By No-Till Farmer Editors

Nearly 1,000 no-tillers gathered at the Union Station Hotel in St. Louis in January to swap ideas and learn how to improve their no-till operations at the 28th annual National No-Tillage Conference.

In general sessions, roundtable discussions and classroom presentations — along with networking sessions with speakers and sponsors — attendees soaked in knowledge on no-till topics such as how to make cover crops pay, managing pests and diseases, planting green and getting the most from precision technology.

The editors of No-Till Farmer compiled 5 top takeaways from the conference, which reconvenes Jan. 12-15, 2021, in Indianapolis, Ind. 

Tackle Tar Spot Early

As producers push populations higher and use more cover crops, more residue is present on the soil surface at all times of the year, says Phil Krieg, agronomist for Syngenta. 

While this is generally good news for soil biology, it also creates a more hospitable environment for overwintering diseases such as tar spot in corn, which has become a serious problem in the Upper Midwest. 

Tar spot spores are carried by wind or rain-splash. The disease is associated with cool temperatures (61-68 F) and high relative humidity, and it’s prevalent when more than 7 hours of dew occurs at night. Unlike many diseases that only occur at specific stages of development, tar spot can infect corn at any time if conditions are favorable.

To control tar spot, Krieg recommends planting corn hybrids that are least susceptible to the disease; rotating to a non-host crop…