Tag Archives: soil amendments

21Aug/24

How to Help Growers Start

This Digital Café features Lee Briese, an independent crop consultant, who has scouted over 1.25 million crop acres weekly. In this session, Lee provides invaluable insights on how growers can begin implementing minimal tillage or no-till practices, cover crops, and intercropping while keeping their risks low. This webinar was originally broadcasted August 21, 2024.

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17Jul/24

Activating the soil starts at the surface

Conservation management brings soil to life. Measuring these changes in soil life can be simple and yet robust as indicators of key soil functions. This Digital Café featured Alan Franzluebbers, Ecologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, who described how soil-test biological activity can indicate improved soil health. This webinar was originally broadcasted July 17, 2024.

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19Jun/24

Manure and Microbes: Are they the key to sustainable crop production?

This Digital Café featured Quirine Ketterings, leader of the NMSP, who shared the value of manure project and discoveries related to soil microbial health indicators thus far. This webinar was originally broadcasted June 19, 2024.

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19Apr/24

Soil health and nutrient management: What it can and cannot do

Improved soil health provides several benefits to crops and water quality. However, there are limitations and as a result, some misconceptions exist. This presentation features Chad Penn, Research Soil Scientist at USDA-ARS and Adjunct Professor of Agronomy at Purdue University, who addresses how improved soil health impacts soil fertility and nutrient transport, as well as dispelling common myths.This presentation was originally broadcast on April 17, 2024.

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22Nov/21

Can We Quantify Soil Biological Activity Without a Lab?

As part of the Soil Health Nexus Digital Cafe Series, Dr. Amy Schmidt and Karla Melgar from the University of Nebraska – Lincoln present “Can We Quantify Soil Biological Activity Without a Lab?”. This presentation was originally broadcast on November 17, 2021.

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27Nov/19

Cover Crop Recipes Being Developed by States in the Midwest Cover Crop Council

A number of states within the Midwest Cover Crop Council have developed cover crop recipes. These publications are intended to provide a starting point for farmers who are new to growing cover crops. With experience, farmers may fine-tune the use of cover crops for their systems. Additional states will be coming soon.

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28Sep/18

Maintaining soil fertility is important for soil health

Maintaining soil fertility is important not only for profitable crop production, but also soil health. In a long-term P and K fertility trial, we can see that there is much greater residue cover in plots that have received adequate potash applications over time compared to where no K was applied. Application of P had minimal to no effect on residue cover.

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01May/18
Research demonstrates that animal manures can produce both environmental and productivity benefits over the commercial fertilizer it replaces.

Manure’s Impact on Yield, Nitrogen, and Carbon

Manure is often viewed by many as an environmental liability.  However, if manure is applied at rates equal to or less than the nitrogen (N) requirement of a crop, can manure produce environmental benefits over commercial fertilizer?  This was the focus of an Asian research group which summarized the results of 141 published studies from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. comparing manure substitution for fertilizer. This article summarizes the “Take Home Messages” from this research paper.

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