The practice of using cover crops still has plenty of room for growth, according to the results of the August Purdue Ag Economy Barometer. Forty-one percent of growers with production of more than $500,000 annually said they are currently using cover crops, while 65% of growers responded that they had either used cover crops in the past or were currently using covers.

U.S. EPA administrator Michael Regan is “extremely concerned” about potential dicamba incidents, saying the agency is investigating 2021 injury reports and preparing to take regulatory action if necessary.

In this episode of the No-Till Farmer Influencers & Innovators podcast, brought to you by Terrasym, Frank Lessiter gets into the weeds with Kelly VanBeek, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Migratory Bird Program to discuss which no-till fields provide the best habitats for songbirds, what cover crops are most hospitable to birds and finding a balance between productivity and conservation on farmland.

According to Reuters, Bayer AG won its first trial over claims its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer after a California jury found that the herbicide was not a substantial cause of a child's rare form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin—including parts of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana—can earn money through a phosphorus load reduction pilot program. The “Phosphorus Load-Reduction Stimulation Program” (PLUS-UP) program, coordinated by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC), will pay farmers in the project area $5 to $10 per acre in 2022 to reduce P loads using practices such as no-till or cover crops. 

Green stems on mature soybean plants may be the result of a source/sink problem. If there are a limited number of pods (sink), there are fewer places for the plant’s photosynthates (source) to go, says Ohio State University. Otherwise, it could reflect insect feeding.

USDA reported 29% of corn crops harvested, above the 24% reported harvested by this time in 2020. The 5-year average for corn harvested in this week is 22%.

This free, 2-day virtual event on Nov. 16-17 will feature 8 sessions sharing ideas, tips and information from crop industry experts and growers who have experience using cover crops to maximize economic and soil-health building benefits.

In case you missed them, here are the items that have garnered the most interest from farmers in the past month.