tillage practice News
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Soil carbon storage is not always influenced by tillage practices
The practice of no-till has increased considerably during the past 20 yr. Soils under no-till usually host a more abundant and diverse biota and are less prone to erosion, water loss, and structural breakdown than tilled soils. Their organic matter content is also often increased and consequently, no-till is proposed as a measure to mitigate the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide ...
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Interactive Center Brings Agriculture History, Innovation & Exploration to the Public
The young and young at heart will be at home inside the IQhub, a 9500-square foot center for agriculture history, innovation and exploration. The facility features 23 museum-quality exhibits chronicling the changes in agriculture over roughly four-hundred years. Beginning with Squanto's interactions with the pilgrims and the contribution made when he taught them to plant seeds alongside fish for ...
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Winter Wheat Harvest Woes
Wheat harvest season is well underway for many U.S. wheat growers. Some of the first soft-red wheat harvested by U.S. farmers in 2015 is the worst in at least 17 years, according to Bloomberg and other sources. This year’s heavy rainfalls – up to three times the normal amount – have made mycotoxin diseases like vomitoxin more prominent in many wheat-growing states. USDA ...
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For Soybean Insect-Pest Management, There’s No Substitute for Scouting a Field, Says Researcher
The weather in the Mid-South region causes intense pest pressure for row-crop farmers. To maintain yields, farmers in this area must treat numerous insect pests, more so than farmers in other areas of the country, according to Mississippi Extension entomologist Angus Catchot, Ph.D. In a new Focus on Soybean webcast, Catchot outlines best-management practices to treat pests common to the region. ...
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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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Soil and crop management and carbon sequestration
Research results from management scenarios ranging from those in the South Eastern, Great Plains, and Upper Midwest regions of the US and from Italy are reported in the March-April, 2010 issue of the Soil Science Society America Journal. This group of papers originated from the Soil Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Symposium that was held jointly by the Soil Science Society of ...
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Crop performance matters when evaluating GHGs
Measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from croplands should take into account the crops themselves. That’s the conclusion of a study in the September-October issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality, which examined the impact of farm practices such as tillage on the greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O). Expressing emissions per unit of crop yield rather than on a more conventional ...
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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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Bayer CropScience opens Weed Resistance Competence Center in Frankfurt, Germany
Herbicide-resistant weeds are a growing global problem. The official opening of Bayer CropScience’s Weed Resistance Competence Center (WRCC) in Frankfurt on 19 November is a major step forward in tackling weed resistance, as it will develop new weed control strategies, and share knowledge within the global community of farmers, agronomists and scientists. Understanding weed resistance and ...
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Transitioning to organic farming
As the organic food trend continues to grow; more farmers are converting from conventional agriculture to organic production. One of the fastest growing markets in the U.S. is the production of organic milk. The growth of this industry has prompted many farmers to transition their land to organic feed grain production. With transition on the rise, it is necessary for these farmers to have ...
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Compost filter socks improve runoff from Croplands
Water runoff from cropped farm fields can contain large amounts of eroded soil as well as some of the fertilizer and herbicide. Expanding on existing conservation practices, a team of scientists has tested whether compost filters socks in grassed waterways would reduce sediment flow and retain dissolved chemicals in runoff. The researchers observed reduced sediment in a non-tilled field and ...
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New ORNL tool gets handle on cropland CO2 emissions
For the first time, farmers have data that tracks at the county level on-site and off-site energy use and carbon dioxide emissions associated with growing crops in the United States. This information is vital for examining changes in cropland production and management techniques and could play an even bigger role as more land is devoted to bioenergy crops, said Oak Ridge National Laboratory's ...
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Grão Direto and Bayer collaborate to expand the reach and impact of sustainable practices in grain trading
Grão Direto, the largest digital platform for grain trading in Latin America, developed in collaboration with Bayer the introduction of the “Sustainable Practices Badge” on its digital marketplace. The badge indicates which farmers on the platform are utilizing agronomic practices that are more beneficial to the environment. The initiative allows the startup to provide even ...
By Bayer AG
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New partnership to promote sustainable mechanization of agriculture
FAO and the European Agricultural Machinery Industry Association CEMA , an international non-profit organisation, today forged a new partnership that aims to promote wider use of sustainable agricultural mechanization in developing countries. The two organizations will work together to manage and disseminate knowledge on sustainable approaches to agricultural mechanization. They will also ...
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Cover crops reduce erosion, runoff
Cover crops may be more effective at reducing soil erosion and runoff after maize harvest than rough tillage, according to scientists from the Université Catholique de Louvain, in collaboration with the Independent Center for the Promotion of Forage (CIPF). The three-year study, supervised by Charles Bielders and conducted by Eric Laloy, measured erosion and runoff losses from silt loam ...
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Adapting agricultural water to climate change
This policy brief, published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), examines the relationship between climate change, water and food security and outlines potential adaptation strategies and policy priorities for developing countries. Agriculture in developing countries is already under pressure from growing populations, industrialisation and environmental degradation. Climate change is ...
By SciDev.Net
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Rice paddies raise methane threat
Directly seeding rice into fields rather than transplanting it into flooded paddies would dramatically reduce methane emissions and slow down climate change, according to scientists studying the staple crop. A number of experiments in Asia, particularly in the Philippines and Japan, show that a change in the way rice is grown would have considerable other benefits in saving water and improving ...
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No-tillage management of olive groves can improve soil structure while maintaining yield
Non-conservative tillage techniques, such as milling and harrowing, are the most common way to manage soil in Mediterranean olive orchards. A new study confirms the value of alternative methods based on the use of spontaneous cover crops which can significantly improve soil structure and reduce erosion whilst maintaining yields. The olive tree is one of the most widespread crops in the ...
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4R Research Fund Issues Proposal Requests for Research on Nutrients in the Environment
This week, the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Research Fund announced the release of requests for proposals (RFP) to solicit literature reviews and syntheses on nutrient stewardship on a national, regional, or cropping system basis, and to solicit field research and demonstration projects. The 4R Research Fund was established by the fertilizer industry to help establish sustainability indicators and ...
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