agriculture test News

Topcon Precision Agriculture (TPA) has named Jared Wilson as ag test engineer for the North America market. Wilson will report to Kurtis Kenne, TPA manager of global field testing. Kenne said, “Jared brings a well-rounded ag background to this position. In addition to growing up on a family farm in Iowa, he has a degree in Agronomy and has worked in both the crop and equipment sides of ...

Jan. 5, 2014

By Topcon Precision Agriculture (TPA) - a subsidiary of Topcon Positioning Systems Inc (TPS)

Arcadia Biosciences, Inc., an agricultural technology company focused on developing technologies and products that benefit the environment and human health, and the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) today announced the planting of the first field trial of Nitrogen Use Efficient (NUE) rice in Africa. The NUE rice field trial is the result of more than five years of collaboration ...

Jun. 10, 2013

By Arcadia Biosciences, Inc.

Bayer CropScience is committed to proactive stewardship to underline the company’s strong commitment to sustainable agriculture. “We help growers around the world produce high-quality and high-yielding crops,” said Matthias Haug, Head of SeedGrowth at Bayer CropScience. “We take product stewardship very seriously, as it is important to maximize the benefits of seed ...

May 26, 2015

By Bayer Crop Science AG

Ireland is facing a classic conflict, pitching economic growth targets against the need for action on climate change. On one hand, Ireland’s planners want to see significant growth in its food and agriculture industry – a sector that is one of the main pillars of the country’s economy, accounting for about 8% of gross domestic product. On the other hand, the country − ...

Jul. 23, 2016

By Climate News Network

B.C.'s agrifoods industry is receiving more than $1.4 million for 17 new projects that support innovation throughout the province. Through the Growing Forward 2 agreement, the governments of Canada and British Columbia have committed a total of $13.4 million to industry between 2013 and 2018 through the Canada-B.C. Agri-Innovation Program. In 2013-14, 36 projects have shared more than ...

Aug. 24, 2014

By Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

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 ...

Oct. 1, 2008

By American Society of Agronomy

The biodiversity of crop fields could be key to a greener revolution in Africa, where ecosystems are degrading and crop yields are stagnating, says a study conducted in Malawi. African farmers could halve their fertiliser use and still get the same yields, the study found, with less year-to-year variation in yields and with as much as 70 per cent more protein in grains — by simply rotating ...

Dec. 13, 2010

By SciDev.Net

In the nation's agricultural heartland, farming is more than a multibillion-dollar industry that feeds the world. It could be on track to become a right, written into law alongside the freedom of speech and religion. Some powerful agriculture interests want to declare farming a right at the state level as part of a wider campaign to fortify the ag industry against crusades by animal-welfare ...

Jul. 9, 2014

By Associated Press

Modern agriculture is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. A recent study suggests a solar-powered, agricultural electric vehicle, the 'Multi-purpose Solar Tractor', could avert 23.3 tonnes of greenhouse gases every year, compared to a conventional vehicle. The vehicles will be particularly suitable for Mediterranean countries where sunlight is plentiful. Tractors are typically diesel-powered, ...

Jun. 7, 2009

By European Commission, Environment DG

AgGateway will begin initial testing next week of its Standardized Precision Ag Data Exchange (SPADE) Conversion Toolbox. The test will take place in Lincoln, Neb., at PlugFest, an agricultural machinery compatibility testing event organized by the Agricultural Electronics Manufacturers Foundation (AEF) and hosted by the National Tractor Testing Lab. The SPADE team expects to release the ...

Apr. 30, 2014

By Topcon Precision Agriculture (TPA) - a subsidiary of Topcon Positioning Systems Inc (TPS)

Researchers from 15 European countries have come together to build a computer model that can evaluate the effects of policy changes on agriculture. This new model allows policy makers to investigate the likely effects of policy change on agriculture. Importantly, the model will allow the effects of policy to be examined at all scales, from farming in a single region to the whole European and ...

Feb. 14, 2008

By European Commission, Environment DG

Contrary to the prevailing view, cereal crops derive the majority of their nitrogen from the soil, not fertilizer. Soils differ considerably in microbial activities that determine nitrogen-supplying power, and these differences must be taken into account if nitrogen fertilizers are to be used efficiently. The Illinois Soil Nitrogen Test (ISNT) was developed for this purpose, and involves ...

May 12, 2009

By ScienceDaily

The greening and cross-compliance measures that have been introduced in Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) pose challenges to policy evaluators. Policy makers lack good data to monitor if their measures are effective and efficient. In a large pilot a consortium of researchers with 1,100 farmers from nine European countries have showed that it is possible to collect indicators on ...

May 10, 2017

By Wageningen University and Research Centre

At the meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council, chaired by Slovenian Agriculture Minister Iztok Jarc, EU Ministers discussed the proposal for a Regulation concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market. Mr Jarc gave a report on the progress achieved by the Slovenian Presidency on this dossier, and returned the dossier to the working level. The Ministers also discussed ...

May 19, 2008

By Slovenian Presidency of the EU 2008

EPA has issued the first list of pesticides to be screened for possibly disrupting the endocrine system.  Endocrine disruptors are chemicals that interact with and possibly disrupt the hormones produced or secreted by the human or animal endocrine system, which regulates growth, metabolism and reproduction. “Endocrine disruptors can cause lifelong health problems -- especially for children,” ...

Apr. 26, 2009

By US EPA - Environmental Protection Agency

An eastern Chinese region is experimenting with letting farmers mortgage or transfer control of their publicly owned land, in what could help spread prosperity to the impoverished countryside and become one of China's most pivotal rural land reforms in 35 years. There is no private land ownership in China, with all urban land under state ownership and rural land under collective ownership ...

Nov. 17, 2013

By Associated Press

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 optimize production across a much bigger area—say, the whole East Coast of the United States? That’s the question a team of USDA-ARS scientists ...

May 4, 2014

By American Society of Agronomy

Cattle testing positive for Bovine TB are to be DNA tagged to further strengthen controls preventing spread of the disease. Evidence is emerging that some cattle farmers in the South West and Midlands may have been illegally swapping cattle ear tags. That means they may have been retaining TB-positive animals in their herds and sending less productive animals to slaughter in their ...

Mar. 30, 2011

By Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Earlier this year Greenbelt Resources Corporation (OTC: GRCO), a producer of sustainable energy production systems,  launched an innovative program offering use of its operating commercial-scale facility to third parties for  ...

Sep. 20, 2015

By Greenbelt Resources Corporation

Cover crops provide many benefits to agricultural production systems, including soil and nutrient retention, resources and habitat for beneficial organisms, and weed suppression. In regions where short growing seasons can hinder the establishment of productive cover crops between cash crop growing periods, living mulch systems may provide vegetable crop growers with opportunities to establish ...

Apr. 5, 2015

By American Society for Horticultural Science