Nearly three dozen farmers in southwest Wisconsin are showing the area’s non-farm population how no-till, strip-till, cover crops and nutrient management are improving soil and water quality — and boosting farm income at the same time.

With 35 years’ experience working for the University of Wisconsin Extension, research is second nature for Sparta, Wis., no-tiller Jim Leverich. Now retired, he maintains a rigorous program of testing to get the best yields he can on his 1,000-acre corn-soybean operation that his forbears began as a 25-acre orchard in 1864. In testing components of the “4Rs” of nutrient management, he’s found anhydrous ammonia consistently provides the most efficient source of nitrogen (N) while offering the highest level of safety for the environment.

For independent research agronomist Jim Stute, the appearance of glyphosate-resistant giant ragweed, waterhemp and marestail on his East Troy, Wis., farm was alarming. But it was also an opportunity — an opportunity to test the ability of cover crops to suppress marestail and other troublesome weeds and reduce reliance on glyphosate.