It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve been no-tilling for 30 years. I don’t know if you would call me a pioneer, but no-till was almost unheard of in north central South Dakota in 1979.

There’s a lot of highly erodible land and many small fields in LaGrange County, Ind.

Since I opened the doors of Moeller Ag Service in 1989, we've worked with thousands of farmers — some as far away as Australia and New Zealand — on selection of planter attachments for no-till, as well as making adjustments that assure the seedbed preparation and seed placement needed for uniform stands and the highest yields.

Given the importance of uniform emergence and a good plant stand, fine-tuning your no-till planter should be a must before spring arrives. Dave Moeller, an experienced no-tiller and ag consultant who operates Moeller Ag service in Keota, Iowa, offers the following guidelines for getting your planter ready.

Our first serious no-till experiences in northwestern Ohio pretty much paralleled the introduction of the John Deere 750 no-till drill in the late 1980s. After seeing it run for the first time, my immediate thought was that this no-till drill had a chance to make a major impact on our agriculture.

Let me guess. You’re tired of people telling you they’ve got the newest gadget or gizmo that will boost profits for the “low price” that makes your checkbook shudder in fright. We’ve all been there.

It took me almost 12 years to learn that you can’t dabble with no-tilling. You either have to commit 100 percent or forget about it.