I've been working with producers here on no-till for about 7years now and we've made great strides in an area where "we can't no-till here"( I heard that excuse many, many, many times).  The motivations for trying vary greatly among the producers and the success/failure definition seems to vary greatly also.  Pokey, you would be one of those producers I would look at and tell you that no-till CAN'T be done.  I think you would do it just to prove me wrong! 

You're right though, for some reason the government seems to think the answer is to throw money at it.  Money won't make no-till successful it only eases the pain if it fails.  P