Crops
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If you plant corn or work with farmers who do, you are probably well aware of the importance of watching soil temperatures before you plant. But if not, you might be interested in these Indiana PrairieFarmer stories that describe how soil temperature and moisture can affect corn germination and emergence. Farmers need to be aware…
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Farm Progress posted an interesting story this week about how increases in temperature and humidity in the Midwestern Corn Belt in recent years are increasing the levels of aflatoxin in corn. This has been a more common problem in the Southeast where we already have to deal with high temperature and humidity, but as temperatures…
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Here is a nice corn growing degree day (GDD) tool for the US available from Nutrien at Nutrien GDD Tool (ag-wx.com). You can input the location, planting date, and maturity level and get a curve that shows the corn development stage. It is based on PRISM gridded weather data developed by Oregon State University. Some…
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Forage production in Georgia has been struggling in recent years, according to this report in the Farm Monitor, due to a combination of high input costs and tough weather. According to the article, recent back-to-back bad years have resulted in depletion of hay stocks, leaving farmers short. There is nothing left for a rainy day,…
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The very heavy rain that California has experienced this year has provided many challenges for agricultural producers this year. Many orchards have been flooded, leading to suffocation of the tree roots due to lack of air in the soil, and farmers have not been able to do any field work for weeks due to the…
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As the climate changes, farmers can become more resilient by adding new crops to their portfolio of choices. One I read about today is elderberry. Another is pongamia, a hardy tree that grows in Florida’s subtropical climate and serves as a source of oils, a soybean-like protein source, or a fertilizer feedstock, according to the…
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I had the chance to visit the University of Georgia test plots at Bledsoe Farm just outside of Griffin GA this week. The test plots were composed of a variety of wheat, oats, and triticale varieties to see how they did under different planting dates, densities, and cuttings. Many of the plots looked quite good…