Has your farm operation changed in the last 50 years? If you are young, ask an older relative or neighbor.

Since the mid-1970s, you probably added more acres, bigger machinery and new chemicals for managing weeds, insects and disease. Your crop yields probably doubled or tripled. If they didn’t, you are hurting because commodity prices have not gone up much.

Fifty years ago, corn sold for around $3.00 a bushel. This fall it’s about $3.80. Wow, whatever will you do with that extra 80 cents?

If you are reading this, you probably switched to no-till several years ago. Maybe you also use cover crops to improve your soil. If you show this article to a neighbor who is still plowing, discing, vertical tilling and/or subsoiling, how do you think they would react?

Here are a few reasons to change to continuous no-till:

• Cost of inputs. Tractors, fuel, seed, fertilizer, herbicides … have any of these come down in the last 10 or 20 years?
• Commodity prices. Just like corn, most crops have not had a substantial boost in price. 
• Weather. Regardless of your views on global warming, some regions are experiencing more intense rainstorms and longer droughts (sometimes in the same year).
• Erosion. Most farms with tilled ground are losing topsoil faster than it is being replaced by Nature. Even if you are fortunate enough to have a few feet of topsoil (instead of a few inches), the lost soil is taking valuable nutrients with it.
• Societal demands. The U.S…