Water News Archive

Just over a year ago, I joined Dr. Amy Schmidt, the Manure Lady’s, team as a content developer to help spread the word about manure (and her other area of interest, antimicrobial resistance). Luckily, UNL’s Manure team is full of friendly, inviting people who are really good at teaching about manure. Feeling more confident in my manure knowledge, and with my interest peaked for all things manure, I attended my first manure Land Application Training (LAT). LAT events, led by members of UNL’s Manure Team, are offered each spring at venues all across the state. Participants can attend for a full day if they are newbies like me, or a half day if they just need a refresher.

Fungi can be very problematic for our plants, and there are a lot of different fungi. In plants, there is a disease triangle that leads to plant diseases. For disease to develop, you must first have a pathogen, a susceptible host, and a favorable environment. Pathogens are common in the environment and just waiting for the right weather to occur and a susceptible host to infect. The environment can sometimes be altered by our plant management practices, such as overwatering or underwatering and improper irrigation practices can lead to more disease problems. That’s why it's so important, whenever possible, to choose disease resistant plants for our landscapes – both turf, fruits, vegetables and ornamentals.

Although Nebraska is best known for the commodities of cattle and corn, soybeans land in the third-place spot among the top commodity rankings in the state, according to the Nebraska Department of Agriculture. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is adding soybean to the lineup of Testing Ag Performance Solutions (TAPS) farm management competitions for 2024. The new soybean competition will be facilitated at UNL’s Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension and Education Center (ENREEC) near Mead, Nebraska. The soybean competition will be supported by the Nebraska Soybean Board.

See the results of the 2023 UNL-TAPS Competition for sorghum, SDI corn, sprinkler corn and the newest category for the contest — irrigated popcorn.