Some producers are taking advantage of frozen ground conditions to apply nitrogen to wheat fields or manure to corn fields. While this practice reduces the risk of compaction or rutting of fields, there are other factors to consider. Applications to frozen ground are at higher risk for runoff and loss of those nutrients.

Consider these risk factors and management practices when selecting fields for winter manure application.

Rill and gully erosion is the detachment and transport of soil by concentrated flow of water. Rills are small enough to be removed by normal tillage operations.

An early May storm that soaked Paulding County cleared up nearly a day ago, and the drains buried beneath Terry McClures farm fields are doing their job. The white plastic pipe that funnels water into a ditch along County Road 48 helps keep the 4,000 acres of soft, red winter wheat from becoming a swamp.

Following last year’s record-setting drought, some Vigo County, Ind., farmers have turned to cover crops to help trap nitrogen in the ground to benefit this year’s crops.

Wastewater treatment and industrial plants would be asked to make costly upgrades to cut pollution while farmers would do so voluntarily under a long-awaited strategy released Monday to reduce harmful nutrients in Iowa waterways and the Gulf of Mexico.