We were uncharacteristically resistant when our agronomist, Joe Nester, first brought up the idea of using cover crops. Now we’re hooked and they’re helping bring our no-till farming system to the next level.

My soils were on the verge of giving out on me when I finally made the switch to no-till. I’m a first-generation farmer.

Working smarter not harder was the leading reason my husband initially made the switch to no-till about 18 years ago.

“Lazy man's farming,” is what my Dad called no-till. It was the 1980s, and in his mind both no-till and organic farming were dirty words. They were the two extreme ends of the farming spectrum.

I've served in township government for a quarter century. One never-ending task and expense is cleaning silt from road ditches and culverts — the product of field erosion — and putting it back where it belongs.

“No-Till is not a machine, not a crop and not residue. Instead, no-till is a combination of all the critical things you need to produce the best crop with the least cost and the most sustainability. That’s been our farm goal for the past quarter century.”

We’re not out for the highest yield at any expense. We’re out for the highest yield we can produce profitably.

The Gallatin Valley is a bustling place. Snug in the shadow of towering Rocky Mountain peaks, the valley is home to Montana State University, the hip and thriving town of Bozeman and a diverse, often progressive community of farmers — ranging from container hydroponic growers of salad greens to large-scale commercial producers — that make it feel more like a California valley than one in Montana.

We went from farming white sugar sand to farming the heaviest of clay soils when my family moved our farming operation from Florida to Alabama in 1989. To say the move made farming a bit different would be a drastic understatement.

I don't know everything when it comes to farming. Admitting that fact, and seeking out the knowledge of others, has helped our farm move forward at a steady pace over the years.