Whether it's managing residue or growing a cover crop ahead of alfalfa, details about what has worked on other farms offers a head start toward success. Growers asking for valuable input often find answers at Farmers’ Forum, the online bulletin board at www.no-tillfarmer.com. As always, we’ll share some of that information here.

While Hypoxia has been a serious issue for a half dozen years in the Gulf Of Mexico, pollution and sediment left nearly half of the Chesapeake Bay so depleted of oxygen this summer that it couldn’t sustain aquatic life.

Many no-tillers are thinking about short-season crops, forage and ground covers, and some of those growers turned to Farmer’s Forum, the online bulletin board at www.no-tillfarmer.com, for advice from folks with experience in similar situations. Here are highlights from their discussions.

For growers in the United States who are raising genetically modified crops, it’s not good news that the Europeans are suggesting new rules that would require the wider use of warning labels on foods along with a lot more red tape when importing our grains.

When compacted soils become a problem, as they can anywhere in the country, cover crops can be an effective solution, according to experienced no-till farmers. But you need to know which crop will work in your area to provide the kind of long tap roots needed. Visitors to Farmer’s Forum, the message board of No-Till Farmer, offered a number of possibilities recently. We share their ideas here, as well as thoughts about an assortment of other topics.