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%.

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.

Soybean production is expanding. In some situations, the crop will be planted in fields that have never been planted to soybeans or haven't been planted to soybeans for more than four years. This article provides recommendations for planting soybeans under these conditions.

Fox Lake, Wis., strip-tiller Jonathan Gibbs gives an overview of modifications to his 8-row Hiniker corn planter. Originally designed for a ridge-till environment, Gibbs evolved the machine to enhance fertilizer placement and residue management in strip-till.

Corn planting will soon begin in earnest, but Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) On-Farm Network replicated strip trials show high seeding rates aren't always better.

There has been a great deal of interest in recent months in the idea of using nitrogen fertilizer during the growing season to increase soybean yields.

As past experience has taught many of us that live in the "frozen tundra," a Wisconsin spring can appear rapidly, so here are a few thoughts to mull over before we all get busy and throw recommendations out the window to get those crops in the ground.

Because of the dramatic swings in air temperature that we've experienced already this spring, we've received a few questions about the effect of air temperatures on our spring burndown applications. Specifically, most people are asking, "When is it too cold to apply a burndown herbicide?" and "What are the conditions that lead to poor weed control following a burndown herbicide application?"

Pop-up fertilizers are commonly used in some corn growing areas in the country.

Stover accumulation has been shown to reduce corn grain yields in continuous corn production systems leading to suggestions that high corn prices, which result in more continuous corn production, will also could result in widespread implementation of stover removal practices.