I look forward to someday sitting on my porch drinking a glass of bourbon made from corn and rye grown on my farm and smoking a cigar made entirely from tobacco I produced. To get there, I need to deliver near-perfect grains and leaves in an area that not so long ago was considered unfit for row crops.

Now view magazine-like digital flipbooks on your desktop and tablet. Starting with 2015 issues, included for FREE with your Digital or Premium subscription, view the magazine on your laptop, tablet, and mobile device.

No-tillers across the Corn Belt have been experimenting with wider corn rows to diversify their corn management and add cover crop options to their operation, including grazing of covers as an added income and soil health option. 

Change can be difficult, especially if you’re bull-headed. Just ask Dale Macheel, who says he tends to be stubborn, just like most farmers. But it can also be fun, he says, a mindset he’s embraced while adopting conservation practices on his 2,500-acre cash grain operation in Randolph, Wis.