Farm & Field
Nitrate Runoff, Explained
Midwest farmers need fertilizer to help their crops grow. The problem is, nitrogen spread on farm fields in addition to existing ground nitrogen can turn into nitrates that leach off fields and into local waterways. Here’s why you should care: 1. It’s gathering in the Gulf of Mexico, creating a “dead zone” Nitrates in the…
Cheaper, Easier Monitoring Could Hasten Water Clean-up
Throughout the cropland of the Midwest, farmers use chemicals on their fields to nourish the plants and the soil. But excess nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients can wash off the fields and into streams, rivers and eventually the Gulf of Mexico. New tools can help farmers monitor their soil and water so they can become…
My Farm Roots: Looking to the future
Jeff Siegfried knows just about anything you’d ever want to find out about a 50-acre corn field in northern Colorado. The 24-year-old easily rattles off the various gadgets he uses to measure soil moisture, plant health, air temperature. Standing underneath one of his research station’s at a Colorado State University experimental farm, Siegfried is decked…
Forget the robots, meat processing is still a human’s job
Slaughterhouses and meatpacking plants throughout the country employ a lot of people. About a quarter of a million workers in the U.S. stun, kill and eviscerate the animals we eat. Most of those jobs are physically demanding and require few skills. So why haven’t we started using more robots to cut up our beef? The…
My Farm Roots: Learning the ropes
Kendra Lawson doesn’t have the typical schedule of a nine–year-old. With just a week of summer left, she spent her days working with her dad and mom on the farm and preparing her pigs to show at the state fair. Here in central Missouri, the Lawson family raises cattle and pigs with a lot of…