USDA News
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Farmers and Nonprofits Sue Trump`s USDA Over Organic Soil-Less Loophole
Today, Center for Food Safety (CFS), along with a coalition of organic farms and stakeholders, filed a lawsuit challenging the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) decision to allow hydroponic operations to be certified organic. The lawsuit claims that hydroponic operations violate organic standards for failing to build heathy soils, and asks the Court to stop USDA from allowing ...
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Satellites help keep Chesapeake Bay clean
Space-age technologies to help Maryland implement and monitor an expanded winter cover crop program that is vital to the Chesapeake Bay's health are being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Beltsville, Md. Soil scientist Gregory McCarty and colleagues Dean Hively, Ali Sadeghi and Megan Lang with the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville are ...
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Where is your soil water? Crop yield has the answer
Crop yield is highly dependent on soil plant-available water, the portion of soil water that can be taken up by plant roots. Quantitative determination of the maximum amount of plant-available water in soil using traditional methods on soil samples remains challenging, especially at the scale of an entire field. However, a map of plant-available water capacity for a field would be instrumental in ...
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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 more. The “Soil Moisture Sensing for Crop Health Assessment and Management” symposium planned at the Resilience Emerging from Scarcity ...
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Nitrogen recommendations based on crop reflectance
Nitrogen fertilizer is usually applied in greater quantities to corn than almost any other crop. But when it’s applied in excess of requirements, loss of the excess fertilizer to the environment can contribute to degraded water quality. One of the challenges to making an appropriate nitrogen fertilizer recommendation is the potential variability in soil nitrogen availability that may occur ...
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Crop water use efficiency
Crop water use efficiency (WUE), or yield per unit of water used, can be improved through irrigation management and methods, including deficit irrigation (irrigating less than is required for maximum yields) and supplemental irrigation (irrigating to supplement precipitation so as to avoid crop failure or severe yield decline). Thus, WUE is key for agricultural production with limited water ...
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Squeezing more crop out of each drop of water
Studies in China and Colorado by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators have revealed some interesting tactics on how to irrigate with limited water, based on a crop’s critical growth stages. Laj Ahuja, research leader at the ARS Agricultural Systems Research Unit in Fort Collins, Colo., and colleagues conducted the studies. As one example, with wheat in China, they ...
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Brazil Soybean Production and Weather
Over the past 20 years, Brazil has emerged in the global agriculture industry as both a major producer and exporter of agricultural products. Agricultural production in Brazil has exploded over this time and its impact on global markets has been significant. As shown below, Brazil has become the number two producer of soybeans by 2017, according to the UN FAO. Brazil is in the southern hemisphere ...
By CropProphet
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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 include nutrient cycling and soil cover. Although cover crop benefits to agroecosystems are well documented, cover crop use in agronomic farming systems ...
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