No-Till Farmer Podcast

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Verdesian Life Sciences, we take another look back at the early days of no-till in western Kentucky. However, this episode is different than most of the podcasts in this series as it features a former John Deere dealer and his memories of the rapid growth of no-till in the western Kentucky area.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by SOURCE by Sound Agriculture, we caught up with Steve Savage to chat with him about a couple of his recent articles. Stay tuned to hear him discuss the history of no-till farming, why the practice has been so important, and how it will play a role in the future of conservation. He’ll also share why he says using the term “synthetic nitrogen” is misleading, the inconvenient truth about the greenhouse gases associated with making compost, how small-scale, local Haber-Bosch nitrogen production could help reduce the reliance on foreign inputs and more.

This week’s edition of the No-Till Farmer: Influencers & Innovators podcast, we all thrill to no-till. Or maybe we’re all no-till tigers. Whatever you do, remember to farm ugly. These are a few of the slogans and gimmicks used by this week’s guest, Dick Foell during the early days of no-till farming in the early 1970s. Foell worked at Chevron to promote and develop a then little-known chemical by the name of paraquat, a herbicide that helped move no-tilling from a loose collection of bottom-line minded innovators to a national soil health movement.

For this installment of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by SOURCE by Sound Agriculture, we visited Dakota Lakes and chatted with Sam Ireland about his plans for the operation, including long-term crop rotation trials, experiments the farm is conducting on dealing with seed weevil pressure in sunflowers, innovations in livestock feeding, closing the loop on the energy cycle and more.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Verdesian Life Sciences, we're joined by Blake Brown, director of the AgResearch and Education Center at Milan. The center, one of ten in Tennesee, shares a significant anniversary in the annals of No-Till history.

Parker Cohn works on more than just golf courses. The young soil services entrepreneur and operator of Performance Resources Management is an example of a company offering bespoke — that is, customized to individual fields and operations — fertility recommendations for agricultural and horticultural operations in California. Parker’s customer base and operations are out on the coast, where water pressure on the agriculture sector is tightening amid persistently drier conditions. If you’re a grower in Illinois or Iowa, plane fare is part of what you’d pay for to get Parker’s professional opinion.

This week’s edition of the No-Till Farmer: Influencers & Innovators podcast discusses the intersection of no-till and technology in Saskatchewan, Canada. The need for autonomy arose in Saskatchewan because of the shortage of available labor, says Norbert Beaujot. Farms — like his 3,000-acre no-till mixed crop and testing operation — were getting larger, but labor remained scarce. He formed Dot Technologies Corp, featuring remote controlled power units with variable attachments for seeding, spraying, rolling, or moving grain carts.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Bio-Till Cover Crops, we followed up with the recently-retired manager of Dakota Lakes Research Farm, Dwayne Beck about his time at Dakota Lakes and how he came to develop some of his controversial beliefs.

This week’s edition of the No-Till Farmer: Influencers & Innovators podcast focuses on the early days of no-till in the keystone state. Joel Meyers is nearing retirement now, but for 20 years as the NRCS State Agronomist for Pennsylvania, he helped to advocate no-tillage for the gently rolling hills and steeper slopes in Northern Appalachia.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Bio-till Cover Crop Seed, Robert Paarlberg, associate at the sustainability science program at the Harvard Kennedy School, talks about the research that went into his book, his advice to commercial farmers and farm organizations about advocating for sustainability, what those groups need to do to combat the myths surrounding sustainable agriculture and more.

This week’s edition of the No-Till Farmer: Influencers & Innovators podcast is a continuation of the previous Influencers & Innovators podcast featuring NNTC presenter Dwayne Beck. Beck discusses the particulars of the discussion he started with the last episode: the particulars of crop rotation and using rotations to fight pests. Beck recently retired as the director of the Dakota Lakes Research Station in South Dakota.

Micronutrients and humates are critical to soil fertility and plant nutrition, but their effects aren’t widely understood. That’s where independent soil health specialist Jim Hoorman comes in.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, we’re revisiting a presentation by no-till stalwart presenter Dwayne Beck. If you don’t know, Beck headed up the Dakota Lakes Research Station, retiring in February. He’s been a repeat presenter at the National No-Till Conference. If you don’t know, you’ll soon learn. Beck is a straight talker and a captivating speaker. He’s also fond of the odd off-color joke.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Podcast, we’re headed to Cajun Country for a talk with fourth-generation farmer Justin Fusilier. Corn and soybean operations dominate most of our readership here at No-Till Farmer, according to our benchmark survey, but Justin stumbled onto something he thinks holds promise in Lousiana, where crops like rice and sugarcane are far more common.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, we’re heading underground. We’re going deep under the soil surface to concentrate on one of the major benefits of no-tilling when it comes to improving soil health. Today’s agenda is worms: Earthworms, red worms, nightcrawlers, and other kinds of worms and the impact the have on no-tilled soils.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Bio Till Cover Crop Seed, Aaron Locker, Vice President of sales for HELM Agro joins us to discuss what farmers can do if they can’t get the glyphosate supply they’re used to.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, editor Frank Lessiter talks with entomologist Dr. Jonathan Lundgren about his motivations for making this move and how he hopes to remove barriers to the adoption of regenerative agriculture.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, fifth-generation Arkansas farmer Adam Chappell, joins us to talk about how he got into no-till, what methods he employs, what he sees for the future, and more.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers Innovators Podcast, brought to you by NewLeaf Symbiotics, we dug through our archives to find the speech Frank Lessiter presented during his 1973 testimonial before the House Agriculture Committee on the important role no-tillage was playing in American agriculture.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Himanshu Gupta, CEO and founder of Climate Ai, joins us to talk about how his company measures heat risk and drought risk and turns those into what he calls the planting risk index, a metric that can help growers make better operational decisions for their farms.

