We just unpacked the truck from last week’s 33rd Annual National No-Tillage Conference (NNTC) in Louisville and I was “moved” by an unusual week on the road.

No, this year’s NNTC wasn’t the biggest crowd we ever had (though we did attract attendees from 32 states and 6 nations), but it may just have been the best conference in the 20 or so that I’ve personally attended. And it certainly was the most enjoyable for me personally.

Getting Personal

Let me explain a few reasons why:

• I personally introduced a worthy class of 4 during the “No-Till Innovators of the Year” ceremony, who will join, for posterity, the greatest assembly of no-till experience and wisdom on the planet. Not only did our friend Marion Calmer (inaugural class of 1996) step up to keep this program going when the commercial funding dried up, but he also hosts a first-class dinner each year for the Innovators Alumni Group, which now has a roster of more than 130.

• Separately, I was able to witness the Farm Equipment Dealer Hall of Fame induction of Wayne Hunt of H&R Agri-Power. It’ll be officially announced next month and in-person at the Dealership Minds Summit, but we couldn't resist the chance to recognize him in front of customers and Kentucky Ag Commissioner Jonathan Shell, who also addressed the NNTC audience.
• I also had the privilege of presiding over a history-making board meeting of the Conservation Ag Foundation, a non-profit foundation launched last year. This board of 10 leaders already dove deep into ways to help farmers – via grass roots education – succeed in making the transition to more conservation practices. With the directors’ own mandate to “pay it forward” with their knowledge, experience and support, you can expect big things from this group in the years ahead.

• As I earned my 20-year conference pin (I missed the first 11 while working in Chicago and later had a Covid miss), I had the chance to personally greet our oldest NNTC friends – those who’ve been to every conference in 33 years. Four individuals have attended every single conference since 1993: Randall Reeder (Columbus, Ohio), Bryan Van Holten (Cole Camp, Mo.), R.D. Wolheter (Wolcottville, Ind.) and Allen Berry (Nauvoo, Ill). It must be some sort of a record for a national conference that has circulated among 6 cities.
• And for the first time ever, I had all 3 of my “Lessiter Boys” working with me. 
  • Drew, as many of you know from his years of part-time conference work during college, joined our company as Event Coordinator last year, a full-time job when Sgt. Lessiter isn’t fulfilling his commitments in the U.S. Army Reserve. He had to leave the event early to head to Washington, D.C., to serve at next week’s inauguration. 
  • My other two sons, Owen (20) and Hayden (18) joined us in Louisville while on break from their studies at the Univ. of Minnesota. Both are former Lessiter Media interns but never experienced the full “conference week.” They contributed to setup, audience Q&A, bookstore sales & other utility player duties. My nephew, Logan Fitch (sales representative) also made his National No-Tillage Conference debut. That also makes him a second-generation NNTC-er too, as his mom, Kelly, worked the debut conference in 1993 as a 19-year-old.

First-Hand Observations

Before I share what my sons had to tell me about the week, here’s a little background on the boys. The three boys’ upbringing was different from mine. I was the first Lessiter in 6 generations to be born off of the Michigan farmstead, so my sons didn’t spend summer vacations at their grandparents’ farm as I did. Nor did they accompany their dad on farm visits like I'd done in the early years of No-Till Farmer.

And although each accompanied me to farm shows and Farm Equipment Manufacturers Assn. board meetings in their youth, their one-to-one exposure to farmers were limited. But despite being a generation removed from the farm, I discovered how fast of learners they are. 

To be honest, they’re all brighter bulbs than me, and catch on quickly. But they had an advantage I didn’t experience until later in life. That is, they got the “NNTC experience” – a unique and intimate learning setting that's been known to advance one’s understanding by years, if not a decade.

On the 6-hour drive home, Hayden freely shared his thoughts and observations. And when Owen returned from Louisville the following night, we talked into the wee hours of the morning about his takeaways. It was the type of unprompted discussion that comes from the “conference high” our staff experiences every year, and which carries us into the following week back at the office.

So, here’s what I learned about our no-till community – through the eyes of my 2 college-age sons.

Friendliness … Attendees were genuinely excited to see their fellow farmer friends and to meet new ones as they “find their people.”

