When Bryan Poppelreiter pulls his no-till planter into the field, he understands that absolute planting perfection probably isn’t going to happen. But that doesn’t mean he won’t shoot for a picket-fence stand that pops out of the soil evenly up and down, as well as side to side.

The more Jim Millar works with cover crops, the more credit he’s willing to give them — credit for soil building, nutrient recycling, water infiltration and the nitrogen credit for the following crop.

Planting depth is no place to get creative if you want to achieve uniform stands and optimize no-till corn yields. Paul Jasa, University of Nebraska Extension ag engineer, believes uniformity should be every grower’s goal.

Back in 1971, when Grant Corley welded brackets onto a 6-row, 30-inch Case planter to carry Allis Chalmers’ no-till coulters, he was a maverick. Today, he’s a no-till pioneer who is continuing to fine-tune a system that saves soil and inputs without sacrificing bushels.