So much to my surprise, a report from ASA arrived in my email inbox around the first of June. Authored by ASA chief economist Scott Gerlt, his analysis of government data indicates less than 5% of U.S. soybeans are currently being double-cropped each year. This double-cropped soybean acreage has continued to decline over the past decade, dropping from around 10% of the total in 2013 despite the continued growth in no-till soybean production.

On the opening day of our National No-Tillage Conference in January, John Deere introduced its first-ever autonomous tractor in Las Vegas to considerable fanfare. While the advanced driverless tractor is no doubt an engineering marvel, the package deal that requires the purchase of decades-old chisel plow technology is not so innovative.