Jim Kinsella, who helped pioneer no-till and strip-till farming systems in the U.S., is receiving an environmental award from the Illinois Corn Growers Association.

Kinsella, who farms in Lexington, Ill., will be honored for his practice of no-till, willingness to teach others about this method, and his role in the conception of strip tillage.

Kinsella will receive ICGA’s Environmental Award Nov. 22 in Bloomington, Ill., at the ICGA Annual Meeting. The Illinois Commodity Conference will follow.

Kinsella had a full time job after receiving a bachelor’s degree in agronomy and a master’s degree in soil science. But he decided to come back to the farm and work with his father.

No-till was an idea that Jim brought back to the farm with him. He thought it would save time and money in the field, and he also learend the practice had many positive impacts on the environment.

HIs farm adopted no-till with great success in soybeans fields, but corn was always slow to start. In 1983, Kinsella noticed how much taller and healither the corn was where it had grown in the anhydrous tracks.

From this observation, Jim began working with companies like DMI and Progressive to create what we now know as a strip-till rig. Today, Kinsella continues practicing no-till with his soybean fields and uses strip-till for corn.

He built an onfarm meeting center to host hundreds of growers at winter meetings and summer field days, and an estimated 90,000 farmers have come to workshops on his farms.