This November issue represents the 30th anniversary of when the first copy of No-Till Farmer went in the mail. Since 1972, we’ve seen tremendous no-till growth along with many exciting, new technologies that have made this reduced tillage practice work on your farm.

This publication was started to provide no-tillers with the best source of information that could be found anywhere, since other farm publications felt no-till was a fad and didn’t do much to provide essential no-till news and views. Since 1972, every page of this publication has been devoted to helping you find new ways to no-till more effectively while shaving costs and expanding your income.

Looking Back

Reading through that very first issue again, it’s interesting to see what was important 30 years ago. Many of the same issues that we’re still facing today were also of special interest in 1972.

That first issue included the latest herbicide results with plenty of emphasis on tankmixes, the pros and cons of surface fertilization, doublecropping no-till corn behind alfalfa, fitting less tillage to the changing environment, finding new ways to cure no-till compaction and a look at how soil runoff on no-tilled fields came out well ahead of conventional tillage under flooding conditions.

That 1972 issue featured a look at the highly practical herbicide work done with 143 herbicide combinations with no-till corn and soybeans conducted for a number of years by George McKibben at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center in Simpson, Ill. In 30 years of editing this…