tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68869381529655351652024-03-20T07:36:30.763+00:00Soil and Water<b> A growing collection of interesting web snippets on soil, water and agriculture </b>Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comBlogger108125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-36039707996484911222013-05-13T12:39:00.000+01:002013-05-13T12:39:00.579+01:00Strengthening legumes to tackle fertilizer pollution<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-40fd-5cca-0bc7-f0be558ea717" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/04/23/strengthening.legumes.tackle.fertilizer.pollution" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">e! Science News reports </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">on research which shows that by boosting the nitrogen-fixing capacity of leguminous crops such as peas and beans, the environmental impacts of using artificial nitrogen fertilisers can be reduced.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Legumes use iron in the soil to carry out a complex chemical process called nitrogen fixation, which collects atmospheric nitrogen and converts it into organic forms that help the plant grow. When the plant dies, the excess nitrogen is released back into to the soil to help the next crop.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But often legumes are grown in areas with iron-depleted soil, which limits their nitrogen fixation. That's where research can lend a hand. The research team has created the world's first model for how iron is transported in the plant's root nodule to trigger nitrogen fixation. This is the first step in modifying the plants to maximize iron use.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"The long-term goal is to help sustainable agriculture practices and further diminish the environmental damage from overuse of nitrogen fertilizers," said Manuel Gonzalez-Guerrero, lead author of the paper from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). "This can be done by maximizing the delivery of essential metal oligonutrients to nitrogen-fixing rhizobia."</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/04/23/strengthening.legumes.tackle.fertilizer.pollution" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-86469179586196284772013-05-10T12:37:00.000+01:002013-05-10T12:37:00.093+01:00Deep, permeable soils buffer impacts of crop fertilizer on Amazon streams, MBL study finds<a href="http://www.sciencecodex.com/deep_permeable_soils_buffer_impacts_of_crop_fertilizer_on_amazon_streams_mbl_study_finds-111018" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Science Codex reports</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> on research carried out in the Southern Amazon showing that some of the damaging impacts of agriculture on fresh water may be buffered by the very deep and highly permeable soils that characterize large areas of the expanding cropland.</span><br />
<br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The researchers looked specifically at the impacts of soybean agriculture on water quality and quantity at Tanguro Ranch, a 200,000-acre farm similar in climate and geography to large tracts of the Amazon where soybean production, largely for export as animal feed, is expanding rapidly. The ranch has watersheds that are entirely forested, as well as watersheds that are now entirely soybean cropland, allowing for a comparison.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"We were surprised to find that, despite intensive agriculture at Tanguro Ranch, the streams do not appear to be receiving a significant amount of either nitrogen or phosphorus, despite a high application of phosphorus fertilizer to adjacent cropland," says lead researcher Christopher Neill, director of the </span><a href="http://www.mbl.edu/ecosystems/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Ecosystems Center at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL)</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is in contrast to many Northern Hemisphere cropland areas where fertilizers are known to add nutrients to the soil that, with rainfall, run off into freshwater streams and rivers, leading to over-fertilization and low-oxygen conditions that endanger fish and other aquatic life.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At Tanguro Ranch, however, "the soils are old and highly weathered, very deep, and likely to be fairly uniform over great depths," Neill says. "Water infiltrates the soil very rapidly, and the soil has a great capacity to absorb the nutrients. It appears to act as an enormous buffer."</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://www.sciencecodex.com/deep_permeable_soils_buffer_impacts_of_crop_fertilizer_on_amazon_streams_mbl_study_finds-111018" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-44909579088214572762013-05-08T12:35:00.000+01:002013-05-08T12:35:00.752+01:00Beneficial exception to no-till rule<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-40fa-0b41-7d15-8548336832c7" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A strategic, one-off cultivation may be a viable option for no-till farmers battling to control herbicide-resistant weeds yet retain the long-term benefits no-till farming has brought them. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So says </span><a href="http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/beneficial-exception-to-notill-rule/2655244.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Queensland Country Life</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, reporting on a three–year research project in the state which has been set up to gauge the impact of a single tillage operation on no-till systems and determine the best timing of such an operation.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.qld.gov.au/dsitia/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Queensland Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and Art </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">senior soil scientist Dr Yash Dang, Toowoomba, said the growing incidence of herbicide-resistant, hard-to-kill weeds was one of the biggest threats to no-till farming systems.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Many weeds have developed resistance to many herbicides,” he said. “With the narrow range of herbicide groups we have, they have developed herbicide resistance and farmers are finding it very difficult to manage.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Trials held in the first stage of the project last year showed that a one-time tillage with chisel or offset disc in long-term no-till helped control winter weeds and slightly improved grain yields and profitability while retaining many of the soil quality benefits of no-till.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/beneficial-exception-to-notill-rule/2655244.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
