The Midwest drought has hit farmers in the region with a double-whammy this summer. First, obviously, many crops are just withering and dying in the hot, dry conditions. Second, the lack of rain hurt some of the pre-emergence herbicides out there, allowing weeds to choke what crops were able to beat the heat. During the recent Anthem Field Plot Tour, …
Checking Soil is Dusty Work
Getting down and dirty during the Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour is Roger Windhorn, Illinois NRCS State Office. You can watch his presentation in the video below. Roger had a tough job since it is dry and hot in Illinois and as you’ll see in his presentation, there’s a big lack of moisture even down past four feet in …
Wyffels Hybrids Ready for Tale of Two Seasons
If you look at the last two summers in the upper Midwest, you couldn’t find a sharper contrast: plenty of rain, too much of it in many cases last year, and bone dry and hot across much of the corn growing areas this year. That’s part of what the folks at the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies event in Vincent, Iowa …
Monsanto Learning More on CTIC Tour
The more you learn, the more you know… that seems to be the approach our friends at Monsanto are taking, especially this year when drought is making for some real challenges on Midwest farms. During the recent Indian Creek Watershed Project Field Tour, Chuck caught up with Dave Gustafson, who serves on Monsanto’s sustainable agriculture team and is a board …
FMC Shows Potential of Anthem in Field Plot Tour
FMC officials are hoping to have EPA approval of their new herbicide Anthem by this fall. In the meantime, this summer they launched a series of plot tours across the Midwest to show off the new product. Chuck caught up with the Anthem Field Plot Tour as it made its swing through Ames, Iowa and spoke with Rick Ekins, FMC …
Will FARRM Bill Make it to Floor?
Agricultural organizations are calling for the House to move the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management (FARRM) Act, but whether that happens before the current bill expires is in question. American Farm Bureau Federation Farm Policy Specialist Mary Kay Thatcher is doubtful a new farm bill will be finished by September 30. “Our best option is probably to have some …
Growing Options for Nutrient Management
Keynote speaker Dr. Newell Kitchen, USDA-ARS, had a unique title to his presentation, “From Poking Holes to Precision Sensing: Options Growing for Nutrient Management.” He wanted to be clear that the options available to farmers today for managing nutrients are growing. He started out with a historical perspective on what has taken place in this area in recent years. One …
Google+ Hangout Highlights Local Food Initiatives
Tomorrow, Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan and Jon Carson, White House Director of Public Engagement, will host a Local Foods in Our Community As Told By Women Google + Hangout to highlight efforts to strengthen local and regional food systems. The event will be an opportunity to talk about local food with inspiring women from around the country. This Google+ …
Remote Sensing Still Developing
The first of the two keynote speakers at the International Conference on Precision Agriculture is Dr. David Mulla, University of Minnesota. Dr. Mulla is a past chair of the conference btw. His topic was “Key Advances and Remaining Knowledge Gaps in Remote Sensing for Precision Agriculture.” So he talked about what we know and what we don’t know. It’s clear …
11th International Conference on Precision Agriculture
There are precision agriculture enthusiasts from 45 countries attending the 11th International Conference on Precision Agriculture. This conference is held every two years and is taking place in Indianapolis, IN. To learn about what’s new for this year’s conference I spoke with Dr. Rajiv Khosla, Colorado State University, who is the President of the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA), …