I was pleased when the Illinois Department of Agriculture reported in late 2006 that no-till acres in the state had, for the first time, exceeded the number of conventionally tilled acres.

When I was in high school, I had a desire to farm, but just didn’t have the chance. However, I never gave up on that dream.

I farm on the edge of the old lakebed region of northwestern Ohio. And while our land is flat (0% to 2% slope), we see a lot of variation that can affect nutrient management, erosion control and final yield.

Nothing pays better than conservation. That's the motto and mission of McCormick Farms, Inc. We run a diverse operation that has been farmed by multiple generations of our family in the Wabash Valley of southwestern Indiana and southeastern Illinois.

We live in an area of Lancaster County, Pa., where small dairy farms of 50 to 60 cows are common and fields are small. Many of the farms are Amish-owned, where real horses provide the power.

When I shared our no-till experiences at the 2004 National No-Tillage Conference, we had just made a serious shift from a corn-soybean rotation to continuous corn. After 5 years, we’ve learned a lot about growing corn on corn. Now we’re evaluating new technology that will take our strip-till operation to the “next level,” as I reported in Indianapolis during the 2009 event.

Change is the only thing that stays the same in our no-till operation. That old saying describes our strip-till system perfectly.

Since I opened the doors of Moeller Ag Service in 1989, we've worked with thousands of farmers — some as far away as Australia and New Zealand — on selection of planter attachments for no-till, as well as making adjustments that assure the seedbed preparation and seed placement needed for uniform stands and the highest yields.

When people ask why I was the first farmer in our area of southeastern Iowa to start no-tilling 28 years ago, I answer that it was bred into me to control soil erosion any way I can — including extensive use of terraces and grass waterways. I couldn’t bear to see all that soil running into streams and rivers. I knew I had to do something to keep that from happening.