</div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-13462120531839650872013-05-06T14:56:00.000+01:002013-05-06T14:56:00.498+01:00Unearthing the Value of Soil<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-35fe-61e9-2cbd-34f6c6d0a0ca" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The UK version of the </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/green-futures/unearthing-the-value-of-soil_b_3130327.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Huffington Post carries a fascinating featur</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">e on the importance of healthy soils to help us cope with climate, food and biodiversity challenges.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Soil is the most diverse ecosystem on the planet. Just one teaspoon contains as many as one billion bacteria, which provide vital services to support the growth of plant species and the myriad creatures who feed on them. Without healthy soil, everything from human health and food security to the resilience and biodiversity of the planet is at risk. The earth beneath our feet is so important that geomorphologist </span><a href="http://earthweb.ess.washington.edu/dwp/people/profile.php?name=montgomery--david" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">David R. Montgomer</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">y, author of</span><a href="http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D2im0qYGG2YC&printsec=frontcover&dq=dirt:+The+Erosion+of+Civilizations&hl=en&sa=X&ei=2z52UdjCHsW1PYHggMgP&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, regards its quality and abundance as a measure of whether societies flourish or flounder. In the past, those with poor quality earth typically faced the prospect of dwindling in power or moving on to better lands.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"In today's world we're running out of places to move on to", says Montgomery. "The only option is to develop resilient soils."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The article describes the conventional approach to maximising returns from soils depleted by modern food production has been to turn to outside inputs, like greater amounts of fertiliser and irrigation, to induce crops to grow against the odds. These strategies may increase production and profits in the short term, but, says soil scientist </span><a href="http://cwc.osu.edu/contacts/bios/lal.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Rattan Lal of Ohio State University,</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> any effective solution requires a long-term perspective.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lal maintains that it's not only possible to restore our "abused and taken-for-granted" soils - but that efforts to conserve and revive the earth benefit far more than just our own food chain. Healthy soils also deliver a range of essential ecosystem services, high among them being the absorption of atmospheric carbon dioxide. When it comes to strategies for solving the complex equation of climate change mitigation, biodiversity preservation, and safeguarding human security, soil conservation and restoration are "low-hanging fruit", says Lal.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the feature article </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/green-futures/unearthing-the-value-of-soil_b_3130327.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-187665816405254932013-05-02T09:22:00.000+01:002013-05-02T09:22:00.909+01:00Winter crops protect, improve soil<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-35fd-1acd-c241-f6b697d64328" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.galesburg.com/features/x409756276/Winter-crops-protect-improve-soil" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Galesburg.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> reports on how a growing number of farmers in Illinois are growing cover crops to improve their soils. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The reports says that the concept seems one of the hottest topics in the agriculture industry, said </span><a href="http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state/staffdetail.cfm?StaffID=56" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Russ Higgins, commercial agriculture educator with University of Illinois Extension</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and a representative of the </span><a href="http://www.mccc.msu.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Midwest Cover Crops Council</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cover crops, such as radishes and ryegrass, are a secondary crop planted in the fall to protect and improve soil conditions during the period of time when crops normally wouldn’t grow, he said. Illinois farm fields, unless planted to harvestable crops like winter wheat or multiple seasons of alfalfa hay, generally rest unused in a six- to seven-month window of cool or cold weather.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cover crops have the ability to take up essential nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. As the cover crop decomposes, the nutrients become available to benefit the next crop, Higgins said. Cover crops limit soil erosion and improve water quality as they provide a matt of residue to filter surface water. The cover crop can break weed and disease cycles. And some, including root crops like radishes and deep-rooted grasses, can alleviate soil compaction. All of this can lead to greater corn and soybean yields in certain fields.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full article </span><a href="http://www.galesburg.com/features/x409756276/Winter-crops-protect-improve-soil" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.galesburg.com/features/x409756276/Winter-crops-protect-improve-soil" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a>
Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-65939126362883495822013-04-29T15:21:00.000+01:002013-04-29T15:21:00.518+01:00Nitrogen key to uptake of other corn nutrients, study shows<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-35fb-9b89-d6b0-2c71eea7b872" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/News---Nitrogen-Key-To-Uptake-Of-Other-Corn-Nutrients,-Study-Shows.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">No-Till Farmer reports </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">on research that higher maize (corn) yields in the USA are partly due to modern hybrid varieties taking up more nitrogen after flowering than their older counterparts.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Researchers found that modern hybrids (post-1990) took up 27 percent more total nitrogen from the soil after flowering than pre-1990 corn plants. In fact, nitrogen uptake after flowering in post-1990 hybrids averaged 56 percent of the total grain nitrogen at the end of the season.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Primarily, more grain nitrogen came from new nitrogen uptake from soil during grain filling, as opposed to nitrogen being remobilized from plant leaves and stems. The higher amount and duration of nitrogen uptake contributed to superior grain yields even as actual grain nitrogen concentrations declined.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Optimum nitrogen levels increased plants' abilities to absorb phosphorus, potassium and sulphur. Part of the corn plant's response to receiving adequate nitrogen is that progressively higher percentages of total plant phosphorus, potassium and sulfur end up in the grain fraction at harvest.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full report </span><a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/News---Nitrogen-Key-To-Uptake-Of-Other-Corn-Nutrients,-Study-Shows.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/News---Nitrogen-Key-To-Uptake-Of-Other-Corn-Nutrients,-Study-Shows.