Agriculture

URBANA, Ill. – Agricultural producers deal firsthand with changing weather conditions, and extreme events such as drought or flooding can impact their productivity and profit. Climate change models project such events will occur more often in the future. But studies of the economic consequences of weather and climate on agriculture typically focus on local impacts only.

URBANA, Ill. ­– If your day started with a cup of coffee, there’s a good chance your morning brew came from Colombia. Home to some of the finest Arabica beans, the country is the world’s third largest coffee producer. Climate change poses new challenges to coffee production in Colombia, as it does to agricultural production anywhere in the world, but a new University of Illinois study shows effects vary widely depending on where the coffee beans grow.

URBANA, Ill.– Safety awareness is critical for operators of agricultural equipment, and a core component of training for applicator technicians. A new University of Illinois project aims to develop virtual reality (VR) simulation materials for an immersive learning experience. 

URBANA, Ill. – Pumpkin growers dread the tiny tan scabs that form on their fruit, each lesion a telltale sign of bacterial spot disease. The specks don’t just mar the fruit’s flesh, they provide entry points for rot-inducing fungus and other pathogens that can destroy pumpkins and other cucurbits from the inside out. Either way, farmers pay the price, with marketable yields reduced by as much as 90%.

URBANA, Ill.  – Each year, more than 20 agricultural workers in the U.S. die in grain bin accidents, and the number of fatalities is increasing. Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week is an annual event that promotes awareness, education, and training on grain bin safety.

This year, Stand Up 4 Grain Safety Week takes place online March 29 through April 2. Daily sessions from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. CDT include video presentations, supplementary materials, and other resources.

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.

For its fertilizer needs, early corn made friends with nitrogen-fixing soil microbes by leaking an enticing sugary cocktail from its roots. The genetic recipe for this cocktail was handed down from parent to offspring to ensure just the right microbes came out to play.

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.