Bayer CropScience announced today that it will launch a revolutionary new biocontrol seed treatment in no-till corn, soybeans and cotton for the 2011 season. Select growers and seed companies will be able to test Votivo biological seed treatment on their farms in 2010 for a firsthand look at its unique protective properties, says product manager Paul Hewitt.

Soil scientists with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service are currently working on a project that will help farmers know how tillage methods impact soil quality.

Farmers who cut back on high-cost fertilizer inputs in 2009, and then had record yields, are wondering how much fertilizer is actually needed. For 2010, let fall soil tests be your guide. Adequate levels of such nutrients as phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) can go a long way in boosting yield potential, especially if next season brings more "normal" weather conditions.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are testing out alternative ways of tilling the soil and rotating crops to see if they can help wheat farmers in Oregon sequester more carbon in the soil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Many no-till corn and soybean growers are harvesting record crops. However, they may be facing compaction issues because of saturated soils at harvest. "Many farmers will be unable to get back in their fields after harvest," said Randall Reeder, an Ohio State University Extension agricultural engineer. "Many fields have ruts and severe compaction issues."

A tillage study was established in 1981 at the University of Nebraska Rogers Memorial Farm, 10 miles east of Lincoln, to gain experience with various tillage systems. In 2009, the long-term no-till fields were the highest-yielding plots by far.

A Purdue University no-till researcher's motto, "No plant left behind," sums up his research on achieving increased grain yield for corn at higher plant densities.

Corn and soybean no-till farmers were no strangers to white mold and ear rots during the 2009 growing season; but according to one Purdue University expert, there are measures growers can take to reduce the chances of a repeat in 2010.

This year, fields that were selected had very low to negligible soybean cyst nematode populations, but we still saw the effects.

Transgenic no-till corn expressing one of the three proteins active against corn rootworm usually performs significantly better than soil insecticides.