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-82446718358042195952013-04-26T09:20:00.000+01:002013-04-26T09:20:00.134+01:00Land degradation causes up to five percent loss in farm output<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-35fa-852d-1ec3-07a608c6c6b0" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><a href="http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1175252/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Business Recorder </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reports on a study presented at a recent UN conference which has found that loss of land through desertification and drought costs up to five percent of world agricultural gross domestic product (AGDP), or some $450 billion (340 billion euros), annually.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Each year an area roughly three times the size of Switzerland is lost through soil degradation, it said, as 870 million people suffer from chronic hunger. Between four and 12 percent of Africa's AGDP is lost due to degraded land annually, and in Guatemala the figure is 24 percent, the report said.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Business Recorder report can be found </span><a href="http://www.brecorder.com/agriculture-a-allied/183/1175252/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and more informaiton about the UN conference is available </span><a href="http://www.unccd.int/en/media-center/Pages/mediahome.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.unccd.int/en/media-center/Pages/mediahome.aspx" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-10560894149989790932013-04-25T09:18:00.000+01:002013-04-25T09:18:00.624+01:00Farming? There’s an app for that<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-35f8-e46f-5ffc-9ca0510cee79" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><a href="http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Farming-Theres-an-app-for-that-203249601.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Drovers' Cattle Network reports</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> on the growing use of smartphones and apps (applications) in farming. </span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Smartphone apps aren’t just for social networking or entertainment. A growing number of apps make use of smartphone technology to help farmers do their job. Farmers can use apps on smartphones or tablet computers for everything from staying up to date on agriculture news to calculating sprayer tank mix ratios, said </span><a href="http://extension.missouri.edu/directory/people.aspx?C=654" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Kent Shannon, University of Missouri Extension natural resource engineering specialist</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“In the area of precision agriculture are apps that we can collect geo-reference GPS data from,” Shannon said. “That allows us to do a better job of recording things in the field.” One example is </span><a href="http://www.connectedfarm.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Connected Farm</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, which lets producers collect scouting information in the field and take pictures that are geo-referenced. There are also several apps that have commodity market information.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full article </span><a href="http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Farming-Theres-an-app-for-that-203249601.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-64002185206017331092013-04-23T09:18:00.001+01:002013-04-23T09:18:10.960+01:00Research to examine water savings in agriculture during drought<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-35371376-35f5-5ef0-3795-154bb61cda0f" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.waterworld.com/news/2013/04/12/csu-research-is-examining-water-savings-from-different-farming-strategies-during-drought.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Waterworld</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> carries a press release from</span><a href="http://www.colostate.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> Colorado State University</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (CSU) describing how a team of CSU agricultural and environmental scientists hopes to pinpoint best management practices in crop production to help conserve water in times of drought, and their project will provide farmers with an online tool to calculate water savings gained from different strategies.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The research project is supported with a grant of $883,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture </span><a href="http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/financial/cig/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Adaptation to Drought Conservation Innovation Grant</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., announced the funding last week.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"We are taking a systematic approach to understand how to effectively manage water in the face of scarcity," said </span><a href="http://www.soilcrop.colostate.edu/hansen/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Neil Hansen</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, associate professor in the</span><a href="http://www.soilcrop.colostate.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> CSU Department of Soil and Crop Sciences</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and project leader. "We want to maximize crop per drop, meaning crop yield per gallon of water. Water is short, and we've got to get as much as we can from the little we've got."</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The project will examine water-saving benefits gained with adjustments in:</span></div>
<ul style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Crop management, including use of cover cropping and drought-tolerant crop varieties;</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Soil management, including conservation tillage and soil amendments; and</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Irrigation management, including scheduling and variable rate irrigation, which uses space-based technologies to tailor water application to varying needs within a field.</span></div>
</li>
<li dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; list-style-type: disc; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The project also will employ sensors to track soil moisture and crop stress.</span></div>
</li>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full press release on the Waterworld website </span><a href="http://www.waterworld.com/news/2013/04/12/csu-research-is-examining-water-savings-from-different-farming-strategies-during-drought.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.waterworld.com/news/2013/04/12/csu-research-is-examining-water-savings-from-different-farming-strategies-during-drought.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
