As 2024 Strip-Till Innovator Chris Perkins visits with fellow strip-tiller Harold Crawford, who also works as a territory manager for Montag, a conversation about cover crops comes up. Crawford asks Perkins if he’s considered using cover crops on his Otwell, Ind., farm. Perkins isn’t currently using cover crops but explains why he hasn’t completely ruled out adding them to his arsenal in the future.

On top of running his family farm, 2024 Strip-Till Innovator Chris Perkins owns and operates Banded Ag, an ag research, consulting and custom application business that’s grown to over 10,000 custom spring strip-till acres in Indiana and Kentucky. A quarterback is only as good as his teammates, and Perkins gives most of the credit to his 6 full-time employees as he reflects on the impact they’ve made in the region since 2017.

2024 Strip-Till Innovator Chris Perkins takes us inside his Otwell, Ind., office. Perkins explains the significance of the vintage DeKalb bags hanging on his walls, and why each bag represents a key moment in his strip-till journey. Perkins also shares his 4 keys to growing a 300-bushel corn crop.

“We have markers, and we used them while we were having signal trouble," says John Holles of Springfield, Minn. "Row shutoffs didn’t work, but we didn’t have them 20 years ago either.”