I took a short, 100-minuteish road trip to Wisconsin Dells to check out the 2025 Precision Planting Winter Conference yesterday. Farmers and dealers from across the area gathered inside the Glacier Canyon Conference Center to watch the program.

No-tillers looking for a new tool to fight pests might look back at history again and see what a trap crop might do on a small area of their farm. You’ll never know for sure unless you experiment.

When the principles of regenerative ag are broken down to their core components, Shane Thomas sees it as a bundling of practices with the aim of “regenerating” the soil (an outcome), including increasing organic matter (soil carbon) encouraging biological activity and mitigating soil erosion.

You don’t normally see many blogs from me, but we just unpacked the truck from last week’s 33rd Annual National No-Tillage Conference (NNTC) and I was “moved” by our unusual week on the road.

Looking for ways covers and herbicides can work together on your farm could help you increase soil health, control weeds and increase the effectiveness of your herbicides at the same time.

While I may be preaching to the choir, I feel it's important to remind myself of some of the key benefits of no-till and cover crops on the farm to really hone in the importance and the significance of these methods.

This column features an early-day mentor of mine who went out of his way to put his job on the line for me, a student journalist at the time.