William J. "Bill" Richards, the former NRCS director in Washington in the early 1990s who was considered by many as the ‘Grandfather’ of no-till practices in the U.S., passed away Tuesday at his home. He was 93.

Richards was known by many as an Ohio farmer who was bitten by the no-till bug while attending college classes. After pioneering no-till practices on his Circleville, Ohio farm – becoming one of the first to do it on an entire farm operation – Richards was tapped to serve as chief of the NRCS, then known as the Soil Conservation Service.

He inspired countless growers across the U.S. to adopt and evolve no-till practices and had a deep repository of historical lessons learned about conservation policies in Washington. He was keenly aware of what policies stood the best change of resonating with farmers as he drew upon his practical experiences.

Bill is survived by his sons: Bruce S. Richards (Betsy), and Elmon S. Richards (Connie); daughter-in-law Loribeth Kowalski; his grandchildren: Ashley Richards (Geoffrey Robicheaux), Brock Richards (Siobhan), Mason Richards (Katherine), Maria Roberts (Frank), and Julie Foy (Patrick); step-grandchildren Jason (Kristi) Carithers and Lisa Salyers; several great-grandchildren; and special friend Grace Moore.

SERVICE INFORMATION

Visitation for Bill will be held at Richards Farms, 24537 Canal Road, Circleville, OH 43113, on Nov. 19 from 1-6 p.m. Funeral services will be held at Circleville Presbyterian Church, 134 E Mound St, Circleville, OH 43113, on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 11a.m., with a private burial to follow.

Richards was honored by No-Till Farmer and Lessiter Media as a No-Till Innovator in 2007, 40 No-Till Legends of the Past 40 years in 2011, and one of 25 North American No-Till Legends in 2017. No-Till Farmer editor Frank Lessiter brought Richards in to speak at the very first National No-Till Conference in 1993 in Hawaii.

He was selected as U.S. Jaycees Outstanding Young Farmer of America in 1967. He also was one of the founders of Premium Agricultural Commodities, a purchasing and marketing co-op that became a model in the industry for sharing ideas and providing technology for farmers and business leaders.

Bill became a progressive, dynamic manager in agribusiness and government over the course of his illustrious career. As an active member in agriculture, Bill was a past president or participant in many farm organizations, including: National Outstanding Farmers of America, Farm Foundation Bennett Roundtable, Top Farmers of Ohio, National Association of Conservation Districts, National Corn Growers Association, American and Ohio Soybean Association, American Farm Bureau, the Soil and Water Conservation Society, Alpha Gamma Rho, and Premium Agricultural Commodities. Locally, he was a lifelong member of Circleville Rotary and the Circleville Presbyterian Church.

Richards’ passing comes after two other titans of the no-till movement passed recently – Carroll, Ohio’s David Brandt in 2023 and no-till researcher Glover Triplett earlier this year.

No-Till Farmer editor Frank Lessiter knew Richards for decades, first visiting him on his farm in 1973.

“I quickly realized Bill was an innovator in what became the no-till movement,” Lessiter said. “He was already trying many out-of-the box reduced tillage ideas that nobody else was even thinking about. During that visit, he opened my eyes to the concept of controlled traffic, an idea he was working on with Agricultural Research Service ag engineers.”

Lessiter remembers well the conversations he had in Richards’ USDA office in Washington, and the decisions Richards made about policy that boosted no-till acreage in the U.S.

“Bill was a remarkable man, innovator and someone who cared about the environment, eliminating erosion and making the world a better place,” Lessiter added. “No-till would not be where it is today without his efforts and creative thinking.”

Farmer Goes to Washington

For more than 5 decades, Richards, his wife Grace and their family no-tilled corn and soybeans on their farm near Circleville. Richards graduated from Ohio State University and he and his wife eventually bought 325 acres of run-down farmland to start their operation – which eventually grew to more than 3,000 acres.

