Jerry Hatfield

Keeping plants healthy throughout the growing season is critical to a successful corn crop. But understanding and satisfying early season nutrient needs can help strip-tillers set the stage for a bumper crop.

Dr. Jerry Hatfield, supervisory plant physiologist with the USDA’s Agricultural  Research Service (ARS), has done extensive research on the interactions within the soil-plant-atmosphere spectrum and their connection to air, water and soil quality.

“In many situations, farmers grossly underestimate the importance of getting plants off to a good start and the value of uniform emergence on corn crop yields,” he says. “It’s important to take as much stress off that plant early on.”

During a general session on Thursday, Aug. 4, at the 2016 National Strip-Tillage Conference, Hatfield will discuss recent research that looks at the correlation between early season nutrient applications on plant health in strip-tilled corn and its impact on yields.

The host Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Normal, Ill., will offer an ideal learning environment for attendees to absorb dozens upon dozens of actionable strip-till practices from fellow farmers, consultants, university specialists and other agricultural experts through general sessions, strip-till classrooms, roundtable discussions, hallway networking and a special members-only workshop.

Preliminary plans for the event include 7 general session speakers, 12 classrooms covering a range of strip-till topics, including cover cropping, precision farming practices and equipment modifications, and 20 roundtable discussions.

Stay tuned for more conference updates by visiting www.StripTillConference.com and we’ll see you in central Illinois!