No-tillers and other growers using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) corn or cotton seed need to make sure they do a good job of following all of the essential rules and regulations this year.

If they want to continue to use Bt corn, growers need to do a better job of following the rules laid down last year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

While some readers feel fall or spring strip-tilling can overcome concerns about no-tilling corn, others aren't so sure that this is always the very best way to get the job done. Besides using no-till, many attendees at the National No-Tillage Conference in Cincinnati felt using residue conditioning machines could help expand the effectiveness of no-tilling corn

David Wipf learned a lot about precision corn planting last year, thanks to the Computrol II Monitor that he won at the 2000 National No-Tillage Conference. Wipf, crops manager at the Fairview Colony near LaMoure, N.D., directs production on 2,500 acres of no-till corn and soybeans.

Because a number of No-Till Farmer readers tell us that they often run into difficulties when no-tilling, we asked Howard Martin to address possible solutions to what he sees as the nine toughest no-till corn planting problems.