</div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-72376756461336478262013-04-19T12:13:00.000+01:002013-04-19T12:13:00.152+01:00'Skywalker': Aeronautical technology to improve maize yields<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.5827044792931169" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://phys.org/news/2013-04-skywalker-aeronautical-technology-maize-yields.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Phys.org reports </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">on a project to design a low-cost unmanned aerial vehicle which helps to select the maize varieties which are best adapted to adverse environmental conditions</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Drought and poor soil fertility are the leading production constraints in most maize farming systems and reductions in maize yield caused by climate-related stress may be increased under climate change. Skywalker is a remote-controlled plane fitted with a variety of specialised cameras allowing evaluation of the crops' growth, temperature and available soil water of large numbers of maize varieties in only a few minutes. This data will be used to improve the efficiency of maize breeding and speed up the development of drought and low nitrogen tolerant maize varieties for some of the poorest farmers in the world.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full article </span><a href="http://phys.org/news/2013-04-skywalker-aeronautical-technology-maize-yields.html#jCp" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span><a href="http://phys.org/news/2013-04-skywalker-aeronautical-technology-maize-yields.html#jCp" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-82602266222659487762013-04-17T12:10:00.000+01:002013-04-17T12:10:00.330+01:00New technique simplifies soil organic carbon measurement<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.5827044792931169" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/52924" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">EnvironmentalResearchWeb</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> reports that researchers in Kenya have developed a simple technique for mapping soil organic carbon that uses satellite imaging and gives a resolution of 30 m.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.5827044792931169" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Conventional techniques for analysing soil organic carbon can be tedious, time consuming and sensitive to disturbances. Researchers from the </span><a href="http://www.worldagroforestry.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">World Agroforestry Centre</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and the </span><a href="http://www.ciat.cgiar.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">International Centre for Tropical Agriculture</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, have developed a test that overcomes these issues.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.5827044792931169" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The pair used soil data to train models to map soil organic carbon stocks. They found that soil erosion affects soil organic carbon stocks strongly in all sites and across different land-cover types. They also found that inherent soil properties such as sand content are often more important than climate effects alone in determining soil organic carbon dynamics.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.5827044792931169" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The researchers hope to make their maps and models available to other researchers early next year, through a web-based platform that will enable researchers to choose an area of interest and run predictions for soil organic carbon stocks.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full article </span><a href="http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/52924" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-11807675454730568992013-04-15T14:30:00.000+01:002013-04-15T14:30:00.539+01:00To cut emissions, match fertilizer to soil<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.571841101244775" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">An </span><a href="http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/to-cut-emissions-match-fertilizer-to-soil/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">article on Futurity</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (research news from universities in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia) describes a study published in the </span><a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/03/29/1219993110.abstract" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, aimed at understanding the sources of nitrous oxide and nitric oxide by different microbial processes, especially following the application of certain fertilizer nitrogen types.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Agriculture is the main source of nitrous oxide globally, so this study is a starting point to help us understand how to manage and control it,” says </span><a href="http://lawr.ucdavis.edu/directory_facultypages.htm?id=14" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">University of California, Davis, professor of soil biogeochemistry William Horwath</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, whose lab conducted the study.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the paper, the authors say their results imply that management practices such as fertilizer choice affect how much nitrous oxide is released. Specifically, to reduce nitrous oxide emissions, fertilizer applications of urea should be avoided in soils where oxygen is limited, they write.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">On the other hand, practices that increase soil aeration, reduce compaction, and enhance soil structure using organic matter could decrease nitrous oxide emissions from agricultural soils. Using nitrification inhibitors could help, as well.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The results of this study will change the way we think about the source of nitrous oxide from soil,” Horwath says. “It will help researchers and people making fertilizer recommendations begin to understand that they need to consider different soil processes more explicitly.”</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the article </span><a href="http://www.futurity.org/earth-environment/to-cut-emissions-match-fertilizer-to-soil/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span>Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-52498784812195766012013-04-12T12:20:00.000+01:002013-04-12T12:20:00.942+01:00Soils in newly forested areas store substantial carbon that could help offset climate change<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.7532930525593369" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/04/01/soils.newly.forested.areas.store.substantial.carbon.could.help.offset.climate.change" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">e! Science News </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reports on a paper on soil carbon published by researchers at the University of </span><a href="http://www.umich.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Michigan</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.umich.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you're a land manager trying to assess the potential of forests to offset carbon emissions and climate change by soaking up atmospheric carbon and storing it, what's going on beneath the surface is critical. But while scientists can precisely measure and predict the amount of above-ground carbon accumulating in a forest, the details of soil-carbon accounting have been a bit fuzzy.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Two University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues helped to plug that knowledge gap by analyzing changes in soil carbon that occurred when trees became established on different types of nonforested soils across the United States. U-M ecologist Luke Nave and his colleagues found that, in general, growing trees on formerly nonforested land increases soil carbon. Previous studies have been equivocal about the effects of so-called afforestation on soil carbon levels.