The Nitrogen Value of Cover Crops with Dr. Guillermo Marcillo
Field, Lab, Earth
“The Nitrogen Value of Cover Crops” with Dr. Guillermo Marcillo. Cover crops are known for their ability to provide economic and ecosystem services to farmers, including, for example, impacting soil nitrogen. But how much nitrogen, exactly, can cover crops add or remove and how do we find out? In this episode, Guillermo joins me to discuss his work collating research data to get to the bottom of cover crop nitrogen replacement values. Tune in to learn: · What a nitrogen replacement value is ...
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Compost Organic Matter in a Snap with Dr. David C. Weindorf
Field, Lab, Earth
“Toward sustainable compost use: Prediction of organic matter via smartphone image analysis” with Dr. David C. Weindorf Compost needs to be regularly tested to ensure labels regarding organic matter, nutrients, and more remain accurate. However, getting compost tested is time- and cost-intensive. This episode, Dr. Weindorf joins me to discuss how developing a model to predict organic matter from cell phone pictures might make this process a whole lot easier. Tune in to learn: · Which factors best correlated with organic matter ...
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Cover Crops and the Transition to Organic with Nick Boogades
Field, Lab, Earth
“Early impacts of cover crop selection on soil biological parameters during a transition to organic agriculture” with Nick Boodages. Incorporating cover crops is an important step in the transition from conventional to organic growing practices, but in Texas, limited resources can bring complications. In this episode, Nick joins me to discuss his work researching how to help farmers make the leap. Tune in to learn: · What challenges Texan farmers face when hoping to transition to organic agriculture · ...
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Soybean Seed Protein Decline with Dr. Anuj Chiluwal
Field, Lab, Earth
“United States soybean seed protein concentrations – current status, challenges and some potential crop management solutions” with Dr. Anuj Chiluwal. Soybeans are a crucial crop in the United States for a variety of uses, including for its use as a protein source in animal feed. However, in recent years, high yield varieties have seen a steady decline in seed protein concentration. In this episode, Anuj joins me to discuss the sources of this decline and some potential strategies to combat it. Tune in to learn: · Why soybean seed protein...
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Precision Turfgrass Management with Dr. Briana Wyatt and Dallas Williams
Field, Lab, Earth
“Using electromagnetic induction to inform precision turfgrass management strategies in sand-capped golf course fairways” with Dr. Briana Wyatt and Dallas Williams Golf courses are well known for their beautiful greens, but overusing fertilizer and water to keep them looking pristine can lead to inefficient, expensive, and environmentally damaging waste. Precision turfgrass management can help, but only if we can find the right methods to put it into use. In this episode, Briana and Dallas join me to discuss their research on how electrical conductivity can be used to help determine golf...
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The Soil Health Cycle with Dr. Bijesh Maharjan
Field, Lab, Earth
“Soil Health Cycle” with Dr. Bijesh Maharjan Researchers, advisers, and farmers alike know that soil health is important, but taking steps forward in the knowledge of which practices to use and their impacts can be difficult. Enter the soil health cycle, an iterative approach to help track how practices and their implementation take soil health forward. In this episode, Bijesh joins me to discuss his work on the soil health cycle. Tune in to learn: · How the soil health cycle is similar to human health care cycles ...
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Speed Breeding to Combat Wheat Disease with Drs. Nidhi Rawat and Vijay Tiwari
Field, Lab, Earth
“Evaluation of speed breeding conditions for accelerating Fusarium head blight and deoxynivalenol screening in wheat” with Nidhi Rawat and Vivek Tiwari. Fusarium head blight (FHB), also known as head scab, is one of the most significant diseases affecting wheat, causing substantial economic losses for farmers in the U.S. and worldwide. While FHB resistant wheat lines have been identified, breeding these traits into desirable cultivars is a time-consuming process that can take decades, with uncertain success. In the U.S., particularly for spring wheat, crossing of wheat lines can...
