If you want to know just how important precision is to strip-till, Steve Cubbage has a pretty good answer. The ability, in recent years, to use technology to repeat passes in the same location time after time is what has made strip-till a viable production system, the Nevada, Mo., strip-tiller says.

With its deep root system that breaks up compacted soils, annual ryegrass is an attractive cover. But those deep roots can also make it a challenge for no-tillers to burn down.

Seed treatments pay off in corn and soybeans. Ed Winkle says he treats his own seed with Apron and inoculants. Non-GMO beans can be bin run so long as you are not infringing upon patents.

BESIDES PICKING UP plenty of new ideas from the program and if networking with almost 650 fellow attendees wasn’t enough, some folks at the 13th annual National No-Tillage Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, went home with a number of extremely valuable, big-time prizes.

Three outstanding individuals and an exceptional group earned 2004 No-Till Innovator Awards for their contributions toward advancing no-till farming. The ninth annual awards, sponsored by Syngenta Crop Protection and No-Till Farmer, were presented in four categories: consulting, crop production, research and education, and organization.

The so-called “green bridge” could be stealing yields from no-till fields without the growers’ knowledge. The green bridge is the method by which soil and foliar pathogens feed on cover crops, weeds or volunteer crops and survive long enough to infect a new season’s cash crops.