Iowa Corn News
From checkoff efforts to legislative happenings to association news, stay up to date and in the know on all things Iowa Corn.
Practices that improve water quality and soil health in Iowa Ever feel overwhelmed by the options and don’t know where to start? In this edition of Stewardship Advocate, we look at several practices that can be employed across Iowa to improve water quality and soil health. Many factors go into the decision about what practices...
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE IOWA NITROGEN INITIATIVE The Iowa Nitrogen Initiative (INI) is a private-public partnership with a vision to provide Iowa farmers with the best nitrogen science in the world for the benefit of productivity, profitability, and environmental performance. The initiative is funded by both public and private dollars, with the bulk of the funding...
FARMERS JOINING OTHER FARMERS TO IMPROVE THEIR CROPPING SYSTEMS IN IOWA Corn and soybean growers in Iowa have a myriad of options available to them as they navigate through each cropping season. One of these decisions involves which conservation practices they want to implement. To aid Iowa producers with information to make crop management decisions,...
The Corn Sustainability Assurance Protocol (CSAP) is a farmer-led initiative developed by the U.S. Grains Council (USGC). The CSAP offers international corn buyers and export markets insights into U.S. corn production sustainability practices and outlines U.S. state and federal laws that provide assurances that these practices are being implemented, where required, throughout the country. USGC...
Since 2013, Iowa has taken significant steps in its goal of reducing nutrient losses that eventually flow into the Gulf of Mexico with its Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS), and the effort is gaining momentum. Science, technology, and farmer initiatives are working together in pursuit of these objectives. In cities, wastewater treatment facilities are already meeting...
Corn farmers who split-apply nitrogen now have another option for crop insurance coverage. For an additional premium, growers can cover the risk of weather preventing side-dress nitrogen from being applied between V3-V10 stage of growth. If weather prevents the side-dress application, indemnity payments will be made to farmers who have this additional coverage option. The...
The Growing Climate Solutions Act was recently passed into law as part of the Omnibus bill that has been signed by the President. It creates a program at USDA to help solve technical entry barriers to farmer and forest landowner participation in carbon credit markets. These issues – including access to reliable information about markets and access...
Weather is an unpredictable wild card for Iowa’s farmers and has a major impact on the nitrogen status of fields both during and after the growing season. This is a good time to remind everyone about the importance of considering residual nitrate levels in soils after the growing season. Both dry and wet conditions can...
Happy Thanksgiving! Here are some post-harvest considerations. The arrival of colder weather has many farmers busy with fall nitrogen applications. However, it’s important to keep in mind that due to drought conditions, nitrogen levels in Iowa’s soils are likely high since the soil retains more nitrogen during drought. As a result, we encourage you to test your soil to...
As harvest is wrapping up and colder weather is on the horizon, soil temperatures are nearly in the safe zone for fall nitrogen applications. Risk of nitrogen loss is reduced when soil temperatures are consistently below 50 degrees. Be sure to test your soil to account for this nitrogen and make sure it doesn’t leave the soil...