When the oppertunity presented itself, Carrol Wyss went after a new market to make a few extra dollars. What he also found was that the changes he would need to make to control weeds were probably better for his farm.

With all of our herbicide-tolerant crops, we sometimes get complacent about the importance of rotation to reduce herbicide resistance.

My first experience with no-tilling resulted from bad weather and fortunate networking with innovators who set the pace away from tillage.

Shifting from conventional tillage to no-till often requires a lot of physical change in your operation. Just as importantly, adopting this new way of farming demands a strong dose of faith during a transition period that might take several years. I like to joke it’s the same kind of devotion it takes to make a good marriage work.

Conventional wisdom says no-till won’t work in northern Iowa, an area infamous for cold, wet soils. But Thornton, Iowa, farmer Doug Caffrey, who grows corn and soybeans and raises grow-to-finish hogs, has no-tilled successfully for almost 25 years.

Dicamba-, 2,4-D-, ALS- and HPPD-inhibitor-tolerant crops are the next innovations rolling out of the technology pipeline for in-plant weed control.