Unlike many pieces of farm equipment, a sprayer is not something that Dad or Granddad absolutely had to buy. When spraying became common to cropping operations, there was an opportunity to outsource it to a custom applicator and avoid tying up the capital and adding to the responsibilities of the already over-worked farmer.

With weed control becoming more critical with the growth of reduced tillage and expansion of continuous corn acres, more no-tillers are getting a quicker start with fall herbicide applications.

Don’t be discouraged by the challenges you faced no-tilling corn on corn for the first time this year; you’re not alone.

As no-tillers lead the charge into the use of annual ryegrass as a cover crop, they are also discovering the potential setbacks.

Continuous corn acres rose sharply this year as many growers tried to capitalize on increasing corn prices.

Ray McCormick earns a living through good land stewardship. He operates a peach orchard, maintains about 1,000 acres of woods on his property and builds wetlands and mitigation sites for other landowners.

It's an understatement to say that we’ve had a lot of publicity since harvest of 2006, when the word got out that my farm had placed first or second in three categories of the National Corn Growers Association yield contest (including a first-place 347.26 bushels per acre in a no-till irrigated class) and also weighed out a world-record soybean yield of 139 bushels per acre with conventional tillage.