No-Till Farmer
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NAME: Dan DeSutter
FARM: DeSutter Farms
LOCATION: Attica, Ind.
YEARS NO-TILLING: 30
ACRES: 5,000
CROPS: Corn, soybeans, wheat
My dad gets the credit for taking the initial steps of reducing tillage on our farm, but I can probably take some credit for pushing us into a full no-till system. And I do mean system, because no-till is just the tiny tip of the very large iceberg that is our farm management strategy today.
Our first steps toward no-till and our current system were taken back in 1983 when my dad made the switch from conventional tillage to ridge tillage. I was still in high school at that point so I was on the sidelines, but I had a great seat for watching the operation change and grow, breaking out of the traditional farming mold.
Dan Desutter
I continued the mold-breaking tradition. My first year on the farm we attended a field day at Jim Kinsella’s farm. He was practicing no-till and it really struck me that we needed to eliminate tillage completely, too.
Up to that point we were using a Hiniker cultivator to create and…