Several recent developments in the pesticide area represent disturbing examples of how the environmentalists pay little attention to scientific facts. As a result, several pesticides and genetically modified organism (GMO) corn hybrids are under increased fire from lawyers and governmental agencies that could impact no-tillers.

Necessity is the mother of all invention, and the winners of the 2008 No-Till Innovator Awards had plenty of necessity to go around.

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.

When it comes to effective weed control, timing is always critical. But it is particularly important when you are using a total post program since dead weeds with late spraying can still trim your yields.

In late October, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a favorable re-registration for atrazine, which paves the way for its continued use by no-tillers. “This decision confirms what extensive scientific studies have shown — that atrazine meets the most stringent regulatory safety standards,’ says Mike Mack, president of Syngenta Crop Protection, an atrazine producer.

Two recently released research studies reinforce the existing body of scientific evidence that 2,4-D does not present a cancer risk to farmers and pesticide applicators.

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.

Since herbicide-tolerant transgenic cotton varieties became widely available in 1997, the no-till cotton acreage has nearly doubled in the United States. A recent survey by the National Cotton Council indicates that no-till made up 29 percent of total cotton acres while reduced tillage made up 30 percent of all cotton acres in 2002.