About 10 years ago, Dennis and John Kutz needed to trade planters and decided it was time to try something new. So the Fort Atkinson, Wis., father-and-son operation purchased a 12-row Great Plains planter and gave 30-inch twin rows a try.

The rapid rise in the cost of seed and fertilizer in the past year served as a wake-up call for no-tillers, reminding them that controlling input costs is often the difference between being profitable or not.

We live in an area of Lancaster County, Pa., where small dairy farms of 50 to 60 cows are common and fields are small. Many of the farms are Amish-owned, where real horses provide the power.

Making the transition to no-till was a big step for Lapp Brothers Farms in making their soils more productive. But to get even more yield and tonnage out of corn silage meant taking a narrower view.

It used to be that the primary task of a corn head was to harvest corn: separate the ear from the stalk with as little grain loss as possible, while collecting as little trash as possible, says Marion Calmer, a no-till farmer with Calmer Corn Heads in Alpha, Ill. But as growers look to better integrate field operations, the corn head is playing an increasingly important role in managing crop residue as well.