“There are no downsides to biotechnology,” maintains Jay Lehr. The only exception, says the senior scientist with Environmental Education Enterprises in Ostrander, Ohio, is the public’s lack of knowledge about this new phenomena.

“Improved drainage may be needed on many soils to obtain the best yields from a no-till system. Yields under no-till are often affected by poor drainage, more so than those under conventional tillage,” according to a study by soil scientists at Ohio State University.

Many no-tillers are thinking about short-season crops, forage and ground covers, and some of those growers turned to Farmer’s Forum, the online bulletin board at www.no-tillfarmer.com, for advice from folks with experience in similar situations. Here are highlights from their discussions.

"If you want to double the size of your farm, farm vertically,” says Ray Rawson. The developer of several pieces of zone tillage equipment and a no-till corn and soybean producer from Farwell, Mich., for many years has taken the time to look beneath the soil surface. The result has been higher yields on his own and and many other farms.

When it comes to learning what it takes to turn out profitable corn yields, many no-tillers find they learn a great deal from having contest plots on their farms.

Since herbicide-tolerant transgenic cotton varieties became widely available in 1997, the no-till cotton acreage has nearly doubled in the United States. A recent survey by the National Cotton Council indicates that no-till made up 29 percent of total cotton acres while reduced tillage made up 30 percent of all cotton acres in 2002.

You can't figure out what’s wrong with your no-till field. Your neighbor took a look and he couldn’t figure it out. You called in a couple of no-tilling friends to take a look and they couldn’t come up with an answer either.

When it comes to calculating seeding rates for no-tilled Roundup Ready soybeans, recent University of Maryland research indicates that you may not need as high a plant population as you might have thought to get top yields.