Currently in West Texas, we are in one of the worst droughts since the 1930's and 1950's. We are now entering the third year of this drought. Recently, I did some research on the drought of the 1930's and 1950's. In my hometown of Plainview, Texas (average annual rainfall = 20.17 inches), our rainfall for 2011 and 2012 was 5.63 and 10.48 inches respectively. In comparison, the two lowest years of precipitation during the 1930's was 10.16 and 13.75 inches in 1933-1934 and for the 1950's was 11.29 and 10.39 inches in 1953-54.

Engineered to produce the bacterial toxin, Bt, "Bt corn" resists attack by corn rootworm, a pest that feeds on roots and can cause annual losses of up to $1 billion, but besides merely protecting against these losses, the Bt trait has also boosted corn yields, in some cases beyond normal expectations.

More growers are seeing major benefits by strip-tilling in the spring, citing cropping flexibility, slashed fertilizer costs, reduced winter erosion and the ability to deal with changing weather conditions.

When Jason Lay attended a conference last year with other Illinois farmers, he was amazed by the level of interest in strip-till, a system in which the crop is planted in a narrowly tilled strip and most crop residue is preserved to protect the soil from erosion.

Strip-tiller Sheldon Stevermer and his brother, Chuck, of Easton, Minn., are reporting success after debuting strip-till practices their Minnesota farm 8 years ago.

Roger Wenning of Greensburg, Ind., shares his strip-till strategy and explains the modifications he made to a dry planter to maximize it for strip-till.

No-Till Farmer meets with Environmental Tillage System CEO on his family farm in So Central MN to talk about Strip-Till benefits, ETS Soil Warrior, and why Strip-till is slow to catch on.

Old habits are hard to break. Most of us who advocate reduced-tillage practices have, at one time, been tillage addicts ourselves.