Is there a benefit to moldboard plowing a no-till field once every 10 years? A recent article, “Changing Tillage, Changing Nutrient Management,” in the Spring 2008 issue of Plant Nutrition Today suggested that continuous no-till can lead to accumulation of phosphorus (P) at the soil surface, causing higher P concentrations in runoff.

A common question often asked about no-till is whether any nutrient stratification occurs due to a lack of soil mixing. Many no-tillers wonder if stratification is a problem for effective crop access to soil nutrients.

Robert Klein is an agronomist at the University of Nebraska and an expert on spray nozzles. He offered general guidelines for selecting and using spray equipment in the April issue of No-Till Farmer (see Pages 14 and 15). Below are other nuggets of advice Klein offered to attendees at this year’s National No-Tillage Conference:

Back in 1997, a number of Michigan farmers found high levels of white mold disease in their soybeans. This was especially true in fields planted with Roundup Ready soybeans where weeds were controlled with Roundup Ultra herbicide.

Are you ready for as high as 100-bushel yields in your no-till soybean fields? Don’t think those figures are so far-fetched, as research being done in Ohio indicates such no-till yields are possible.