Crop Rotation News
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Energy crops and their environmental implications
Interest in producing cellulosic ethanol from renewable energy sources is growing. Potential energy crops include row crops such as corn, perennial warm-season grasses, and short-rotation woody crops. However, impacts of growing dedicated energy crops as biofuel on soil and environment have not been well documented. This review article looks at the impacts of growing warm-season grasses and ...
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Using rotation crops to improve soil quality
Soil quality issues are being researched within two crop rotation experiments that started in 1994 at Narrabri. They compare several crop rotations that include or exclude legume phases. The data presented here relate to the most recent 2-year cycles of these experiments. Following cotton harvest at the end of the previous cycle, rotation crops are sown (winter cereal, faba beans (grain) or vetch ...
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Using nature`s resources to store carbon
The ability of the Earth's living systems to store carbon could play a vital role in the mitigation of climate change. A new report suggests that, in coming decades, safeguarding and restoring carbon in ecosystems has the potential to prevent well over 50 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon entering the atmosphere. Last year the EU launched its Climate Action and Renewable Energy package to set a target ...
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No-till improves near-surface soil properties
Near-surface soil aggregate structural properties such as aggregate size distribution, stability, strength, and wettability determine the extent to which a soil will erode under water or wind erosive forces. Knowledge of aggregate structural properties is especially important in semiarid regions, such as the Great Plains, where low precipitation, high evaporation, and variable biomass production ...
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The lurking menace of weeds
Today more than a billion people in the world are hungry, the result of flawed policies mainly, but also of wars and revolutions and of natural hazards like floods, droughts, pests and diseases compounded, nowadays, by climate change. But one huge hunger-maker lurks largely unnoticed ... 'Maybe it's because weeds are not very spectacular,' says weed expert Ricardo Labrada-Romero. 'Droughts, ...
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Study by ARS microbiologist in Texas shows farming practices’ benefits to soil quality
The first evaluation of alternative farming practices—based on changes in soil microbes—in the Texas High Plains has been done by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist. Soil microbiologist Veronica Acosta-Martinez has also done a similar analysis for land in USDA's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), a first nationally. Changes in microbes can give a relatively early indication as to ...
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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.) Organic farming with low phosphorus inputs can result in deficient levels of plant-available phosphorus (available-P).A group of researchers from Canada ...
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Strong focus on soils at Cummins GRDC Update
Probing soil moisture and building soil carbon will be key topics explored at the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) Update at Cummins on August 11. GRDC Southern Regional Panel chair David Shannon said growers on the lower Eyre Peninsula often dealt with ‘difficult’ soils and were keen for information to assist them in managing their soils. “The lower Eyre Peninsula is a very ...
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Integrated weed management can reduce need for herbicides
The use of herbicides on crops causes environmental concerns. A new French study assesses the performance of cropping systems to manage weeds and finds that these techniques could control arable weeds in the long-term and reduce reliance on herbicides. In Europe, herbicides provide the conventional means of managing weeds on farmland. Although effective, herbicides are expensive and can build up ...
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Rainfall and manure application timing affect organic carbon losses
Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) losses from tile drains are an underquantified portion of the terrestrial carbon cycle. This is particularly important in the eastern corn belt where tile drainage dominates the agricultural landscape. Specific land management practices, such as manure application, can play a large role in the export of DOC as soluble organic carbon is applied to or injected into ...
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Grass-based farming systems: Soil conservation and environmental quality
Crop selection and sequence can have a profound effect on the environment and on farm profitability. According to Chapter 7, “Grass-based Farming Systems: Soil Conservation and Environmental Quality” by Jeremy W. Singer, Alan J. Franzluebbers, and Douglas L. Karlen in the book, Grassland Quietness and Strength for a New American Agriculture, the basis for a productive agricultural system should ...
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Healthy soils for a healthy planet
Healthy soils are vital in a world challenged by climate change. We need to decide how best to use land to provide food for a growing population and how it can be used to mitigate the effects of manmade emissions. The quality of soil must be maintained or restored if it is to provide its essential services: cycling nutrients, water and air, supporting biodiversity and acting as a substantial ...
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History sheds revealing light on crop sequencing
Forty years of crop sequencing trials have recently been collated by the Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA), giving Western Australian grain growers real insights into the rotational benefits of break crops. Representing more than 160 crop sequence experiments, the results were presented by DAFWA’s Mark Seymour at the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) supported 2009 ...
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MEPs approve pesticides legislation
The European Parliament has approved new EU pesticides legislation which will increase the number of pesticides available in Member States, while in due course banning the use of certain dangerous chemicals in these products. Measures to ensure the safer use of pesticides in daily life will also be introduced. Voting at second reading on the basis of agreements reached with the Council in ...
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GM crops could reduce need for herbicides
Analysis of large-scale European field trial data reveals that lower quantities of herbicides are applied to crops genetically modified for herbicide-resistance compared with conventionally grown crops. However, the data also suggest that biodiversity may be reduced if genetically modified (GM) crops are grown widely. Transgenic crops are currently grown in 22 countries across the world, ...
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A model to measure soil health in the era of bioenergy
One of the biggest threats to today’s farmlands is the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil organic matter (SOM) from poor land-management practices. The presence of these materials is essential as they do everything from providing plants with proper nutrients to filtering harmful chemical compounds to the prevention of soil erosion. Sustainable management practices for crop residues are ...
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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, reduced tillage has not gained a large acceptance as a viable practice, as findings of inconsistent yields have not encouraged farmers to make a ...
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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 of Alabama (now Auburn University) started an experiment to test his theories that sustainable cotton production was possible on Alabama soils if growers ...
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FAO urges farmers to join “Greener” revolution
Some 100 delegates from 36 countries meeting at FAO last week called on farmers to join the ongoing “Greener” revolution represented by a form of farming known as Conservation Agriculture. This farming system, CA for short, aims to help feed the world more sustainably by building up soil ecosystems and reducing unnecessary soil disturbance wherever possible. According to one study, some 20 ...
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Why eating less can help the environment
An estimated 19% of total energy used in the USA is taken up in the production and supply of food. Currently, this mostly comes from non-renewable energy sources which are in short supply. It is therefore of paramount importance that ways of reducing this significant fuel consumption in the US food system are found. In a paper1 just published in the Springer journal Human Ecology, David Pimentel ...
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