From the Pacific Northwest to the Great Plains to the Eastern Corn Belt, no-tillers John Aeschliman, Dan Forgey, Allen Dean and Romey Bardwell grow different varieties of dryland wheat in different soils in areas receiving vastly different amounts of rain.

With a desire to pump up small grain yields, no-tillers are searching for better ways to combat a growing number of costly pests. As a result, attendees at last winter’s 15th National No-Tillage Conference were keenly interested in learning to do a more effective job of controlling yield-grabbing pests.

No-tillers seem to be taking evolving technologies in stride as seed companies unveil seed corn that provide new single, double and triple transgenic traits, with seed treatment options for early-season insect and disease protection.

If you're waiting for Asian soybean rust to appear in your fields before you spray, Marty Wiglesworth suggests you reconsider.

Asian soybean rust finally appeared in the U.S. last season but had little impact after years of warnings about its potential catastrophic effects on soybean yields. That doesn’t mean the researchers were wrong and no-tillers can ignore the threat.

Instead of worrying about whether Asian rust is going to hit your no-tilled soybean fields this summer, you should consider spraying fungicides, Wayne Pedersen says. The University of Illinois plant pathologist says it’s likely to pay dividends through control of several late-maturing soybean diseases.

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.