17 News & Press Releases found
American Society of Agronomy News
-
Promising solution to runoff issues ahead
At Thanksgiving, many Americans look forward to eating roast turkey, pumpkin pie, and tangy red cranberries. To feed that appetite, cranberry farming is big business. In Massachusetts, cranberries are the most valuable food crop. The ...
-
Easing the soil’s temperature
Soil characteristics like organic matter content and moisture play a vital role in helping plants flourish. It turns out that soil temperature is just as important. Every plant needs a certain soil temperature to thrive. If the temperature changes ...
-
Mineral content of soils key to physical and chemical behavior
Many aspects of the physical and chemical behavior of soils are directly related to the minerals present. “This includes shrink-swell behavior, soil structure, availability of nutrients, and the fate of contaminants that enter the ...
-
Treating citrus greening with copper: Effects on trees, soils
Citrus greening is a major challenge for Florida growers. The disease destroys the production, appearance, and economic value of citrus trees and their fruit. Trees decline and die within three years. Researchers at the University of Florida and ...
-
Carbon cycling in forest soils research presented
Just as individual humans have different microbial communities in their guts, the microbial communities living in soils vary from site to site as well. Recent research compared the decomposition rates of wood stakes over eight sites to gain an ...
-
Mining for answers on abandoned mines
Soil scientist Jim Ippolito believes in local solutions to local problems. The problem he’s working on is contaminated soils near abandoned mines. In the western United States 160,000 abandoned mines contaminate soils in the region. ...
-
Writing an equation for soil success
Soil isn’t one size fits all. It may look the same under your feet – but under a microscope, that’s a different story. A plant’s roots, tiny bugs – these things can tell one soil from another quite easily. Soil ...
-
Soil moisture for crop health topic of symposium
Soil moisture sensing through either contact or remote technology captures soil-plant-water information that relates closely with plant water availability and use. Innovations in remote sensing technologies can inform plant health assessments and ...
-
Keeping a pulse on the soil
Leaving behind stubble is not ideal when shaving, but it’s a good practice to leave behind crop “stubble” after harvest. According to soil scientist Frank Larney, crop residue anchors the soil against wind and water erosion. ...
-
Bringing nitrogen out to pasture
Cows in Brazil might start bellowing "leguuume" rather than "moo." That`s because Jose Dubeux Jr. wants to plant more legume trees in cow pastures. Dubeux is an assistant professor of Agronomy at North Florida Research & Education Center. ...
-
Food security may be increased by new agricultural production modeling
Farmers are used to optimizing crop production on their own lands. They do soil tests to choose the right amount of fertilizers to apply, and they sometimes plant row crops on some fields while keeping others in pasture. But is it possible to ...
-
Growing Sorghum for Biofuel
Conversion of sorghum grass to ethanol has increased with the interest in renewable fuel sources. Researchers at Iowa State University examined 12 varieties of sorghum grass grown in single and double cropping systems. The experiment was designed to ...
-
Soil phosphorus in an organic cropping system
Phosphorus is a nonrenewable resource, raising concerns that agricultural practices may deplete reserves. (For one overview discussion of phosphorus, see Phosphorus Famine: The Threat to Our Food Supply in the June 2009 Scientific American.) ...
-
Impacts of tillage on soil and crops
The increasing popularity of reduced tillage on crops has not only been an important development in combating soil erosion, but it has also been associated with increasing organic material and producing high crop yields. For peanut crops, however, ...
-
Experiment demonstrates 110 years of sustainable agriculture
A plot of land on the campus of Auburn University shows that 110 years of sustainable farming practices can produce similar cotton crops to those using other methods. In 1896, Professor J.F. Duggar at the Agricultural and Mechanical College ...
-
Crop management: how small do we go?
The use of on-the-go crop and soil sensors has greatly increased the precision with which farmers can manage their crops. Recently released research in Agronomy Journal questions whether more precise management is necessarily more efficient. They ...
-
Self-seeding: an innovative management system
US researchers have investigated the potential for rye and wheat cover crops to perpetuate themselves, saving time and money for farmers while providing environmental benefits Winter cover crops provide important ecological functions that ...