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.

The May issue on No-Till Farmer offered a look at the basic characteristics of adjuvants to help you make more informed purchase decisions. Another good source is the pocket-sized 8th Edition of the Compendium of Herbicide Adjuvants, released in January by Bryan Young, a weed scientist at Southern Illinois University.It is available for $3.Visit www.siu.edu for an order form.

Despite the fact that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials estimate that growing corn without atrazine could cost no-tillers as much as $28 an acre due to reduced yields and the need for more expensive herbicides, you might be in danger of losing this long-term weed control chemical product.

There are at least 10 ways adjuvants can make your post-emergence herbicide work harder — and literally hundreds of adjuvant products to choose from. Here’s a look at what’s causing this proliferation and how you can be sure you’re treating your crops right.

While you can rely on a number of new technologies for controlling pests in your no-tilled soybeans, this might be the year to focus more attention on disease concerns.