Necessity pushed Luther Welch into no-tilling. “The profits kept getting smaller and smaller, so we needed to farm more acres to survive,” he remembers.

At least four emerging trends could be spotted at the Farm Progress Show, the annual display of farm equipment and services held for 3 days this summer near Decatur, Ill.

If your familiar with the cyclical weather patterns (very dry to very wet) we’ve experienced in North Dakota since I started no-tilling in 1986, the fact that I’m still in business might say an awful lot. Not only am I still no-tilling, but I have expanded from 1,000 to 4,000 acres of cropland. And thanks to the many hours I no longer have to spend in the field, I’ve built up a busy grain cleaning and processing business.

Unlike many pieces of farm equipment, a sprayer is not something that Dad or Granddad absolutely had to buy. When spraying became common to cropping operations, there was an opportunity to outsource it to a custom applicator and avoid tying up the capital and adding to the responsibilities of the already over-worked farmer.

Our gradual transition to conservation tillage began 43 years ago when we parked the moldboard plow and hooked onto a chisel plow in 1964.

Kenny Holsing faced a bit of a quandary. The De Witt, Neb., no-tiller needed a combine upgrade, yet he hoped to gradually ease back a bit. “I’m getting close to retirement,” Holsing says, “and I have only about 400 acres.”

It’s times like these when the sticker shock of rising costs combined with the opportunities presented by rising prices leads resourceful growers to take a new look at the way they run their operations. New and innovative technologies available today can help you reduce the use of materials and take fuller advantage of the assets you already have.