With rising demand and prices, more Iowa acres being devoted to corn

Most experts believe the current high price for corn is going to lead to farmers putting a lot acres into corn this spring ? and a lot more corn-on-corn acres instead of a rotation to beans. And for many Iowa producers ? that seems to be translating into a lot more tillage. Barb Stewart is Iowa?s agronomist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Stewart says she?s worried about erosion from all that tillage ? and what it?s costing ag producers in extra fuel costs. Stewart says it’s already been evident this fall. Stewart says, ” As we drive across the landscape, we’re seeing a lot of people out there doing a lot of tillage. I mean, a lot of tillage.” Stewart says it’s been awhile since she’s seen this much fieldwork. She says farmers used to go out and hit the fields with the soil chisel in the fall, but now they’re chiseling it a couple of times, along with disking the soil a couple of times. Stewart says producers planting corn-on-corn should consider strip tilling ? and says there are producers successfully using no-till in corn-on-corn situations.