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Economics of Autonomous Strip-Cropping with Professor James Lowenberg-DeBoer
Field, Lab, Earth
“Economics of strip cropping with autonomous machines” with James Lowenberg-DeBoer. With the growing global population, the demand for food continues to rise. However, increasing food production often depends on intensive farming practices and agricultural inputs that can negatively impact environmental health. To counter this, promoting crop diversity, improving soil health, and reducing disease and pest pressure are crucial. Mixed cropping presents a viable solution but poses challenges for mechanization and labor efficiency. In this context, customized autonomous machines and advanced...
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Benefits of Microarthropods with Dr. Ashley Jernigan
Field, Lab, Earth
“Microarthropods improve oat nutritional quality and mediate fertilizer effects on soil biological activity” with Dr. Ashley Jernigan Microarthropods are little critters that can have a big impact on crop production, particularly when it comes to nutrient cycling and nutrient acquisition. However, there’s still much to learn about how the work these little helpers do is affected when paired with different types of fertilizers. In this episode, Dr. Jernigan joins me to discuss how microarthropods get along with different fertilizer treatments. Tune in to learn: ...
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Grazing Cover Crops in the Great Plains with Drs. John Holman and Augustine Obour
Field, Lab, Earth
“Grazing cover crops: How does it influence soils and crops?” with Drs. John Holman and Augustine Obour. Cover crops have a lot of uses depending on where you live and what you grow, but in some regions like the Great Plains, it can take a little extra help to make sure they’re as helpful as they can be. In this episode, John and Augustine join me to discuss the advantages and challenges of grazing cover crops in the Great Plains. Tune in to learn: · Which factors most impact strategy when incorporating cover crops ...
info_outline“Key soil properties and their relationships with crop yields as affected by soil-landscape rehabilitation” with Dr. Sharon Schneider.
Soil erosion is one of the major issues in agriculture that causes loss of the topsoil layer, reducing soil health and crop productivity. There are several ways to check soil erosion and its impacts on crop and soil health. One of the potential strategies to reduce the effect of past soil erosion is to reverse the soil erosion process by moving soil from where it was deposited by erosion to where soil was lost by erosion. In this episode, Dr. Sharon Schneider shares her research on replacing topsoil in eroded landscapes.
Tune in to learn more about
· What are the impacts of soil erosion on crop productivity and soil properties?
· What are strategies for reducing soil erosion?
· What is the importance of soil organic carbon?
· Soil and crop benefits of replacing topsoil in eroded landscapes
If you would like more information about this topic, this episode’s papers are available here:
https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.21428
https://doi.org/10.1002/agj2.20635
These papers are always freely available.
Contact us at [email protected] or on Twitter @FieldLabEarth if you have comments, questions, or suggestions for show topics, and if you want more content like this don’t forget to subscribe. If you’d like to see old episodes or sign up for our newsletter, you can do so here: https://fieldlabearth.libsyn.com/.
If you would like to reach out to Sharon Schneider, you can find her here:
[email protected]
https://www.ars.usda.gov/people-locations/person/?person-id=18554
Resources
“Soil properties and productivity as affected by topsoil movement within an eroded landform,” published in Soil and Tillage Research: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2008.07.018
Integrated Cropping Systems Research Group: https://www.ars.usda.gov/plains-area/brookings-sd/ncarl/
Data from the study: Schneider, Sharon K.; Sutradhar, Apurba K.; Schumacher, Thomas E.; Lobb, David A. (2024). Soil, crop, and weed communities as affected by soil erosion and topsoil replacement in a Mollisol landform (a six-year soil-landscape rehabilitation study). Ag Data Commons. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/25206968.v1
Recorded presentation by Sharon Schneider available at USDA: https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/30800500/Schneider%202021%20virtual%20field%20day%20720p.mp4
Presentation to the Sustainability of Canadian Agriculture Conference, 2022 by David Lobb: https://umanitoba.ca/agricultural-food-sciences/sites/agricultural-food-sciences/files/2022-04/scac2022lobb.pdf
EA Consumables is the exclusive US distributor of organic elemental analysis products by UK laboratory supplies manufacturer, Elemental Microanalysis. Visit the EA Consumables website for high quality elemental analysis consumable supplies that offer performance you can trust.
Special thank you to Om Prakash Ghimire for help with the creation of the shownotes and other assets.
Field, Lab, Earth is Copyrighted by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.