Two California farm groups are merging to create the Conservation Agriculture Systems Institute and will launch the effort with an informational meeting later this month.

With the New Year having just rolled in, we're rolling in a new look with our No-Till Farmer E-Tip e-newsletter.

Part of the opportunity for me to recently present the “S.H. Phillips Distinguished Lecture In No-Till Agriculture” at the University of Kentucky was the chance to spend the day talking with faculty members and graduate students from around the world. Phillips was a pioneer in the early 1960s in getting no-till started on a commercial scale. And he would certainly be proud to know no-till has grown to an astounding 288 million acres today around the world.

Eugene Keeton, farmer and engineer, talks about the development of his idea behind the Brush Meter that was eventually adopted by Kinze.

While it was purely coincidental, it seemed rather fitting that as we were celebrating the 40th anniversary of No-Till Farmer and the 50th anniversary of no-till on U.S. farms, No-Till Farmer editor Frank Lessiter was receiving a prestigious award.

One of the comments No-Till Farmer editors heard while pulling together material for last month’s 40th-anniversary issue was that some educators aren’t on board in promoting no-till. Such appears to be the case with Emerson Nafziger, who continues to devote considerable effort to the need for tillage