"Where I grew up, we have real narrow roads, and if you’re going to have wider than 60 foot and 80-foot equipment, they’re going to have to change the infrastructure, not only just because of width but also because of the loads on the roads and and bridges and things like that. I think autonomous vehicles will come into their own.” Keith Wendte In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators Podcast, brought to you by NewLeaf Symbiotics, Frank Lessiter talks with farmer, data guru and long-time CNH engineer Keith Wendte. During his tenure (the company was known as International Harvester when he started), Wendte worked to design implements for no-till farming and had designed a spring-based down-pressure adjustment system before electronics innovations beat his system to the market. Wendte is retired from the implement design industry, but still works actively at the family farm near Effingham, Ill. He’s bullish on wheat prices this year, and encourages the use of wheat as a cover crop. In this week’s podcast, Gruver and Wendte talk about the roots in the family farm, his work at CNH, alternatives to ever-increasing tractor size, and more.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, Contributing Editor Dan Crummett speaks with plant biologist Lee DeHaan of The Land Institute where the breeding of Kernza and other perennial crops has been underway since 2003. Listen in as Dan and Lee discuss the characteristics of Kernza, how to grow it, the potential of the developing markets and more.

In this week’s podcast, Gruver and Lessiter talk about the prospects for biological farming supplements, the perils and opportunities that arise from combining no-till and organic methods, hands-on learning at WIU, and more.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Yetter Farm Equipment, we talk with Russell Hedrick and Liz Haney of Soil Regen, the consulting company behind a trio of new labels — “Regeneratively Grown” “Regenerative Certified” and “Regenerative Verified.” Join us to hear what’s behind the new labelling and how farmers who qualify to use them can get paid premiums for the products they grow.

Today’s episode of the No-Till Innovators and Influencers is a rebroadcast of a 2020 conversation agronomist Betsy Bower had with No-Till Farmer’s Executive Editor Julia Gerlach. In it, Bower discusses leveraging technology to improve yields, the potential for biological farming improvements, cover crops, and more.

Jimmy Emmons and Loran Steinlage have built dynamic, profitable no-till operations, but the challenges they face are very different. Jimmy no-tills cash crops and raises livestock in hot, dry western Oklahoma, while Loran uses a variety of creative planting systems to no-till several different crops in a veritable stew of soil types in eastern Iowa. For this No-Till Farmer podcast, sponsored by Yetter Farm Equipment, Jimmy and Loran were joined by moderator Rick Clark at the 2022 National No-Tillage Conference in Louisville, Ky., to share the management tactics they’ve relied on to achieve no-till success in such differing climates, including how they’ve incorporated cover crops, managed water infiltration issues and how they’re preparing their operations for the future.

Adapting No-Till In the Palouse With Russ Zenner by No-Till Farmer

Barry Fisher, Soil Health, and the Future of Carbon by No-Till Farmer

Back in 2019, Frank and Mike Lessiter sat down to discuss 25 legends of the no-till movement who are still alive today. This episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Terrasym, we revisit that conversation in celebration of these three anniversaries and the ongoing no-till movement.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, associate editor Sarah Hill caught up with John Wallace, Penn State University assistant professor of weed science, to discuss his thoughts on how best to get covers established in row crops. He explains how available equipment, herbicide programs and fertility management affect interseeding decisions.

