While most people associate computers and advanced technologies with e-mail and gory CD-ROM video games, Marion Calmer thinks about higher profits and labor-saving practices on his 1,300-acre farm. Then again, Marion Calmer is far from being like most people.

If you don't know what’s going on in your anhydrous ammonia applicator’s manifold, you don’t know all you should.

There's no doubt about it. When you look at the numbers, some farmers, it seems, are parking their no-till equipment and once again emerging from the sheds with the very discs and plows they’d sworn off only a couple of years ago.

Some farming innovators maintain harvest is the key to making any no-till program work. You’ve got to spread straw, chaff and stalks evenly across your fields if you want the best no-tilling conditions at seeding time.

Every no-tiller has one trick or idea that they absolutely can’t live without. For David Linn in Correctionville, Iowa, it’s strip-tilling in the spring instead of the fall.