For growers, especially those who are newer to no-till, Dave Dum has some advice: pick your equipment dealer wisely when looking for a no-till planter.

He maintains there’s more to buying planting equipment than perhaps any other piece of machinery a no-tiller typically uses.

Dum has spent most of his career as a planter specialist for Binkley & Hurst, a Case IH dealership in Lititz, Pa., that has been catering to no-tillers for more than two decades.

He believes that beyond the technical aspects of the equipment itself, no-tillers need to expect more than a sales job from their equipment dealers. The best no-till equipment dealers, Dum says, are those whose idea of service goes beyond repairing broken or worn machinery. It starts at the time of the first sales inquiry.

For these reasons, Dum strongly recommends that no-tillers should get to know their dealer before talking brass tacks about a no-till planter. Here are some of the questions you should be asking.

1. Are the dealership and its sales people committed to no-till?

It’s as much about helping customers stay ahead of the conservation tillage curve as it is about selling equipment, says Dum. Despite all of the science behind no-till these days, there remains some art to succeeding with it. And, he adds, it continues to evolve.

“Believing that no-till is a viable process and dedicating the resources needed to stay up with the changes, as well as carrying the equipment, is a huge commitment for a dealership,”…