If, like many farmers, you can’t imagine driverless farm equipment on your place, and take comfort in the thought autonomous farming is still years away and your current methods are working quite well, one long-time ag engineer says technological limits and population trends across the globe may be working against you.

Recent research in the High Plains is showing cover crop and forage mixtures offer soil-building and profit potential even to growers in areas of low rainfall.

When Michael Thompson was 18 he envisioned himself joining his parents in their farming operation in northwestern Kansas and becoming a dedicated, 100% cash grain farmer. However, life and generations of conventional farming got in the way.

The 2004 Tobacco Buyout changed the face of the leaf industry in the U.S. forever, drastically reducing the number of small farms with widely spread “quota” plantings and giving rise to several concentrated areas of significantly larger-scale tobacco fields.

When it comes to the form and function areas of sprayers, spray booms play a critical role in dispersing chemicals an efficient, accurate manner to control weeds or fertilize crops.

When Roger Black switched to no-tilling in south-central Kansas more than two decades ago, he was searching for ways to reduce erosion in his silty-loam bottomland fields, as well as reduce fuel and labor costs.

The corn and soybean rotation has been a winner for many no-tillers in the Midwest and Northeast for years. While some still encounter frustrating planting conditions in heavy corn residue, many find that years of no-till management have led to systems that make planting soybeans into corn stalks effective and routine.

Given today’s wide variety of expensive crop protectants and their various label requirements — along with ever-changing, penalty-laden regulatory mandates aimed at controlling drift — it’s no wonder no-tillers and applicators search for that one nozzle that will do the best job on their sprayer.