Ammonia, also known as NH3, is a colorless gas composed of nitrogen and hydrogen atoms. The pungent gas is the basic building block for ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which releases the critical crop nutrient nitrogen. However, the ammonia production process is energy-intensive and relies heavily on fossil fuels. Low-carbon production methods for “green ammonia” are gaining …
More than a decade ago, the Federal Aviation Administration set a goal for US airlines to use 1 billion gallons of sustainable aviation fuel annually by 2018. The Biden administration upped the target in 2021 to 3 billion gallons per year by 2030. Last year, US production reached just 15.8 million gallons, less than 0.1% …
BioLumic, a New Zealand-based agtech company, has teamed with US seed producer Gro Alliance to scale a novel technology that uses UV light to treat seeds. Biolumic says its treatments can improve yield and quality, as well as make plants “more armour-plated” without needing to be re-bred. Biolumic’s light treatment was first developed for specialty-crop …
It was this week back in 1867 that Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio was issued patented #66,182 for “barbed wire”. Smith’s design called for spools of four short, sharp metal spikes at right angles. The spools would revolve loosely and be set every 2 to 3 feet along the fence wire. Soon thereafter, several …
For some in the U.S. where the temperatures have been scorching hot and extremely dry, it might be hard to believe that today is just the first day of Summer… but it is! In the Northern Hemisphere, the start date of summer is based on the summer solstice, when the sun is in the most …
Ensuring crops get the optimal amount of nutrients is one of the most straightforward ways of maximizing yields. Making sure no more than what’s needed gets applied is also a surefire way for producers to control input costs. However, knowing what those ideal levels might be can be a time-consuming and pricey challenge but new …
“EnGeniousAg” Developing Low-Cost, Instant Read Nitrogen Sensors Read More »
If you live along the original Pony Express trail and see a guy on a horse thundering by with a mail pouch, it (probably) wasn’t a ghost. Some 650 riders are currently participating in the annual National Pony Express Re-Ride, which reenacts the mail delivery service by horseback that briefly ran between Sacramento, California to …
Since 2018, “Dairy Distillery” in Ontario, Canada, has been turning a waste byproduct of cheesemaking into vodka and cream liquors. Now, the company will help members of the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) turn their waste into biofuel. The MMPA is a farmer-owned cooperative of over 1,000 dairy farmers in Michigan, as well as Indiana, …
Got Milk…In Your Gas Tank? A Canadian Distillery is Turning Dairy Into Fuel Read More »
Every five years, Iowa State University conducts the “Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey,” which provides a current snapshot of the forms of ownership, tenancy, and transfer of the state’s farmland. This series of studies concerning land ownership is unique to Iowa, having been collected by Iowa State researchers since 1949 and mandated by the …
Iowa’s Aging Farmland Owners Increasingly Lease Out Their Land Read More »
As NASA gets closer to sending the first astronauts to Mars, they have a lot of critical details to work out. To help them get there, NASA, in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), has enlisted the public’s assistance in developing new technologies and systems to produce one of the most important fuels of …
