David Brandt may like the nice, green color his fields take on after one of his cover crop mixes emerges. But he also likes to see another kind of green — the color of money.

Increasing organic matter by just 1-2% through eliminating tillage, rotating crops and seeding cover crops will help southern Plains no-tillers keep more water in their soils and increase nutrient uptake, helping make their operations more profitable, says NRCS soil scientist Steve Alspach.

Jeremy Brown’s decision to adopt no-till practices stems from an important lesson from his backyard garden. Brown transplanted this idea it onto the landscape near Lamesa on the Southern High Plains of Texas, where he’s no-tilling 2,600 acres, most of it dryland farming.