Tiles provide great benefit to field production. When soils are saturated, it creates challenges for plants to get enough oxygen.

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Drainage tiles help remove water quickly from fields. Prior to installing the drainage tiles, rains would have created large ponds. 

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Watch water running into a ditch from a field tile. 

Connect with Kevin Brooks, Illinois Extension Farm Business Management and Marketing Educator at kwbrooks@illinois.edu.

Learn the purpose of the stand pipes you see in the middle of fields. The systems can sometimes go several miles. In central Illinois, many of these systems are aging.

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As the planting season begins, let's take a ride with a farmer and learn more about vertical tillage. The vertical tool is called an accelerator. It works a depth up to four inches. The 40-foot tool takes 500 horsepower to pull. It chops the stalks up. The vertical tool is better for...

You can see the difference it makes when you leave stalk residue in the field after harvest.

Connect with Kevin Brooks, Illinois Extension Farm Business Management and Marketing Educator at kwbrooks@illinois.edu.

Vertical tillage is a useful technique used to reduce soil erosion. It is important to keep the good top soil in place on your fields. The method doesn't disturb the soil; it opens it up in preparation of the seed. Kevin Brooks interviews Phil Crawford as he prepares to transition a field from...

In the fall, the farmer will till the where the crop was. In the spring, the balance of the soil is tilled. This prepares a good seedbed for the seed with less moisture loss. This method could delay planting since the soil may be cooler.

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As planting season is in full swing, Kevin Brooks takes us on a "tour" of a modern planter.

Connect with Kevin Brooks, Illinois Extension Farm Business Management and Marketing Educator at kwbrooks@illinois.edu.

Computers are a common part of modern tractors. It helps the farmer better control planting variables such as amount of seed planted and exact location it is planted. Thanks to technology, the farmer can save money on seeds and fertilizer while producing a more productive crop.

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Kevin Brooks walks landowners through another aspect of modern farming. Track tractors are becoming more and more popular. Benefits of track tractors have to do with compaction and traction.

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Farmers have technology that monitors seeds, helps fine tune the application of liquid products like herbicide, and even steers the tractor. All of the technology can help improve the final harvest, but can also add frustrations to the farming process. Hear directly from a farmer who has learned...

Before the seed goes in the ground, farmers spray the ground. For this particular filed the farm is using 28% nitrogen and a preplant herbicide. Thanks to technology, the farmer can utilize GPS and other onboard technology to better control the amount of spray being used.

Listen in as Kevin Brooks, U of I Extension farm business management and marketing educator rides along with an Illinois farmer as they discuss factors that improve the crop's yield.

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While some tractors are equipped with GPS technology others use the old marker system to mark the ends of the field.

Connect with Kevin Brooks, Illinois Extension Farm Business Management and Marketing Educator at kwbrooks@illinois.edu...

Modern planters are much larger now. Rather than loading these large planters using single bags, they are loaded into a large bin on the top of the planter.

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Ride along with Kevin Brooks as he interviews the farmer as he plants two different varieties of corn at the same time. There are many factors that go into making that decision: weather, insect, production, yield.

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