50-40-20. Those three numbers have great significance to the No-Till Farmer family.

Recognizing Ohio's top conservation farm families seemed particularly significant during this year's awards ceremony at the Farm Science Review Sept. 22.

The American Soybean Association (ASA) is pleased to announce Ryan Speer of Jacob Farms in Sedgwick, Kan. (Midwest Region), Rodney Rulon of Rulon Enterprises in Arcadia, Ind. (Northeast Region) and E. Cullen Bryant of Bryant Farms in Dillon, S.C. (South Region) as the regional winners of the 2012 Conservation Legacy Awards.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has released an updated version of its Farmers' Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program.

Even as we just released our September issue of No-Till Farmer newsletter and are working on the October issue, we're forging ahead with big plans for the Fall issue of No-Till Farmer's Conservation Tillage Guide.

Terry Elsberndbegan using no-till practices on his corn-soybean rotation to save labor and conserve soil and he recently began using no-till in a corn-on-corn rotation.

The State of Maryland has committed approximately $16 million for the 2011-2012 Cover Crop Program, which provides grants to farmers who plant cover crops in the fall to conserve nutrients, reduce soil erosion and protect water quality in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

As increased levels of dissolved phosphorus in farm fields are identified as a major factor in the number of algal blooms in Lake Erie, some are pointing to no-till planting as one of the primary causes of the phosphorus run-off.

A recently completed five-year study of conservation tillage practices in the 4.9 million acre Western Lake Erie Basin watershed reveals that most fields in the watersheds are either tilled conventionally or stirred with mulch tillage at least once every three to five years.

The total value of bats to U.S. agriculture, and the potential loss from white-nose syndrome, ranges from a low of $3.7 billion to a high of $53 billion a year.