This past spring, I took a big step and invested a significant amount of money in some new precision farming equipment. For years, we have been using a yield monitor to record our yields and evaluate corn hybrids and soybean varieties in our on-farm replicated plots.

Progress is great, but with the good sometimes also comes the bad. Such is the case with residue.

Remember the simple days when high-tech in the field meant having a tractor with air conditioning and a radio? Today, cabs are positively teeming with technology.

In-plant insect protection has long been helping corn producers sleep better at night — comfortable in the knowledge that their fields are safe from at least some of the yield-robbing threats they face.

How you manage your crop residues this fall can have a major impact on the profit of your 2009 crops.

In a recent entry on The Mitchell Farm Web site (www.mitchellfarm.com), I wrote that “effectiveness comes from getting the one piece of information necessary to make a decision and leaving the rest unseen.” I was referring to how easy it is to get smothered in GPS field-generated data, but often not knowing how to put it to work.

No-tillers seeking more precise chemical placement have new tools that not only makes application easier and more precise, they save money in the process.