Ensuring reliable agronomic lab results: a practical guide
This September issue is online! Our cover story this month provides practical guidelines for preventing contamination, capturing variability, ensuring laboratory quality control, and using validated, research-backed correlations.
Harnessing AQUA4D technology
A sustainable solution for soil salinity and water efficiency in agriculture
Soil salinity and water scarcity are two of the most pressing challenges in modern agriculture. In arid and semi-arid regions, excessive soil salts and limited freshwater resources threaten crop productivity, soil health, and long-term agricultural sustainability. Innovative water treatment technologies, such as AQUA4D, are emerging as effective tools to address these critical issues. Earn 0.5 CEUs by reading this article and taking the quiz.
Featured articles
Societies support PFAS recommendations
Representing the research perspective, the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America have joined 16 other agricultural organizations in a PFAS and Agriculture Working Group to develop the nation’s first comprehensive set of federal recommendations to address PFAS contamination of agricultural land. The recommendations call upon Congress and the executive branch to take pragmatic steps to address PFAS in order to protect farmers and their families, keep farms and ranches in business, maintain a safe national food supply, and safeguard our nation’s farmland for future generations.
Sheep grazing impacts on soil health and pasture quality at Northeast solar sites
As solar energy development gains traction, there is a growing conflict in land use between solar site installations and farming in communities across the Northeastern U.S. One way to address this is by adapting agrivoltaics, a dual-use land strategy that combines agricultural and solar energy production. Solar grazing, which involves vegetation management with the use of livestock, has been a growing industry in the past decade This study evaluated the effects of sheep grazing on soil health and pasture quality at 28 grazed and three non-grazed solar sites across the Northeastern U.S. Earn 1 CEU in Sustainability by reading this article and taking the quiz.
Recent articles
Most read articles
Recent articles
MAHA strategy report released to address children's health
The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released its strategy report earlier this week with an emphasis on continued and additional research to ensure the health of American children. Overall, the report focuses on contributions to chronic disease beyond the food system, including physical activity, environmental contaminants, and prescription drug use. This article outlines the areas that impact agriculture and research.
ICCA Board approves new strategic plan
A new five-year strategic plan was approved by the International Certified Crop Adviser (ICCA) Board during a meeting in Denver, CO August 19-21, 2025. The plan is the culmination of a six-month process that involved a task force composed of local CCA board members and administrators, the ICCA Executive Committee, and staff. The plan, which will commence in 2026, is intended to reflect the CCA program’s vision for how it will meet the challenges ahead and outlines how time, energy, and resources will be used.
Understanding green stem in soybeans
Green stem is a term that describes abnormal patterns of maturation in soybean, where the seeds and pods mature fully even though the stems stay green. A new diagnostic guide describes the symptoms of green stem, field conditions that may increase green stem risk, and management options for fields with widespread green stem occurrence.
Earn 1 CEU in Crop Management by reading the article and then taking the quiz.
Potato pest monitoring in the Columbia Basin: Data-driven tools for smarter IPM
A long-established potato pest-monitoring network in the Columbia Basin is providing historical data and in-the-field “truth-testing” for a new internet-based Potato Decision Aid System. These programs can inform efforts to establish and enhance pest monitoring networks in other crops. Earn 0.5 CEUs in Integrated Pest Management by reading the article and taking the quiz.
Soil fertility, fertilizers, and crop nutrition: Past, present, and future
Society has made (and will be making) significant demands on agriculture in the not-to-distant future. Meeting future sustainability goals and environmental regulations while simultaneously continuing to meet requirements for food, feed, fuel, and fiber requires a firm understanding of how “we” have collectively arrived at our current status as it relates to our fertility principles and beliefs as well as the processes that address them. This series intends to describe crop nutrition and fertilizers from where we have been to where the authors believe that we will likely need to be prepared to go if we are to support world demands into the foreseeable future.
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