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Articles by Frank Lessiter

NNTC

2002: Bigger, Better, Bolder

Jan. 9-12, St. Louis • 682 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
Ten years of results from Marion Calmer’s extensive on-farm research studies didn’t show any economic advantage for soybeans planted in late April or early May with plant populations of over 175,000 seeds per acre.
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NNTC

2001: Expanding The No-Till Toolbox

Jan. 10-13, Cincinnati • 720 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
No-till seeding equipment must be able to handle wet soils, heavy residue and soils that have an existing structure built around intensive tillage to get uniform and vigorous stands, says Matt Hagny.
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NNTC

2000: Tough Times ... Tough Decisions ... Prospering With No-Till

Jan. 12-15, Des Moines • 715 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
With the heavy soils in northwestern Ohio, Joe Nester likes to no-till with what he calls a defensive soybean program. The crop consultant from Antwerp, Ohio, says Roundup Ready soybean fields that are no-tilled need to be scouted more often than fields planted to traditional varieties. Just because these fields are free of weeds today doesn’t mean they will be next week.
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NNTC

1998: No-Till ... The Future Is Now

Jan. 22-24, Indianapolis • 660 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
With long-term no-till, Lloyd Murdock says growers can increase organic matter levels to a point where soils are very difficult to compact. The University of Kentucky soil scientist urges no-tillers not to resort to rotational tillage after a few years when problems arise. He predicts a number of benefits for no-till that won’t happen for 12-15 years down the road.
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NNTC

1997: More Profitable No-Till Strategies

Jan. 16-18, Des Moines • 680 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
John Walker told attendees deep-banding starch has the potential to increase yields with almost any no-till crop. The agronomist at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, told attendees to use granulated starch rather than powdered starch, mix it with starter fertilizer and deep band the mixture with the planter at a rate of at least 20 pounds of granulated starch per acre.
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NNTC

1995: Racing For Bigger No-Till Profits

Jan. 19-21, Indianapolis • 822 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
Todd Intermill equipped a 6-row John Deere no-till planter with six Case IH offset disc openers. The Colman, S.D., no-tiller took one disc off each row, alternating them left and right with the new discs so the leading discs would not pull the planter to the side.
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NNTC

1994: Ride The No-Till Success Express

Jan. 11-13, St. Louis • 865 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
In an 11-year experiment at the University of Tennessee’s Milan Experiment Station, John Bradley found the fuel costs of no-tilled corn amounted to $4.90 per acre less than conventional tillage. The long-time no-till researcher found corn yields were also higher with no-till.
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NNTC

1993: No-Tilling For The Future

Jan. 12-14, Indianapolis • 814 attendees
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017
Building strips in the fall leaves a mound of soil in the row area that remains 5-7 degrees warmer than the surrounding soil, says Cliff Roberts of Kentland, Ind. Fall stripping allows ideal fertilization placement and eliminates compaction in the row area. Having already strip-tilled for a half dozen years, Roberts indicated he had done it all wrong the first 3.
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NNTC

Celebrating 25 Years of No-Till Excellence

Here are a few year-by-year memories from this annual midwinter event that got its start in 1993.
By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017 | Posted in Cover Crops, Crop Protection, Equipment, Nutrient Management, Precision Agriculture, Residue Management, Seeding & Planting, Soil Health, Water Management
If you were to jot down all the reduced tillage learning opportunities that have occurred over the past 25 years at the National No-Tillage Conference, the numbers would be astronomical.
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Readers Blast Growers, Monsanto, Ag Chemical Dealers, Applicators and Even EPA Over 2016 Illegal Dicamba Usage with Roundup Ready 2 Xtend Soybeans

By Frank Lessiter posted on January 14, 2017 | Posted in Crop Protection
Recent approvals for two herbicides containing new formulations of dicamba offer no-tillers more options for over-the-top control of weeds in soybeans planted this spring. But those new labels won’t repair what happened when drift and yield loss occurred during the 2016 soybean growing season, due to growers in at least 10 states illegally using older versions of readily driftable dicamba to take advantage of the anticipated higher yield benefits with Monsanto’s new Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans.
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