What do farmers and fighter pilots have in common? Each must operate complex machinery, adapt to unpredictable situations and make quality decisions.

Brandon researchers spent 18 years combining three different input levels and crop rotations to study the impact on nutrients, soil quality, yield and implications for climate change.

Kansas State University Extension shares some detailed directions for measuring bulk density in soils to both analyze the effects of different management practices on soil quality and quantify the differences in soil density at various depths within the soil.

A four-year University of Nebraska cover crop research project is exploring whether winter cover cropping in no-till corn and soybean systems can benefit soil quality despite their short growing season.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service's Conservation Stewardship Program will provide about $175 million in funding for up to 12.6 million additional acres enrollment this year. Although applications are accepted all year, farmers, ranchers and forestland owners interested in CSP should submit applications by June 14 to their local NRCS office to ensure they are considered for this year's funding. The deadline was extended from May 31.

Using a strip tillage system in combination with cover crops benefits vegetable farmers as well as the land, according to long-term research by Dan Brainard, a Michigan State University (MSU) horticulture researcher.

After strip-tilling corn on soybeans for the first time 6 years ago, Newton, Iowa, farmer Will Cannon tried strip-tilling corn-on-corn in his second season and has continued ever since.

Three experienced scientists say soil pits are another tool no-tillers can use to examine soil structure, root development, compaction, soil quality and other important agronomical issues.

Old habits are hard to break. Most of us who advocate reduced-tillage practices have, at one time, been tillage addicts ourselves.