Defense planning is under way across the country. No-tillers are taking aim at the weeds, insects and diseases that could threaten their soybean crops in 2004. And as the threats to soybeans change - aphids have become a bigger problem in the past couple of years, and fast-acting rust disease seems ready to move into the U.S. from South America - the country's pesticide manufacturers are offering some new alternatives on top of proven performers to guard the fields.

Some new herbicides received late Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registration while other products were only test marketed in a few Midwestern states last year by manufacturers. As a result, there’s not a large number of new herbicides for controlling weeds in no-tilled corn this year.

Greater flexibility, better control and more reasonable prices are what soybean herbicide marketers were offering no-tillers for the 1998 cropping season.