Search results for 'KY'

How Yield Champions Use Cover Crops for Growing Higher Bushels

By Laura Barrera

Published 9 months ago

There are many factors that can influence corn yield. In fact, Fred Below, a plant physiologist at the University of Illinois, identified seven of them, which he dubbed the “Seven Wonders of the Corn Yield World. ”The seven wonders, ranked in order of most influence on yield, are:WeatherNitrogenHybridPrevious cropPlant populationTillageGrowth regulatorsWhile Below was referring to the cash crop rotation in the fourth wonder, some farmers are taking it one step further by seeding cover crops. The benefit of added crop diversity along with improvements to soil health is paying off, as some of these farmers are achieving the highest yields in the country... His water infiltration rates have also skyrocketed from ½-1 inch per hour to now 6-7 inches per hour...

Starting from Scratch - How Beginning Farmers can Break Ground

By Gregory Heilers

Published 5 months ago

Despite the fact that there is near-guaranteed job security, thanks to booming population growth, many beginning farmers face seemingly insurmountable obstacles to bringing a product to market. In this article, we’re going to cover how young farmers can start from the ground up, even if they don’t come from a family of farmers. Informing this subject is Jason Silverman, the Massachusetts Field Agent of Land For Good, and Joel Salatin, co-owner of Polyface Farm. Jason’s experience as a first generation farmer, and as an agent connecting farmers with resources, balances well with Joel’s, who took over the family farm, and has since mentored scores of intern cohorts... By not “getting in over their heads at first, even if it means a backyard garden and a flock of chickens,” beginning farmers can continue to grow their skills and work towards a future of farming...

Categories: Agribusiness

Early Cover Crop Benefits: What Can You Expect in the First Year?

By Laura Barrera

Published 9 months ago

In 1995, Pennsylvania farmer Steve Groff was speaking at an event when he asked the audience the question: Do cover crops pay off?His thinking at the time was that he had been no-tilling since 1982, and maybe if he no-tilled long enough, he wouldn’t need them. Ray Weil, a soil ecologist with the University of Maryland, happened to hear his question and approached Groff about doing a cover crop study on his farm. It turned into a 12-year project, from 1995 to 2007. It was in 1999, four years into it, Groff got the answer to his question... “If you have 3-foot deep topsoil in Illinois, you’re not going to see a dramatic difference in the soil as you would in maybe another soil that’s on a hillside, or rocky, or sandier,” he says...

Categories: Cover Crops

Too many farmer's markets?

By John Moody

Published 9 months ago

As I mentioned a few weeks back, some segments of ag are in the midst of challenges and changes. CSAs (community supported agriculture) are one area. Today, we turn our attention to a second - farmer’s markets. History Farmer’s markets go way back in the US... Indeed, natural foods have penetrated so deeply into traditional food distribution channels that my local Kroger in rural KY had kombucha on the store shelves! This is something that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago, yet there it was last week as I walked through the store doing some research...

Blockchain Technology: A Lifeline to Small-Scale Farmers

By Gregory Heilers

Published 10 months ago

Technology has been an integral part of agriculture since at least 5,000 years ago, documented through the use of ploughs in ancient Sumeria. Today, drone and GPS farming is old news. Still, some in the industry are unsure of the latest development to disrupt agriculture. From Chinese pork to Mexican mangoes, blockchain technology is already fostering direct marketing, improving traceability for compliance, reducing waste, and increasing profit margins... He enjoyed extensive hands-on involvement building his father’s grass-fed beef, breeding meat goat, and poultry farm in south-central Kentucky, which leverages the Internet to direct market (and should start looking into blockchain soon!)...

Nutrient Stratification Not a Problem in No-Till

By Laura Barrera

Published 6 months ago

A common concern growers may have when they move to a no-till system is nutrient stratification. Without tillage to mix fertilizer into the soil, no-tillers may wonder whether the nutrients applied to the soil surface are reaching the crop roots. According to University of Nebraska Extension engineer Paul Jasa and Ray Ward, plant scientist and founder of Ward Laboratories in Kearney, Neb. , the resounding answer is: yes, they are... According to a paper written by University of Kentucky soil scientist John Grove, Ward and University of Maryland soil scientist Ray Weil, research conducted in Kentucky from 1980-81 looked at corn’s uptake of surface-applied potassium under moldboard plowed and no-tilled plots that were established in 1970...

Value Added Products - The future for farms of all sizes?

By John Moody

Published 10 months ago

Many farmers have felt the pinch of falling food prices over the past year. Some sectors of the ag industry, especially dairy, are in a free fall, with our fellow farm friends hurting badly as low prices, consolidation, and other forces forcing many to sell off operations or even sell their farms. It is difficult days, but as I noted in my earlier article, things haven’t been good for US farmers in quite some time. Smart farmers who want to stay in farming are looking for ways to stay or become profitable... These laws vary by state and change regularly - for instance, my home state of Kentucky recently greatly expanded their cottage food law just a few weeks ago...

Recent College Grad? Why Now Is The Perfect Time To Pursue A Career In Farming

By Cortney Farmer

Published 10 months ago

The U. S. agricultural industry finds itself at a precarious professional crossroads. Recent decades have resulted in a steady and significant decline in the number of working farmers in our country, for a variety of reasons... As long as bio-engineers and growers can use skyscrapers and other city features to cultivate plants and animal life, modern-day farmers can opt to perfect their professional trade in regions that best suit their personal preferences and tastes...

Citizens Weekly Newsletter July 13, 2018

By Angie Setzer

Published 7 months ago

This Week In Agriculture:A Mixed Bag of Information from the Week that Was: July 13, 2018· At this point we seem to be seeing ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ when it comes to trade as selling this market since Memorial Day has been a winner. Additional tariff announcements, ideas of further trade war escalation, forecasts for cooler temps and a USDA supply and demand report pressured the market across the board. For the week we saw corn down 20, wheat down 17 while November soys were 60 lower. · While the market started the weak lower on ideas that long term weather forecasts were indicating a pattern shift towards cooler, wetter conditions the Tuesday night announcement from the Trump administration of an additional $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods accelerated the market’s move lower... com ****Commodities trading is very risky, Citizens LLC holds no liability for the use of the information contained herein****...

Citizens Weekly Newsletter June 22, 2018

By Angie Setzer

Published 8 months ago

This Week In Agriculture:A Mixed Bag of Information from the Week that Was: June 22, 2018· Another volatile week as traders work to decipher what a continued trade war could mean for commodities going forward and the old adage “rain makes grain” is put to the test. When the closing bell rang for the week we saw December corn down nearly 5 cents, December wheat down 12 and November soybeans down 14. · The week started relatively weak as heat that had built throughout the bulk of the Corn Belt over the weekend was expected to give way to cooler temperatures coupled with extreme moisture in areas of the Belt that had seen beneficial rainfall the week before. With corn ratings nationally sitting at 78% good to excellent—a near record high and bean ratings at 73% the common idea was rain would continue to benefit production... com ****Commodities trading is very risky, Citizens LLC holds no liability for the use of the information contained herein****...