The long road to organic no-till

Reduced-tillage or no-tillage cropping systems--using herbicides to kill the previous field cover--have been gaining adherents among conventional farmers for more than a decade. It used to be assumed that organic no-till was an impossibility, but recently a few farmers and researchers have been challenging that idea, using mechanical methods instead of chemicals.

After experimenting with existing equipment, The Rodale Institute's Farm Manager Jeff Moyer and neighbor John Brubaker designed and built their own implement for the job. Here's how it works...