The year Leroy Bupp and Jeff Frey planted their first no-till crops saw the release of the first commercial digital watch (price tag $2,100), the first Honda Civic, and "The Godfather."
Part I, naturally.
The Pennsylvania No-Till Alliance honored the farmers at a field day on July 20, according to an article on Lancaster Farming.
It wasn't the easiest start. Frey disked for a while, and so claims that he probably wasn't 100% no-till, though disking is recommended by Edward Faulkner in his "Plowman's Folly" text.
The two shared some observations about how no-till has been implemented over the years, and consequences for soil health they've witnessed.
Erosion is far less common. Wormholes are far more common.
A critical test for Bupp came shortly after a heavy rainfall event in 2018, which saw 12 inches of rain fall in three days. The water running off of his fields was clear enough (and long-flowing enough) that crawfish from a nearby creek followed it back to his fields.
“You can’t deny the fact that you’re old if you’ve done something for 50 years — because we didn’t start when we were 5 years old,” Frey quipped.
