When it comes to planting trends in 2025, no-tillers stayed fairly consistent with their corn but made some changes to their soybeans, according to the 2026 No-Till Farmer Benchmark Report.
One pattern NTF editors noticed is a growing number of no-tillers planting soybeans in narrower widths. Nearly 61% planted the crop on 15-inch rows, up 6.6 percentage points from 2024, while those planting on 30-inch rows fell 7 points to 30.8%.
Rising pesticide costs may be the motive behind this. In 2025, no-tillers estimated spending just over $56,000 on average on crop protection expenses, while they had only anticipated spending an average $42,000-plus. That line item was also up $10,000 from the 2024 average of roughly $46,000.
Increasing seeding rates to help choke out weeds is not a profitable strategy, as no-tillers’ expenses for seed and seed treatment are also increasing. This might help explain a move to narrower rows to tighten the crop canopy and reduce weed germination.
No-tillers estimated spending over $83,000 on average for seed and seed treatment in 2025, which was over $22,000 more from the approximate $61,000 they averaged in 2024. In the 2024 No-Till Operational Benchmark Study, they predicted spending around $58,000 on these expenses in 2025.
It’s no surprise then that the average seeding rate for drilling soybeans fell nearly 3,500 seeds per acre to 147,087 when compared to 2024. Planting rates were pretty consistent at 139,415, while air seeding saw the only increase of just over 4,000 seeds per acre at an average 157,441.
How no-tillers seed soybeans did not significantly change. Planting remains the most popular method, with 70.3% using a planter, though it’s still a 5-point drop from 2022 and 2023. At the same time, drilling soybeans increased 5.1 points to 29.2%. Those air seeding soybeans were similar to 2024 at nearly 12%.
Trending Toward Smaller Planters. After seeing corn planter sizes grow from 2023 to 2024, the trend flipped in 2025. While the percentage of those with 16-row planters remained roughly the same (30.4%), those running 24-row planters fell 4.4 points to 13.8%, and those using 12-row planters grew 8.9 points to 32.6%.
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