Growing sweet corn at higher densities doesn’t increase root lodging risk

URBANA, Ill. – Sweet corn growers and processors could be bringing in more profits by exploiting natural density tolerance traits in certain hybrids. That’s according to 2019 research from USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and University of Illinois scientists.

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ACES alum’s gift encourages professional development for ABE students

URBANA, Ill. - A lot can change in 100 years, and a lot has, especially in the agriculture industry. Much of this growth is thanks to the research and innovation of brilliant individuals who attended schools like the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and its highly ranked Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (ABE), which turns 100 years old this year.

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Genetic markers developed to census endangered rhinoceros

URBANA, Ill. -- Today, the Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) is critically endangered, with fewer than 100 individuals surviving in Indonesia on the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. To ensure survival of the threatened species, accurate censusing is necessary to determine the genetic diversity of remaining populations for conservation and management plans. 

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ACES and Sierra Leone’s Njala University continue more than 55 years of collaboration

Advancing its long legacy of collaborations and capacity-building projects around the world, the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) remains engaged with one of its first international partners, Sierra Leone’s Njala University.

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Illinois, Nebraska scientists propose improvements to precision crop irrigation

URBANA, Ill. – With threats of water scarcity complicating the need to feed a growing global population, it is more important than ever to get crop irrigation right. Overwatering can deplete local water supplies and lead to polluted runoff, while underwatering can lead to sub-optimal crop performance. Yet few farmers use science-based tools to help them decide when and how much to water their crops.

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Incentives could turn costs of biofuel mandates into environmental benefits

URBANA, Ill. -- New studies from the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) shed more light on the economic and environmental costs of mandates in the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), a federal program to expand the nation’s biofuels sector.

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ACES, Extension researchers add expertise to Illinois climate change report

Illinois is undergoing a rapid change in weather patterns that already has started to transform the state and could affect the future of farming, a major new scientific assessment by The Nature Conservancy in Illinois reveals.

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Academic professionals honored with CAPE awards for 2021, 2020

URBANA, Ill. — A total of 12 academic professionals at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign were honored this week with the Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence award, encompassing the 2020 and 2021 award cycles. The recipients, six from each year, received their awards remotely due to the pandemic. Jean Drasgow, director of ACES career services, and Brenda Koester, associate director of the Family Resiliency Center, are CAPE award recipients this year.

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New public-private partnership brings soybean technology to Africa

URBANA, Ill. –The Feed the Future Soybean Innovation Lab (SIL) at the University of Illinois has partnered with Argentinian company Rizobacter to bring soybean technology to 26 African countries. This unique public-private partnership provides the SIL Pan-African Soybean Variety Trial (PAT) network with access to a cutting-edge inoculant product, Rizoliq TOP, for use in the Africa-wide PAT platform.

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How the humble woodchip is cleaning up water worldwide

URBANA, Ill. – Australian pineapple, Danish trout, and Midwestern U.S. corn farmers are not often lumped together under the same agricultural umbrella. But they and many others who raise crops and animals face a common problem: excess nitrogen in drainage water. Whether it flows out to the Great Barrier Reef or the Gulf of Mexico, the nutrient contributes to harmful algal blooms that starve fish and other organisms of oxygen.

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