Ben McClure was a recent ag economics graduate from Kansas State University when he went to work for Kramer Seed Farms in southwestern Kansas near Hugoton in 2003. His arrival came just as the multigenerational family farm was about to embark on a series of changes that has radically altered its farming operation, and significantly boosted its financial well-being.

Mark Ricker switched from no-till to strip-till in 1995 and in the ensuing 22 years he has continually improved his yields, while at the same time, cut his fertilizer purchases by 40%.

A veteran farm manager and crop production specialist sees strip-till as the pathway to financial sustainability for a 3,000-acre Pennsylvania farming operation.

San Joaquin Valley dairy ditches the dikes to water and plant on flat fields, using strip-till to cut labor and fuel costs in half and achieve better timing on planting and pest control.

Dutch Road Dairy manager Micah Troyer uses a strip-till strategy to save moisture and fuel and consistently build his fields’ organic matter content.

It’s said “necessity is the mother of invention” and that “adversity can be a blessing in disguise.” The extreme drought across the Southern Plains in 2011 and 2012 provided a lot of “necessity and adversity” and Bill Weems says he’s one of a number of farmers in the middle of the Texas Panhandle who are better off for the experience.

Harold Grall already had extensive experience growing corn and grain sorghum in the Texas Panhandle when he bought out his mentor, Dale Coleman, and started farming on his own in 1994. At that time, he was farming 3,700 acres of High Plains silt-clay loam just north of Dumas, Texas, and was committed to ridge-till and furrow irrigation.