The son of an Ohio farm equipment dealer, Richards had listened intently to his OSU professor as he explained plows were unnecessary. “Around 1979 we made the commitment to never till, which is what we now call no-till, and we’ve never looked back,” Richards said.

All of Richard’s early work with no-till ended up with him being appointed as chief of the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), where he served from 1990 to 1993.

The NRCS brought him in because the agency was applying new residue requirements and needed help getting farmers to comply with 1985 Farm Bill conservation rules. Richards served as chief under President George H.W. Bush and USDA Assistant Secretary of Agriculture Jim Moseley.

Richards had never had a true off-the-farm or off-the-dealership job, but suddenly had 13,000 employees to manage.

“I had always been a customer of the SCS, but now I was on the other side of the counter,” Richards recalled. “I spent those years teaching the benefits of no-till to everyone from producers to the USDA secretaries of agriculture. I explained how leaving residue on the surface was the key to no-till success and how there wasn’t any scientific reason we should till.” 

In a 1991 news release, Richards said the USDA’s role was to foster change, and that the public, in the 1985 and 1990 Farm Bills, “sent a clear message — it’ll no longer subsidize practices that erode the soil or damage water quality.”

When Moseley – who was appointed as assistant secretary by President Bush in 1991 -- and Richards were working together in Washington, they spent the weekend on Richards’ farm drafting language for the NRCS’ Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

CSP today provides financial assistance for conservation activities that improve soil health, sequester carbon, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, slow erosion, improve water and air quality, increase biodiversity, support wildlife and pollinator habitat, and conserve water and energy.

EQIP provides technical and financial assistance to agricultural producers and forest landowners to address natural resource concerns, such as conserving ground and surface water, soil health, erosion and drought mitigation.

During Richards’ tenure at the NRCS through 1996, no-tilled acres in the U.S. increased from about 17 million acres to more than 42 million acres. The 2022 Census of Agriculture pegged that number at more than 110 million acres.

Success was gradual, “but we got the job done,” Richards said in a more recent interview. “If you look at erosion charts of the U.S. from 1985 to 2005 you can see a big dip in total erosion. If you lay a no-till chart from the same time period alongside, you can see what caused that dip.”

Golden Years

When no-till practices in the U.S. hit its 50th anniversary in 2012, Richards was interviewed in No-Till Farmer’s anniversary magazine, sharing a first-person account of his humble beginning as a farmer and expounding on his role in the no-till revolution. At that point he’d come to accept his role at the no-till ‘grandfather.’

As he turned over most of the family’s farm operation to sons, Bruce, Steve and E.R., he hit the speaking circuit spreading the word about no-till.

In a 2023 interview, as the Triplett-VanDoren no-till research plots at Ohio State University hit 60 years, Richards told No-Till Farmer he remained frustrated that perfection-seeking scientists haven’t been able to put a dollar value on soils under no-till, nor the economic impact of the farmers. 

“We’ve never put a dollar sign on what improved organic matter or improved till means to the soil,” says Richards. “It doesn't look like that hard of a thing to measure, but the scientific community gets bogged down in perfection and misses the point. It doesn't have to be measured to the last degree, because it’s so obvious.”

At times Richards expressed disappointment that the acceptance of no-till practices hasn’t been higher. But he felt very optimistic about the value cover crops were bringing to no-till systems.

“We understand now that no-till isn’t going to solve all the problems nor make all the improvements in the root zone very quickly. But when cover crops are added to no-till, it changes the soil quality that changes the bugs and the bacteria and everything. It's all those roots from a cover crop added to no-till that really makes the soil healthy. The addition of organic matter that makes it work. No-till put the shield over the top, but it wasn’t enough.

“There’s got to be no-till plus a cover crop that puts more roots under that soil to affect the water quality and fertilizer movement.”

REMEMBERING BILL RICHARDS: DIGITAL COVERAGE

No-Till Farmer was fortunate enough to have many contacts with Richards throughout his career discussing the progression of no-till and policies that affect no-till conservation adoption. Here is a selected list from our archives.

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