Converting a farm to no-till was a gradual process, but it’s paid off in many ways for Lee Thelen.

Brian Moore stuck a small shovel into the ground, pushed it down with his foot and pulled up a chunk of soil interlaced with roots and decaying plant matter.

With tremendous pressure placed on timely planting, no-tillers are looking to have their planters functioning at a high level to maximize emergence and yields.

I've had 25 years to refine my no-till system, but I’m nowhere near settling into a comfortable groove. My philosophy is to keep pushing my system to get more yield, use my inputs more efficiently and make life easier for myself and my son, Chris, who farms with me.

The shift to continuous no-tilling on our farm has more or less followed the development of planting equipment suited to this method of farming. Rock County, Wis., which borders northern Illinois, is the top soybean producing county in the state.

Welcome to my first installment of No-Till Notes. I’m looking forward to writing this column and sharing my no-tilling experiences with you. I hope to provide lots of no-tilling ideas you can use on your farm.

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.

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.