While passage last summer of the American Clean Energy and Security Act by the House of Representatives calls for establishing a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gases, it’s expected to have a serious financial impact for farmers. However, the financial penalties will be much lower for continuous no-tillers.

David Hula captured top no-till yield honors in last fall’s National Corn Growers Association contest with a yield of 319.3 bushels per acre. While this Charles City, Va., no-tiller’s result was about double the current national average, 300 bushels is a yield some industry leaders are anticipating as being typical just 20 years from now.

Even with new innovations coming for maintaining refuge acres with genetically engineered (GE) corn, there’s solid evidence that many growers are not meeting the current requirements. In fact, one out of every four growers who plants genetically engineered corn is failing to comply with at least one important insect-resistance management requirement, claim staffers with the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in Washington, D.C.

A number of no-tillers may have enjoyed extra benefits during this fall’s tough harvest season by having auto-guidance installed on the combine.

If you ran a fluffing harrow over some of your ground last spring just before planting, you may be surprised to learn that the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) no longer considers those fields to be no-tilled.

Even though the conservation and environmental benefits of no-tilling are likely reason enough to consider switching tillage practices, many farmers still want to know if it will pay off economically.

Many no-tillers have been wondering when the refuge requirement for Bt corn hybrids might be reduced. With a reduced refuge, they’ve been calculating how much corn yields could be raised across their operations.

Grower acceptance of genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybean and cotton has certainly been dramatic since the introduction of this technology 13 years ago. Many growers have used these herbicide and insect traits to boost yields while reducing production costs with more environmentally friendly farming practices.

Plenty of no-tillers were faced with lengthy delays in getting their crops planted this spring. And the critical question was whether these unfortunate delays led to last-minute cropping changes, or whether growers were sticking with their initial cropping strategies.

Several recent developments in the pesticide area represent disturbing examples of how the environmentalists pay little attention to scientific facts. As a result, several pesticides and genetically modified organism (GMO) corn hybrids are under increased fire from lawyers and governmental agencies that could impact no-tillers.