After using biochar for only a single growing season, Nash Leef says he’s seen a transformative change in the silty-clay soils of his Nebraska vegetable and cut-flower farm.

The blend of traditional “rocks and clods” agronomics and the digital transformation of everything from machine control to biotechnology research to advance sensing capabilities makes working in today’s agriculture a fascinating opportunity for a guy who was born when Fords still had fat fenders and round clutch pedals.

Mid-to-late season summer row-crop scouting in no-till and conventional fields usually finds infestations of several species of armyworms, but in some conditions, fall armyworms can become a serious problem, particularly on extremely late-planted corn.

No-tillers faced with prolonged wet conditions after planting should be alert to possible corn and soybean seedling damage inflicted by slugs.

The latest edition of Beck’s Practical Farm Research (PFR) on planter attachments shows the use of popular aftermarket closing wheels can result in an extra 5 bushels of corn per acre and 2.5 bushels of soybeans per acre.

At certain times in their development, black cutworm larvae can each cut 3-5 corn plants during the early season, which can lead to significant yield losses in fields where the pest reproduces in large numbers.

Getting rid of herbicides and marketing produce with that goal in mind is the two-pronged business model of GreenField, Inc., a south-central Kansas startup that will be fielding 20 robotic mechanical weeders in broadacre row crops this year.

If you’ve ever wished for a crystal ball as you penciled in plans for soil-borne pathogens in corn and soybeans for the coming season, a relatively new California-based company supporting crop consultants in the Corn Belt and Mississippi Delta can take some of the guesswork out of that process — and likely save you some money.