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Collectively, these results demonstrate that planting trees or allowing them to establish naturally on nonforested lands has a significant, positive effect on the amount of carbon held in soils," said Nave, an assistant research scientist at the U-M Biological Station and in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/04/01/soils.newly.forested.areas.store.substantial.carbon.could.help.offset.climate.change" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-15217168769860037702013-04-11T12:07:00.000+01:002013-04-11T12:07:00.149+01:00Surviving The Weed Crisis: Life Beyond Glyphosate<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.5827044792931169" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/Spre/SPRE-Surviving-The-Weed-Crisis-Life-Beyond-Glyphosate-April-3,-2013.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">No-Till Farmer carries an article</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> discussing the problems, and solutions, associated with glyphosate-resistant weeds in crops established by no-till. For no-tillers to continue farming in a sustainable manner, they must diversify their weed-control programs and reduce their reliance on post-emergence applications of glyphosate,</span><a href="http://weedscience.siu.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> Southern Illinois University weed specialist Bryan Young</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> says. </span><a href="http://weedscience.siu.edu/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Since the mid-1990s, at least 21 varieties of glyphosate-resistant weeds have been identified in the U.S. Problems began to appear [from 2000], especially in no-till acres with glyphosate-resistant marestail (horseweed), Young says. Between 2005 and 2010, the resistance problem mushroomed, with some Midwestern states reporting millions of acres of glyphosate-resistant weeds, mostly marestail and waterhemp.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No-tillers who currently aren’t experiencing glyphosate resistance should not be lulled into a false sense of security. Though some farmers may answer that they’re using full rates of glyphosate to get a consistent killing of weeds, an overreliance on it — even at full rates — can still bring resistance, Young says. And spraying the weeds when they’re small won’t guarantee against resistance, either.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The acronym D.I.R.T. describes the outlook needed for no-tillers to achieve better weed control, says Young. </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Diversify: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Growers are advised to Diversify their weed-management tactics,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Integrate:</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Integrate at least two effective modes of control, rather than just relying on a single control measure such as glyphosate, to fix a problem,</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Rates: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Utilise full rates to improve the consistency of control for residual and foliar herbicides, and</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Timing: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Apply residual herbicides close to the peak emergence period for problematic weeds.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full article </span><a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/Spre/SPRE-Surviving-The-Weed-Crisis-Life-Beyond-Glyphosate-April-3,-2013.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-9367948908184178632013-04-10T12:18:00.000+01:002013-04-10T12:18:00.034+01:00‘Smart Agriculture’ to overcome vagaries of weather<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.7532930525593369" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/smart-agriculture-to-overcome-vagaries-of-weather/article4567645.ece" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">The Hindu </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">reports on technological developmentsa aimed at helping small and marginal farmers across the Indian state of Kerala to tackle the vagaries of climate-dependent agriculture. Researchers at the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) and the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) have joined hands to develop a technology-assisted system to generate detailed information on soil and agro-climatic conditions. Named Smart Agriculture, the project seeks to utilise precision farming methods to improve crop output.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The researchers are working on an IT-enabled system to provide real time data on soil and micro weather conditions. The Cloud-based platform will be based on sensors installed in each plot to keep a constant tab on different variables. ICFOSS has developed the prototype of a solar-powered remote station for monitoring soil and atmospheric conditions. Working on Open Source hardware and software, it automatically uploads data to the Cloud.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Precision farming requires specific information on the state of the atmosphere and soil, in terms of parameters such as temperature, humidity, soil pH, rainfall, soil salinity, and wind vector (speed & direction). The data can be used to provide advisories for farmers depending on the type and age of crops they have planted,” says Satish Babu, Director, ICFOSS.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the rest of the article </span><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/smart-agriculture-to-overcome-vagaries-of-weather/article4567645.ece" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/smart-agriculture-to-overcome-vagaries-of-weather/article4567645.ece" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></a>Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-72325761574969859132013-04-08T12:16:00.000+01:002013-04-08T12:16:00.357+01:00The role of gypsum in agriculture: 5 key benefits you should know<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.7532930525593369" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.croplife.com/article/33337/the-role-of-gypsum-in-agriculture-5-key-benefits-you-should-know" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CropLife</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> reports from the </span><a href="http://www.gypsoil.com/symposium" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Midwest Soil Improvement Symposium</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> where the latest research and practical insights into using gypsum was presented.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">While farmers have used gypsum (calcium sulphate dihydrate) for centuries, it has received renewed attention in recent years. This resurgence is due in large part to ongoing research and practical insights from leading experts that highlight the many benefits of gypsum.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Here are five key (and overlapping) benefits of gypsum highlighted at the symposium:</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1. Source of calcium and sulphur for plant nutrition.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2. Corrects soil acidity and treats aluminium toxicity.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">3. Improves soil structure.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4. Improves water infiltration.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">5. Helps reduce runoff and erosion. </span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full report </span><a href="http://www.croplife.com/article/33337/the-role-of-gypsum-in-agriculture-5-key-benefits-you-should-know" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><br />
