I’m the fourth generation to manage McClure Farms in the area of southwestern Kansas that is depicted as the heart of the 1930’s Dust Bowl.

“Years ago, I got lazy,” jokes Montana no-tiller Arnold Gettel of why he first tried no-till. While fewer hours in the tractor seat was a legitimate appeal for Gettel, the economical benefits are really what drove the transition.

Like most farms in the Midwest, the corn-soybean rotation dominates the landscape in eastern Nebraska.

When the owners of Cronin Farms near Gettysburg, S.D., compared input costs to net profits in 1989, it was clear there was room for improvement in their farming process. Together with their farm manager of 41 years, Dan Forgey, and the rest of the farm’s employees, they began investigating the benefits of no-till.

Oklahoma is the state associated with “wind sweeping down the plains.” But near Great Falls, Mont., it does a lot more than sweep, which can create big problems for small grains producers.

Back in 1971, when Grant Corley welded brackets onto a 6-row, 30-inch Case planter to carry Allis Chalmers’ no-till coulters, he was a maverick. Today, he’s a no-till pioneer who is continuing to fine-tune a system that saves soil and inputs without sacrificing bushels.

Some 41 years ago, when a few colleagues and I began what would become a three-decade scientific effort at New Zealand’s Massey University, we did not set out to invent a new no-tillage system.

The first time I saw what Dwayne Beck was doing on the irrigation research farm near Redfield, S.D. (before he developed the Dakota Lakes Research Farm), I knew we were on the verge of a new type of crop production in our area.

Moldboard plowing, lots of secondary tillage and costly, environmentally damaging soil erosion were natural partners on our land in the late 1970s. At that time, I was taking over the family farm located on the Canadian side of Lake Erie, about 60 miles east of Detroit.

I grew up in a family of farmers who saw early on the advantages of reduced tillage to save soil and water.