I'm somewhat hesitant to post on the hot and heavy no-till debate occurring on here in recent days, but, I thought I'd give a little bit of a different perspective on this whole thing.  Let me start by explaining for those who don't know me on here that I AM NOT A FARMER.  I've worked for the Adams County Conservation District for almost 20 years.  Yes, one of those dang govt. guys some are really worried about in regards to this!  AND, I do NOT come from a farm background.  I think sometimes that helps to be an outsider.  Anyway, do you all remember that margarine commercial where the lady said "It's not nice to fool mother nature!"?  I challenge you all to think about that when it comes to farming.  By its very nature, farming is NOT natural.  In a natural setting monocultures don't exist.  Forest here on the east contain a whole host of different tree species, shrubs, grasses and broadleafs.  I have no experience with the prairie meadows, but, it appears from pictures I see that these contain a multitude of different grasses and broadleafs not just one species.  A hundred acres field of pure corn or soybeans just wouldn't exist without man's manipulation.  So what does this have to do with the no-till debate?  I challenge you not to get caught up in the whole concept of what is or what isn't no-till.  Rather I challenge you to look at how you farm and see how you can or do "mimic nature".  The real goal behind no-till is to severely limit the amount of un-natural earth moving one does in order to plant their crop: to "mess with" mother nature as little as possible.  Think about how much "messing" you do with the natural state of things in your respective area and how much you can limit that.  I know nothing about the northern corn belt where Paul the Original farms, but, here is what I do know.  Paul, you are trying to plant warm season grasses (ie. corn) and warm season broadleafs (ie. soybeans) in Mn at the end of April.  Admittedly, not something that would occur naturally.  You are already severely pissing mother nature off!!  And you admittedly said that you are doing way less tillage than your father did.  You figured out some ways to reduce your "messing" with mother nature.  And, I suspect you are rewarded with lower costs and at least similar yields as your father (hopefully higher!).  Maybe your next generation will figure out ways to make it even better.  Maybe 75 day corn hybrids will come out that will allow you to wait for a more natural time to plant warm season grass in Southern Mn without a yield loss??  Consider this same concept with cover crops.  Here small grain comes off in July, if the field wasn't double cropped to soybeans, it would sit fallow until the NEXT spring.  Clearly our climate and rainfall support a longer growing season than July.  It is not natural for land to sit with nothing growing for such a long period of time.  Thus the idea of planting a cover crop, putting something out there that grows throughout the rest of the growing season and ideally into the following spring until corn is planted again.  That idea has gone even one step further and we are trying to plant a variety of species with our cover crops to more closely mimic a natural diversity.  We are seeing that if we don't mess with mother nature we are rewarded with healthier crops.  I know this is getting too long, but, I want to finish by pointing out how this can all come together so that everyone wins.  The more closely you can farm in a way that doesn't fool with mother nature, the better your crops will be, the more profit you will make and the more healthy our environment will be.

Have a good evening all.  I have a beer and the football calling me!

Brian