Conley farms 120 acres for feed (silages, dry hay and high-moisture corn) for his 52-cow dairy, located down a dirt road amid a small fold of hills in Dodge County. The hills make for stunning views of the surrounding countryside, and his barn and silo. They also pose unique management challenges. Or they did, until recently.

I tried no-till because of the potential savings I saw, but it’s brought us so much more. Making the switch to no-till has allowed us to raise three high-quality forage crops per year on the 270 acres we intensively farm in the San Joaquin Valley.

When it comes to no-tilling around Gettysburg, Pa., it’s quite a battle for Ed and Dan Wilkinson. While some of the land these no-tillers farm is where the most famous battle of the Civil War was fought, the battle for the Wilkinsons is taming the soils that make the transition to no-till tough.

Looking for new ways to trim production costs, California dairyman turned in 2007 to a variety of conservation tillage practices for forage production in California’s San Joaquin Valley.