Source: By Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor, University of Illinois
Researchers report in a new study that several bird species some of them relatively rare are making extensive use of soybean fields in Illinois. The team found significantly more birds and a greater diversity of bird species nesting, roosting and feeding in no-till soybean fields than in tilled fields.
Bats are voracious feeders. Beyond eating mosquitoes, there is a definite advantage in having them on your property during the row crop season. Their food of choice is a wide variety of night-flying insects, many of which are the adult stages of crop pests.
No-tillers must sort through the sales hype and learn more about their seed sources to find economical, effective species and varieties that will accomplish their cover-crop goals.
As more and more no-tillers embrace cover crops, the production of the seed itself has become a rapidly growing industry in which marketing can sometimes outpace performance.
Fall herbicide applications are still a good idea this year, despite a later-than-normal harvest, according to Ohio State University Extension weed specialist Mark Loux.
Aaron Hager of the University of Illinois Extension Service cautions that wheat stubble fields in which no second crop is planted often become populated with summer annual (and sometimes perennial) weed species. No-tillers should not allow these plants to reach maturity and produce seed, he says.
Doug Buhler is as concerned about weeds as any no-tiller. The weed specialist from Ames, Iowa, is apprehensive about the increased resistance to herbicides that weeds are showing in an ever-increasing frequency.
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On this episode of Conservation Ag Update, brought to you by Sound Agriculture, No-Till Innovators Allen Berry, Barry Fisher, Ray McCormick and Loran Steinlage share 4 tips for the upcoming growing season.
Needham Ag understands the role of technology in making better use of limited resources within a specific environment by drawing on a wealth of global experience to overcome the challenges facing today's farmers, manufacturers and dealers.
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