Soil & Water Management

This UNL research study provides insights on the rotation of annual crops with alfalfa as a highly effective means of reducing nitrate-nitrogen contamination in groundwater.

The Soil Health Nexus is excited to debut two new resources on the Soil Health Toolbox! Two Soil Health Nexus members, Francisco Arriaga, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Anna Cates, Assistant Professor and State Soil Health Specialist at the University of Minnesota, recently published a long-awaited whitepaper exploring the connection between soil health and water quality.

The Soil Health Nexus is excited to debut two new resources on the Soil Health Toolbox! Two Soil Health Nexus members, Francisco Arriaga, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Anna Cates, Assistant Professor and State Soil Health Specialist at the University of Minnesota, recently published a long-awaited whitepaper exploring the connection between soil health and water quality.

This year’s 4Rs Field Day will focus on up-to-date research information and demonstrations on all three major crop nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

Weekly Weather Update: June 8, 2023

During the Soil Health School, presenters will cover many aspects of the science related to soil health, including foundational soil health principles, the evaluation of soil health management practices, and get to experience many hands-on soil health investigations and demonstrations. As a bit of a sneak preview, this article highlights what Leslie Johnson, Nebraska Extension Statewide Manure Educator will be sharing that day. Of course, she’ll be talking about how manure can impact soil health, but the role she’s the most excited about because it will be the most hands-on, is getting to show different ways of determining root growth.

Agriculture today is not what it was a decade ago. We are at an interesting pace of agricultural technological innovation and development in sensors, controls, robotics and technology, including irrigation scheduling applications. The declining quantity and quality of freshwater resources in many parts of the world, including the United States, imposes significant challenges for producers, managers, advisors and decision-makers to produce more yield with less water. It is necessary to promote sound management strategies to improve irrigation efficiency and conserve water resources. By using irrigation scheduling applications, producers can make more informed decisions that can lead to higher yields with fewer irrigation inputs. Nebraska is one of the top states that produces maize under different irrigation methods, in third place after Iowa and Illinois. The total irrigated area in Nebraska reaches about 9.3 million acres. More than 85% of the total irrigation areas use the center pivot irrigation system, while about 15% is covered by furrow irrigation and less than 1% is managed by subsurface drip irrigation systems (see fig. 1). A new irrigation scheduling application is being developed to improve irrigation scheduling that can have a substantial impact in using limited water supplies more effectively and increase yield per unit applied of irrigation water and sustain agricultural productivity. At the request of Irriga Global, Lutry, Switzerland, a field test was initiated for the 2022 growing season on maize fields to evaluate the irrigation scheduling application in one of the Irrigation Today.

With harvest around the corner, you might be considering trading manure for cornstalks or vice versa. In many ways, it’s easier to pay cash for either product, but there are advantages to trading. This article will focus on what kinds of things to consider to be sure any deal made is a fair trade.

Throughout the field day, educators shared insights and conducted live demos on optimizing management of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, including via sensor-based fertigation.

During its inaugural year, the Nebraska Soil Health School educated more than 200 producers and ag industry stakeholders on the latest research and practices for healthy soils to increase crop productivity.