Let me guess. You’re tired of people telling you they’ve got the newest gadget or gizmo that will boost profits for the “low price” that makes your checkbook shudder in fright. We’ve all been there.

But there is good news that won’t cost you much, if any, money at all. With just a few tweaks of your no-till planter, you can boost your yields and improve precision in your operation. Most importantly, they’re tweaks you can do yourself before spring rolls around.

Bill Lehmkuhl claims that there are a number of simple planter adjustments and changes that any no-tiller can do that will ultimately push up your no-tilling returns.

Watch Your Ear Count

But before we get into the nuts and bolts of adjustments, Lehmkuhl says there’s one important myth that he’d like to debunk — and it all centers around two words: ear count.

“If I can get anything across to you, it’s this,” the Minster, Ohio, no-tiller and owner and operator of Precision Agri-Services, says. “Yield comes from ear count and nothing else.”

Many farmers, he claims, boast about plant populations in their fields. This news makes Lehmkuhl cringe.

“Ear count is going out there after pollination and ear set, regardless of what you have for plant population,” he explains, “and counting what your harvestable, viable ears are. Ear count equals yield. If you don’t have ears, let’s face it — you’ve got the equivalent of weeds.”

He says there are two things that will drive your ear…