The St. Croix farm at Kenmare, North Dakota, is 75 miles northwest of Minot. We are in the transition area between the wetter east and the drier west. We have been 100% no-till for eight years.

My ideas on production efficiency are not always the cheapest. Many beginning no-tillers end up with a severe quack grass, Canada thistle, or other weed and disease problems. A strong management program is needed. I find it cheaper and more efficient to control seedling Canada thistle or quack grass in the fall. Spring in crop treatment is expensive and generally results in suppression instead of control. Clean fields allow flexible rotations.

We try to minimize fall harrowing with a good straw chopper. Good chopping with new hammers each year will generally eliminate the need to harrow.

I like a flexible rotation. With clean fields, I can change rotations depending on price and disease problems. My normal rotation is durum, barley, durum and broadleaf in a 4 year cycle.

We have used a 48 foot Concord air seeder for 8 years. I like the flexibility of the Concord including sweeps, narrow openers or no-till openers. Since we switched to coulters for anhydrous we can use any opener as needed. Early season we use sweeps with no burn down chemical. On oil seeds we use a 4 inch opener.

In 1994, my son wanted to try anhydrous coulters. We were using D-J Tubes to apply anhydrous. We tried two Yetter coulters with anhydrous knives for three years. They needed frequent adjustment and worked poor in damp conditions. In 1997 we designed our own knife on a Yetter coulter. It is a back swept farmland knife mounted behind the coulter. The knife works great. It seals good, very little wear, and no adjustment needed.

The coulters are between every other row-24 inches apart-mounted on the front two ranks of the Concord. They are set three inches deeper than the seed and six inches from the center of the seed row.

Now we can quickly change openers with no affect on the anhydrous equipment.

Ron St. Croix grew up on a farm near Kenmare, ND. After graduating from NDSU, he worked as an engineer with Allis Chalmers for two years and started farming in 1969. Ron and his wife Rita have two children. Daughter, Renee, works with Farm Credit. Son, David, farms with Ron. Ron has 14 years of no-till experience with 8 years at 100% no-till.