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Benchmark Your Input Consumption
Ever wonder how your input use stacks up against other growers? Mike Thede, Palmer, NE, benchmarks his use of fertilizer, soil and water vs. local and national counterparts, thanks to the Field to Market Fieldprint Calculator.
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Grain Transport Blues
The first pinch point begins at the farm gate. The U.S. road system now ranks 20th in the world, behind countries like France and South Korea, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report.
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Change Mindset, Change Tillage
Six years ago, brothers Tom and Jim Wagner, Primghar, IA, made a decision that changed their farming lives – and they’ve never looked back. The corn and soybean producers had shared equipment with a neighbor, using his tractor and ripper in exchange for planting his crops. When the neighbor opted for an off-farm job, he rented his land to the Wagners. He auctioned off his big tractors and tillage equipment and, as Tom and Jim weighed the possibility of taking on more land, they took a hard look at their own equipment situation.
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New Ways to Evaluate Soil
"There is no other physical asset that trades on its condition from a long, long time ago," says Mitchell. "In a modern farming paradigm, agriculture will require higher resolution analysis of soil capacity to effectively index farmland values and to determine what it is that we're buying after all."
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5 Ways to Cut Nitrate Loss
As Corn Belt farmers face challenges to reduce nitrate loss in surface and groundwater by 40-45%, Iowa State University (ISU) research confirms what many growers fear: “The right application of nitrogen (N) is [just] the first step,” says Matt Helmers, ISU associate professor, agricultural and biosystems engineering.
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Walk Your Fields
By scouting his own cornfields, Andrew Bowman, Onieda, Ill., was able to make timely and targeted spraying decisions in 2011. Instead of spraying all 700 acres of corn, he had 240 acres of corn sprayed with fungicides for about $25/acre, saving $11,500 on unsprayed acres. He anticipates they will likely make well over that cost on the 240 acres that were sprayed. By doing his own scouting, he also saved the $5,600-14,000 that he could have paid for the service.
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Buffer Booster
Directing tile water through a grass buffer can significantly improve drainage water quality. This new conservation drainage practice, called a “saturated buffer,” removes nitrates from subsurface drainage water at low cost – without affecting farm field drainage.
Over the last year, we've done our best to help our readers Think Different. From management practices to conservation to global competition to data management, we're striving to give you the best. Here's a recap of our favorite Think Different stories from the Late February, March and April issues.