In the chemical age of agriculture that began in the 1960s, potassium chloride (KCl), the common salt often referred to as potash, is widely used as a major fertilizer in the Corn Belt without regard to the huge soil reserves that were once recognized for their fundamental importance to soil fertility.

A Purdue University study shows that high-yielding, modern corn hybrids take up not only more nitrogen from soil but more micronutrients such as zinc, iron, manganese and copper. Nitrogen fertilizer rates also influence how much of these nutrients are stored in the grain at harvest.

Oct. 30, 2013, No-Till Farmer editors Darrell Bruggink and John Dobberstein hit the road earlier this week to attend the 19th annual Cover Crop and Soil Health Field Days at Cedar Meadow Farm in Holtwood, Pa., hosted by Cover Crop Solutions.

Leaving corn to dry in the field exposes a crop to unfavorable weather conditions, as well as wildlife damage.

Bats are voracious feeders. Beyond eating mosquitoes, there is a definite advantage in having them on your property during the row crop season. Their food of choice is a wide variety of night-flying insects, many of which are the adult stages of crop pests.