Despite the loss of support for crop residue surveys by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, some counties around the United States continued to gather information about tillage practices in 2006.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service now measures trends in soil organic matter and erosion with a recently developed formula known as RUSLE2, short for Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation, Version 2.

Despite whatever feelings you might have about the government, when it comes to no-till, Uncle Sam “gets it” and offers incentives to help growers adopt or expand no-till operations. That’s the good news.

Two recently released research studies reinforce the existing body of scientific evidence that 2,4-D does not present a cancer risk to farmers and pesticide applicators.

As no-tillers attempt to cash in on funds available through the 2002 Farm Bill, many are finding themselves at a disadvantage. Instead of being credited for doing a good job of conserving their soils, they’re being punished for having already seen the many benefits of no-tilling.

Many growers looking for a new way to provide both burndown and season-long weed control will soon have a new tool available in their herbicide arsenal. That’s because a compound named Expert from Syngenta Crop Protection was recently approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for use in corn and grain sorghum.

Monsanto has received full U.S. regulatory clearance for the first biotech corn designed to control corn rootworm. The company announced in late February that both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has cleared YieldGard Rootworm for use in corn hybrids for resistance to this insect. Licensing the technology to other seed companies means a number of corn hybrids containing this technology will be available for no-tilling this spring.