Plant & Soil Health: Phosphorus Availability
Phosphorus is one of the nutrients targeted in the nutrient reduction strategy recently proposed by the Illinois EPA. Phosphorus loss isn’t so much about amount, [...]
Plant Health: Applying Boron on Soybeans
While farmers don’t think much about applying boron, a micronutrient needed in small amounts, it is the most common micronutrient deficiency in soybeans, followed [...]
Plant & Soil Health: Importance of Potassium in Soybeans
Soybeans have a big appetite for potassium, so ask yourself, are you feeding them enough? Soybeans require potash and plenty of it and remove [...]
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, [...]
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