Want to learn more about Manure Management than you thought there was to know? Check out Extension.org’s Animal Manure Management section. I learn better from reading that from listening or watching someone else, but if those are your preferred learning styles there are webcasts of many presentations. With winter coming on, you can curl up [...]
I’m generally a proponent of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). It’s hard to argue against the tremendous benefits they bring to agriculture. We have been modifying the plants we grow since the very dawn of agriculture. Quirks and Quarks had a segment on how tracing the changes to rice kernels has helped date the transition from [...]
Richard Zollinger pointed out research on the NDSU-AGDAKOTA mailing list. Research Scientist Pirkko Laitinen in Finland shows that there is Significant glyphosate herbicide transport to plant roots. One of the things that makes glyphosate such a useful herbicide is that it breaks down very quickly. Even crops that are glyphosate intolerant can be seeded within [...]
These are instructions for putting points from a Garmin GPS onto a Google Earth map. I assume that you’ve already installed a recent version of Mapsource and Google Earth and that you have the cable to connect your GPS to your computer. Turn on the GPS and connect it to the computer Start Mapsource (Start [...]
Garth Donald discusses the nutrients left in the soil in fall 2009. With the way the weather’s been, the nutrients left in the soil are quite variable. Some crops were not planted at all, some were drowned out early on, others were hailed out, and some produced near bumper crops. Trying to predict the nutrients [...]
Reading the articles that came out after Norman Borlaug’s death last week taught me a lot about the Green Revolution. It’s amazing to think that as recently as 50 years ago, widespread famine was seen as an inevitable part of life. Populations would grow in good years, then starve to death in bad ones, and [...]
How old is dirt? Ethan Siegel answers that question at his Starts with a Bang blog. Be sure to read the comments as some take issue with his conclusion. John Heard discussed the age of Manitoba’s soils in a recent print article. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep a copy of it, but as I recall he [...]
Slashfood talks about etching product information directly onto fruits and vegetables. This strikes me as useful but odd. When I’m buying fruits and vegetables, I would love to see this. It’s not the description itself that appeals to me as with a little help from a simple shelf label I can figure out what variety [...]
Two people have called me disappointed with the way their corn crop yielded after manure application. The issue seems to be that some parts of the fields got the nitrogen they needed, other parts were applied with manure that had a lower nitrogen value than average and that left the crop hungry for nitrogen. How [...]
The Sunday Times in Sri Lanka has an article on the Role of Information Technology in Agriculture. It struck me as a useful reminder of the importance of information technology in agriculture here in Canada. The bottom line is “To participate and make informed decisions in the agricultural industry a person must have ability to [...]
