During the summer of 2011, Brownsburg, Ind., corn, soybean and wheat no-tiller Mike Starkey agreed to host the John Deere Roll-Out new equipment event on his farm, leasing out a 75-acre corn plot at the entrance of his 2,600-acre operation.

Farming 400 acres of combinable crops on light ‘boys’ land between Cambridge and Newmarket, I’ve just had my third direct-drilled harvest. I’m 100% combinable, having been a sugarbeet grower since the days of hand hoeing, as well as offering a drilling and harvesting service with a 6-row tanker in the past.

Joe Kern and his father, John, admit they’re still dealing with a learning curve. But through working with no-till practices they’re transforming their “clay pot” soils into acreage that recently produced up to 240-bushel corn and 80-bushel soybeans.

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with farming, but that’s a major reason Tom Cotter did the opposite of that and turned to no-tilling and interseeding cover crops to rejuvenate his farm.