The 2024 National Strip-Tillage Conference delivered strip-till, no-till and conservation ag insights to over 350 attendees Aug. 7-9 in Madison, Wis. The event featured 6 general session presentations, 14 interactive roundtable discussions, 15 classroom sessions and several hours of networking in the hallways.

At an upcoming waterhemp management plot tour on O’Brien Family Farm in Brooklyn, Wis., I’ll be hearing from Rodrigo Werle, weed scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as others as they walk us through their weed suppression research. 

Zimmerman hosted a strip-till field day last week at their manufacturing facility in Cantril, Iowa. Attendees got an up-close look at multiple strip-till rigs in action.

A story out of Florida, where a large drone dealer can no longer fly drones over 55 pounds after multiple alleged FAA violations. FAA officials showed up at a training session hosted by the dealer and learned the pilot in command allegedly didn’t have registration for the drone, and he was flying it too close to a non-participating farmer.

Chris Perkins, who lives about 40 miles east of Ray McCormick, calls his John Deere 1775 ExactEmerge planter a cheat code. It’s helped him break the 300-bushel barrier multiple times. The 2024 Strip-Till Innovator Award recipient’s planter has hydraulic downforce, AutoPath and a 2-by-2-by-2 setup that allows for precise fertilizer placement. And he also has chains on his planter, which he says have some pros and cons but ultimately deliver ROI in more ways than one.

CLAAS unveiled the LEXION 8900 TERRA TRAC for the first time on North American soil at the 2024 Ag in Motion farm show in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Tyler Troiola used John Deere See & Spray Premium for the first time. The retrofit kit uses 36 cameras and machine learning to selectively target spray weeds. Troiola used it on corn at 10 inches, 14 inches and 18 inches. When corn was 10 inches tall, he says See & Spray only sprayed about 18% of the field, which adds up to over 80% in herbicide savings. It went down to about 70% savings on 14-inch-tall corn, and 60% savings on 18-inch-tall corn.

There’s new smart spray technology from precision ag startup Sentera that could lower herbicide usage by up to 70%. It’s called Aerial WeedScout. It uses aerial imaging from a drone and artificial intelligence to detect weeds. Then it creates prescriptions within 24 hours that can be executed through any precision sprayer. Sentera CTO Eric Taipale explains what separates Aerial WeedScout from other precision spraying options on the market.