The final report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture on the 2009 corn and soybean harvest is one for the record books. Despite poor planting conditions, a cool, wet growing season, and an abysmal harvest that still sees mostly corn standing in fields, American farmers shattered records for both yield per acre and total production.

An exotic invasive shrub, introduced in the 1800s as a garden plant, is being studied to demonstrate how its presence has a cascading damaging effect on natural flora and fauna, no-till agriculture and public health. Ohio State University entomologists are collaborating with Michigan State University and Iowa State University in a three-year research project to determine the distribution of buckthorn throughout Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota and Iowa.

Some farmers who think about converting to the no-till planting system are concerned there will be a drop in crop yields either in the short or even term. Truth is, there may be, but it won't last.

Rising fuel and equipment costs, growers running more acres and a desire to save soil are spurring interest among Wisconsin producers in strip tillage, says UW-Madison Soil Scientist Dick Wolkowski and Ag Economist Thomas Cox and Extension On-Farm Research Coordinator Jim Leverich.

Iowa strip-tiller Keith Schwandt says switching from tillage to strip-till and using liquid 32% nitrogen instead of anhydrous ammonia led to an explosion of earthworms and nightcrawlers in his fields.

f you found severe white mold in your fields in 2009 season, use no-tillage if corn is the 2010 rotation crop. Rotation with corn in no-till can reduce soybean white mold risk.

The soil compaction caused by combines, grain carts and trucks last fall could significantly reduce no-till yields for several years in the future, warns Ron Gelderman, SDSU Extension soils specialists.

This years devastating drought not only robbed crops of valuable moisture, it reduced plant growth and protective cover for the soil. Conservation officials warn that the drought made our soil resource vulnerable to erosion and any tillage will only make conditions worse.

The late harvest may have frustrated no-till grain farmers, but it could help the soil.

Syngenta Crop Protection and Halex GT corn herbicide are Weeding Out Hunger at the 2010 National No-Tillage Conference in Des Moines from Jan. 13 to 16.