News
Today’s agriculture headlines and expert perspectives serving farmers, ranchers, crop consultants, livestock nutritionists and the entire U.S. ag community.
When William James Beal crept out under cover of night and buried 20 uniform bottles filled with a mixture of soil and seed in 1879, he lit the fuse on agriculture’s longest running experiment.
10,000-farmer sample seeks best management plan answers to resistance
With record storage of 100 million barrels, propane production is on the rise and prices remain low, which is a distinct advantage for row crops farmers and poultry producers these days.
The agriculture industry may be on the cusp of an unprecedented takeoff with the advent of ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) – a sniper’s bullet technology with implications for every aspect of crop growth. Disease, drought, pests and much more are in the crosshairs and the possibilities for this non-GMO crop alteration technology seem boundless.
In a crop field cull, how do the knives of judgment distinguish saint from sinner? A new approach uses a fluorescent systemic marker that is applied onto seeds through a seed treatment. When the plant is stimulated with a special color of light, it emits a fluorescent color.
Cottonseed derivatives find their way into a remarkable array of products: cooking oil, cattle feed, electronics, food ingredients, and many more.
When city expansion nibbles around the edges of an operation with an inch to a mile appetite, erosion of landowner will is often the tacit intention. However, legacy and livelihood are a wedded pair for many producers.
Rubber-producing plants are back on the edge of farmland, backed by the muscle of genetic breeding.
Hell or high water, producers are often forced to chase markets. However, solid data stacked over multiple years shows the peaks and troughs of a consistent crop rotation system.
Agriculture-archaeological relationships, once tainted by mutual suspicion, are protecting the past and allowing farmland to serve as a vast repository for history.
Lifelong cattle and turkey producers in southwest Missouri’s Newton County, Rick and Nathan Clymer have tapped into a heavy demand vein: inland shrimp farming.
ARS research agronomist Frank Forcella believed sandblasting organic grit would be an effective weed killer. His determination to break from convention has resulted in a four-row grit blaster capable of obliterating weeds.
Jason Norsworthy is attacking the soil seed bank with a no-prisoner policy: capture, burn and kill. Norsworthy is testing a new weapon in the resistant weed wars aimed directly at the seed bank reserve – narrow-windrow burning.
The mustard crop can be used as a jet fuel source, protein meal and rotational crop option
A new tool in the fight against pests, diseases, weeds and drought
Rod Thomas knows the inherent dangers of agriculture aviation: unmarked towers, guy wires and bird strikes. Add UAVs to the list.
Groups hope more farmers will choose wheat to boost national acres
Technology expands market possibilities and profit potential for straw
Early technology adoption gives profitable edge to Indiana grower
A web-based nitrogen fertilizer calculator for small grains has been updated and is available. Developed by Montana State University Extension, the tool works with winter wheat, spring wheat and barley produced after fallow. Available since 2009, the calculator was enhanced in 2015.
WM-Form, launched by Trimble, combines field surveys, topography analysis, design creation, cost estimation, land forming and verification.
Premium quality chicken litter key to achieve yield boosts.
The Natural Soybean and Grain Alliance (NSGA) has high hopes for UA 5814HP, a new variety commercially available beginning in fall 2015. UA5814HP, branded as Ashlock HP5A, is a vigorous variety aimed at high seed yield and protein to meet the demand from the high-end poultry industry.
South Dakota farm boy Scott Anderson brought his Wall Street experience back to the family farm and used it to develop the Cash Cow Farmer program, which he designed for simplicity and utility.
Fluorescent marker technology could be a major weapon in weed battle