In September of 2021, No-Till Farmer commissioned a project to determine the most significant research and publications that assisted in the understanding, and adoption, of no-till agriculture. Randall Reeder, retired ag engineer from Ohio State University and Don Reicosky, retired USDA soil scientist, collaborated on a detailed process to complete the large and aggressive project in advance of three important no-till milestones in 2022.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with Mitchell Hora on the sidelines of the Big Soil Health Event in Riverside, Iowa and spoke with him about, getting named to the list, the potential for regenerative agriculture, his company’s web-based application TopSoil, and more.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, Frank Lessiter talks with Paul Schaffert, founder of Schaffert Manufacturing Company in Indianola, Neb. about his early successes in no-till, how innovation continues, how he transitioned from farming to manufacturing, and more.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with No-tiller Rick Clark to hear about many of the ways his operation and mindset have had to change in order to succeed with the transition. He explains his 70/30 theory on weed suppression, how learning to crimp cereal rye was a lightbulb moment that really pushed his practices forward, and how he came to appreciate beneficial predator insects. He also discusses how a personal health issue has helped him develop his thinking on the intersection of soil health and human health.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Terrasym, Frank Lessiter talks with Lloyd Murdock, professor emeritus at the University of Kentucky about his early lessons from no-till, how soil changes over the decades after tillage stops, an experiment that took years to take off, and more.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with Hickory, North Carolina, no-tiller Russell Hedrick to hear about his latest venture, a mobile grain milling operation he launched alongside partners Liz Haney and Sarah Varble called Regen Mills. Join in to hear how the trio sees this as a way to return more profit to farmers, how this new approach to grain milling supports that goal, the requirements and expectations they have for farmers signing on to the program, likely financial returns a farmer could expect to see and more.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, Frank Lessiter talks with Dick Wittman, a no-tiller in Lapwai, Idaho, about his transition to no-till, his resource management mindset and how Wittman is positioning the next generation of farmers in his family for success.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with Paul Mikesell, founder and CEO of Carbon Robotics, a new company that is tackling weed control with a combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and lasers. This past year, in 2021, the company released its first production units of a machine called the LaserWeeder, which has the potential to eliminate the need for herbicides or tillage for weed control. Join in to hear about how the LaserWeeder can distinguish between crops and weeds, how it effectively kills weeds without chemicals, why grasses are more challenging to eliminate than broadleaf weeds, when the technology might be rolled out to row crop farmers and more.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Martin Industries, we’re sitting in on a presentation by Ray Weil, Soil Scientist at the University of Maryland to discuss his research. He explains how cover crops influence nutrient profiles, optimal planting dates for cover crops and how well different kinds of cover crops can penetrate dense, compacted soils.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, Tim Brannon, former Allis-Chalmers territory manager and current president of B&G Equipment, Paris, Tenn., talks with Frank Lessiter about the early days of Allis-Chalmers and shares some memorable stories from the road as he introduced no-till planters to growers around the world.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with Anthony Bly, Soils Field Specialist with South Dakota State University Extension, who was a presenter at the event. In an interview with associate editor Sarah Hill, Anthony discusses the interconnected relationship between water and soil, how cover crops fit into profitable cropping systems, the importance of minimal soil disturbance and more.

Listen to no-tiller & philanthropist Howard G. Buffet's keynote presentation at the 2010 National No-Tillage Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. At the time of his presentation, Buffett (son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett) had been no-tilling since 1992 on 16,000 acres in Illinois and Nebraska as well as another 6,000-plus acres in South Africa.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Terrasym, Frank Lessiter gets into the weeds with Kelly VanBeek, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Migratory Bird Program to discuss which no-till fields provide the best habitats for songbirds, what cover crops are most hospitable to birds and finding a balance between productivity and conservation on farmland.

For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with Tom Cotter, a no-tiller and strip-tiller in Austin, Minnesota, right after a Minnesota Soil Health School session he hosted at his farm. He explains how he has skirted many of the problems facing hemp farmers by following the farm-to-table production model to grow the product for his own Superior Cannabis Company stores in Austin and Duluth.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Martin Industries, Frank Lessiter talks with Betsy Bower, an agronomist for Ceres Solutions in Lafayette, Ind., about the task force and some of the hottest areas in no-till farming – from carbon sequestration to biologicals and more.

Carbon market programs are a hot topic amongst farmers today, as they represent a potential new revenue stream for growers who implement conservation practices such as no-till, strip-till and cover crops. But every program is a little different in how they approach qualifying acres, establishing baseline measurements, practice verification, farmer compensation and more. For this No-Till Farmer podcast, we caught up with representatives from three companies who were talking with farmers about their carbon programs at the 2021 Farm Progress Show. We spoke with Ben Gordon, carbon and ecosystems global portfolio leader with Corteva; Lisa Streck, grower carbon lead with Bayer Carbon; and Cristian Barcan, sustainability officer with Rabo Carbon Bank. Listen in to hear about how these three companies are navigating the complexities of the carbon offsets market and bringing this new offering to U.S. farmers.

For this episode of the No-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by The Andersons, we caught up with Lance Gunderson, president and co-owner of the recently launched Regen Ag Lab in Pleasanton, Nebraska to talk about some of the new soil tests, how they differ from conventional tests and why it matters.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, Frank Lessiter talks with Director of Agronomy at Fall Line Capital and no-tiller in Manitoba, Canada, Scott Day about no-tilling in the harsh climate of Canada’s prairies and how diverse crop choices have become a legacy of no-till on his farm.

Finding ways to improve farm profits without taking on more acres is one of Zack Smith’s goals. In fact, the Buffalo Center, Iowa, strip-tiller has a name for it – biohacks. With his mindset of finding natural, vegetative solutions for farm problems, he recently started developing a unique autonomous structure he calls the Stock Cropper that integrates strip-cropping with mobile grazing.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, Frank Lessiter talks with Amy Bartow about the NRCS’ recent initiatives to promote the establishment of pollinator plots and strips. Tune in as they discuss native vs. non-native pollinator mixes, the importance of diversity in the mix, the pollination value of cover crops, how no-tillers can make extra income with pollinator habitat, how weed management fits into the equation and much more.