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Using a roller crimper to terminate cereal rye immediately ahead of planting allows the rye maximum time to grow. The residue from rye seeded at 100-120 pounds per acre takes the place of a residual herbicide in soybeans. Only tough Johnsongrass stands in the way of herbicide-free soybean production. Daniel Bonacker

No-Tillers Make Decisions Based on ROI, Not Yield

Operation progresses to cover crops, grazing as newest generation builds on family farm's conservation commitment

Mr. No-Till is what one farm magazine called my grandfather, Stanley, in a 1991 article. He got our Cedar Hill, Mo., operation started in the practice at the urging of his father in the early ’80s. My father, Jeff, picked up the torch, and now we carry it together

Each generation has refined our conservation farming practices using the tools and knowledge available in their time. Sometimes that means new technology, products and plant genetics. Sometimes it means looping around to more traditional practices like cover crops and grazing. I’m not sure what my great contribution to the evolution will be just yet — I’m hoping it's grazing covers and incorporating livestock — but I’ve had the example and the encouragement to keep experimenting since my return to the farm in 2015.

Hazed Into Action

Extreme weather events applied the pressure to shift our farming trajectory more than once, herding us further and further into conservation practices. Back-to-back severe floods had no-till bubbling to the surface. It was the ’80s, and my grandfather and great-grandfather were farming our river bottoms in the tradition of the time — chisel plow, disc and plant. 

Check The Specs...

NAME: Jeff and Daniel Bonacker

Farm Name: Big River Grain & Cattle

LOCATION: Cedar Hill, Mo.

ACRES: 1,300

YEARS NO-TILLING: 41

CROPS: Corn, soybeans, cereal rye and milo

PRIMARY SOIL TYPE: Sandy/loam to heavy clay

ANNUAL PRECIPITATION: 35-40 inches

LIVESTOCK: 60 head cow/calf

Spring tillage was done when the first flood raged through. When the…

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Martha mintz new

Martha Mintz

Since 2011, Martha has authored the highly popular “What I’ve Learned About No-Till” series that has appeared in every issue of No-Till Farmer since August of 2002.


Growing up on a cattle ranch in southeastern Montana, Martha is a talented ag writer and photographer who lives with her family in Billings, Montana.

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