With an increasing global population, a shrinking agricultural land base, climate change and extreme weather events, the nations of the world are focusing their collective attention to the primary resource essential to food production - the soil.

Historically farmers considered crop rotation a valuable part of their farm management. Crop rotations can be complicated or straightforward. In any given situation there are many factors that each farmer will need to weigh and consider as they find the right crop rotation for them. There are a few guidelines that can help producers with their planning.

Is there a fallow period in your crop rotation after wheat harvest? If so, you have an excellent opportunity to seed various legume cover crop species to supply nitrogen (N) to your following crop.

Nebraska Strip-Tiller Thrives on Spring Crop Rotation Flexibility Brandon Hunnicutt, strip-tiller in Giltner, Neb., talks about building his strips in the fall without nutrient placement, to provide crop rotation flexibility in the spring. He also discusses the potential of placing dry fertilizer in the fall to stay ahead of nitrogen regulations in the state.

Brandon Hunnicutt, strip-tiller in Giltner, Neb., talks about building his strips in the fall without nutrient placement, to provide crop rotation flexibility in the spring. He also discusses the potential of placing dry fertilizer in the fall to stay ahead of nitrogen regulations in the state.

Although reducing tillage intensity can provide conservation benefits and cost savings, adoption of no-till and minimum till practices for corn production has been limited in some areas, particularly in the northern Corn Belt. In this environment, a shorter growing season and cold, poorly drained soils can lead to delayed planting, low and uneven emergence and lower yields for reduced versus conventional tillage. Strip-till has been proposed as an alternative minimum tillage system for areas and soils that are not well suited for no-till management.

More growers are seeing major benefits by strip-tilling in the spring, citing cropping flexibility, slashed fertilizer costs, reduced winter erosion and the ability to deal with changing weather conditions.

Strip-tilling ranks high among the ways growers are contending with the challenges of continuous corn.

Fullerton, N.D., strip-tiller Eric Larson and his brother, Carl, modified their strip-till rig so it could run in the fall and the spring.