Mark Bauer, strip-tiller in Faribault, Minn., talks about building confidence in strip-till with a two-pass system methodology and how it's allowed him to expand his operation to include grid sampling and potential cover crops.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service's Conservation Stewardship Program will provide about $175 million in funding for up to 12.6 million additional acres enrollment this year. Although applications are accepted all year, farmers, ranchers and forestland owners interested in CSP should submit applications by June 14 to their local NRCS office to ensure they are considered for this year's funding. The deadline was extended from May 31.

Currently in West Texas, we are in one of the worst droughts since the 1930's and 1950's. We are now entering the third year of this drought. Recently, I did some research on the drought of the 1930's and 1950's. In my hometown of Plainview, Texas (average annual rainfall = 20.17 inches), our rainfall for 2011 and 2012 was 5.63 and 10.48 inches respectively. In comparison, the two lowest years of precipitation during the 1930's was 10.16 and 13.75 inches in 1933-1934 and for the 1950's was 11.29 and 10.39 inches in 1953-54.

Using a strip tillage system in combination with cover crops benefits vegetable farmers as well as the land, according to long-term research by Dan Brainard, a Michigan State University (MSU) horticulture researcher.

After hearing detailed questions from farmers about fall strip-till during the recent Big Iron Farm Show, Thurston Mfg. Co. chief marketing officer Nick Jensen and Bob Saunders, a territory sales manager for Asgrow and De Kalb, decided to hold several meetings and strip-till demonstrations in the area last October.

in MSU strip-tilled sweet corn trials, plots with rye residue on the soil surface had approximately 5 percent greater water content in the top 10 inches then plots without rye mulch.

Just 3 years after graduating from Cornell University, 24-year-old farmer Joe Brightly of Hamlin, N.Y., loves the benefits of switching to strip-till and complementing it with cover crops.

Strip-tillers throughout the U.S. and Canada continue to try different combinations of cover crops, creating a "bio strip-till" system where the roots of annual ryegrass, clover, radish and other crops complement mechanical tillage.

More and more farmers in California are using strip-till according to surveys by the state�s Conservation Tillage and Cropping Systems Workgroup.