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-36727294130966622662013-04-05T15:00:00.000+01:002013-04-05T15:00:03.017+01:00Just say no to spring tillage, NRCS advises<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Sun Advocate, published in Utah's Carbon County, carries a</span><a href="http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=27694" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> repor</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">t urging farmers to avoid spring tillage for the sake of their soils.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tillage, which was once considered necessary in order to prepare a proper seed bed for planting, comes at a high price in terms of increasing diesel prices and labour costs. But according to Niels Hansen, a soil health specialist with </span><a href="http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/site/national/home/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in Salt Lake City, the bigger, long-term cost may come at the expense of the health and function of the soil itself - resulting in lower yields, higher input costs and reduced drought resilience for Utah farms.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Tillage is incredibly destructive to the soil structure and to the soil ecosystem," Hansen said. "In healthy soil you have 50 percent air and water - which is made possible by the pore space in the soil - and 50 percent mineral and organic matter. But tillage collapses and destroys that structure, making the soil vulnerable to erosion and compaction," he said.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fortunately, more and more irrigated and dryland producers in Utah are farming with systems to build soil health, Hansen said. "Using a suite of conservation practices, like no-till farming and diverse cover crops," he said, "they're keeping living plants in the soil as long as possible and they're keeping the soil surface covered with residue year round."</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full article </span><a href="http://www.sunad.com/index.php?tier=1&article_id=27694" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span>Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-15535325812021823412013-04-04T12:33:00.001+01:002013-04-04T19:06:16.235+01:00Survey highlights increased use of precision farming techniques<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.39961826019123375" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The UK's </span><a href="http://www.defra.gov.uk/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> has just published the findings of its annual </span><a href="http://www.defra.gov.uk/statistics/foodfarm/enviro/farmpractice/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Farm Practices Survey</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. The survey looks at how farm practices are affected by environmental issues and assesses the impact of agriculture on the environment. Topics vary from year to year so the content of the survey changes annually, ensuring that the information collected is relevant and current.</span></div>
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The autumn 2012 survey, the results of which have just been published, included questions on the use of precision agriculture, which can help to improve the efficiency of farm operations, including cultivation and better targeted fertiliser and agrochemical applications.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Of all the precision farming techniques asked about, the use of GPS remains the most popular and has increased the most between 2009 and 2012; 14% were using the technique in 2009, rising to 22% in 2012. Soil mapping and yield mapping have also seen increases.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When asked for their reasons for using precision farming techniques, 85% of respondents said it was to improve accuracy, 78% said to reduce input costs and 55% wanted to improve soil conditions. Of those farms which don't use any kind of precision technology, 47% said that it wasn't cost effective to do so or that the initial setup costs were too high, 28% said that it wasn't suitable for their farm type or size and 27% said that it was too complicated to use.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more about the survey </span><a href="http://www.defra.gov.uk/statistics/foodfarm/enviro/farmpractice/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-17026862782847313462013-04-04T12:01:00.000+01:002013-04-04T19:07:05.630+01:00New protocol recommendations for measuring soil carbon sequestration<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.7532930525593369" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A fascinating technical article from </span><a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/Spre/SPRE-News-New-Protocol-Recommendations-For-Measuring-Soil-Organic-Carbon-Sequestration-March-6,-2013.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">No-Till Farmer </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> on measuring soil organic carbon in soil managed under different tillage regimes.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">University of Illinois </span><a href="http://nres.illinois.edu/directory/Kenneth_R_Olson" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">professor of soil science Kenneth Olson </span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">has used data collected over a 20-year period at Dixon Springs, Ill., to develop a new protocol for more accurately measuring the carbon removed from the atmosphere and subsequently sequestered in the soil as SOC.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"Many experiments comparing no-till to conventional tillage on similar soils have shown no-till to have higher levels of soil organic carbon," Olson said. "So we know in general that no-till is often better than conventional tillage at building or retaining more of the organic matter in the soil, which is important to crop productivity.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"However, this does not mean that no-till is necessarily sequestering atmospheric carbon. It is often just losing carbon at a lower rate than conventional tillage."</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"This [new] protocol does not assume that soil carbon pools are at steady state (remain the same over time), but measures SOC at the beginning of an experiment, at intervals during, and at the end of the experiment," Olson said. "Comparison studies with one treatment as the baseline (usually conventional tillage) or control and other tillage such as no-till as the experimental treatment should not be used to determine SOC sequestration if soil samples are only collected and tested once during or at the end of the study," Olson said.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The comparison method assumes the conventional tillage baseline to be at a steady state and having the same amount of SOC at the beginning and at the end of the long-term study, and this may not be true. No-till as the experiment treatment needs to be compared to itself on the same soils over time to determine if SOC sequestration has really occurred.