Spring has arrived and there’s plenty to be excited about as always: Opening Day (go Guardians), March Madness (sadly, none of my teams made the tournament), planting season (I can’t wait to visit some of your farms this spring) and the release of the 12^th annual National Strip-Tillage Conference program, which you can download at StripTillConference.com.  

To stick with the baseball theme, it takes a well-rounded lineup to win the World Series, and that’s what we’ve got with the 12^th annual National Strip-Tillage Conference, July 31-Aug. 1 in Iowa City.

This year, we focused on putting together a fun, informative program that covers all the bases — from nutrient management and equipment to soil health and cover crops — with as many “fresh” voices as possible to help you knock it out of the park with strip-till. 18 of the 19 speakers on the program didn’t present at last year’s conference and 14 have never presented at the conference before.  

The program features conservation ag heavy hitters like USDA Hall of Famer Jerry Hatfield, and biological farming legend Gary Zimmer, veteran strip-tillers like Moundridge, Kan., 2025 Innovator Ray Flickner, and 7-time NCGA champion Rick Cook from Lingle, Wyo., as well as up-and-comers like first-generation strip-tiller James Hepp, stock cropping mastermind Zack Smith and many more All-Stars.

There will also be a cavalcade of researchers — Univ. of Wisconsin’s Daniel H. Smith, Oklahoma State Univ.’s Dr. Brian Arnall and Univ. of Illinois’ Jared Fender — bringing new data to the table that could reshape the way we think about herbicide-resistant weeds, biologicals, root architecture and strip-till fertility.

The “a-ha” moments that happen in the hallways, between sessions, are also worth the price of admission. Just ask Ryan and Melissa Shaw, who needed some help switching to strip-till in Marlette, Mich., in 2014. There was a sizable learning curve after a lifetime of conventional farming, and there weren’t many strip-tillers in their neck of the woods they could turn to for advice.

“We started going to the National Strip-Tillage Conference and couldn’t believe all the answers we could get at one event,” Melissa says.

“We picked up a lot of information at the conference from like-minded people who think that just because something’s different doesn’t mean it’s wrong,” Ryan says. “We keep coming back to try to get a little bit better every year.”

The Shaws received the Strip-Till Innovator Award almost a decade later in 2023. They’re among the many familiar faces I enjoy seeing every summer at the conference.

Send me an email — Nnewman@LessiterMedia.com — if you have any questions about the conference or topics you’d like to see highlighted during the sessions. I hope to see you July 31 in Iowa City. Until then, good luck this planting season and thanks for reading!