While Hypoxia has been a serious issue for a half dozen years in the Gulf Of Mexico, pollution and sediment left nearly half of the Chesapeake Bay so depleted of oxygen this summer that it couldn’t sustain aquatic life.

Environmental Protection Agency scientists maintain that winter snowstorms and above-average rainfall washed more suburban wastewater and farm fertilizer into the bay than ever before from Maryland and Virginia shorelines. The result was an increased production of algae, which crippled commercial fish harvesting, led to several serious human illnesses and created a 250-square-mile “dead zone” that was the largest hypoxic area ever recorded in the bay.

This problem would have been even worse if it had not occurred in an area of Maryland and Virginia that has among the highest percentage of no-tilled crops in the country. Similar water quality concerns across the country will likely lead to even tighter restrictions on fertilizer use and increased emphasis on no-till in the future.

OTHER NO-TILL NEWS...

Callisto, the newest post-emergent corn herbicide from Syngenta Crop Protection, has been named “Product of the Year” by Agri Marketing magazine. This award was created in 1997 to recognize one agricultural product each year for outstanding marketing and impact in the marketplace.

The herbicide was registered as a reduced-risk product in June 2001 and quickly became the leading post-emergent herbicide in corn with 10 million acres of corn having been treated in the past 3 years. Originally inspired by the natural herbicides exuded by the Callistemon citrinus…