Plant & Soil Health – Availability of Phosphorus in Manure Applications to Soil
The total phosphorus content in manure varies depending on the animal species, age, diet, and how the manure has been stored. Concentration of phosphorus [...]
Agronomy: Thinking about Nitrogen Fixation
Are your soybeans fixing as much nitrogen as possible and how much nitrogen can a soybean plant fix? Soybeans are a legume and take [...]
Plant & Soil Health – Reducing Gully Erosion in Crop Fields
With the intense rains this past season, some areas of the state had considerable gully erosion cutting up the fields, bounced across and made [...]
Agronomy: Managing Crop Residue
Producers plant soybeans either back into cornstalks or wheat stubble—both very high residue crops that can present some special challenges for the next crop. [...]
Agronomy: Soybeans Require Sulfur
Do soybeans respond to sulfur? That is a question that has been on my mind recently. Do we really know if they do, and [...]
Plant & Soil Health: Becoming an Environmentally Conscious Steward
What does it take to be considered improved environmental steward at the farm gate? Is it a focus on water quality, an environmental footprint, [...]
Plant & Soil Health: How Does Gypsum Benefit the Soil?
As a part-time farmer I am an advocate of gypsum because I have seen it change the nature of soil. As an agronomist, however, [...]
Plant & Soil Health: Fertilizer Stewardship: The 4Rs
With increased attention to how nutrients are managed in Illinois, the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA) has implemented a 4R Code of Practice, [...]
Plant & Soil Health – Time to Apply New Thinking to Fall-Applied N?
Applying nitrogen in the fall is a well-established practice in central and northern Illinois. It helps to speed up planting in the spring; however, [...]
Agronomics: Best Management Practices to Keep Phosphorus on the Field
Looking at current Ohio field research and the literature available on the topic of minimizing losses of phosphorus at the edge of the field [...]
and then