At the start of the year, we often think of New Year’s resolutions. But my successful ‘resolutions’ (decisions) have come randomly, such as an ‘ah-ha’ moment while listening to a great speaker, or the shock when the scales jumped 5 pounds in a week. 

If you made a dramatic switch to no-till, what was your ‘ah-ha’ moment? Maybe you’ll be struck by an ‘ah-ha’ moment while reading this column! 

Paul Harvey once said we owe our existence to a 6-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains. Do you realize the No. 1 physical asset on your farm is the topsoil?

Going Back in Time

Instead of 2026, imagine you were a prominent farmer around 100 B.C. More than 2000 years ago, you’re in the Middle East, owning a thousand acres of fertile land that’s described on the soils map as gently rolling with modest slopes. The Chamber of Commerce refers to the region as “land flowing with milk and honey.” 

Your wheat and barley yields are usually average, and you have orchards with fig trees, olive trees, pomegranates and grapes. Sheep graze on hillsides that are lush and green (unless it turns dry). 

Every year you and your sons plow the cropland with a couple of single-bottom plows with a wooden moldboard…