Some farmers are cutting back on tillage in an attempt to offset rising energy costs, according to the latest Ag Economy Barometer survey from Purdue University.

Data from the Census of Agriculture 2017 show a stable-but-growing number of farms no-tilling, big growth in reduced tillage, along with 15 million acres of cover crops seeded — up 49% since 2012.

The next time you’re in one of those seemingly hopeless debates with a clean-tilling neighbor about the value of no-till practices, turn to these talking points from the NRCS.

The results are in for the National Sorghum Producers Yield Contest and we’ll see how no-tilled submissions stacked up against conventional and reduced tillage. I think you’ll like what the data show.

Resistant pigweed has become a big problem in many parts of western Texas and presents a formidable challenge for the fledging no-till movement developing in that area of the state.

The no-till movement seems to be going strong across South Dakota. That’s the conclusion, at least, of this year’s South Dakota Cropping Systems Inventory, which is a statistical ‘snapshot in time’ for the types of cropping systems farmers are using in the state.

Soil Quality Specialist Jeff Hemenway of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Huron said if producers reduce tillage or increase surface residue, they can increase infiltration rates.