Lagging sales of Monsanto’s new SmartStax corn hybrids and Roundup Ready 2 Yield soybean varieties have led the company to lower some seed prices as second quarter earnings dropped 19%.

Besides looking at new traits, plant breeders are paying close attention to each new corn hybrid’s reaction to various production practices. These include a hybrid’s performance with post-emergence herbicides, foliar fungicides, different seeding rates, various planting dates, continuous corn and nitrogen usage.

In an effort to curb pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a pollution credit trading system to curb industrial, municipal and agricultural discharges into the nation's waterways.

In a precedent-setting case, a panel of federal Ninth Court of Appeals judges recently ruled that certain tillage practices may fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers.