Like it or not, succeeding in the new millennium is going to require you to make some changes in your no-till program, both in your thought process and in your crop management system.

One of the biggest developments offering no-tillers new opportunities for efficient food production is the rapidly increasing population. One person who’s deeply concerned about what the ever-expanding population could mean to no-tillers is agronomist Dean Collamer of Honeywell, Inc., in Hanover, Pa.

Collamer explains that the population boom will affect how no-tillers more efficiently use the valuable land that they presently manage. (See item below for details.)

Besides the growing population, Collamer notes there’s a growing interest around the world in conservation tillage. While the U.S. is currently leading the world in conservation tillage technology, he says we’d better not drop the ball as a number of South American countries continue to gain ground on us.

How Do You Keep Up?

One way to keep boosting yields and income is to think more carefully about the impact that fertilizers can have on your no-till operation. As you might expect since he works for an ammonium sulfate manufacturer, Collamer believes this form of nitrogen will play an increasingly key role in the future of no-till.

“When you apply UAN and don’t inject it or any other urea-containing source that you broadcast, you’re likely to experience some nitrogen loss,” he says. “When broadcast and injected UAN was compared, the broadcast application gave a 14 percent yield hit (117 vs…