While some readers feel fall or spring strip-tilling can overcome concerns about no-tilling corn, others aren't so sure that this is always the very best way to get the job done. Besides using no-till, many attendees at the National No-Tillage Conference in Cincinnati felt using residue conditioning machines could help expand the effectiveness of no-tilling corn

No-Tilling soybeans ahead of corn may not be for everyone. But in some Corn Belt regions, however, yield advantages combined with other benefits are attracting more interest in no-tilling beans as early as the last week of March.

One of the many discussions on the No-Till Farmer sponsored Web site Bulletin Board centers on what to do with leftover cotton stalks when you want to no-till a different crop, such as soybeans.

With government officials from the European Union objecting to the use of no-till and forest land as no-till carbon sinks, the U.S. recently made concessions in this area for reducing carbon dioxide losses into the atmosphere. This action took place during a recent meeting of worldwide government officials seeking approval of the international Kyoto Protocol treaty to curb climate change.

David Wipf learned a lot about precision corn planting last year, thanks to the Computrol II Monitor that he won at the 2000 National No-Tillage Conference. Wipf, crops manager at the Fairview Colony near LaMoure, N.D., directs production on 2,500 acres of no-till corn and soybeans.

For the first time ever, no-till acres in the United States have broken the 50 million acre mark. The results shown in the No-Till-Age chart at left indicate farmers no-tilled 50,787,792 acres last year.

Because a number of No-Till Farmer readers tell us that they often run into difficulties when no-tilling, we asked Howard Martin to address possible solutions to what he sees as the nine toughest no-till corn planting problems.