Until 2000, Tom Barcellos was a conventional farmer like all of his neighbors in Tulare County in south-central California.

In today’s Strip-Till Farmer podcast supported by The Andersons, we get some perspective from two strip-till experts, University of California-Davis researcher Jeff Mitchell and Tipton, Calif., strip-tiller Tom Barcellos, on the ongoing evolution of the practice in California and the Western U.S.

"Reduce the volume of soil disturbed.” That was the powerful and prophetic piece of advice that I received back in 2002 from Don Reicosky, the legendary USDA ARS soil scientist from Morris, Minn., when I dropped him off at the Sacramento, Calif., airport after we had hosted him in California to help us get started with reduced disturbance production techniques.