One of the highlights of the conference was the Strip-Till Hall of Fame induction ceremony, which featured Northfield, Minn., strip-tiller David Legvold, Univ. of Minnesota Extension educator Jodi DeJong-Hughes and AGuru Machinery founder Bill Preller. During his acceptance speech, Preller reflected on his no-till origin story and the man who helped him get here.

   “The first year we no-tilled was 1973. And just to prove how weird we were, in 1974, we no-tilled into tractor-tall rye. So literally 50 years ago this spring, I was planting no-till corn in rye this tall. That’s weird. It was a complete failure. You know why? That happened to be a dry spring. Sucked all the water out. We had a horrible stand, and thank goodness we chopped it so we didn’t know how much grain yield we didn’t have. All right, so that have to do with anything? My dad would not have made that decision in 1973 to go cold turkey no-till without the information sitting on the kitchen table and his desk and the armchair by his chair. That was No-Till Farmer Magazine. That was the source of information. That was it. But it gave him enough confidence that there were other weirdos out there that he did it.  

   It was a cow farm. My first love growing up was cattle, but that whole experience is when I fell in love with growing corn. If it hadn’t been for Frank Lessiter and No-Till Farmer Magazine, I would not be standing here today.”

Watch the full version of this episode of Conservation Ag Update.