A regular favorite at the National No-Tillage Conference, Dwayne Beck’s 2 decades of work at the Dakota Lakes Research Farm near Pierre, S.D., has revealed a depth of data to support his claim that, “In nature, tillage is a catastrophic event.”

This past spring, I took a big step and invested a significant amount of money in some new precision farming equipment. For years, we have been using a yield monitor to record our yields and evaluate corn hybrids and soybean varieties in our on-farm replicated plots.

Jack Maloney used to be your typical farmer when it came to managing soil and fertility. He relied heavily on his local co-op for recommendations — after all, their agronomists had spent years in school studying science, chemistry and biology.

When left to her own devices, Mother Nature makes sure there is something living and growing in the soil at all times.