Farm Foundation, NFP and The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation announced the launch of a new initiative designed to bring attention to the critical role of soil health in the challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050. This announcement is being made to mark World Soil Day on Dec. 5.

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.

Due to the cool and wet conditions, soybeans harvested late at this time will need to be dried either on the farm or at the elevator. Some elevators will accept soybeans up to 20 percent moisture while others will reject loads that are above 16 percent moisture. Contact your elevator prior to delivery.

Waterfowl hunters should keep in mind that some fields are considered baited and off limits to waterfowl hunting. Due to the wet and cold spring, some farmers were unable to plant a normal crop for harvest. Instead they worked with their insurance companies or the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Conservation Service office to plant a cover crop.

Saturated soils proved to be a challenge for Iowa farmers this past spring. Iowa had 726,350 prevented planting acres according to the Nov. 1, 2013 FSA prevented acres report. More than 619,000 intended corn acres and about 107,000 soybean intended acres were reported as not planted here in Iowa.

With the global population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, the world's farmers are going to need to produce a lot more food but without using much more farmland, as the vast majority of the world's arable land is already being used for agriculture.

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.

POWERCORE, a new corn trait technology from Dow AgroSciences, received registration from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A combination of Herculex I and VT Double Pro, it provides broad-spectrum control of aboveground corn insects, including black cutworm and western bean cutworm.

USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service is partnering with farmers to establish 20 edge-of-field monitoring stations that will measure the benefits of conservation systems, including cover crops, nutrient management and irrigation water management.

Trelleborg has received the Machine of the Year? Award 2014 for its new ProgressiveTraction technology. The ceremony was held at the leading agricultural exhibition, AGRITECHNICA 2013, in Hannover, Germany on Nov. 12, 2013.