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Agriculture

Breaking the phenotype bottleneck with autonomous robots

Determining, analyzing, or predicting how crops will grow in the field takes time and labor. The interactions between genetics, environment and agricultural practices are challenging to measure. The newly published results of a five-year study on maize (or corn) demonstrate that autonomous ground robots can accurately and reliably capture this information.

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Illinois leads most rigorous agricultural greenhouse gas emissions study to date

Farmers apply nitrogen fertilizers to crops to boost yields, feeding more people and livestock. But when there’s more fertilizer than the crop can take up, some of the excess can be converted into gaseous forms, including nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that traps nearly 300 times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. About 70% of human-caused nitrous oxide comes from agricultural soils, so it’s vital to find ways to curb those emissions.

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What effect will tariffs have on consumers, farmers?

Jonathan W. Coppess, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, spoke with Illinois News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the potential effects of tariffs.

What are tariffs likely to mean to the average U.S. household, and when will consumers start to notice the effects?

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Illinois study: Extreme heat impacts dairy production, small farms most vulnerable

Livestock agriculture is bearing the cost of extreme weather events. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign explores how heat stress affects U.S. dairy production, finding that high heat and humidity lead to a 1% decline in annual milk yield.

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‘Sustainable intensification’ on the farm reduces soil nitrate losses, maintains crop yields

A nine-year study comparing a typical two-year corn and soybean rotation with a more intensive three-year rotation involving corn, cereal rye, soybean and winter wheat found that the three-year system can dramatically reduce nitrogen — an important crop nutrient — in farm runoff without compromising yield.

The new findings are detailed in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science.

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In the weeds: Amaranth genomes reveal secrets of success

Weeds like Palmer amaranth make farming harder and less profitable, and available herbicides are becoming less effective. For scientists to find solutions, they first need to know their enemy.

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New agroforestry maps plot environmental, social, and economic benefits of trees

There’s a longstanding attitude in many farming communities that trees and agriculture don’t mix. But agroforestry — the intentional integration of trees and shrubs in agricultural systems, such as planting trees as windbreaks, integrating trees on pastures, or growing tree crops intercropped with annual crops — can provide a multitude of benefits to both farmers and landscapes. So far, in the U.S. Midwest, these benefits have gone unrealized, with vanishingly small adoption rates.  

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AIFARMS researchers showcase groundbreaking AgTech and AI innovations

Yesterday, U.S. Representative Nikki Budzinski (IL-13) and the ITI Institute joined top researchers and policymakers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to see how AI is reshaping agriculture to address key challenges in food security, sustainability, and workforce development.

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