Frank Lessiter

Frank Comments

More Cover Crops, More Profit

By Frank Lessiter posted on February 11, 2017 | Posted in Soil Health, Economics

AFTER 4 DAYS of intensive interest in no-till and cover crops at the mid-January 25th anniversary National No-Tillage Conference, it was encouraging to recognize interest in cover crops continues to grow.

Frank Comments: Soil Microbes Flourish in No-Till

By Frank Lessiter posted on December 17, 2016 | Posted in Soil Health

No-tillers recognize the fact that the millions of microbes living underground in their fields are continually improving soil quality by cycling nutrients and turning residues into organic matter.

Clogged Tile Lines Caused by Over-Grown Cover Crop Roots Might be Creating Major Drainage Concerns in Some No-Tilled Corn Belt Fields

By Frank Lessiter posted on October 29, 2016 | Posted in Soil Health

While one of the numerous benefits of seeding cover crops is helping solve drainage concerns, a few no-tillers say it has actually created more drainage worries. The concern is that cover crop roots were blocking tile lines.

Franks Comments: No-Tillers are Covering Up

By Frank Lessiter posted on September 21, 2015

The way some government agencies and ag groups are promoting cover crops these days, you’d think it was a brand new cropping practice. But while cover crops are a hot topic, it’s not because of any major research breakthroughs or being new on the ag scene. Instead, cover crops are offering a soil health message that’s starting to catch on with many folks both in and out of agriculture — a benefit that no-tillers have seen for many years.

‘Spray and Wait’ Is Critical to Tackling Green Bridge Pathogens

While green bridge is a major disease worry in the Pacific Northwest, it’s a problem Midwestern no-tillers should be leery of with certain crop rotations and cover crops.

By Frank Lessiter posted on August 1, 2014 | Posted in Soil Health

Some plant pathologists maintain green bridge is not likely to be a disease concern with the traditional Midwestern corn-and-soybean rotation. But with the expanding growth of cover crops and adoption of other crop rotations, it’s a possible disease worry for Corn Belt no-tillers.

What I've Learned From No-Tilling: Cover Crop ‘Epiphany’ Helps No-Till Take Another Step

A trip to North Dakota a few years ago sparked a new revolution for Curtis Furr’s decades-old no-till system.

By Frank Lessiter posted on November 1, 2012

My father and grandfather started experimenting with no-till in the late 1960s with the primary goal of stopping erosion. The steep hills we farm would simply wash away when you worked them up.