No-tillers logged hundreds or even thousands of miles to network, learn and inquire as the 19th annual National No-Tillage Conference (NNTC) in Cincinnati went down as a record-setting event.

Some 823 growers, agronomists, crop consultants, ag professors, manufacturer representatives and media members attended the 4-day event in January at the Hilton Cincinnati Netherland Plaza.

The turnout was a record for the NNTC in the Queen City, despite a winter storm that dumped several inches of snow in the region just a day before the conference started.

This year’s attendance beat the previous high mark in Cincinnati of 776, set in 2008.

More than 250 people were first-time attendees, and the turnout was boosted by three busloads of no-tillers arriving from Pennsylvania and Canada.

Attendees absorbed information and tips on dozens of topics, with cover crops, micronutrients, fertilizer application, precision technology, vertical tillage and soybean production generating big interest.

Conference sponsors were Syngenta Crop Protection, SFP, Agro-Culture Liquid Fertilizers, Bayer CropScience, the Oregon Ryegrass Growers Commission, Equipment Technologies (Apache), Agrotain International, Case IH, Thurston Mfg. (Blu-Jet), Great Plains Mfg., Titan International and Trimble Navigation.

Soil Is The Answer 

Corn has a high nitrogen requirement, but it’s not the most efficient user of nitrogen, with only 30% to 50% of annual nitrogen fertilizer input being recovered, says Ohio State University educator James Hoorman.

One way to improve nitrogen storage and efficiency is by increasing the percentage of soil organic matter in your fields.

“Conventional farmers may have 1% to 3% organic matter…