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read the full article </span><a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/Spre/SPRE-News-New-Protocol-Recommendations-For-Measuring-Soil-Organic-Carbon-Sequestration-March-6,-2013.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.no-tillfarmer.com/pages/Spre/SPRE-News-New-Protocol-Recommendations-For-Measuring-Soil-Organic-Carbon-Sequestration-March-6,-2013.php" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a></div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-24535031910280933092013-04-02T11:55:00.002+01:002013-04-04T19:08:04.302+01:00Ethanol deal intended to shield environment<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.7532930525593369" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The</span><a href="http://www.argusleader.com/article/20130331/NEWS/303310040/Ethanol-deal-intended-shield-environment?nclick_check=1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Argus Leader</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> has a report on a partnership which highlights, and aims to address, the potentially damaging impacts which second generation biofuels - such as bioethanol produced from cellulosic material including crop residues - can have on the soil, when residues are removed, rather than being incorporated:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">
</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As more leaves and stalks left over from corn, soybeans and other crops go toward producing ethanol, the</span><a href="http://www.usda.gov/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">U.S. Agriculture Department</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and</span><a href="http://www.dupont.com/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">DuPont</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> have announced a partnership to ensure that the collection of the material is done in a sustainable way. The programme will develop a conservation plan to help farmers collect feedstocks in a way that protects natural resources and maintains the productivity of the land.</span><br />
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Officials said the goal is to protect the health of the soil, minimize the amount that makes its way into nearby waterways and allow for more efficient use of important nutrients. At the same time, farmers will be able to reap the economic benefits that come with selling their material to produce ethanol. It is voluntary for farmers to participate in the conservation plan. “What we are doing with this partnership is we’re essentially saying there are creative ways ... to make sure that conservation is not compromised or jeopardized by the use of cellulosic material,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.</span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For now, the [cellulosic ethanol production] venture is contracting with farmers to remove 20 percent to 25 percent of the feed stocks when the plant, with an expected 25 million gallon capacity, begins production in early 2014 — well below what could be done sustainably.</span><br />
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more</span><a href="http://www.argusleader.com/article/20130331/NEWS/303310040/Ethanol-deal-intended-shield-environment?nclick_check=1" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></span><br /></div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-48840162713962511492013-03-24T16:58:00.000+00:002013-04-04T19:08:51.279+01:00Sub-soil testing could lead to nitrogen savings<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Australian </span><a href="http://www.stockjournal.com.au/news/agriculture/cropping/general-news/subsoil-testing-could-lead-to-nitrogen-savings/2617211.aspx"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Stock Journal</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> reports on research revealing that many growers could make savings on nitrogen fertiliser by conducting subsoil testing to obtain a more accurate picture of nutrients available to their crops.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: Georgia;">
<br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Apparently, few growers currently conduct nutrient testing in the subsoil, instead focussing on the topsoil.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><a href="http://www.grdc.com.au/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Grains Research and Development Corporation</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (GRDC) supported research is being conducted in WA by</span><a href="http://www.murdoch.edu.au/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> Murdoch University</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, </span><a href="http://www.csiro.au/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">CSIRO</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and the</span><a href="http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> Department of Agriculture and Food</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (DAFWA). It has shown that, in many circumstances, nitrate stored in the sub-soil is available to crop roots.</span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Project leader </span><a href="http://profiles.murdoch.edu.au/myprofile/richard-bell/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Richard Bell</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, Professor in Sustainable Land Management at Murdoch University, said this meant many growers could potentially reduce nitrogen fertiliser rates and applications.</span><br />
</div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Situations where subsoil nitrates are available to crops include heavier textured soils and drier seasons when nitrates are unlikely to leach away before roots can reach them,” he said. “However, access to subsoil nitrates by crop roots can be reduced by soil constraints such as hardpans or aluminium toxicity.”</span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://www.theadvocate.com.au/story/1347466/controlled-traffic-challenges-aired/?cs=130"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
</span></span><br />
<br />
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-55745907765323354562013-03-24T16:52:00.002+00:002013-04-04T19:10:10.924+01:00Toxic-tolerant maize moves closer to reality<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.6541798726389513" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://planetsave.com/2013/03/23/corn-that-is-tolerant-of-toxic-soils-moving-closer-to-reality-gene-in-triplicate-provides-the-resistance/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">PlanetSave</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> reports on new research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Cornell University which shows that corn (maize) crops capable of being grown in toxic soils are moving closer to reality. The new research has been attempting to unravel the reasons for why some maize plants can tolerate toxic aluminum in soil, and some can’t.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Aluminum toxicity comes close to rivaling drought as a food-security threat in critical tropical food-producing regions. Acidic soils dissolve aluminum from clays in the soil, making it toxic to plant roots in half the world’s arable land,” said senior author</span><a href="http://css.cals.cornell.edu/people/faculty.cfm?netId=lvk1"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"> Leon Kochian</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, director of the USDA Agriculture Research Service Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory at Cornell.</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The MATE1 gene, which was found in triplicate in aluminum-tolerant maize, turns on in the presence of aluminum ions and expresses a protein that transports citric acid from root tips into the soil, which binds to and locks up aluminum, thereby preventing it from harming roots.”</span></div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span> </div>
