With grain still trading at very attractive prices, no-tillers may be able to increase their profits by adding wheat to their traditional corn-and-soybean rotation. This scenario is especially attractive in regions where soybeans can be double-cropped behind winter wheat.

With soybean prices eclipsing $14 a bushel recently, no-tillers are searching for any edge that could help them squeeze more out of every acre.

Corn and soybeans have been the main crop sources for producing energy fuels, such as ethanol, biodiesel and biomass. But in the quest for the most efficient energy feedstocks, perennial grasses like switchgrass and miscanthus, oilseeds like camelina, and short-rotation woody crops such as hybrid poplars are beginning to emerge as viable energy crops for U.S. farmers.

Conserving soil and improving the bottom line is a win-win scenario for Clay Center, Kan., no-tiller Josh Lloyd.