After more than a year of analysis, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently placed its recommendations regarding herbicide-drift tolerance on hold. That’s because EPA officials received more than 5,000 letters, phone calls and other feedback from farmers, ag dealers and educators who felt the spraying recommendations were unfair.

As you start inching closer to the National No-Tillage Conference in Indianapolis, Ind., from Jan. 8 to 11, 2003, get a head start on topics you want to hear about by jumping on our Web site’s message board, Farmer’s Forum, at www.no-tillfarmer.com. It’s a great place to make some no-tilling contacts with people that you’ll be able to meet up with at the conference.

Ohio No-Tiller Doug Utz slashes his pesticide bill by buying on the Internet.

The temperatures are turning slightly colder but the No-Till Farmer message board, Farmer’s Forum, is starting to heat up. This month no-tillers tapped away at their keyboards and started discussions about ridding their fields of volunteer trees, powering their no-till planters and many more hot topics within the no-tilling world.

Plenty of good ideas for no-tillers came out of last summer’s 35th annual Top Farmer Crop Workshop at Purdue University. Here’s a quick rundown on the “best of the best” ideas.

Making fantastic use of the No-Till Farmer message board, no-tillers continued to offer help, answers and encouragement to fellow farmers who are hoping that this season turns out to be a profitable one.

Designed to bring together no-tillers and members of the environmental community, an early summer Pacific Northwest tour demonstrated the benefits of direct seeding and the challenges faced by growers moving to this crop production system.