JuneCrops & Soils
The June issue of Crops & Soils is online! Our cover story this month evaluates the performance of precision sprayers in corn and soybean production fields.
Congress passes reconciliation legislation
Just before the July 4 holiday, Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, giving Republicans a major policy win by extending the 2017 tax cuts, boosting defense and immigration spending, rolling back clean energy investments, cutting Medicare and SNAP, and raising the debt ceiling by $5 trillion. The bill also made significant changes to agriculture and nutrition programs, adding $67 billion for farm programs and conservation while cutting SNAP funding by nearly $190 billion. Despite these changes, key parts of the farm bill remain unresolved and will need to be addressed later in the year through a "skinny" farm bill though bipartisan cooperation remains uncertain.
Featured articles
With waterhemp, resistance complicates management
Mixing it up with multi-layered tactics is key
Waterhemp has become increasingly difficult and expensive to control due to its widespread resistance to multiple herbicide sites of action, requiring growers to adopt a multi-layered, diversified approach to weed management. Experts recommend combining chemical, cultural, and mechanical tactics to manage resistance effectively. As no single "silver bullet" remains, success depends on field-by-field planning, community coordination, and ongoing adaptation to evolving resistance threats.
Earn 1 CEU in Integrated Pest Management by reading this article and taking the quiz.
Nitrogen management for irrigated hull-less food barley
In major barley-producing regions of the western United States and Great Plains, nitrogen (N) guidelines for spring malt and feed barley include both soil N and fertilizer N, commonly referred to as N supply. However, the recent development of hull-less, high-fiber barley cultivars has resulted in a lack of specific N management practices. This article presents research from southern Idaho on N management for two-row spring hull-less barley under irrigated high-yielding semi-arid conditions in an effort to establish appropriate N supply rates for hull-less food barley producers. Earn 0.5 CEUs in Nutrient Management by reading the article and taking the quiz. This article was prepared as a contribution of the Western Region Nutrient Management Coordinating Committee (WERA-103).
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Farming shallow histosols in South Florida
Impacts on crop production and strategies for soil conservation
More than half of the U.S. sugarcane production comes from the Everglades Agricultural Area. The region’s high agricultural productivity is largely attributed to its fertile organic soils, Histosols, which contain up to 85% organic matter and provide essential nutrients for crop growth. However, decades of intensive farming coupled with hot and humid climate have led to significant soil loss. This article examines the impacts of farming on shallow organic soils in South Florida, exploring how reduced soil depth affects crop production and what strategies can help mitigate further soil loss. Earn 1 CEU in Soil & Water Management by taking the quiz.
Does slope influence soluble phosphorus losses in spring snowmelt runoff in the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada?
Phosphorus (P) losses from agricultural land in the Prairie Pothole Region of Canada are dominated by P dissolved in snowmelt runoff water. This article presents a study showing that slope was not a major driver of P losses in snowmelt runoff. Earn 0.5 CEUs in Soil & Water Management by taking the quiz for the article. This article was prepared as a contribution of the Western Region Nutrient Management Coordinating Committee (WERA-103).
Sweet corn productivity under strategic irrigation and biochar application in the Texas Southern High Plains
The Texas Southern High Plains faces severe water limitations for agriculture, making efficient irrigation essential due to high evapotranspiration and declining groundwater from the Ogallala Aquifer. To address this, researchers developed a growth stage-based irrigation strategy for sweet corn, paired with biochar soil amendments, aiming to improve water productivity under drought-prone conditions. A two-year field study tested different irrigation levels and biochar rates to evaluate their effects on sweet corn growth, yield, and water efficiency. Earn 0.5 CEUs in Soil & Water Management by taking the quiz for the article.
Soil fertility, fertilizers, and crop nutrition: Past, present, and future
Society has made (and will be making) significant demands on agriculture in the not-to-distant future. Meeting future sustainability goals and environmental regulations while simultaneously continuing to meet requirements for food, feed, fuel, and fiber requires a firm understanding of how “we” have collectively arrived at our current status as it relates to our fertility principles and beliefs as well as the processes that address them. This series intends to describe crop nutrition and fertilizers from where we have been to where the authors believe that we will likely need to be prepared to go if we are to support world demands into the foreseeable future.
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