This is an interesting discussion and I believe the individual responses, even though several say the exact opposite.

The problem with all "No Till" vs "Conventional Till" discussions is that they never get into the nitty gritty details.

I know a dairy farmer who wanted to "no till" some corn. He bought an old worn JD 7000 planter, outfitted it the way they said at some meeting, and "no tilled" 40 acres of corn into killed mixed alfalfa hay ground a couple years ago  The stand was terrible. It is right on a travelled corner.  He is back to plow disc and harrow in the spring ahead of the planter. Using an old 7000 the way he tried it may in fact work no tilling corn into bean stubble in some other soils and residue and climate but it was clearly not the way to do it here.

I know of a couple other farmers, including the retired dairy farmer with the 6-row Kinze that I posted some follow up pictures about last night, who decided to no till over the past few years on similar soils and conditions to the 7000 fellow. These folks invested in new planters and equipped them in what I feel is a better way for our particular WI clay hills conditions.  They have been more successful each year as they learned and their soils changed.

So there are examples within a few miles of each other of producers that swear no till "doesn't work" and producers who swear no till is making them more money, reducing soil erosion, etc than their previous methods.

Now I am NOT saying no till in any form will work everywhere.  In fact I will be the first to agree that corn planted in much of MN and north and west needs some "black soil". But there are other ways to do that then moldboard plowing bean stubble as seems to be an addiction in some areas of MN...

So the discussion here is interesting but next to useless as a comparison of no till and conventional unless you get into details. A lot of details.

Keep in mind the original question was asked by someone in Louisiana where the ground never freezes and has 1% OM and is being answered by folks from Iowa, Canada, Ohio,....

Success or failure of "No-Till", as in many other things, is in the details.

jmho and experience.

Jim at Dawn