The topography of the Champaign County, Ohio area makes much of Jack Sommers' farmland a candidate for no-till and cover cropping practices. Sommers feels that cover crops help protect the soils and build up organic matter among other advantages.

Predicting fertilizer needs and actual N uptake by crops can feel like guesswork, especially when trying to balance cost with net profit. However, when Dr. Emerson Nafziger’s data is accumulated and plotted, patterns start to emerge, which help farmers balance profit with optimum crop health. 

Is there a yield drag when switching to a no-till system? Or is that just an old wives’ tale?

We have an 8-year-old no-till planter with electric drives, no automatic downforce, standard closing wheels and factory liquid fertilizer attachments. Should we upgrade? If so, which technologies first?