Drying out soils and leveling ruts for earlier spring plant growth are seen as major benefits for using the Phillips rotary harrow in no-till situations.

As luck would have it, Barry Fisher, district conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Greencastle, Ind., was the lucky winner of the free 1-year use of a Phillips Rotary Harrow at the National No-Tillage Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Fisher was sitting in the center of the banquet hall at the conference’s banquet plotting an early escape to avoid the traffic. Suddenly, he says, “Everyone started elbowing me at the table. My name had been called and I won.”

He was shocked. “I just assumed out of all of these people I would never get called,” he says.

Fisher, who works with farmers in developing conservation systems on their land including no-till, conservation buffers and nutrient management systems, had attended the conference with no-tillers from Putnam County to “beef” up technically on no-till. Since 1987 the district has made no-till its top priority because of its valuable soil and water benefits. Fisher decided to donate the use of the harrow to no-tillers in his district.

Put To Good Use

To manage use of the harrow, the district set up a sign-up list and charged a flat rental rate to cover the expenses in transporting and setting up the unit. Fisher allowed the no-tillers that attended the conference with him to have first choice in using the

Phillips rotary harrow which was made available by…