-tillers and it won’t take long until you discuss the adjustments and changes they’ve made to their operations. Let’s face it — no-tilling isn’t a one-size-fits-all practice. In fact, the best operations include innovative tweaks and improvements to meet their particular circumstances. And once discovered, many of these improvements can be implemented in other no-till situations.

With a one-pass operation that places seed and fertilizer into an otherwise undisturbed seedbed and packs the furrow, no-till systems shine when it comes to both better yields and disease control, says Andy Lenssen, a Montana State University entomologist.