"I always joke that I'm in the capital city of 'it don't work here,'" says Jon Stevens, who has proven the naysayers wrong in the rocky soils of Rock Creek, Minn., with his implementation of strip-till, livestock and diverse crop rotations.

In recent years, several companies and public institutions have developed apps for mobile devices with the goal of providing a service to agricultural consultants and growers with educational materials and support tools.

Most producers would prefer to spread manure on their fields in spring and summer when the crops are going to get the most use out of it. Although the Department of Environmental Protection discourages winter manure application, there are circumstances when manure has to be applied in the winter, such as when wet fall weather kept field conditions unsuitable and the lack of a large enough storage structure to hold the manure until spring.

Beneath the snow now blanketing Michigan's corn fields lays a valuable but underused commodity: corn stover.

Cover crops are planted in the fall and stay on fields over the winter, covering the ground with foliage and holding soil in place with their roots.

Even during the driest of times the strip-till approach can still do a lot for farmers.

Switching to strip-till for continuous corn increased yields at least 5 to 10 bushels per acre, says Fountain, Minn., crop and livestock farmer Paul Hamann.