Jeff Olson isn’t afraid to step outside his comfort zone. A 5th-generation corn and soybean farmer in Winfield, Iowa, Olson attributes part of his willingness to take risks and try new things to his years of experience.

A hotter atmosphere is causing rain to fall in harder bursts, pushing back planting seasons and drowning crops. At the same time as human-driven climate change is juicing precipitation, Corn Belt farming practices such as installing underground drainage tiles and leaving fields bare after harvest are changing how water moves across the landscape and into waterways.

For over thirty years I managed farms in northwest and northcentral Iowa for absentee farm owners whom I worked closely with to make soil and water conservation an important part of our farm plans. I convinced my farm operators to stop moldboard plowing, move to chisel plows and eventually leave soybean stubble untilled in the fall.

USDA’s Risk Management Agency rolled out PACE earlier this year to support stewardship of fertilizer, and it will continue to be offered in select counties of Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Dakota.

These grant programs are for farmers, ranchers, scientists, educators, institutions, organizations, and others exploring sustainable agriculture in 12 states.

For now, the agency is focused on double-crop soybeans and double-crop sorghum, though they are examining the possibility of additional other crops at some point in the future.

No-Till Farmer editors encounter a variety of articles, social media posts, podcasts and videos that offer a unique look at the grower's realm from the lofty digital realm. Here is our favorite content from the past week from across the web. “No-Till Farmer's Best of the Web" is brought to you by Sound Agriculture.

Researchers found that a 1% increase in no-tillage adoption within a county can increase agricultural land value by $7.86 per acre across 12 Midwestern states covered by the OpTIS database: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Using data specific to Iowa they concluded 1% adoption of no-till at the county level increases farmland values $14.75 (and possibly more) per acre inside Iowa.

Soybean cupping observed in parts of Iowa probably isn't the result of glufosinate or 2,4-D choline, according to Iowa State professor Prashant Jha. The most likely culprit is dicamba on non-dicamba-resistant soybeans. Nearby tomatoes also aren't a good indicator of whether or not dicamba may have wandered afield.