I tried no-till because of the potential savings I saw, but it’s brought us so much more. Making the switch to no-till has allowed us to raise three high-quality forage crops per year on the 270 acres we intensively farm in the San Joaquin Valley.

The main reason I went into no-till was — as it is for many other no-tillers — due to labor issues. My Dad had a heart attack in 2000 and wasn’t able to help as much anymore. I was just killing myself trying to keep up with farming and the cattle and everything else.

Cover crops are going mainstream in production agriculture, which means more people are working to make them succeed.

There may be nothing worse for no-tillers than heading to the fields in the spring and being sidelined by a maintenance issue with their planter — especially if the window of opportunity to plant is tight and the breakdown could have been avoided.

Success is bound to come when even the performance of water is held to a higher standard as it is on Keith Schlapkohl’s Stockton, Iowa, farm.

In an area where dirt, wheat and dirt is considered rotation, no-tiller Scott Glasscock stands out.

Purists may cringe at the thought, but an increasing number of “no-tillers” are folding vertical tillage into their operations.

Tillage radishes aren't the only cover crop you’ll find growing on Steve Groff’s farm this year. The no-tiller of Cedar Meadow Farm in Lancaster County, Pa., is on a quest to find the next great cover crop for no-tillers.

Economic, conservation and scientific reasons appear to be pushing no-tillers toward applying less nitrogen in their fields.