In the last 10 years I’ve seen no-till declining in my area. I simply don’t understand it, maybe it’s the draw of recreational tillage as we like to call it, but to me it’s just not sustainable in the long run.

When Allan Brooks and his father, Gil, started no-tilling vegetable crops in northern Wisconsin more than 40 years ago, they paid their penance.

While no-till can take soil quality and the resulting yield benefits a long way, preexisting compaction layers and less-than-ideal seedbeds can put a ceiling — or in terms of root growth, a floor — on progress. That’s where vertical tillage might play a helpful role, users of the practice say.