One of my first jobs out of college after I received a degree in business from the University of North Dakota was a fortunate choice. During the several years I worked for a professional consulting agronomist, I had the opportunity to see a lot of different crop-production systems throughout eastern Nebraska, western Iowa and northeastern Kansas.

While Francis Childs certainly doesn’t no-till, the Manchester, Iowa, farmer uses a number of ideas some ideas that you could use in your own no-tilling operation. Using a mini moldboard plow that works the soil up to 14 inches deep yet still leaves up to 40 percent soil cover from his extremely heavy continuous corn plant residue, he harvested an amazing 442.1 bushels of corn per acre last fall. For the sixth straight year, he took top honors in the 2002 National Corn Growers Association National Corn Yield Contest.