No-Till Farmer Podcast

In this episode, we count down the most popular episodes of 2023, starting with a rapid-fire panel discussion between Alan Berry, Ross Bishop and Stan Miller, three farmers who spoke on a No-Till Innovator panel at the National No-Tillage Conference.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, editor Frank Lessiter chats with Nebraska cropping systems specialist, Bob Klein. The conversation covers no-till history as well as the concept of Eco-Fallow —the process of controlling weeds after wheat harvest with herbicides, while minimizing soil disturbance as much as possible and conserving soil moisture.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, listen to a compilation of audio clips from the 3 most popular episodes of the podcast released in 2023 featuring stories about no-till legal battles, small acreage no-till, cover crops and much more.

“The USDA’s Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program represents an investment of over $3.1 billion into U.S. agriculture,” writes Todd Janzen, ag attorney at Janzen Schroeder Ag Law, “but what I am most interested in is USDA’s collection of production data from U.S. farms and fields through Climate-Smart Commodities grants.” In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Janzen explains what no-tillers need to know about the USDA’s data collection through these grants, potential legal liabilities for artificial intelligence in agriculture and more.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, University of Nebraska extension engineer Paul Jasa discusses the benefits and economics of no-till, how cover crops and grazing fit with no-till and what he has learned from his 45+ years of no-till research.

Potomac, Ill., no-tiller Bryan Severs likes to keep things as simple as possible — and that’s helped him break the 100-bushel barrier with non-GMO soybeans. In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, technology editor Noah Newman talks to the third-generation farmer about the keys to his high-yielding no-till soybeans.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, editor Frank Lessiter has chosen to pick up a recent episode of the Soil Sense Podcast, created by Farmers for Soil Health. The episode features Nancy Kavazanjian, who along with her husband Charlie Hammer, farms in the south-central part of Wisconsin where they grow corn, soybeans and wheat in rotation. Over the years they have been innovators in no-till and strip till farming and were the first in their area to regularly use cover crops.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Purdue weed science professor Bryan Young talks about strategies to fight herbicide-resistant weeds in no-till, including some of the most promising precision technologies to consider adding to your toolbox.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, editor Frank Lessiter sits down with Guy Swanson, a 50+ year no-till veteran. The two of them discuss deep band fertilizer applications, the creation of the no-till Yielder Drill known as “Old Yeller,” and the early no-till movement that Swanson and his father sparked in the Palouse.

Ahead of his capstone presentation at the 2024 National No-Tillage Conference, 2023 Conservation Ag Operator Fellow Loran Steinlage of West Union, Iowa, has been putting the focus on farmer-to-farmer learning through a series of free monthly webinars. In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Steinlage shares a harvest update, takes your cover crop questions and much more.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, Steve Hunt, president of Case IH dealership H&R Agri-Power (winner of the 2023 No-Till Innovator Award for business category), talks about his dealership’s involvement with Harry Young Jr. and the first-ever commercial no-till plots on U.S. soil.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, we talk with Dylan Vaca, the brand and marketing manager for the DeLong Company’s Grown Climate Smart program. He talks about how you can be rewarded for no-till and sustainable farming practices — even if you’ve been doing them for decades.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, Thomas Gent, a 4th-generation farmer, shares the details of the no-till system on his family farm in Tydd St. Giles, England. Gent’s father and grandfather made the decision to switch to no-till 16 years ago, and for him, it’s the only way he’s ever known how to farm.

In this rapid-fire panel discussion from the 2023 National No-Tillage Conference, 3 No-Till Innovators share their top profit-building no-till soybean ideas. In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Alan Berry, Ross Bishop and Stan Miller discuss soybean row spacing, planting green, cover crops and more to help you implement money-making changes to your operation.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by SOURCE® from Sound Agriculture, Joel Reddick, a young Kentucky no-tiller, talks about his family’s operation and how they’ve been successful with 100% no-till for 5+ years. The Reddicks also have cover crops on 100% of their acres and have been referred to by some as the “pioneers of planting green.”

Ryan Gibbs, an Iowa no-tiller and the owner of Gibbsfield Ag, makes and sells vermicompost extract to improve the health of his no-till soils. The liquid product is crucial to his goal of growing 250 bushel corn without commercial fertilizers on no-till ground. In part 2 of this interview with Gibbs, brought to you by SOURCE®️ by Sound Agriculture, he talks about the logistics of making and spraying his compost extract, plus how he uses sap analysis and soil testing to make nutrient management decisions.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by Martin-Till, Indiana organic no-tiller Rick Clark explains why he thinks that sometimes, it’s best to think outside of the box in the world of no-till.