Respect & Humility … No speaker or Hall of Fame inductee is more important than any attendee. They felt no hierarchy to the event; instead, it was an even playing field for learning in which expert speakers learned right alongside other attendees in between sessions, in the roundtables, in the lobby and the bar. And the boys confirmed what I’d shared about the family reunion type feel, even when one-third of the attendees were newcomers.

Stewardship of the Land … Not surprisingly was their noting of the farmers’ passion for protecting the land. Both commented about the drive for stewardship and a mission of passing on their land for another century of productive use. Both commented to me separately that protection of the land seemed to trump other measures such as yield or profit.

Smarts & Success … The boys picked up on how complex farming is and the wide-ranging smarts these farmers must possess – in chemistry, soils, plant/weed science, machinery mechanics, precision technology and business. They also had their eyes opened to the capital (and technical) requirements of planters, sprayers and combines.

Appreciation … Both boys commented on how the business-customer relationship appeared turned on its head. That is, how deep and frequent the heartfelt appreciation came from the farmers regarding our place in their own world. Time and again, they heard from their bookstore clientele how integral our content – meetings, publications, videos, webinars, podcasts – are to their operation. The brothers were surprised to hear this from farmers who paid us a handsome fee to attend the event, on top of their own travel and hotel expenses. As I told the boys, these folks realize that “service journalism” in a niche like no-till isn’t compulsory; that it exists only because of the passion of the folks back at the office who keep reinvesting in an ever-growing library of content to help farmers make no-till work. Of course, we can’t do what we do without farmers’ willingness to share what works and to call out the landmines for others.

Teamwork… They didn’t shed any new light on a “truth” I know about our business, but both raved about the special staff we have at Lessiter Media. They got to know our people in a new way in the hotel and dinners out (including a first-ever game night for the Precision Farming Dealer Summit party), noting their hard work, teamwork and desire to give their customers their best – even when sometimes clocking 16-hour days.

They admitted they exited their comfort zones a little, too. They weren’t entirely comfortable weaving in and out of a crowd of nearly 600 with mics in their hands to ensure that all farmers’ questions got answered, but they understood why they were doing it. My friend Russ Green even forced them to offer their own key takeaways in front of an attendee roundtable. The farmers also involved them in their meal-table discussions, including a memorable conversation with a South Dakota farmer on Hayden’s favorite vacation spot, Wall Drug.

They built upon their Boy Scout wreath-selling experiences by manning the No-Till Bookstore. Both experienced an upsell and together they sold many books and special reports, with the No-Till & Cover Crops Handbook and Farmer’s Earthworm Handbook topping the sales, along with signed copies of Grandpa Frank’s 3 books. And they were surprised to see attendees signing up on the spot for the 2026 National No-Tillage Conference in St. Louis next year, without any details yet on who’d be speaking. 

These two college students certainly picked up on an underlying theme of passion that echoed throughout the Louisville Marriott. And in the days that followed, I heard vernacular like “cool, tight, chill and lit” to describe their positive experience. Their circle of friends and influencers may also end up learning something new about how grains are grown, and by whom.

Emotional for the ‘Old Men,’ Too

A number of presentations, most notably the keynotes by Dwayne Beck (Silver Anniversary Presentation) and Ray McCormick (Conservation Ag Fellowship Capstone) hit me with a wave of emotion. Both expressed the appreciation they had for my dad, Frank, and what he started back in 1972 with No-Till Farmer. I’ll tell ya; this son has always been proud of Pops and his “Johnny Appleseed” role in spreading the word about no-till, and arming its believers with the knowledge to make it a success. These two – and countless others – gave me plenty of things to share with Dad in my calls home throughout the conference.

As you can see, this year’s conference was a gift to me in many ways. Whatever professional direction my sons choose, they’ll forever know about the hardworking farmers raising our food, fuel and fiber via no-tillage, and a better understanding of what gets their dad, grandad and 30-some others out of bed each day to pursue our mission at Lessiter Media – and why. 

The only thing that would’ve made the week better was to have experienced it with Dad, but he was home looking after Mom, where he was most needed. But I’ll tell you this; I intend to drop by with a bag of fresh popcorn and we’ll watch several video presentations together as soon as they're ready. He’ll see how No-Till Farmer, the unofficial 5th child in the family, has matured and flourished.

I know he’s proud of what his “little newsletter” – with your help, that is – has grown up to be.