Whether it's managing residue or growing a cover crop ahead of alfalfa, details about what has worked on other farms offers a head start toward success. Growers asking for valuable input often find answers at Farmers’ Forum, the online bulletin board at www.no-tillfarmer.com. As always, we’ll share some of that information here.

"If you want to double the size of your farm, farm vertically,” says Ray Rawson. The developer of several pieces of zone tillage equipment and a no-till corn and soybean producer from Farwell, Mich., for many years has taken the time to look beneath the soil surface. The result has been higher yields on his own and and many other farms.

Jan Layman never expected to be a die-hard no-tiller. “I never thought I’d be preaching the evangelism of no-till. I enjoyed working the ground,” admits Layman of Kenton, Ohio.

Turning your original no-till planter into something that better fits your specific cropping needs was a hot topic on the No-Till Farmer Farmer’s Forum message board recently. Also, veteran no-tillers hit the keyboards to voice their opinions about one farmer’s interseeding concerns and another no-tiller’s questions about his White 5100 planter.

Before you develop a no-till plan, you need to define what the term actually means on your farm. It won’t be the same for someone who is located a couple states away or maybe even a couple miles down the road.

No-Tillers were active this month solving problems dealing with plugging, burned fields and much more.

Dean Fehl has been no-tilling soybeans on his LaPorte, Iowa, farm since 1989. About 6 years ago, he began strip-tilling corn.