Martha Mintz

Jan 21, 2025 | no-tillfarmer.com | Martha Mintz

STAYING COMMITTED. The Dotterers brought some of the first no-till planters to the area through their Allis Chalmers dealership. This Deutz-Allis 385 wasn't the first, but it was one of Paul's favorites. Equipment may change, but the family remains committed to no-till. Dotterer Family No-till got off to a rocky start in our region of central Pennsylvania. We all had rocks in our fields and were tired of digging them up with tillage and picking them.

Dec 20, 2024 | no-tillfarmer.com | Martha Mintz

| Posted in Seeding & Planting, Equipment, Precision Agriculture The phrase ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ is true from farm to farm – and it’s also a truth we face within our own farm. Our fields deliver a wide spectrum of conditions, making gathering, analyzing and using all types of farm data crucial for our long-term farm success. Monroe County is well known for its diverse farming conditions. In our fields you’ll find sandy river bottoms, gumbo clay hills and everything in between.

Oct 29, 2024 | no-tillfarmer.com | Martha Mintz

Tillage is out and grazing is in as the preferred management strategy for our family’s dryland cotton and winter wheat fields. The shift was gradual, but the soil health and bottom-line benefits have grown steadily. The security of our farm today has improved greatly as we’ve adopted no-till and other regenerative management strategies. So, too, have the chances my wife Emily and my children will have the opportunity to go on to be the 6th generation of both our families to farm and ranch in Texas.

Oct 8, 2024 | no-tillfarmer.com | Martha Mintz

I wish I had the authority to change the common description of how I farm from “ridge-till” to “ridge-planting.” I do very little tillage — once every three years I toss soil and residue from the valleys to the ridge tops using a ridging wing — but I’m planting all the time. The name could use an update. The process has transformed significantly between now and when the term was coined – and when I first tried a ridge-based farming system – back in 1984.

Sep 4, 2024 | no-tillfarmer.com | Martha Mintz

Could no-till work in Alaska? When I asked researchers and other attendees at a no-till event in Spokane, Wash., nobody knew for sure. I hoped it would. I was short on labor and needed to significantly cut the number of tractor drivers required for planting season. Long story short, it does work! It wasn’t the first — or the last — farming challenge my family has faced since we started farming in Delta Junction, Alaska, in the early 1980s.  Almost everything about farming in Alaska is a challenge.