Welcome to the new Crops & Soils site
The new site currently features articles from 2024 and 2025. Content from past years will be added soon and new content will post each week.
Soil health management practices in the diverse Intermountain West
The Intermountain West spans the basin and range between the Rockies to the east and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada to the west. Its features diverse agricultural terrain and activity. Soil health management practices this region remain significantly understudied compared with other areas, according to a commentary published in the journal Agricultural & Environmental Letters. A survey of crop advisers and farmers across Utah explored their role in promoting soil health practices and identified barriers to and opportunities to expand soil health management practices. Earn 1 CEU in Soil & Water Management by taking the quiz for the article.
Featured articles
Nitrogen cycle: Unraveling microbial dynamics for optimizing nitrogen use
Nitrogen is a primary macronutrient essential for crop growth, yield, and productivity. To manage nitrogen effectively, it is critical to understand the fate of nitrogen in the soil and the various transformations it undergoes in the nitrogen cycle. Microbes play a vital role in nitrogen cycling by facilitating key processes such as nitrogen fixation, nitrification, and denitrification, which regulate nitrogen availability for plants and nitrogen loss. This article explores the various nitrogen-cycling processes, the microbes involved, and how they function under different environmental conditions. Understanding these microbes and their interactions with environmental factors is essential in improving nitrogen availability and minimizing the environmental impact of nitrogen cycling. Earn 1.5 CEUs in Nutrient Management by taking the quiz for the article.
Recent articles
Most read articles
Recent articles
Precision Irrigation Technologies for Water-Wise and Climate Resilient Alfalfa Production
The future of water-wise and resilient alfalfa production lies in the integration of precision irrigation technologies and innovative water management strategies. With the continued threat of drought and depleting levels within the Ogallala aquifer in regions like the Southern Great Plains of the United States, it is important to adopt precision techniques that optimize water use while maximizing crop yields and quality. From soil moisture-based management to canopy-based monitoring and the development of irrigation decision support systems, farmers and CCAs have many options from commercially available tools at their disposal to navigate water scarcity challenges. The power of artificial intelligence, satellite imagery, and real-time data analytics can all be integrated together to bring the agricultural community to work towards a future where alfalfa production remains resilient and environmentally sustainable. Earn 1.5 CEUs in Soil & Water Management by reading this article and taking the quiz at https://web.sciencesocieties.org/Learning-Center/Courses.
Developing high-yielding and stress-resilient soybean varieties
Soybean is an important crop as a global food, oil, and feed source, yet its productivity faces threats from climate-change-driven factors. The Mid-South U.S., a major soybean-producing region, experiences unique environmental challenges that affect yield and farm profitability. The soybean-breeding program at the University of Missouri Fisher Delta Research, Extension & Education Center (MU-FDREEC) is dedicated to developing high-yielding, resilient varieties to support farmers in this region. Over the past five years, MU-FDREEC has released 24 new soybean varieties, including conventional, herbicide-tolerant, and specialty types (high oleic acid). Collaborations with farmers, industry partners and research institutions have led to improvements in disease resistance, seed quality and yield, benefiting soybean producers nationwide. Looking ahead, the program is focused on enhancing climate resilience, optimizing photosynthetic efficiency, and incorporating genomic technologies. These efforts aim to provide Mid-South farmers with improved soybean varieties that boost productivity, profitability, and sustainability. Earn 0.5 CEUs in Crop 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.
We want to hear from you
Do you have an article you'd like to submit or feedback for the magazine team? Let us know!
