URBANA, Ill. ­– For a decade, agricultural professionals in Illinois and beyond have had a trusted online source for daily analysis and information. farmdocDAILY, part of the University of Illinois farmdoc project, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary on March 17.

And to mark this occasion, the farmdoc team will be releasing its list of the all-time top 20 articles.

URBANA, Ill. – Corn didn’t start out as the powerhouse crop it is today. No, for most of the thousands of years it was undergoing domestication and improvement, corn grew humbly within the limits of what the environment and smallholder farmers could provide.

URBANA, Ill. -- Agricultural scientists who study climate change often focus on how increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will affect crop yields. But rising temperatures are likely to complicate the picture, researchers report in a new review of the topic.

URBANA, Ill. ­– As the global population grows, the demand for food increases while arable land shrinks. A new University of Illinois study investigates how rice production in India can meet future needs by adapting to changing climate conditions and water availability. 

URBANA, Ill. ­– For Will, Clayton, and Dallas Glazik, making spirits from Illinois-grown heirloom corn is a labor of love. The brothers own and operate Silver Tree Beer & Spirits from their fifth-generation family farm in Paxton.

“We grew up on a certified organic farm, and we wanted to get back into farming and figure out a way that we could bring something of value to the farm,” says Will Glazik, the oldest brother and Silver Tree director of sales.

Urbana, Ill. —  The new Illinois Regenerative Agriculture Initiative (IRAI) is inviting interested farmers, researchers, nonprofit groups, and others with a stake in resilient agriculture and food production to join its second public meeting on April 9.

URBANA, Ill. – Feeding a growing global population is one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Farmers and scientists are advancing innovative solutions on many fronts, from breeding to production management to precision agriculture, with technology as a common thread.

Lurking in more than 99% of soybean fields across the Midwest is a worm capable of feeding on and damaging entire crops. Millions of dollars have been spent trying to combat these destructive pests through the development of resistant soybean plants, but after decades of successful use, those solutions have begun to fail. Once again, soybean production is in trouble, and researchers are being forced back to the drawing board, but this time they are looking to attack the nematode from within.

Researchers at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) found that transitioning land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to bioenergy agriculture can be ad­­­vantageous for American landowners, the government, and the environment.

URBANA, Ill. – Tami Craig Schilling, 1990 agricultural communications graduate, has loved the University of Illinois for as long as she can remember. A gift of Illini gear from her grandmother and trips to campus during high school were early influences in her choice to attend U of I.

Now, her Illini journey takes a significant step forward. As a member of the University of Illinois Board of Trustees, Craig Schilling will serve a six-year term.