From Dirt to Data: Precision Agriculture at the Data-Intensive Farm Management Project
Precision agriculture first gained traction in the 1990s, when GPS technology made it possible for farm equipment to map and manage fields with a level of detail that was not possible before. Farmers could accurately apply fertilizer or seed at different rates across a field, responding to variations in field conditions.
Meet the ACES alum behind a transformative gift to revitalize the Morrow Plots
When Bayer’s Crop Science division Head of R&D Mike Graham returns to campus this week, he’ll be looking ahead to the future of agricultural innovation and the enduring value of land-grant research.
Illinois team tests the costs, benefits of agrivoltaics across the Midwest
In a world where increasing demands for food security and energy strain existing resources, scientists are looking for new ways to maximize both. One potential option, agrivoltaics, integrates solar photovoltaics with crops. A new study examines the agricultural and economic trade-offs that come with installing solar arrays on working farms across the Midwest.
Comprehensive genetic library for soybean cyst nematode could renew resistance, profitability for soybean growers
Few pests eat away at farm profitability as much as soybean cyst nematode (SCN). Causing at least $1.5 billion in yield losses annually, it’s soybean’s single biggest threat. Unfortunately, soybean’s most effective tool, genetic resistance, is starting to fail.
Gallbladder cancer could soon be detected in blood, study finds
Researchers at Tezpur University in Assam, India, working with scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Plants speak in chemicals — scientists are learning how to listen
Plants may look inert and harmless, but, at any given moment, they’re waging chemical warfare against attackers, preparing tissues to withstand freezing temperatures, or synthesizing compounds that become medicines for humans. These leafy biochemists produce over a million chemicals, or metabolites, to help them survive their rooted existence.
ACES marks 150 years of the Morrow Plots, our nation's oldest research field
A lot has changed on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus since its founding in 1867, but a storied plot of land near the south quad has been preserved nearly intact for a century and a half.
Illinois researchers untangle drivers of nitrogen loss in the Upper Mississippi River Basin
Scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign can now differentiate between human-derived and hydrological contributions of riverine nitrogen pollution in the Upper Mississippi River Basin.
Illinois study shows public seed banks can fast-track corn quality research
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign corn breeders know profitability is about more than yield.
U of I's new controlled environment research facility advances indoor farming with stakeholder input
Bathed in an otherworldly purple glow, James Santiago points to a curled leaf at the base of a spinach plant. “This is an issue we saw all the time at the vertical farm where I worked in Virginia. We don't know exactly what's going on, but I think it has something to do with water stress, which is weird because the plants are growing in water.”