Throughout much of agriculture’s history, farmers had to make decisions based only upon observation and recollection. Both sources are not precise, but it was the best evidence available. As scientific methods were introduced, farmers could employ research-based recommendations to improve production efficiency. Progress followed, even though the recommendations had to be general in nature (apply […]
Precision agriculture has become mainstream in commercial agriculture production, and many would agree that it is “the way we farm today.” Utilization of technology varies from farmer to farmer, but the decision to invest in technology is commonly tied to the potential for increased efficiency and profitability. However, over the last couple of years, we’ve […]
Alyssa Essman was the lead author on this article. The 2019 growing season came and went and left many fields in a state of disarray heading into 2020. Many growers that were unable to plant decided to use cover crops, to reduce soil erosion and provide some weed suppression during the extended fallow period. Terminating […]
With the prevented planting headaches of 2019, many noted that “Mother Nature bats last.” With the 2020 acreage debate coming into focus, it’s also worth remembering the winter wheat bats first. This week’s post reviews the USDA’s latest 2020 winter wheat acreage estimate and potential impact for corn and soybean acreage. Winter Wheat Earlier this year, the […]
In Southwest and Western Nebraska, winter wheat was originally grown in a winter wheat-summer fallow rotation. Beginning in the 1970’s winter wheat was included in Ecofarming rotations with no-till corn or grain sorghum and summer fallow as a means to capture and maintain soil water through snow retention, increased infiltration, reduced evaporation, and weed control […]
Bloomberg writer Brian K Sullivan reported on Friday that, “For the second year in a row, much of the U.S. is primed to suffer multi-billion dollar flood losses, with farmers already steeling themselves for planting delays. “Relentless storms that have marched across the Midwest and into the South this winter have already filled rivers to the brim and are threatening […]
Wondering how to do cover crops? OSU Extension, in collaboration with the Midwest Cover Crops Council (MCCC), has produced cover crop “recipes” for two scenarios: Post corn, going to soybean and Post soybean, going to corn. The recipes are intended to provide step-by-step guidance to some of the lowest-risk starting points for cover crops. They […]
Land application of organic materials is important in Nebraska. This article builds on an earlier CropWatch article. Since then, the data were further analyzed and the results further interpreted. This article avoids much repetition of the 2019 article but gives some new or revised information. Land application of manure and other organic materials supplies much N […]
No sooner have many unpleasant memories of the 2019 growing season begun to fade than we find ourselves looking ahead to contemplating potential residual weed management challenges in 2020. Winter Annual Weed Species Delays in planting the 2019 crop often accompanied delays in controlling existing stands of winter annual weeds prior to planting. The obvious […]
Occasional tillage (OT) of long-term no-till (also called one-time or strategic tillage) might be desired once in more than 5 or 10 years according to need for integrated weed management, fracturing a compaction layer, incorporating a soil amendment such as lime or manure, reducing vertical stratification of nutrient availability, increasing soil organic matter to greater […]