We spoke with Roger Murdock of Ingersoll Tillage Group at the 2014 National Strip-Tillage Conference in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In this video, he discusses how proper selection of tillage discs affects handling residue, crop yield, soil health and their key characteristics contributing to field performance. He also addresses Ingersoll's approach to meeting the changing needs in today's tillage practices.

Planting cereal rye as a cover crop provides numerous short- and long-term agronomic and environmental benefits. Although inconsistent, under certain situations the yield of corn planted into the residue of a rye cover crop may be reduced.

The 2014 corn planting season is certainly off to a slow start in Indiana and elsewhere across the Midwest, primarily due to delayed drying and warming of soils. The April 21 USDA-NASS crop report estimated that 1% of Indiana's corn crop had been planted as of April 20, compared to the 5-year average planting progress of 14%.

Heading into his fourth year of strip-tilling, Jeremy Swanson is still waiting to see what kind of a yield improvement he’ll get after moving away from conventional tillage.

The unpredictable climate often provides enough moisture to maintain a healthy crop throughout the growing season, but also challenges the Nixons to plan accordingly with fertility and residue-management strategies so they can be ready to plant in a timely manner.

For some farmers, their early transition to strip-till conjures up fond memories of higher yields or improved fertilizer placement, while for others, building those first berms serves more as reminder of how far they've come in their operation.

Dry conditions and lack of soil moisture availability, especially during planting time this spring, can create water stress resulting in delayed germination, a reduction in plant stands or may prevent seed germination.

In 5 years of strip-tilling, Josh Backstrom of Maddock, N.D., has gone through quite a learning curve, which has included figuring out how to manage rocks and residue.

Based on the results from the trials, strip-till looks promising for soybean production in 30-inch rows in Michigan, but the practice should be restricted to fields having slopes less than 5% to reduce water-erosion potential in the rows.

The following are a few suggestions he had for attendees at the 2008 National No-Tillage Conference on how to make strip-till work right the first time.