Scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Norman Borlaug rose from his childhood on an Iowa farm to develop a type of wheat that helped feed the world, fostering a movement that is credited with saving up to 1 billion people from starvation.

No-tillers should be keeping an eye on their soybeans for water-borne diseases that may have cropped up during the recent heavy rains, says Ann Dorrance, an Ohio State University Extension plant pathologist says.

Nationally, soybean acres are projected at 78.1 million acres, up 1 percent from last year, while corn is expected to be at 88.8 million acres, up 3 percent from 2009. This means U.S. growers could harvest a record-large 13.1 billion bushels of corn and a near-record 3.3 billion bushels of soybeans.

Approximately 1,600 acres of Illinois farmland sold for a total of $10,492,610.

Julius Schaaf, U.S. Grains Council at-large director, says he expects to harvest one of the best corn crops ever on his Randolph, Iowa, farm.

In many areas of the Corn Belt, no-till nutrient budgets have become very negative due to changes in the way growers have fertilized their crops in recent years.

September and October are the time to sow winter cover crops. Consider your weed management needs before you plant the seed.

The possibility that some Bt-containing corn hybrids have higher lignin content than their non-genetically modified counterparts represents an unintended effect with no known mechanism, says Michael Lehman of the USDA-ARS-North Central Agricultural Research Lab in Brookings, S.D.

With fertilizer too costly, no-till farmer Chris Lantzsch is cutting down on expenses by using free, treated biosolids from sewage treatment plants.

Some corn and soybean producers took a step this spring to help reduce the amount of phosphorous and nitrogen entering surface waters by participating in a no-till soybean and corn planting project.