Congratulations to Tom Barcellos on Winning the

2005 Conservation Tillage Award

In 2005, the University of California and NRCS Conservation Tillage Workgroup established the Conservation Tillage Farmer Innovator Award as a means for providing greater visibility to CT pioneers in California. The criteria for this award are - demonstrated innovation and leadership in the development, refinement and use of conservation tillage systems within the California crop production environment.


Nominations are received and carefully reviewed by a Workgroup panel and a single recipient is announced in our annual conference. This year's CT Farmer Innovator Award recipient is Tom Barcellos.

Tom is a dairyman and forage producer in Tipton, CA. Back in 2001, he began experimenting with no-till corn production within his conventional dairy forage production system. He was a very early no-till adopter and modified his John Deere planter and retrofitted it not only to successfully accomplish no-till planting, but also to do so while at the same time applying "at planting" fertilizer. Tom is a very accomplished no-till planter not only for his own dairy operations, but for other neighbors in the Tipton area as well. Tipton is now widely recognized as a "hotbed" for CT innovation within the State and very much of this renown stems from Tom's personal initiatives and tenacity.

In the fall of 2004, he also purchased a 20 foot John Deere 1590 grain drill and began no-tilling his winter forage directly into his previous corn residue. In 2006, he also began using this drill to "triple crop" sudan after a winter forage that was followed by corn. All of this was done using no-till.
Tom has very graciously made major presentations as part of CT2003, CT2004, CT2005, and now, CT20006. At each of these sessions, he "speaks with commanding authority" and from experience that resonates directly with other farmers. He readily acknowledges that there is a definite "learning curve" associated with transitioning to CT and that yields cannot be categorically guaranteed to be higher or equal to standard till systems every single season. On balance, however, Tom's experience and success with cutting out tillage operations have enabled him to continue to pursue a range of innovative CT practices quite successfully.

In January 2006, Tom was invited to speak on his CT dairy forage production systems at the 2006 National No-Till Conference held in St. Louis, MO. He prepared and delivered an hour presentation of his operations and the information he shared was very well received as gauged by the active question and answer session that followed and by the several folks who came up to speak with Tom after his speech. Then, in February 2006, Tom was one of three CT Workgroup farmer members who served as panelists in a special, invited session on "CT economics" at the 2006 World Ag Expo in Tulare, CA. This panel was subsequently invited back to present their information again in 2007. Tom also personally brought over his 10 row no-till planter and allowed it to be displayed at the CT Workgroup's exhibit site during the World Ag Expo and following his panel presentation, he came by the site and spent several hours talking with visitors and sharing information about CT in California with them.

In the fall of 2003, Tom began voluntarily working with a group of University of California researchers who are investigating the potential positive impacts of CT systems on air quality and on reducing particulate matter emissions. Tom has been an extremely solid and reliable collaborator on this study which has shown at least in preliminary fashion, dramatic reductions in PM emissions under CT management. A significant part of Tom's innovation, can be seen in his willingness to participate in this study and in his steadfast support of its implementation. Research at his farm has demonstrated the ability of CT systems to significantly reduce PM emissions by as much as 90% relative to standard till corn production systems. This work is now being compiled and written up as a peer-reviewed article as part of the PhD dissertation of Nick Madden, a student at UCD who works with Randy Southard and me.

Tom is one of the state's most widely and frequently quoted CT farmer experts. He is routinely cited in popular press articles and is interviewed widely for his insights into CT. He readily has volunteered to speak at a number of different sorts of CT information venues including field days at his farm, annual CT conferences, the National No-Till Conference, the Colusa Farm Show and at the California Farm Bureau's Young Farmer and Rancher series.
As he began his oral presentation for CT2004, Tom welcomed the audience before him and then said, "There should be four times as many people here today because this is the future." He is a very shining example of CT innovation and a tremendous spokesperson for agriculture in the region.

In addition, Tom has become a very respected contributor to activities and functions of the University of California / NRCS CT Workgroup. He is a regular contributor to WG meetings and planning efforts and though he is very busy, he is ever-ready to give advice and counsel to our work.

Tom Barcellos has made unique and very significant contributions to the development of alternative tillage production systems in California. He has been a true farmer innovator and a rather phenomenal contributor to efforts of the CT Workgroup for a number of years. We are honored to present the 2006 CT Farmer Innovator Award to Tom Barcellos.