Diversity is the elusive “ Holy Grail” for ecosystem function, always easier to discuss than to achieve.

Roy Pfaltzgraff of PFZ Farms is a fourth-generation farmer who, along with his father, farms 2,000 dryland acres of Phillips County, Colo.

My soils were on the verge of giving out on me when I finally made the switch to no-till. I’m a first-generation farmer.

WHEN PAUL OVERBY returned home to the family farm in Wolford, N.D., in 1993 after a 12-year career in politics and non-profit fundraising, he was immediately presented with a riddle. The year before, Overby’s father had had his best crop ever, achieving 80-bushel barley and 45-bushel wheat, on average, in a wheat/barley/flax rotation.

When it comes to interseeding cover crops, growers should think about designing their agricultural ecosystems — including insects, microorganisms, bacteria and fungi — to make them function to the best of their ability, according to Mike Bredeson, a Grove City, Minn.-based entomologist with the Ecdysis Foundation.

Crop Farming “down under” is not that much different from farming in North America. Like U. S. no-tillers, Grant Sims, a sixth-generation farmer from north central Victoria, Australia, and his family focus on soil biology and managing inputs while raising cash crops, year-round cover crops, sheep and cattle on their operation on the Murray River.