Home

Hay and pasture can be excellent places to use manure nutrients. Forage crops are hungry, they respond well to nitrogen, and they offer flexibility when row crop acres are already planted or conditions aren’t ideal elsewhere. That said, forage stands are less forgiving than bare ground. Unlike corn acres, where manure gets incorporated and everyone moves on with their lives, hay fields tend to remember what you did to them (I remember that rut from last year).

Irrigation for corn and soybean is essential across much of Nebraska. With ever-increasing costs for energy and labor, and concerns for natural resource overconsumption and environmental footprint, decision-making for irrigation scheduling has become a critical management task for many producers. Conventional irrigation scheduling for corn and soybean requires constant crop field scouting, which is not only time consuming and costly, but also demands past experience and educated judgement. This is always a challenge to those who lack experiences or new to the business. CropSmart is a science-based, data-driven irrigation scheduling tool for corn and soybean producers. It was developed with funding from the National Science Foundation, led by George Mason University with contributions from institutions including the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).