The practice of using cover crops still has plenty of room for growth, according to the results of the August Purdue Ag Economy Barometer. Forty-one percent of growers with production of more than $500,000 annually said they are currently using cover crops, while 65% of growers responded that they had either used cover crops in the past or were currently using covers.

West Brooklyn, Ill., strip-tiller Dave Delhotal discusses some of the primary benefits they've seen since moving to strip-till, to include improved soil health, fuel and labor savings and targeted fertility, which saved the operation about $80,000 in 2014.

When Nick Viney partnered with Josh Trautman to form Badgerland Grain Farms LLC in 2006, they started with just 155 acres in south-central Wisconsin. But during the last 7 years, they've grown their Evansville, Wis.-based operation to more than 1,800 acres, an even split of strip-till corn and no-till soybeans, with about 180 acres of no-till wheat.