If you ran a fluffing harrow over some of your ground last spring just before planting, you may be surprised to learn that the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) no longer considers those fields to be no-tilled.

Only recently have large numbers of no-tillers discovered the value of cover crops to aid their soil and cash crops. Many no-tillers are still learning how and when to burn down the cover crops to prevent competition with their corn, soybeans, etc.

Dwayne Beck is known for a lot of things, perhaps crop rotations most of all. This Pierre, S.D., no-tiller manages the Dakota Lakes Research Farm at Pierre, S.D., and dedicates a lot of his time to studying the improvement of no-till operations with the help of crop rotations.

Never mind the critics, there is plenty of evidence that no-tillers raising genetically modified (GM) crops are ahead of the learning curve, while the rest of the country and world is catching on.

One of the most popular speakers to ever appear on a National No-Tillage Conference program, Dwayne Beck, will be in Des Moines to share his highly innovative no-tilling ideas with you at next winter’s 12th annual National No-Tillage Conference. For more effective no-tilling when it’s too hot, too cold, too wet or too dry, Beck will have many of the no-till answers that you need!

When it comes to today’s ag economy and farming, no one can argue the fact that times are tough.