It’s not often that someone has the chance to influence the future of another nation. However, that opportunity now exists for no-tillers visiting Farmers’ Forum at www.no-tillfarmer.com.

No one keeps track of all the farm equipment that changes hands at the annual National No-Tillage Conference.

The dead of winter is a good time to ponder, repair, modify or replace equipment that will be essential when spring arrives. So we’re offering a few thoughts on the subject from visitors to www.no-tillfarmer.com

There was a time when manure was the chief fertilizer on farms. It helped the crops grow, but was eventually replaced by technologically advanced, high-grade fertilizers.

Progressive leaders in four no-tilling areas were honored for outstanding achievements in consulting, crop production, research and education at the early January National No-Tillage Conference in Des Moines, Iowa.

SINCE STARTING a 1-acre grid sampling program in 1996, the Rulon family has realized considerable fertilizer savings on their 5,000-acre no-till corn and soybean farm.

While Hypoxia has been a serious issue for a half dozen years in the Gulf Of Mexico, pollution and sediment left nearly half of the Chesapeake Bay so depleted of oxygen this summer that it couldn’t sustain aquatic life.

"If you want to double the size of your farm, farm vertically,” says Ray Rawson. The developer of several pieces of zone tillage equipment and a no-till corn and soybean producer from Farwell, Mich., for many years has taken the time to look beneath the soil surface. The result has been higher yields on his own and and many other farms.