If you ask Colby Johnson about his decision to invest in a land roller, he’ll tell you he wishes he had made the purchase sooner rather than later.

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.

A growing number of farmers are switching to strip-till for a variety of reasons. Whether it’s to warm up soils that remain cold for too long in the spring, to trim input costs, to reduce compaction, improve drainage or other reasons, strip-till is getting a closer look these days.

Some 25 years ago, the Hundley farm at Champlain, Va., was a modest operation at just 300 acres. Today, with the help of no-till, Jay and Robert Hundley have grown their acreage 20 times to a bustling corn, soybeans and small grains operation of 6,000 acres.

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.