Dietrich Kastens constantly evaluates technology to achieve clear-cut goals. The Herndon, Kan., no-tiller wants Kastens Inc. Farms to compete with the top third of farms in the Kansas Farm Management Database for lowest cost, planting intensity, farm size or expansion, and most importantly, profit.

Alan Ballensky rolls his 4730 John Deere self-propelled sprayer to a stop in a cloud of dust at a field edge on his southeastern Montana small grains no-till operation.

It's somewhat ironic that trying to farm right out of college during a period of bad flooding in northeastern Saskatchewan led me several years later to cropping systems research in a semi-arid area where I could really use some of that excess water! Along the way, I did graduate studies in forage genetics at the University of Guelph in Ontario and at the University of Minnesota.

One of the first things I like to do when I talk to no-till farmers is to explain why my long title – rhizosphere ecologist – fits right in with what they’re trying to achieve with direct seeding or no-tilling. (The terms are generally interchangeable).