Rolling and crimping tall cover crops can help no-tillers and strip-tillers plant into heavy residue, preserve moisture and, in some cases, reduce herbicide use.

The first time I saw what Dwayne Beck was doing on the irrigation research farm near Redfield, S.D. (before he developed the Dakota Lakes Research Farm), I knew we were on the verge of a new type of crop production in our area.

Some 15 years ago, no-tilling tomatoes wasn’t even thought to be possible. But no-tiller Steve Groff has found huge success transplanting tomatoes into a thick cover crop with the aid of a Buffalo rolling stalk chopper and no-till planter developed at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI).