This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Host Shaun Haney is joined by RealAgriculture’s in-house agronomist, Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson to discuss a number of topics including: The winter season; The 2025 crop planning process; Controversy between the plow vs. disc ripper; and, Being cautious with cost cutting techniques. Thoughts… Read More
Helping farmers prep soil and seed crops in small spring planting windows is the driving force behind a new harrow and seeder combination for Kuhn. In this report from Agritechnica, Kuhn product line manager David Hild explains how European farmers who fall plow typically utilize two separate machines — a power harrow followed by a.
Moldboard plowing? Moldboard plowing? In this episode of Wheat Pete’s Word, Pete says that tillage erosion is 10 times worse than wind and water erosion. The disc ripper… Read More When asked about tillage, RealAgriculture’s Peter “Wheat Pete” Johnson says to do as little as you can.
They also embraced crop diversity by adopting traditional crops, including hardier, more nutritious varieties that had been orphaned by modern agriculture demands. In Kansas, some annual row crop farmers are pioneering perennial crops to counter the impacts of yearly plowing that has depleted their soils.
It turns out a system that relies less on row crops isn’t just good for a time- and resource-strapped young farmer. It works as both a cover crop and forage for the cattle, and it’s helping Bedtka build up organic matter in his soil. farmland is regularly cover cropped. Any day you can graze is better,” says Bedka.
They are documenting Lincoln’s living cover crop system, where he undersows Dutch white clover into vegetables after the last cultivation in July. He would let the cover crop grow and overwinter and then plow down the following spring for green manure.
Local practices included moldboard plowing to reseed perennial hay fields and as part of the plowing procedure, it is common to place drainage furrows with a plow on 30-60-feet centers. We do not yet have a no-till drill, so we use a conventional drill for overseeding pastures or seeding annual cover crops.
Stockpile is pasture that is left to grow during the growing season for grazing at a later date, often after the spring flush and can be perennial pasture or intentionally planted diverse cover crops. IF there was good yielding, high brix forage underneath the snow, the cows plow through it without regard for snow depth.
As climate change continues and farming areas get hotter and drier—as expected in the Southern Great Plains and Southwest—erosion could increasingly take the form of dust storms when bone-dry fields are plowed. Preventing soil loss from farms and its damaging consequences is possible, and it starts with keeping farm soils covered.
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in regenerative agriculture, a holistic approach to farming that seeks to restore and revitalize the land while improving crop yields and overall farm profitability. This means increased crop yields and reduced inputs like fertilizers and pesticides. What’s in It for Farmers?
In conventional tillage, plowing redistributes nutrients across the soil profile, mixing organic matter and nutrients from the surface with deeper soil layers. During this period, micronutrients can become “locked up” in microbial biomass, making them less available to crops, especially during early growth stages.
By Lee Rinehart, NCAT Agriculture Specialist In my past two blogs, I reflected on planting cover crops on small plots and gardens. And since cover cropping is scalable to just about any size farm or garden, it made sense to conduct some field experiments of my own. Diversity of food crops and flowering annuals. Give it time.
But with the heavy rain came floods that damaged lives, property, and crops. With fields waterlogged, many farmworkers were unable to work and pick produce, signaling that crops like strawberries might see lower yields and higher prices in the near future.
Measuring a farm’s carbon footprint is not as simple as saying, “Cover crops were used, so that grain’s sustainably grown.” Two neighbors, Farmer A and Farmer B: both farm 1,000 acres and use the same crop rotation schedule. Farmer A tills 30% of their fields, uses cover crops on 20%, and applies anhydrous ammonia.
I wanted to name this “Ignoring the (Crop Rotation) Experts,” but that title is way too loaded these days! However, in terms of crop rotation, I increasingly find the rigidity of ideas on how to do it chafing. Our goal with crop rotation is to plant things in a way that we don’t have to spray and that they still stay healthy.
Black polyethylene “mulch film” gets tucked snugly around crop rows, clear plastic sheeting covers hoop houses, and most farmers use plastic seed trays, irrigation tubes, and fertilizer bags. The field consumes 14 million tons of plastics every year, with crop and livestock production accounting for 80 percent.
Those tiles, which were first installed in the mid-1800s and have now largely been replaced with plastic pipes, ultimately allowed farmers to grow crops on land that was once too wet to farm. The annual crops and drainage tile started to create this leaky system.” Fertilizer as Poison The U.S.
For example, it can assist in monitoring crops, optimizing irrigation, and even predicting weather patterns to make farming more efficient and productive. This enables lenders to track key performance indicators, such as crop health, yield forecasts, and financial metrics. AI and agriculture are a powerful duo.
But on a farm of our scale and crop mix, time is the main limiting factor! Last year we had something around 700 plantings total, of over 150 crop varieties, and each was handled slightly differently at each stage (seed starting, greenhouse water and heat, planting, cultivation, harvesting, and post-harvest).
Julia Letlow (R-LA) with AFBF’s Golden Plow award. The Golden Plow is the highest honor the organization gives to sitting members of Congress. While market uncertainty persists, projected prices decline further for crops harvested in 2024, and net farm income falls to the lowest level since 2020. Register for AgCon2024.
The summer crops have just about given their all, their leaves brown with wilt or downy mildew, an element of a plant’s natural senescence. The garden wants to go to sleep, and I tuck it in with a blanket of cover crops… my favorite seed mix of vetch, rye, and clover. I, too, am subject to natural senescence. But a mechanical tiller?
This line of questioning led him to understand the importance of soil health for crop growth. He visited with some farmers who were using cover crops and saw how healthy their soil was. Why were the plant tissues testing low in potassium when there was plenty in the soil?
Traditional plowing or tilling can disrupt the soil structure, making it more susceptible to erosion. In addition, leaving crop residues on the field contributes to the accumulation of organic matter, which helps binding soil particles together, forming soil aggregates.
specialty crops industry. The launch of the Assisting Specialty Crop Exports (ASCE) initiative will provide $65 million for projects that will help the specialty crop sector increase global exports and expand to new markets. with the highest honor the organization gives to sitting members of Congress, the Golden Plow award.
Studies show the most common means of adapting to rising temperatures in most crop-growing regions has been to start working when its still dark out, or even to shift to a fully overnight schedule. The conditions impacted crop yields, livestock, the transportation of goods, and the larger supply chain. Photography via Shutterstock.
With an abundance of open grassland, rich soil, and an extensive inland river system known as the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia is well-positioned for irrigated cropping and grazing. This would not only slash methane emissions but also reduce the land use impact of livestock by eliminating the need for extra grain production as feed.
While ag tech might conjure images of robots and satellite-driven tractors plowing vast acreages, some innovators are focusing their ingenuity on the needs of smaller-scale farmers. This rack can be easily built, transported to the field, and loaded up with half a ton of crops such as onion and garlic for drying, saving time and energy.
crops (corn, soybeans, wheat, sorghum, barley, oats, cotton) and plays an important role in predicting farm program expenditures in the President’s annual budget proposal. Crops, examines the performance of the existing area planted equations for seven major U.S. crops in the U.S. with AFBF’s Golden Plow award.
“As you’re structuring your cropping and the livestock rotations, you’re having to actively adapt, sometimes daily, to deal with the weather conditions.” Livestock producers and ranchers have a lot to deal with during a disaster, but crop farmers face a range of long-term impacts from weather events.
MF: Another section of the book that stuck with me looked at groups of people planting milkweed and other pollinator-friendly crops along highways and rest stops and attempting to make the roads more friendly for butterflies and other pollinators. And they’re very harmful, but we can lay the blame on [the roads themselves].
These days, farming is a lot more than just plowing the field and planting seeds. Operating loans are used for operating expenses such as labor costs, seed, fertilizer and other supplies needed for crop production. They can also be used for livestock purchases such as cows or pigs. How long has it been in your family?"
From losing seed crops as wildfires rage for weeks, to losing entire crops as a result of erratic freezes, to losing farms as drought dries up available water, farmers’ risks are rising. CalCAN is a member of NSAC and played a part in developing the original version of the Agriculture Resilience Act.
They’d take a few hundred acres of both leased and family-owned central-Texas farmland—land that for decades had grown row crops of corn and cotton—and give it “what it wants back,” he said. See full series Back around 2011, Jonathan Cobb and his wife, Kaylyn, had what he calls a “simple game plan.” Here in the U.S.,
Setting up the farm was a challenge for Mattia - the physical labor was exhausting, and additionally, Mattia was not familiar with plowing, crop production, or other farm procedures. It is located on 1.2 hectares of land upon which Mattia has created 38 pens, each 120m2 in size. So, he has had to learn all of this “on the fly.”
Now, a new crop of seaweed startups, many funded by venture capital and tech industry players, is pouring millions into projects using seaweed to mitigate climate change. Without adequate safeguards, they wrote, “seaweed could become the next boom and bust crop that was supposed to ‘save the world.’”
These practices include reducing or eliminating tilling of soil, planting “cover crops” that grow during the off-season and are not harvested, improving how farmers use fertilizer and manure, and planting trees. But I think we should be much more vigilant about maintaining productivity” as more farmers start using cover crops.
It’s one thing the Biden administration, agribusiness leaders, soil scientists and environmentalists all agree on: farmers across the country should plant cover crops. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack , cover crops are being asked to do something new and high-stakes: draw atmospheric carbon into the soil to help fight climate change.
Despite being "perfectly good to eat," up to 40 percent of Melvin's 36 hectares of cauliflower gets plowed back into the ground each year, according to the Nova Scotia farmer's estimates. "We Second Harvest CEO Lori Nikkel isn't surprised to hear that farms have to get rid of so many edible crops. Credit: Ben Nelms/Reuters.
They grow crops ranging from nopales (cactus) to tree fruit to mixed vegetables. youth and adult volunteers Location: Fresno, California Acres in cultivation: Less than one acre Marketing: farmer’s markets, farm stand and CSA Crops: mixed vegetables “I think the food safety piece is just as important as all the other stuff that we do.
We would have grown fewer crops, spent more time and money on controlling weeds, and harmed our soil with plowing. The absence of glyphosate would have made a bad year even worse.
We’d like to take that further and look at the Indigenous seed-keeping skills and technologies that develop the ‘crops’ we have today. link] I would follow Granddaddy out to the garden that was plowed by the mule. A lot of our work is restoring the basic knowledge and traditions. That’s an important part of our work.
Radiating from their geographical and spiritual epicenter in Iowa, these two crops cover nearly two-thirds of U.S. These crops are the raw materials the food industry transforms into the dizzying array of products that fill hundreds of millions of bellies every day. Why all the love for just two crops? Californias.
As a result, the comparatively few legislators representing agricultural areas need the votes of colleagues who wouldn’t know a harrow from a plow. No more funding for specialty crops, urban agriculture, conservation, or the Gus Schumacher Healthy Incentives Program. But SNAP is only part of the deal.
Farmers markets cropped up around the country. The Food Network launched in 1993, driving an aspirational entertainment industry that turned cooking into a spectator sport. That same year, Chipotle was born, marking the rise of the fast-casual restaurant. Fusion cuisine, from fajitas to Chinese chicken salad, was everywhere.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content