More no-tillers are air-seeding soybeans, planting corn with larger planters  and adopting precision technology after investing in new equipment in 2024, according to the 2025 No-Till Farmer Benchmark Report. 

In studying the planting trends for 2025, one change that stood out was the number of no-tillers planting with larger planters. No-tillers with 16-row corn planters are up 3.9 percentage points to 31.2%, and those with 24 rows grew 6.7 points to 18.2%. Meanwhile, those planting with 12-row planters fell from 28.4% to 23.7%. 

This change might be due to last year looking to be the year of investing in farm equipment, as the percent of no-tillers intending to buy was up for almost every category in 2024. 

As expected, this year those numbers are down, with the exception of those who will buy air seeders (9.2% this year vs. 5.8% in 2024) and roller crimpers (11.3% vs. 5.8%). This year drones were included as an equipment category, and 14% of respondents said they plan to buy one. 

Those drops are reflected in their budget estimates. Last year, no-tillers anticipated spending an average of $47,000 on farm equipment purchases, but this year it’s roughly $18,000 less, at about $29,000. Interestingly, they estimate that they actually spent almost $64,000 on equipment in 2024 — $17,000 more than predicted — but still roughly $2,100 less than their estimated spend in 2023.

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