EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece by Mike Lessiter was the introduction for his father's new book, FRANKLY SPEAKING. Frank Lessiter has covered no-tillage for more than 50 years and the new book features his "best of the best" columns over a half-century, assembled for the first-time in this just-released book. During Frank's time promoting and educating farmers on the merits of the no-till practice, no-till acreage in the U.S. increased 34-fold to 110 million acres.
It’s a pleasure to introduce you to my dad, Frank Lessiter, and what I would call the 5th child in our family, his No-Till Farmer (NTF) publication. I was 3 years old when Dad put out the first edition, and I can’t recall a time when NTF wasn’t a part of the family. It may have been the most rebellious of Mom and Dad’s “children,” but endeared to our family nonetheless.
I also remember our family’s move to Wisconsin for Dad to pursue the launch of NTF in the fall of 1972. Only later was I told how some folks thought he was crazy to risk his reputation and good name as an ag writer by attaching his fate to the crazy no-till practice. Heck, even Grandpa called him up from our Michigan centennial farm to tell him he was nuts to leave a good-paying job in Chicago at age 34 with 3 young kids and another soon on the way.
Like the no-tillers he wrote for, Dad too had to persevere and persist through numerous ups and downs, and almost lost his business in the 1980s. Like so many of you and your fathers, there was no other choice but to work the problems to death, watch every penny, put your faith in God and family, and hope to survive.
And he, and no-till, not only survived, but thrived.
True, he lost half of his business due to the ag recession of the 1980s, but the subscription checks from loyal farmers like you helped him regain his footing and rebuild his business. First, with another acquisition and then the National No-Tillage Conference (NNTC) in 1993. And in my time, the acquisition of three farm equipment titles and numerous launches in other conservation ag practices — all modeled after his content-first approach — set us apart from every other ag publisher.
When Dad (who has done farm interviews in all 50 states and myriad countries) answers questions about his longevity, he likes to joke that most other ag journalists move up and on, but he’s stayed in the same role as Editor of NTF since 1972. Jokes aside, that is part of his unique gift. Having stayed in a niche he believed in brought a unique 50-plus year career and an otherwise unattainable perspective. I’m confident he will set a record before his work on Earth is finished.
The idea for this book was born years ago, when I asked longtime staffer Bree Greenawalt if her son, Gauge, could come in on his Christmas break from elementary school to photocopy every “Frankly Speaking” column Dad had ever written. The hundreds of pages were typeset and put into a newly assembled collection that you’re now seeing for the first time. It’s an impressive body of work, totally unedited and in the same tone and style in which Frank “called his shots.” You’ll see his rants, rights and wrongs, his rattling of the cages, triumphs, tribulations and “I told you so’s.”
What you’re going to read shows the frustrations, the successes and the optimism of he and those who believed in a practice that was scoffed at by pretty much everyone in traditional ag in the early 1970s.
The NNTC he started — long before other media companies entered the event business — gave another platform for farmer-to-farmer sharing, a model that stood the test of time. It also elevated the practice on a national scale and solidified for the doubters that no-till was not a movement that would quietly go away. He also got to know, on a very personal basis, the many movers and shakers in the conservation ag movement.
It’s no secret that many machinery manufacturers didn’t want Frank and his “little newsletter” to succeed. He was urging farmers to park the plow and resist “recreational tillage.” The manufacturers’ and dealers’ livelihoods were threatened as farmers reduced their iron needs. Yet he had a singular mission of calling out the landmines for farmers, and finding and sharing practical solutions.
Dad’s writing, reporting and photography awards, and Hall of Fame inductions (most recently from the Conservation Technology Information Center) are too many to count here. But hearing from you and how your lives changed for the better — including myriad quality of life and survival stories that came from doing more with less machinery and labor — always trumped the hardware anyway. And this was long before anyone understood what the term “service journalist” meant.
This collection is not only a gift to you and the ag world, but it’s been a gift to me, too. I found that whenever Dad gets a little “in my hair” over here at Lessiter Media, I can redirect his attention with a special project. And like his years-long podcast series and From Maverick to Mainstream: A History of No-Till Farming (now in its second printing), it worked like clockwork again. Many times during this project, he bounced out of his office to share a column, an article or a No-Till-Age® chart that depicted the to-the-point depth of reporting in those days. And the spring in his step is always contagious and motivates all of us here to bring our best every day.
We’re not done learning from the old man, yet, as I’m sure you’ll agree. Hope you enjoy this unique collection of columns from Frank Lessiter, the founding editor of NTF. Please share your own memories, recollections and anecdotes with me at mlessiter@lessitermedia.com
Click here to order your copy of Frankly Speaking and save $10 off the full retail price.
A special thanks to Steve Martin at Martin-Till, who supported the printing of Dad’s book. Steve’s dad, Howard, was a No-Till Innovator and NTF Legend who passed away in 2024. Both father and son worked tirelessly to help all make the no-till practice work, even in the early days when the odds of survival were remote and stacked against them.
