With an emphasis on growing fewer soybean acres due to this year's move toward more continuous corn, no-tillers are looking for new ways to boost soybean yields. And attendees at last winter's 15th annual National No-Tillage Conference learned that a number of new pesticide developments can definitely help in the control of insects, diseases and weeds.

Now that most no-tillers have pretty much mastered the chemical side of pesticide management, they’re paying more attention to application costs, timeliness and equipment selection. This means more no-tillers will be doing more of their own pesticide applications in the future.

Having invested in the latest sprayer technologies, cereal grain growers are gearing up to do a better job of applying pesticides — starting this fall with winter wheat.

The May issue on No-Till Farmer offered a look at the basic characteristics of adjuvants to help you make more informed purchase decisions. Another good source is the pocket-sized 8th Edition of the Compendium of Herbicide Adjuvants, released in January by Bryan Young, a weed scientist at Southern Illinois University.It is available for $3.Visit www.siu.edu for an order form.

Despite the fact that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials estimate that growing corn without atrazine could cost no-tillers as much as $28 an acre due to reduced yields and the need for more expensive herbicides, you might be in danger of losing this long-term weed control chemical product.