Floyd Koerner, Michigan strip-tiller, explains their strategy for strip-tilling in the spring. At Koerner Farms, cover crops are planted in the fall and then killed when the temperature reaches about 50 degrees. The strips are built about a week before planting.

The EPA has just established tolerances for the first time for metaldehyde for corn and soybean, which will mean that molluscicides for slug control containing this product, such as Deadline MPs, should be available in the future for both corn and soybean in Ohio.

If we could predict or know that the planting season during 2014 would be like it was in 2012 (the dry spring), then we would say don't treat your seed at all. But if the season is like this past year, wet, the combinations of seed treatments did a much better job and at the higher rates. There have been lots of questions over the past few days on what fungicides to apply; what rates to use; and are insecticides always necessary. Here we try to parse it all out for you.

Nov. 26, 2013 Environmental conditions influence the activity and weed control achieved with any herbicide.

Corn that contains proteins that protect it from insect damage has been grown in the U.S. since the mid-1990s. Known as Bt corn, because the proteins are derived from a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis, these plants have been widely grown by farmers.

A naturally occurring fungus may prove useful in the fight against Palmer amaranth, an aggressive southern weed that can grow at the rate of two inches a day and outcompete corn, cotton, soybean and other crops for resources, potentially reducing their yields.

Leaving corn to dry in the field exposes a crop to unfavorable weather conditions, as well as wildlife damage, say Ohio St. University researchers.

There were multiple reports of Sudden Death Syndrome (SDS) in soybeans this past year. The cooler, wet season helped promote the disease in susceptible varieties, but the presence of soybean cyst nematode (SCN) can also increase the effect of SDS.

As the 2013 corn and soybean harvest begins to wind down, we would like to encourage growers to take a proactive approach to managing winter annual weeds prior to the onset of winter.

Michigan State University field crops entomologist Chris DiFonzo and University of Wisconsin entomologist Eileen Cullen recently updated and published their Handy Bt Trait Table. This great reference provides information for transgenic hybrids on the types of Bt proteins expressed, insects controlled, herbicide tolerance and refuge requirements for selected traits.