Seeding & Planting

Cover Crops, Freeze-Thaw Cycle Favored For Undoing Compaction

An online discussion finds that most no-tillers prefer not to rip their fields and would rather rely on more natural methods to restore the structure of their valuable soils.
No-tillers forced to work in wet fields this fall after heavy rains might want to know that most experienced no-tillers favor the freeze-thaw cycle and cover crops rather than tillage to break up compacted soil.
Read More

No-Till Versus Organic Debate Heating Up, Lines Being Drawn

No-till supporters acknowledge increasing public sentiment for organic farming but say science, despite faulty research, still shows that no-till is better.

Shots are being fired in what could conceivably grow into a battle between no-tillers and organic farmers for federal funding and consumer food dollars. Both sides are claiming the high ground for their path to sustainable, profitable farming, and no-tillers aren’t backing down as organic farming advocates gain a foothold with the general population and even an occasional researcher.


Read More
Barn-and-field.jpg

Move Cautiously If You Want To No-Till Expiring CRP Land

Additional acreage could become available, but is it worth the cost to farm? Here are tips on finding the land and determining its suitability for no-till cropping.
Booming prices for corn and soybeans have no-tillers looking to add additional acreage, and one source that might become available is expiring Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acreage. From Oct. 1, 2007, to Oct. 1, 2010, more than 13.4 million acres are scheduled to come out of the program.
Read More
cover

Don't Tell This No-Tiller Continuous Corn Won't Work

Ray McCormick has been profitably growing corn on corn without the disease and insect outbreaks that threaten to keep many no-tillers in their standard rotations.
Ray McCormick earns a living through good land stewardship. He operates a peach orchard, maintains about 1,000 acres of woods on his property and builds wetlands and mitigation sites for other landowners.
Read More
WIL-Kip-Cullers-0607.jpg
What I've Learned from No-Tilling

World Records Still Leave Room For Higher Yields

Kip Cullers says he — and other no-tillers — can produce yields that go beyond levels that already leave some observers in disbelief.
It's an understatement to say that we’ve had a lot of publicity since harvest of 2006, when the word got out that my farm had placed first or second in three categories of the National Corn Growers Association yield contest (including a first-place 347.26 bushels per acre in a no-till irrigated class) and also weighed out a world-record soybean yield of 139 bushels per acre with conventional tillage.
Read More

Top Articles

Current Issue

NTF_May_2025_BookWithPages_Curl_art.png

No-Till Farmer

Get full access NOW to the most comprehensive, powerful and easy-to-use online resource for no-tillage practices. Just one good idea will pay for your subscription hundreds of times over.

Subscribe Now

View More

Must Read Free Eguides

Download these helpful knowledge building tools

View More
Top Directory Listings