When the Christensen family moved to a new farming location in southwestern Wisconsin 5 years ago, they took a hard look at the many benefits of no-tilling.

No one thing got us into no-till, but every year we find more reasons to stay with it. In the 1970s and early 1980s, our farm management included my father, Doyle, my Uncle Jerry and a cousin, Roy. They had given up the moldboard plow in the 1970s and had switched to a chisel plow system, but were still doing a lot of tillage.

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.

When it comes to determining what will have the most impact on your no-till yields this year, Mark Flock has complied a list of 11 critical factors for you to consider.