I started farming in Southwestern North Dakota in 1965. At that time, the cropping system was on half black fallow and one half' cereals, primarily spring wheat, some barley and oats. I used commercial fertilizer and broadleaf herbicide to grow profitable crops. I experienced erosion but I felt that it was tolerable.

In 1980, 1 experienced a major drought. The summer was very hot and without rain. One half of my farm was in black fallow and the half that was seeded to cereals did not grow. Every acre was exposed to the elements during the winter of 1980-1981. The spring of 1981 was very windy and major erosion resulted. I. lost several inches of to soil --- fences, ditches and shelterbelts were full of soil. It became apparent that our farming practices must change if we were to be productive in the future.

I believed that the solution was to take tillage out of my operation. I planted my first zero till crop in 1982, and did my last tillage in 1984. The black fallow was replaced with chemical fallow. It soon became obvious that just taking tillage out of the operation was not the solution to my erosion problems. The chemical fallow nearly eliminated the wind erosion but water erosion was greater in the chemical fallow, particularly in the spring following the fallow year. During that second winter, the root system had decomposed but the stubble was still standing, collecting snow. A rapid snowmelt in the spring, given the decomposed root system, resulted in major erosion.

In 1990, I decided to eliminate fallow. I felt that it was necessary to introduce diverse crops into a cropping system. I began to seed every acre to something every year, utilizing broadleafs and grasses, warm season and cool season crops. Over the long term, crop rotation is the oldest and most effective crop production practice to control weeds, insects, diseases, and to manage soil fertility. I think that it is in our best interest to use purchased inputs, along with a good understanding of rotations, in our production systems.

I would like to pay tribute to one of the first advisors of the Manitoba-North Dakota Zero Tillage Farmer's Association. Ernie French was the superintendent of the Research Station in Williston, North Dakota, from 1960 through 1992. Ernie's dedication to the concept of Zero Tillage gave us some of the first quality research data.

I have been honored to be a member of the Capital Campaign Committee which raised money to build an informational transfer facility at the Williston Research Center as a tribute to Ernie. The facility will be named the Ernie French Center and will be completed this summer. The facility will house a 200 seat classroom and a conference center, a 30 seat technology transfer classroom and a library. The facility will serve three nearby research facilities -- The Williston Research Center, The Eastern Montana Agricultural Research Center in Sidney, and the USDA Agricultural Research Service Facility in Sidney.