Properly handling straw, chaff and stalks as they exit the combine is key to managing your residue throughout the year with no-till. It’s due to the fact that effective residue management influences erosion control, moisture conservation, seed placement, fertilizer distribution, crop emergence and weed control.

At some point no-tillers who own drills are going to need to upgrade to a new one. This month's Farmer's Forum message board was chock full of information concerning many of the major manufacturers of no-till drills. Also being hotly debated were the use of seed tube splitters.

One of the more heated debates throughout the course of the last month on No-Till Farmer’s Online Forum has been what is the best kind of no-till drill to purchase. Not all exchanges in the forum are debated, as sometimes no-tillers just offer their advice, as in the case of the Iowa no-tiller who was having a problem with lodging beans.

Here are my thoughts on questions recently asked by No-Till Farmer readers. Remember that your particular farming circumstances may result in entirely different answers to these particular concerns.