It stands to be a near-record harvest this fall for the Buena Vista County region – but it won’t be a record year for farm profits. So said Kris Kohl, ag engineering expert for the Iowa State University Extension office for Buena Vista County, as he made his rounds on Wednesday. “We’ve had just about …Continue reading “Kohl: Buena Vista farmers eye near record corn”
Data to drive management decisions is becoming more important as increasingly sophisticated analysis services come online. “The analysis you can get on hybrids, fertility and other management programs is only as good as the data allows,” says Matt Darr, a precision agriculture specialist and professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University. “Benchmarking …Continue reading “Darr: Calibrate yield monitors more often”
Iowa Learning Farms, along with the Iowa Soybean Association and Story County Natural Resources Conservation Service, will host a field day on Wednesday, Aug. 26, from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., at Key Co-op, 13585 620th Ave., Roland.
JAY D. HARMON, P.E., ASABE Fellow, is the recipient of the 2015 G.B. Gunlogson Countryside Engineering Award for his exemplary service to animal production systems through the application of engineering principles and performance in research, extension, outreach, and teaching. Harmon, professor and extension livestock housing specialist in the agricultural and biosystems engineering department at Iowa …Continue reading “Harmon receives G.B. Gunlogson Countryside Engineering Award”
Farmers and landowners are encouraged to attend a nutrient reduction strategy field day at the Drainage Research and Demonstration Project site near Gilmore City on Thursday, Aug. 27 from 5-7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
The agricultural use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs, will be the subject of an Aug. 27 field day at the Iowa State University Agricultural Engineering and Agronomy Research Farms.
Everyone is concerned with protecting their drinking water. Small farm and acreage owners can find tips on how to maintain safe drinking water in the Summer 2015 Acreage Living e-newsletter from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “Maintaining safe drinking water is critical for human health,” said Jamie Benning, water quality program manager with ISU …Continue reading “Ways to make sure drinking water is safe”
A team of extension specialists from several universities in the Upper Midwest are developing a series of webinars on agricultural drainage water management and drainage water quality. Each of the webinars—to be presented monthly from July through December—will provide best management practices for improving drainage water quality and information from multiple states across the Midwest. The …Continue reading “Webinar series on ag drainage water management announced”
Last year also saw another record harvest in Iowa. And while the number of deaths on Iowa’s farms has declined in the past decade, it’s still the deadliest job sector in our state. Iowa State University Professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering and extension safety specialist Charles Schwab told IowaWatch that improving the situation is …Continue reading “Farm safety, Chuck Schwab on IowaWatch”
Participants in the Greenhorn Grazing program last month learned about identifying plant species, watering systems and managed grazing techniques at the John Schupbach farm near Elgin, Iowa. The next session, offer by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, will be Tuesday, July 21, at Country Junction Restaurant in Dyersville, Iowa. The workshops will begin promptly …Continue reading “Greenhorn grazing to optimize production”
Today’s guest blogger is Iowa Learning Farms/Water Rocks! student intern Pacifique Mugwaneza Simon, or Pac for short! Pac is a fourth year student at Iowa State University studying Industrial Technology and Agriculture System Technology. His family is originally from Burundi, a small country in East Africa, but Pac spent most of his childhood in refugee …Continue reading “Iowa Learning Farms guest blog post: Making a difference”
Everywhere you look, farm equipment keeps getting bigger and heavier and concerns over soil compaction increase as well. Combine and grain cart axle loads are some of the heaviest on row crop land, with axle loads for larger grain carts easily exceeding 75,000 pounds, according to Mark Hanna, an extension agricultural engineer with Iowa State …Continue reading “Axle loads, tires, equipment contribute to soil compaction”
Daniel Andersen, aka Dr. Manure, addresses a multi-part question about the proper facility design and size to adequately handle the manure produced in a swine operation in a late-April blog. Andersen is an assistant professor in the Iowa State University Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Department. He had received the question “why are more swine farmers …Continue reading “Does hog size impact manure production?”
A $1 million Iowa Pork Producers Association-funded research project on pit foaming has entered its third year. Researchers provided an update at the Iowa Pork Congress in Des Moines. “Our goal is to find and correct the mechanisms of foaming,” said Steve Hoff, an agricultural and biosystems engineering professor at Iowa State University and project …Continue reading “Pit foaming research continues”
ISU is once again offering a series of workshops on seed conditioning and quality testing procedures this summer. The workshop dates are rapidly approaching, so we are sending this brief reminder in the event either you or a co-worker might be interested in the program. The 2015 workshop schedule is listed below and on the …Continue reading “ISU seed conditioning and quality evaluation workshops”
