When you listen to Rick Bieber talk about how he measures crop results, you quickly learn he’s not a big fan of the word “yield.” No-tilling for over 4 decades, the Trail City, S.D., farmer certainly understands that yield is what pays the bills.

The steady growth of no-till farming in the Chesapeake Bay areas of Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia has become a classic example of putting conservation farming methods to work to help save a major natural resource.