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.

Since he's started strip-tilling in southwest Nebraska, Jon Holzfaster has learned it not only saves fuel and time, but also wear and tear on machinery.