Besides no-tilling 2,500 acres, David and Donald Sutherland custom plant 2,500 acres each year. As a result, the Leroy, Kan., father-and-son team several years ago needed a bigger no-till planter.

To gain needed management experience and research data, University of Nebraska researchers established a long-term tillage study in 1981. The 2006 cropping year marked the 26th year of the study at the Rogers Memorial Farm that is 10 miles east of Lincoln.

With corn belt no-tillers expected to grow more corn and fewer soybeans next year, there are a number of major economic, yield and environmental concerns about making this rotational change.

When we asked No-Till Farmer readers to describe the critical changes they’re making this fall, we received a wide variety of ideas. Faced with needing to make changes based on rising expenses, environmental concerns and weather worries, these innovative no-tillers are adopting a number of different ideas to boost yields, trim costs and improve profitability.

Having invested in the latest sprayer technologies, cereal grain growers are gearing up to do a better job of applying pesticides — starting this fall with winter wheat.

Instead of worrying about whether Asian rust is going to hit your no-tilled soybean fields this summer, you should consider spraying fungicides, Wayne Pedersen says. The University of Illinois plant pathologist says it’s likely to pay dividends through control of several late-maturing soybean diseases.

With concerns continuing to develop over glyphosate weed resistance in no-tilled crops, weed scientists keep suggesting that growers start using LibertyLink and Clearfield traits that offer alter- native herbicide modes of action.

Despite the fact that U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials estimate that growing corn without atrazine could cost no-tillers as much as $28 an acre due to reduced yields and the need for more expensive herbicides, you might be in danger of losing this long-term weed control chemical product.

During January’s 14th annual National No-Tillage Conference in St. Louis, Charlie Rentschler gazed into the crystal ball and came up with 11 major trends no-tillers will have to deal with by the year 2020.