We started no-tilling in the mid-1980s with the wrong attitude, the wrong tools and not enough knowledge to make it work. It fell flat on its face. Yet, here we are in 2006, confidently no-tilling 1,300 acres.

When people ask me for a quick answer to justify shifting to no-tillage, the best one I can come up with is this: Yield is not measured in bushels or tons per acre. Yield is measured in net dollars per acre. No-tilling equals more dollars in the bank.

Does precision farming, with page after page of information generated by automated devices, really make your no-till fields more productive? Or are you about ready to unplug it all in frustration?

Talk to 10 no-tillers and you’ll probably hear 10 slightly different viewpoints on why it pays to quit disturbing and start building the soil. At Sheridan Farms, we’ve got our list, too. We’ve been able to drop from five marketed crops to two or three without any loss in productivity or farm income.

The current standard for determining nitrogen application rates is way off course, according to Richard Mulvaney, a soil scientist at the University of Illinois.

With the recent focus on the benefits of cover crops, it is ironic that research plots evaluating corn planted into hairy vetch sparked my initial interest in no-till. Those first impressions were made when I was a student at Western Kentucky University nearly 25 years ago.

The biggest crowd in years, more than 700 people, attended the 14th annual National No-Tillage Conference in St. Louis and went home with plenty to think about and put to use on their farms.