By monitoring crops through machine learning and satellite data, Stanford scientists have found farms that till the soil less can increase yields of corn and soybeans and improve the health of the soil.

University College Dublin reports that conventional tillage is severely damaging earthworm populations around the world, and the deeper the soil is disturbed, the more harmful it is to earthworms.

Tillage may get you in the field faster, but it also disrupts mycorrhizae fungi networks, which relay nutrients and compounds to plants, says Grainews.

A few months back, Ohio State University agronomists produced a website article suggesting that no-tillers consider limited tillage. They felt numerous concerns with soil damage, weed control and disease pathogens and insects that survive on crop residue could be remedied with light tillage.

The world's first full-size laboratory designed to study the relationships between tillage tools and traction equipment, and various types of soils, conducted its first test 82 years ago this month.

Kiplinger predicts the moldboard plow will soon be an item that will disappear forever, as "modern farmers have little use for it."

We weren't the only ones unhappy with Ohio State University Extension's suggestion to till no-till fields. Here are some of the responses we've seen from no-tillers and others who support the practice.