Just over 50 years ago on a story assignment, I thought I'd discovered an Illinois farmer who had the answer to farming's toughest problems. My senior editors gently brushed the...

This fall's "data harvest" of field trial results is proving as frustrating for researchers as the too-dry, then too-wet season was for farmers. Wide yield differences across test strips and plots imposed such...

Over the years, we've commissioned research agronomist James Porterfield for several field tests into the performance of WakeUP products. He's a thorough field trial designer and analyst. One of his...

Germans, Swiss and other Europeans have always managed their forests thoughtfully. They see forestry as a foundation of environmental health and a precious resource. Perhaps the U.S. Forest Service and other forest...

A 25-bu. soybean yield gain resulting from any kind of product catches your attention. When the product is an inoculant, that's hard to believe. But in this case, the University...

Gardens used to be the world's most-tilled, "flowerpot seedbed" patches of dirt. Now, as biological knowledge multiplies and organic home-grown food enthusiasm spreads, gardeners are looking for ways to aerate...

Consulting agronomist Bob Streit describes the fungal invasion of many Midwest soybean fields, and suggests some remedial answers for healthier crops in future seasons. Oct. 31, 2018   By Bob Streit...

Darker shades of color in corn and soybean fields offer evidence that persistent rains which delayed harvest have also multiplied an array of molds. And for the first time, a farmer...

We've always encouraged corn growers to look inside cornstalks in spring, from about the four-leaf stage on, to detect early signals of brown, rotting gunk in the xylem tubes near...

Many corn growers will probably answer, "nitrogen." That's because we've been conditioned by nearly a century of mineral fertilizer research and marketing to think nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. But the correct...

Healthy, 300-bu. plus corn on rolling hillsides with a corn suitability rating in the mid-50s? See the photos below taken at the Dave Schwartz farm a few miles west of...

The rivers of rain which lashed much of the upper Midwest in September and early October spawned an array of stalk rot fungi and bacteria which are now threatening substantial corn yield losses. Here's...

Several new stalk residue digester products are emerging in the marketplace. Your decision may well be not deciding whether to speed residue breakdown, but "which one is best?"  Farmers' demand is demonstrating their effectiveness. Although...

Advertising-supported farm magazines have long taken a... well, a tactful approach to reporting the damage potential of ag chemicals. But this week, Prairie Farmer courageously focused directly on the huge challenge dicamba herbicides...