The first impulse of many growers may be to plow under CRP ground when converting it back into cropland.

Banding is good. Virginia Tech agronomist Mark Alley explains to no-tillers the reasons for banding nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, near the seed during a break at the 16th annual National No-Tillage Conference.

It used to be that the primary task of a corn head was to harvest corn: separate the ear from the stalk with as little grain loss as possible, while collecting as little trash as possible, says Marion Calmer, a no-till farmer with Calmer Corn Heads in Alpha, Ill. But as growers look to better integrate field operations, the corn head is playing an increasingly important role in managing crop residue as well.

Welcome to my first installment of No-Till Notes. I’m looking forward to writing this column and sharing my no-tilling experiences with you. I hope to provide lots of no-tilling ideas you can use on your farm.

Looking for new ways to trim production costs, California dairyman turned in 2007 to a variety of conservation tillage practices for forage production in California’s San Joaquin Valley.

The first time I saw what Dwayne Beck was doing on the irrigation research farm near Redfield, S.D. (before he developed the Dakota Lakes Research Farm), I knew we were on the verge of a new type of crop production in our area.