With no-tillers earning higher per-acre returns than farmers still relying on extensive tillage, many are looking for more land to farm. That’s why you’ll find the results of a recent survey of land prices based on fertility levels to be of special interest because of your no-till experiences.

Although previous studies have indicated significant carbon losses from plowing, a new Agricultural Research Service study indicates that there may not be a huge loss if a farmer plows only once.

Just about every no-tiller I’ve ever met would agree that at some point you start to wonder if you were really smart to move away from the “safety” of conventional systems.

After Frank Martin talked about cover crops at last winter’s 12th annual National No-Tillage Conference, we discussed the idea of utilizing no-till and cover crops on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land to pump needed dollars back into rural communities.

An acre's worth of earthworms can equal the weight of more than 20 hired men. Earthworms are small but productive, eat for free and work all night long in your no-till fields.

Though only 17 years of age, I consider myself an experienced farmer. I have worked alongside my father on our family’s farm since I was a small child, learning the skills of agriculture and developing a desire to make farming my own life’s work. Living on a farm that has belonged to and supported our family for generations, I am acutely aware of how drastically farming techniques have changed over the years.

There was a time when manure was the chief fertilizer on farms. It helped the crops grow, but was eventually replaced by technologically advanced, high-grade fertilizers.