Giant Ragweed Suppression with Guilherme Chudzik and Dr. Rodrigo Werle
Field, Lab, Earth
“Cereal Rye Biomass Effects on Giant Ragweed Suppression Inform Management Decisions” with Guilherme Chudzik and Rodrigo Werle. For farmers in the Midwest, giant ragweed can be a giant problem. In Wisconsin, where long emergence windows, aggressive growth, herbicide resistance, and power-packed seeds make suppression difficult, farmers are always looking for more hammers to hit this nasty nail on the head. In this episode, Guilherme and Rodrigo join me to discuss their work investigating cereal rye as an additional tool in this long-running fight. Tune in to learn: ...
info_outline
Halloween Special: Spring Dead Spot with Dr. Wendell Hutchens
Field, Lab, Earth
“Fifteen years of findings: Advancements in spring dead spot research from 2009 to 2024” with Dr. Wendell Hutchens Spring dead spot is a disease that lies in wait before going after your turfgrasses, transforming your favorite golf course into the set of your favorite PG-13 slasher. This episode, Wendell joins me to discuss the mega gains made in the last 15 years of spring dead spot research, in hopes that someday we can turn this slow-moving monster into just the stuff of legend. Tune in to learn: · What symptoms point to spring dead spot ...
info_outline
Genomic Selection with Dr. Jianming Yu
Field, Lab, Earth
“Genomic Selection: Essence, Applications, and Prospects” with Dr. Jianming Yu Genomic Selection is a plant breeding innovation that aims to speed plant breeding by using predictions from a training model enabled by genomics and statistics to guide the breeding decisions. With around thirty years of history around this innovation, it was about time to develop a review on it. Enter Dr. Jianming Yu and his team of coauthors. This episode, we skate the surface of a topic that could go down for miles, covering key areas of genomic selection, what it is, how to use it, and where we can aim to...
info_outline
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 ...
info_outline
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 ...
info_outline
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 · ...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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 ...
info_outline
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...
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 podcast@sciencesocieties.org 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:
sharon.schneider@usda.gov
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.