Partnership for Ag Resource Management

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – A group of Purdue University researchers has led the Useful to Usable climate initiative in launching two free online tools to help farmers make crop decisions in variable weather conditions. Useful to Usable, or U2U, aims to improve profitability and longevity of U.S. farms amid a variable and changing climate. The project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, is composed of a team of 50 faculty, staff and students…

More than 250 agricultural retailers and stakeholders from the Ohio, Indiana and Michigan agriculture communities attended the launch of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship Certification program last week in Perrysburg. The Ohio AgriBusiness Association is administering the program on behalf of the Nutrient Stewardship Council. The voluntary program is geared toward the long-term improvement of Lake Erie’s water quality by applying the 4R principles. The 4R approach – using the Right Nutrient Source at the Right Rate and Right Time in…

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Planting cover crops in rotation between cash crops — widely agreed to be ecologically beneficial — is even more valuable than previously thought, according to a team of agronomists, entomologists, agroecologists, horticulturists and biogeochemists from Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences. “As society places increasing demands on agricultural land beyond food production to include ecosystem services, we needed a new way to evaluate ‘success’ in agriculture,” said Jason Kaye, professor of biogeochemistry. “This research presents a…

Join us for a webcast on using cover crops and other conservation systems to improve water quality in agricultural landscapes. Cover crops are plants used to protect and improve the soil on farm fields, especially at times when cash crops such as corn, wheat and soybeans are not being grown. Cover crops can reduce nutrient losses to watersheds by scavenging nitrates that would otherwise be lost to leaching. In addition, cover crops reduce sediment and phosphorus losses to nearby waterways…

As regulations are being considered, the agriculture community is launching a proactive, responsible commitment aimed at the long-term improvement of Lake Erie’s water quality. Harmful algal blooms in the Great Lake and other bodies of water in the area have been on the rise the past five years, leading to increased water treatment costs and negative impacts on fishing and tourism. Farmers have taken many actions to improve soil health and reduce fertilizer runoff, but nutrients leaving fields and entering…

The North Central Soybean Research Program (NCSRP) has recently funded an eight-state study to identify and prioritize future research needs on the use of cover crops in soybean production systems. Part of this project is to get a sense from soybean growers in Wisconsin, and from those that advise soybean growers in some capacity, if they are using cover crops before or after soybean. Our goal is to get input from all soybean growers and consultants, not just ones currently…