No-till:  A way of growing crops or pasture from year to year without disturbing the soil through tillage.

Gary adopted the no-till practice close to 30 years ago in an attempt to be a better steward of the land. This practice allows us to make less passes in turn saving soil moisture, fuel and helping increase soil health all while lowering compaction that tillage would cause.  Healthy soil helps to limit with surface water run off by increasing infiltration. This practice also helps to increase organic matter which helps by lowering the amount of commercial fertilizer to be applied and soil holding capacity of these nutrients. As a result, all of these reasons together helps lower input cost while preserving the quality of the land and leaving the land better than how we found it, which is our number one mission as a family farm operation.

Picture above is from plant ’16. No-till also means we plant into standing stubble from the previous years crop.