Crops

URBANA, Ill. – Decades of corn breeding efforts emphasizing yield have contributed to modern hybrids with shallower and less complex root systems than their predecessors. Because the breeding and selection of most modern hybrids has taken place in environments with high nutrient concentrations, optimal weed control, and soil moisture conditions, hybrids perform best under high input systems.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — For the first time, RIPE researchers have proven that multigene bioengineering of photosynthesis increases the yield of a major food crop in field trials. After more than a decade of working toward this goal, a collaborative team led by the University of Illinois has transgenically altered soybean plants to increase the efficiency of photosynthesis, resulting in greater yields without loss of quality.

URBANA, Ill. – Urban agriculture is booming, but there’s often a hidden danger lurking in city soils: lead. A recent University of Illinois study showed universally elevated lead levels in soils across Chicago, an urban ag hotspot.

URBANA, Ill. – Like the virus that causes COVID-19, pathogens that attack crops change constantly to evade host immunity, or disease resistance in plant parlance. Sometimes, a single gene makes the difference between a resistant crop and one that’s susceptible. In those cases, the gene typically blocks the pathogen for a while, until the microbe makes a change. 

URBANA, Ill. – As summer 2022 rolls on, so do the events of this year’s University of Illinois Agronomy Days. Farmers in the know are keeping a close watch on the summer-long calendar of events providing practical, research-based information that can improve yield, input management, and sustainability on the farm.

URBANA, Ill. – Although about 20% of Illinois cropping systems are planted to continuous corn, it’s nearly impossible to find fields planted this way for decades at a time. Yet long-term experiments like one at the University of Illinois, including over 40 years of continuous corn under different nitrogen fertilizer rates, provide incredible learning opportunities and soil management lessons for researchers and farmers alike. 

URBANA, Ill. – In its 65^th year, the University of Illinois’ “Agronomy Day” is a day no more. Instead, the Department of Crop Sciences, the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences, and Illinois Extension will host a series of events all season long. They will include traditional field days as well as new pop-up tailgate events and shade tree talks.

URBANA, Ill. – Riggs Beer Company and the Small Grains Improvement Program at the University of Illinois are teaming up from 3 to 5 p.m. on May 21 for their first Field Festival. The event, which organizers hope to host annually at Riggs, welcomes current and curious wheat and barley growers, maltsters, home brewers, and members of the public to tour test plots and learn more about the crops that give beer its distinctive flavor.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Plants release chemical distress signals when under attack from chewing insects. These “911 calls,” as entomologist Esther Ngumbi refers to them, alert other bugs that dinner or a nice place to lay their eggs is available nearby. If predatory or parasitic insects detect the right signal, they swoop in like saviors to make a meal out of – or lay their eggs in – the bodies of the herbivore insects.

Read more from the Illinois News Bureau.

URBANA, Ill. – Growing crops in a changing climate is tough enough, but when weeds factor in, soybean yields take a massive hit. That’s according to new research from the University of Illinois and the USDA Agricultural Research Service, and it means farmers will need to achieve greater weed control than ever to avoid yield loss.