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://planetsave.com/2013/03/23/corn-that-is-tolerant-of-toxic-soils-moving-closer-to-reality-gene-in-triplicate-provides-the-resistance/#LRzPg5shHFJPB5mw.99"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. </span><a href="http://planetsave.com/2013/03/23/corn-that-is-tolerant-of-toxic-soils-moving-closer-to-reality-gene-in-triplicate-provides-the-resistance/#LRzPg5shHFJPB5mw.99"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a></div>
<br />
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-18577807389051400182013-03-19T20:45:00.000+00:002013-04-04T19:11:20.212+01:00Removing corn stover? Keep your soil intact<div dir="ltr" id="internal-source-marker_0.09497367973117998" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/removing-cn-stover-keep-your-soil_2-ar30523"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Agriculture.com</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> reports on a study which illustrates the soil benefits associated with leaving unwanted plant material and crop residues, in this case maize stover, on the soil after harvest.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The article reports that a growing amount of corn stover (leaves and stalks) is removed from fields during or after harvest. But the removal of that critical crop residue could be causing harm to your fields' future viability, the results of a new study show.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The potential danger is 2-fold; first, there's the potential increase in greenhouse gas emissions caused by the release of nutrients and accompanying carbon while the stalks are being removed from the field. Then, there's the loss of soil structures caused by another tillage pass in the field.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">"For a given crop rotation and tillage system, as we simulated an increase in the rate of stover removal we found an increase in loss of sediment from crop fields, an increase in greenhouse gas flux to the atmosphere and a reduction in nitrate and total phosphorus delivered to waterways," says </span><a href="https://ag.purdue.edu/Pages/default.aspx"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Purdue University</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> ag economist Ben Gramig. "While optimizing production to maximize stover harvest at the lowest possible cost may lead to a reduction in nutrients delivered to rivers and streams, this comes at the expense of increased soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions."</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As much as 3.5 tons of greenhouse gas and 1.1 ton of soil sediment per acre is lost from a field under conventional tillage when just over half the stover is removed, a process that nets around 2.7 tons of of the cellulosic ethanol feedstock, according to Gramig's research.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<div dir="ltr" style="margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://www.agriculture.com/news/crops/removing-cn-stover-keep-your-soil_2-ar30523"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
<br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-5371842681767765112013-03-16T11:00:00.000+00:002013-04-04T19:11:57.625+01:00Michelin offers soil-protection advice<a href="http://www.michelin-agricultural-tyres.co.uk/"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Michelin</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> has created a free downloadable guide advising farmers and contractors on how they can better protect their soil. The easy-to-follow booklet entitled, ‘Protect Your Soil’ offers a range of useful hints and tips from determining the different types of soil to ways to prevent soil damage by compaction.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Split into five sections, including chapters on the impact of tyres and the benefits of fitting tyres with MICHELIN’s Ultraflex technologies, the booklet offers a number of practical solutions for overcoming soil compaction.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Trying to reduce soil compaction is at the forefront of many farmers’ and contractors’ minds and as such we wanted to produce an easy-to-use and interesting guide, that would help those in the agricultural industry better understand their soil, and the steps they need to take in order to reduce compaction”, says Mike Lawton, Commercial Director of Michelin’s Agriculture division.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more and download the booklet </span><a href="http://www.michelin-agricultural-tyres.co.uk/News/Press-Releases/2013/Learn-how-to-protect-your-soil"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><a href="http://www.michelin-agricultural-tyres.co.uk/News/Press-Releases/2013/Learn-how-to-protect-your-soil"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6886938152965535165.post-20173856163420520672013-03-15T19:47:00.000+00:002013-04-04T19:13:05.632+01:00Cuba Continues Work on Soil Improvement<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The </span><a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1202621&Itemid=1"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">Prensa Latina news agency reported</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> on the March 13 that increased production of organic fertilizers and bio-fertilizers, along with conservation activities are among the measures adopted in 2012 by Cuba to improve its soils. According to Dagoberto Rodriguez, director of the Institute of Soil at the Ministry of Agriculture, the production of organic fertilizers and bio-fertilizers grew last year by 4.5 percent over 2011.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In relation to the conservation and improvement of soils to produce higher agricultural yields, the official told Granma newspaper that about 64,500 hectares benefited from the measures. Rodriguez also said that studies are underway aimed at improving the care of soil, which contemplate a change in nitrogen fertilization.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> In this regard, the director of the Institute of Soils considered the link between research projects and production to be a priority for the Ministry of Agriculture, along with the intensification of work aimed at developing bio-fertilizers programs that allow for the recovery of organic matter in soils, affected by overexposure to chemicals.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more </span><a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1202621&Itemid=1http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1202621&Itemid=1"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;">here. </span></a><a href="http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1202621&Itemid=1"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #da7b18; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></a>Alex Dinsdalehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04773180352307436308noreply@blogger.com