One important benefit of cover crops to our production system is providing an alternative selection pressure on weed populations. Cereal rye has the best potential to suppress weeds because it accumulates more biomass than other cover crop species. Read more in this article from Iowa State University Extension.

A&L Canada Laboratories Inc. announced today the launch of VitTellus Bio, a new soil health test for the agriculture industry that quantifies soil microbial populations which support improved soil health and greater crop productivity.

The latest Crop Progress report from USDA shows 31% of soybeans were reported blooming in the week ended July 5, almost four times the 8% reported blooming in the same week last year.

In this episode of the Strip-Till Farmer podcast, brought to you by Agrisolutions, we get some expert insight into how strip-tillers can protect their soil health by limiting equipment traffic and promoting biological activity underneath the surface.

In case you missed them, here are the items that have garnered the most interest from other farmers in the month of June.

According to the latest USDA Crop Progress report, the percentage of corn silking and, to a larger degree, soybean blooming progress remains well ahead of where it was last year.

According to the latest USDA Crop Progress report, which was the first report of the year to begin tracking corn silking and soybean blooming, both are slightly ahead of last year's progress.

The growth in cover cropping may soon hit a ceiling: planting millions of acres of cover crops will require huge extensions of land to produce cover crop seed. Between 3 and 6% of the 92 million acres of cropping land currently used for corn in the U.S. may be required to produce cover crop seed for that land area. Read more in this article from Seed World.

The most recent USDA crop progress report shows nearly all corn in the U.S. (95%) has emerged as of the week ended June 14, 2020, well above the 74% emerged this time last year and the 5 year average of 92%.