It’s not likely you’ll find Martinsville, Ohio, no-tiller Ed Winkle running on automatic. When harvest is over, the work is just beginning as he explores how to make the soils on his farm work better.

No-tillers face some important decisions this fall on what to do with fields that went unplanted because of spring storms that inundated the Midwest.

Having worked as crop advisors right out of college, Nick Viney and Josh Trautman know that doing the little things right — whether it’s planting, fertilization or onfarm testing — is a key to unlocking yield potential.

Tom Pauly pulls a pair of pliers from the holster on his hip, kneels down and scratches through a thick thatch of crop residue. And he smiles.

Continuous no-till can go a long way toward keeping soil where it’s supposed to be, but a monster rainstorm falling on soybean residue can still result in ephemeral gullies.

The Hula family no-tills 5,000 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and oats in four counties surrounding Charles City, Va. The 100% no-till operation is located along the banks of the James River, which flows into Chesapeake Bay where nitrogen runoff is becoming a major concern.