LaPorte City, Iowa, farmer Dean Fehl shares his 'keep it simple' strategy for developing a successful strip-till operation, which has contributed to a double-digit increase in corn yield and helped solve some of the challenges he faced no-tilling corn into soybean stubble.

The trend among northern Plains farmers is toward using less tillage to produce field crops with more residue left on the soil surface and strip-till is one system being utilized in the area. Researchers from South Dakota State University detail some of the benefits and considerations for implementing and managing strip-till.

Some producers are taking advantage of frozen ground conditions to apply nitrogen to wheat fields or manure to corn fields.

Ricky Kratz, Slinger, Wis., strip-tiller, talks about his transition into strip-till. After several years of zone-tilling about 2,000 acres of corn with a three-coulter Rawson system, they found stress on the 12-row Kinze 2600 planter they were using was costing them time and yield potential.

Steve Duwe understands the anxiety that comes with heavy rains and the havoc they can wreak on fields in the fall. In 2008, extreme flooding pushed corn harvest back, and an early winter prevented him from doing any fall tillage.

Corn and soybean harvest continues to move along in Illinois, and as the 2013 crops come off, thoughts turn to fall fertilization. In this article we'll discuss nutrients other than nitrogen. This will be followed soon by an article on nitrogen.

Strip-tillers who use soil tests to find where essential nutrients are located in the upper soil profile can better optimize fertilizer placement.

Estimating drydown rates and determining when to harvest corn for dry grain storage.

When Nick Viney partnered with Josh Trautman to form Badgerland Grain Farms LLC in 2006, they started with just 155 acres in south-central Wisconsin. But during the last 7 years, they've grown their Evansville, Wis.-based operation to more than 1,800 acres, an even split of strip-till corn and no-till soybeans, with about 180 acres of no-till wheat.