Hopefully, your crop is off to a great start! Now is a good time to assess crop stands and learn from your planting-season management to see if there are things you should do differently.

Researchers in Tennessee are looking at the feasibility of no-tilling switchgrass, a warm-season perennial that can grow up to 7 feet in height, as raw material for biofuels and an alternative to corn-based ethanol.

Having invested in the latest sprayer technologies, cereal grain growers are gearing up to do a better job of applying pesticides — starting this fall with winter wheat.

Tradition says you’ll probably no-till corn before thinking about no-tilling soybeans. Yet more growers are questioning this conventional wisdom.

Facing higher input costs, more farmers than ever are taking a closer look at no-till. While there may be numerous opportunities for you to no-till more acres in your area while adding dollars to your checkbook, there’s no easy answer as to what you should charge for no-tilling, spraying or other work done in a neighbor’s fields.

When it comes to learning what it takes to turn out profitable corn yields, many no-tillers find they learn a great deal from having contest plots on their farms.

“We're all looking for more profit per acre,” says Kent Krukewitt, “and that’s my incentive for growing value-added crops.”

No-tiller Steve Groff told attendees at the 1998 National No-Tillage Conference that cover crops provide his no-till operations with numerous benefits. Groff says cover crops: