No sugarbeet-producing state had a higher percentage of its sugarbeet crop under a strip-till production system this past year than Nebraska. Roughly half of the state’s beet acreage was strip tilled this season, says Jerry Darnell, Western Sugar Cooperative’s Scottsbluff-based agronomy manager. That percentage is quite likely to expand in 2010 and beyond, he adds.

Traditionally, fertilizer phosphorus (P) is band-applied 6 to 7 inches deep in the strips at the time of strip tillage. This placement is thought to be ideal in terms of fertilizer use efficiency, early plant growth, and high yields. However, little research has been conducted to determine the optimum placement of P in strip-till systems.

Applying large amounts of lime can result in fairly rapid and substantial increases in soil pH at shallow soil depths. Although the lime eventually moves deeper into the soil profile, and the pH at the soil surface equilibrates and decreases somewhat, the temporary increase in pH can have consequences for the persistence and activity of herbicides applied this spring.

Long-term no-tillers, those who have employed the process for more than five years, have learned that they can get by with significantly less nitrogen.

Agricultural economist David Kohl shares important risk management recommendations, includinging is a brief synopsis of five key points critical to the success of agricultural operations today.

No-tiller Jim Andrew heard that nutrients from farms like his were traveling to the Gulf of Mexico and contributing to the hypoxic zone, a low-oxygen area in the Gulf that threatens shellfish and other aquatic life. So he went to Louisiana to learn more.

Fertilizer prices on no-till world markets dropped significantly last winter, but because of the buying cycle it has taken until this year for those lower prices to be reflected at local dealer levels.

One of the best techniques a no-till farmer can use to manage soybean cyst nematode is to rotate resistant soybean varieties, according to the preliminary findings of a Midwest soybean cyst nematode project.