Sometimes it's not the hybrid, it’s the farmer or subtle weather conditions that are the reason yields weren’t the best that they could be. Too many times, I see producers abandon a perfectly good hybrid or variety without understanding why it performed the way it did that season.

Yield data collected from field trials shows the value oilseed radishes hold as a late-season cover crop after winter wheat or following corn-silage harvest.

Guy and Mort Swanson played key roles in developing no-till in a unique region that both desperately needed — and could easily live without — the practice.

Like fashion from your favorite decade, cover crops have come full circle and are once again en vogue.

Tom Pauly pulls a pair of pliers from the holster on his hip, kneels down and scratches through a thick thatch of crop residue. And he smiles.

The Hula family no-tills 5,000 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, barley and oats in four counties surrounding Charles City, Va. The 100% no-till operation is located along the banks of the James River, which flows into Chesapeake Bay where nitrogen runoff is becoming a major concern.