Newly confirmed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said Friday the U.S. farm economy is in the “worst economic straits in a century” with tough challenges on prices, markets and labor all hitting at the same time.

The No-Till Conference presented Monte Bottens with the Most Outstanding Speaker Award for his 2024 presentation, “Making Grazing So Easy a Corn Grower Can Do It.” During his acceptance talk, Bottens highlighted some of the on-farm trials he’s got going on this year in Cambridge, Ill.

Last week I told you all about our upcoming National Cover Crop Summit and promised to showcase lots more great topics and speakers so without further ado, here is Gary Zimmer, another one of our speakers, to preview his presentation about fitting the cover crop to the farm and how to make money doing it.

Congratulations to Tuscola County, Mich., farmer Tom Hess who recently celebrated his 40-year no-till anniversary. Hess started no-tilling in 1984 to solve his erosion problems and never looked back. His big focus now is feeding the livestock in the ground because that soil life does all his tillage, he says. I paid a visit to Tom’s farm in early May for a look at one of his long-term no-till fields.

The 2025 National Cover Crop Summit is right around the corner. The fully digital event takes place from March 18-20 and is completely free for all attendees who would like to register. The Summit will feature 6 outstanding presentations from 7 excellent speakers.

Friend of the program, Tony Peirick has been planting soybeans and corn green into cereal rye for about a decade now on his Watertown, Wis., farm. Tony has some words advice for those who are nervous about using cover crops.

The future of no-till is now. But what’s it going to take for the next generation to continue promoting and increasing the adoption of conservation practices? I asked a couple young farmers for their take at the No-Till Conference, let’s listen in to what they said.

As the agricultural industry continues to evolve, farmers will increasingly rely on advanced planting technologies to navigate the challenges of dynamic field conditions.

I took a short, 100-minuteish road trip to Wisconsin Dells to check out the 2025 Precision Planting Winter Conference yesterday. Farmers and dealers from across the area gathered inside the Glacier Canyon Conference Center to watch the program.