Like many no-tillers, Archer Ruffin believes in the value of micronutrients like zinc to get no-tilled corn off to a good start. But it may come as a surprise that Ruffin applies zinc in a two-pronged approach when planting corn.

Soybeans that tolerate glyphosate have accounted for more than 90% of U.S. soybean acreage for much of the past decade. But no-tillers may be able to find conventional soybeans or alternatives to Roundup Ready that are more profitable due to premiums and offer the added bonus of managing for glyphosate resistance by using herbicides with differing modes of action.

It makes sense to scrutinize the financial returns of precision ag technology costs, says Matt Darr, an Iowa State University ag engineer. But Darr says farmers continually remind him about the intangible benefits of using these tools that in many cases are just as important as dollars-and-cents justification.

Strip-tilling and applying manure simultaneously may make as much sense as other dynamic duos in agriculture, like corn and soybeans, ham and eggs and “rain makes grain.”

From the Pacific Northwest to the Great Plains to the Eastern Corn Belt, no-tillers John Aeschliman, Dan Forgey, Allen Dean and Romey Bardwell grow different varieties of dryland wheat in different soils in areas receiving vastly different amounts of rain.