Even though fall harvest is just around the corner for no-tillers, it doesn’t mean planting and seeding time is over.

I've served in township government for a quarter century. One never-ending task and expense is cleaning silt from road ditches and culverts — the product of field erosion — and putting it back where it belongs.

Fourth generation farmer Derek Van De Hey and his family may not become millionaires overnight, but over the long haul they expect their switch to a 100% no-till, cover crop system will save them nearly that amount, or possibly more.

Mistakes have led to more than one production practice that has paid off on our farm. Replanting hailed out crops resulted in our current twin-row planting strategy and a load of fertilizer I couldn’t send back helped us achieve soybean crops capable of winning yield contests. In fact, in three out of the last five years I’ve had the highest yields for the local Pioneer yield contest and one of those years I won the territory. No-till wasn’t an accident, but some unintended lessons helped prove it was the right fit for our farm.

For Dave and Don Myers, measuring their progress in building a profitable no-till operation is a matter of inches — and measuring those inches.