The so-called “green bridge” could be stealing yields from no-till fields without the growers’ knowledge. The green bridge is the method by which soil and foliar pathogens feed on cover crops, weeds or volunteer crops and survive long enough to infect a new season’s cash crops.

Nitrogen management is simple, says Bob Hoeft, a University of Illinois fertility specialist. “All you have to do is put it on at exactly the right rate, at exactly the right time and use exactly the right application technique for the material of choice.”

Imgaine gaining 20 more bushels of corn per acre or similarly significant jumps in soybean, wheat and other crop yields. It could be possible next year just just by treating the phosphorus applied to your no-till fields with a new compound designed to improve uptake of the nutrient.

Asian soybean rust is a foliar disease, notes Glen Hartman, a plant pathologist at the University of Illinois who is heavily involved in preparing the U.S. for its arrival, “and tillage per se should not interact with rust incidence or severity.”

After witnessing high-yield wheat fields in England, Miles Farm Supply officials recruited four English agronomists to boost wheat production in the western Kentucky, southern Indiana and Tennessee areas served by the company’s Opti-Crop crop management division.

Myron Wehr asks questions. Most recently, he’s asking about the right fertilization program for his 1,900-acre farm in New Waterford, Ohio, and the several hundred acres he no-tills and harvests for neighbors. So he’s hosting an Ohio State University research project comparing his regular nitrogen program with fall and spring applications, both broadcast and incorporated, of manure and nitrogen. The results favor incorporated manure.

Advancing farm technology hasn't freed no-tillers from the whims of Mother Nature. Rainfall remains an especially critical factor beyond the control of growers. What science has done, however, is look to the past and find weather patterns that can be useful in choosing management practices for the coming season.

It’s not often that someone has the chance to influence the future of another nation. However, that opportunity now exists for no-tillers visiting Farmers’ Forum at www.no-tillfarmer.com.