While no-tillers in many area of the country didn’t avoid having to deal with early summer flooded fields, the results generally weren’t as bad as for neighbors using more extensive tillage. Even with sizeable crop losses, soil losses weren’t as significant for no-tillers.

A recent article in No-Till Farmer cautioned that growers should kill ryegrass cover crops before they get taller than 2 feet.

While no-tillers are already relying on crop residue to help make more efficient use of available water, the development of drought-tolerant corn will help stabilize yields when Mother Nature doesn’t deliver needed rains.

In many areas in the middle of the country, the dry summer suddenly turned extremely wet with widespread flooding, and even no-till fields were saturated and vulnerable to runoff problems.

Cold, wet soils challenge no-tillers everywhere, but they’re old hat for Joe Breker. He’s now in his 28th year of no-tilling in Havana, N.D., where the warmth doesn’t last long — it’s a 95-day maturity zone with just 2,200 to 2,300 growing degree days — and excess moisture is a problem year after year.

Corn yield has been much more variable during the past 5 years than was the case in the previous 5 years. Even so, the corn yield has averaged above the long-term national trend line over the past 4 years.