Ryan Gibbs, an Iowa no-tiller and the owner of Gibbsfield Ag, makes and sells vermicompost extract to improve the health of his no-till soils. The liquid product is applied to his corn fields and has allowed him to cut back on nitrogen. In today’s episode of the podcast, brought to you by SOURCE®️ by Sound Agriculture, Gibbs introduces his method of making vermicompost extract, its benefits and how he applies the product at field scale.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by Martin-Till, assistant editor Mackane Vogel sits down with Don Reicosky, retired USDA soil scientist, to talk about what truly defines conservation agriculture systems and what key pillars are necessary to be able to accurately describe a farm as one that is practicing conservation agriculture.

In today’s episode of the podcast, brought to you by SOURCE®️ by Sound Agriculture, we’re bringing you Calmer’s 2023 National No-Tillage Conference presentation about top tips for setting your combine for a stellar soybean harvest.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by Martin-Till, Frank Lessiter sits down with Penn State University soil scientist and agronomist Sjoerd Duiker to talk about what no-tillers should be doing to make their cropping systems even better.

North Carolina no-tiller Russell Hedrick made history with his 2022 corn harvest, raising a dryland no-till corn crop that topped 459 bushels per acre. His willingness to challenge conventional wisdom, try on-farm experiments and use regenerative agriculture practices all contribute to his success.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by Martin-Till, listen to No-Till Innovator Ray Archuleta’s presentation from the 2023 National No-Tillage Conference, a powerful talk that earned him a standing ovation from hundreds of no-tillers. In this session, Archuleta explores the true power of biologicals in the soil and discusseshow regenerative agriculture can become more widespread.

In today’s episode of the podcast, brought to you by SOURCE®️ by Sound Agriculture, contributing editor Dan Crummett talks with Michael Kaiser and Britt Fossum from the University of Nebraska Lincoln about biochar and the university’s biochar, which currently make up one of the largest in-field biochar studies in the U.S.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by Martin-Till, Editor Frank Lessiter hosts a panel discussion with six individuals who have attended every National No-Tillage Conference since it began in 1993: Allen Berry, Allan Brooks, R.D. Wolheter, Bryan Van Holten, Randall Reeder and the late Scott Davidson. Davidson passed away in April of 2021 but attended all 29 National No-Tillage Conferences held during his lifetime.

Join No-Till Farmer on a road trip across southern Wisconsin in this week’s episode of the podcast, brought to you by SOURCE®️ by Sound Agriculture. Michaela Paukner, managing editor at No-Till Farmer, and Jim Stute, a no-tiller and independent research agronomist, traveled from Stute’s East Troy, Wis., farm to a meeting in the southwestern part of Wisconsin near the border with Illinois. Ride along as they talk about herbicide-resistant weeds, Stute’s Wisconsin operation and research trials, the history of phosphorus use in agriculture, and more.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Martin-Till, editor Frank Lessiter sits down with Mitchell Hora, a 7th generation farmer from Washington County, Iowa, and current CEO and founder of Continuum Ag, a soil health data intelligence company.

In today’s episode of No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, Greg Butler, the long-time research and development manager for the South Australian No-Till Farmers Association, and David McGavin, farmer and founder of the Precision Seeding Solutions dealership, talk about how the more than 85% of farmers in the region manage to successfully no-till in dryland conditions.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Crop Vitality and Thio-Sul, editor Frank Lessiter sits down with Grant Troop, a no-tiller and a long-time soil health specialist and consultant in Oxford, Pa.

This episode of the podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, No-Till Farmer president Mike Lessiter talks with McCormick from the hospital just a few days after the accident about what happened, his memories of the late Dave Brandt, the deadly dust storm crash in Illinois in May and more.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Crop Vitality and Thio-Sul, editor Frank Lessiter sits down with Monte Bottens, a northwest Illinois no-tiller and the current CEO of Ag Solutions Network. Bottens talks about all things soil health and regenerative agriculture, including cover crops, ideal row widths, biologicals and his cattle operation.

No-Till Legend Dave Brandt of Carroll, Ohio, showed the farming community the tremendous value of cover crops and regenerative practices in improving soil health. Brandt passed away unexpectedly in late May of 2023, leaving behind a legacy of challenging status quo farming methods and providing mentorship to countless farmers. Today’s episode of the podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, features audio from a presentation Brandt gave at the National No-Tillage Conference, teaching no-tillers how to find success with interseeding cover crops.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Crop Vitality and Thio-Sul, listen back to a popular episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast from our archives featuring Ohio State University Extension ag engineer John Fulton.

In today’s episode of the podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, Ryan Schroeter with National Land Realty talks about 2023 farmland value trends and what needs to happen for no-till and other conservation practices to influence land valuation.

This episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Crop Vitality and Thio-Sul, is a departure from normal no-till history, but no less important. This episode details how a single no-tiller by the name of Percy Schmeiser fought an army of lawyers as agribusiness giant Monsanto accused the farmer of stealing its Roundup-Ready canola seed. Perhaps you’ve seen one of the movies on the subject, including the recent Percy vs. Goliath major motion picture that was released in 2020 and starred academy-award winner Christopher Walken.

Gregg Sauder has been at the forefront of no-till planter technology for decades — first as the founder of Precision Planting, which he later sold to Monsanto, and now as the founder of 360 Yield Center. In today’s episode of the podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, Gregg reviews the evolution of planter technology over his career and the important no-till planter lessons — and life lessons — he’s learned in the years since.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Crop Vitality and Thio-Sul, listen back to one of the most popular episodes of the No-Till Farmer podcast from our archives featuring no-till innovator Marion Calmer.

Federal and state incentive programs for cover cropping can be hard to find and difficult to navigate. That’s why Maria Teresa Tancredi and Michaela Lubbers, researchers at the University of Georgia, created an online cover crop incentive tool to organize information about the programs and make it easier for no-tillers to be rewarded for adopting cover crops.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Crop Vitality and Thio-Sul, North Dakota State University Extension soil specialist Dave Franzen shares his unconventional trajectory into the world of agriculture and why he thinks no-till is so critical for improving soil health.

In this episode of the podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, contributing editor Dan Crummett talks with Mike Tweedy and Danielle Watts of Pattern Ag about the company’s soil testing process, predictions for the 2023 growing season and what ROI the company’s testing can provide for no-tillers.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Source by Sound Agriculture, No-Till Legend and former Ohio State Extension ag engineer Randall Reeder talks about his secondary career portraying the old pop culture icon Will Rogers.

In this episode of the podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Jonathan Correa, owner of La Cosecha Tortilla Company in Madison, Wis., and No-Till Legend Dave Brandt from Carroll, Ohio, join Steinlage to talk about how they’ve built a mutually beneficial partnership that benefits the health of their communities in a variety of ways.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Source by Sound Agriculture, listen to part 2 of Howard G. Buffett’s presentation on feeding the world with no-till from a previous National No-Tillage Conference.

No-Till Farmer’s 2023 Conservation Ag Operator Fellow Loran Steinlage of West Union, Iowa, and No-Till Legend Dave Brandt from Carroll, Ohio, have been thinking beyond yield for decades — focusing on soil health, doing more with less, and lately, producing high nutrient density crops that could be used as medicine in the future.

Under the guidance of 2022 No-Till Innovator Dan Forgey, Cronin Farms in Gettysburg, S.D., vastly diversified its rotation to include nearly a dozen crops — all with the goal of improving soil health. Cronin Farms is a 10,000-acre operation with 640 irrigated acres and over 8,000 acres of native prairie along the Missouri River. In 1993, Forgey and the Cronins transitioned the farm to no-till and established a rotational grazing system for their 850 head cow/calf operation. In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, managing editor Michaela Paukner talks with Forgey about the 10,000-acre South Dakota operation he manages, why crop diversification is so important and why he has a passion for soil.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Source By Sound Agriculture, listen back to a presentation on feeding the world with no-till farming by Howard G. Buffett from the 2010 National No-Tillage Conference. A champion of no-till farming, Buffett manages a 1,500-acre family farm in central Illinois and operates a 400-acre farm in Nebraska. He also oversees multiple research farms in Arizona, Illinois and Nebraska totaling 9,500 acres.

In this episode of the podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, hear from Loran Steinlage and Rolan, his son, about the crisis that became a pivotal day in Loran’s career and the reason why connection and mentorship are so important to his operation.

Greenfield Robotics’ vision for the future of weed control is a fleet of 10 robots, weighing 350 pounds each, that use spinning blades to chop weeds growing among broadacre row crops. In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, contributing editor Dan Crummett talks with Clint Brauer, the CEO of Greenfield Robotics, about Greenfield’s weeder robots, how the company plans to expand the robots’ capabilities beyond weeding and why Brauer wants to take the chemicals out of no-tilling.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Source By Sound Agriculture, Frank Lessiter sits down with long-time southeastern Wisconsin no-tiller Bob Wildermuth and his wife, Anita.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Source By Sound Agriculture, Frank Lessiter sits down with Fall Line Capital Director of Agronomy and no-tiller in Manitoba, Canada, Scott Day about no-tilling in the extreme climate of Canada’s prairies and why choosing a diverse crop program has been so successful on his no-till farm.