Pivotal Issues Blog

By: Laurie Bedford The benefits of automated steering are widely known. Yet, not all farmers operate machines that come factory-equipped with this technology. In order to provide more farmers with the opportunity to take advantage of automated steering, John Deere is expanding its AutoTrac Controller 300 to a variety of nonguidance-ready machine platforms. “This solution […]

By: Gil Gullickson If there’s any spring that farmers would like to forget, it’s 2019. Rampant rainfall in many areas made field operations downright miserable and, in some cases, impossible. So what now? Once harvest is done, 2020 beckons. To raise bumper-corn yields, farmers need a sound fertility strategy. Following are four fertility factors to keep […]

By: Jodi Henke A Florida start-up company called Anuvia is recycling a wide range of organic waste materials into high-value slow-release crop fertilizers. The process creates a pound of fertilizer for each pound of material used. Compared to conventional fertilizers, a study of the product by Environmental Resources Management says this new technology will feed crops and […]

By: Successful Farming Now is the time to determine which agronomic plans can or should be updated for 2020. While growing seasons may be unpredictable, growers can be better prepared for whatever the season has in store by planning to ensure the health of their crops. When it comes to crop protection, including fungicides in […]

By: Natalina Sents In May 2020, farmers will be able to order AGCO’s Fendt Ideal combine without a steering wheel. Instead, the machine will be equipped with the new Fendt IdealDrive introduced at the 2020 Commodity Classic. IdealDrive is a joystick steering system option that gives the combine operator a clear view of the whole […]

By: Laurie Bedford Soil sampling has always been an important management tool to ensure a crop gets the nutrients it needs. Yet, the technology that unearths the critical details in the dirt has changed little through the years. “While we have seen some advancements in areas like zone management and determining where to take samples, […]

By: Jerry Nelson At this time of the year, most people are ready for winter to be over. Winter has become like an old college buddy who dropped by unexpectedly and ended up staying for several months. It was fun at first. Getting reacquainted, recalling those adrenalin-charged sled rides down Busted Skull Hill. Guffawing over […]

By: Raylene Nickel The results of Iowa State University’s (ISU) long-term Marsden Farm experiment showed the soil-saving benefits of adding forage legumes and small grains to a corn-soybean rotation, even when tillage was part of the production system. Add no-till to the equation, and the results are magnified. That’s the finding of the Union of Concerned […]

By: Megan Vollstedt “In a perfect world that university staff dream about, you would treat every field separately according to its soil test,” says Dick Wolkwoski, Extension soil scientist at University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the Conservation Tillage Conference in St. Cloud, Minnesota, this week, experts covered a variety of soil health topics, but throughout all discussions […]

By: Gil Gullickson Corn farmers wrestled with old and new corn diseases in 2019 that likely will again be present in 2020. These included the usual suspects, such as gray leaf spot. One new one, though, is Physoderma brown spot. Symptoms of this fungal disease include numerous lesions that appear on midcanopy leaves. Nodal infection from […]