Dwayne Beck, No-Till Innovator Award winner for research at the 2000 National No-Tillage Conference, and a frequent conference participant, is well known for the “production scale” research that he manages at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm located near Pierre, S.D. The 800-acre facility is owned by a nonprofit corporation established by area farmers and operated by South Dakota State University.

Field-sized farm equipment, enough to handle a 2,500-acre commercial operation, is put to work by Beck and other staff scientists to test new no-tillage principles and to produce high-yielding crops that fund new studies.

Check out Beck’s answers to several key no-tilling questions:

Q: How has no-tillage boosted the farm economy of South Dakota?

A: There’s lots of data floating around on adoption of no-till. We feel true growth reflects producers who use diverse rotations and low-disturbance techniques. These methods are especially prevalent in the area between the James and Missouri Rivers, but also popular West of the Missouri.

Things that have helped us measure positive impact on the farm economy include increased grain sales to local elevators, an expanded acreage of higher value “non-traditional” crops such as soybeans, corn and sunflowers along with higher land prices. Where no-tillage has helped producers develop more efficient cropping, land prices have increased.

Q: What do you particularly like about the Baruths’ no-till system?

A: I applaud their use of double-cropped forages following no-tilled winter wheat. It is a technique we used at the James Valley Research Center in an environment that is…