With no-tillers keenly interested in trimming costs, many readers are taking a closer look at the variety of generic herbicides on the market.

No-tillers growing non-biotech crops in which genetically modified crops are also growing due to wind-blown pollen or volunteer plants from a previous year’s seeds are liable to be sued by Monsanto Company, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Food Safety. So are no-tillers who grow biotech crops without signing Monsanto’s technology agreement, the group says.

While some growers and educators figured the U.S. no-till acreage might have decreased during the past 2 years, it instead turned in an astounding increase of 7.1 million acres. Much of the increase occurred in the Great Plains states where no-till is helping growers make more productive use of limited water.

Even though the no-till acreage continues to increase each year, Dan Towery believes less than 12 percent of the U.S. acres are in a continuous no-till program.