From 1991 until 1996, our publishing company produced a newsletter called Ridge-Till Hotline that was similar to what we were doing with No-Till Farmer. While the response to this paid newsletter was favorable, by the mid 1990s we didn't feel the ridge-till acres were going to continue to grow. So we halted publication, much to the regret of many die-hard ridge-tillers.

Despite the loss of support for crop residue surveys by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, some counties around the United States continued to gather information about tillage practices in 2006.

Now is the best time of year to utilize the No-Till Farmer Web site message board, Farmer’s Forum, at www.no-tillfarmer.com.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, many farmers in south-central Nebraska began drilling irrigation wells as they began flood irrigating row crops in furrows.