One of the most important steps in no-till weed control is to start with a clean field. This means you should use a burndown treatment to make sure the field is clean at or shortly after planting.

Soybeans that tolerate glyphosate have accounted for more than 90% of U.S. soybean acreage for much of the past decade. But no-tillers may be able to find conventional soybeans or alternatives to Roundup Ready that are more profitable due to premiums and offer the added bonus of managing for glyphosate resistance by using herbicides with differing modes of action.

From the Pacific Northwest to the Great Plains to the Eastern Corn Belt, no-tillers John Aeschliman, Dan Forgey, Allen Dean and Romey Bardwell grow different varieties of dryland wheat in different soils in areas receiving vastly different amounts of rain.

No-tillers should be cautious about planting corn 2 inches deep or more, says Barry Fisher, Indiana state agronomist with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service

Protecting yield potential requires cleaning up fields before no-tilling, controlling weeds when they are small and mixing modes of action.