The growing push to adopt conservation tillage practice to help improve overall soil health appears to be giving some traction to the use of strip-tillage practices. According to the results of the 3rd Strip-Till Operational Benchmark Study, average acres planted to strip-till increased to 1,139 acres in 2015 compared to 948 acres in 2014 and 877 acres in 2013.

While the use of cover crops is not new, interest in the benefits they can produce is growing. U.S. farmers are on track to plant cover crops in their normal rotations to the tune of more than 20 million acres by 2020. The interest in keeping something growing on fields year round is rooted in farmers’ search for increased yields, better management of natural rainfall, reduced soil erosion, boosting soil organic matter and better overall “soil health.”