Farm science.

Siamsa Sessions

Upstream wrote: »

Sustainable Soil Management: Soil for life
Free EdX online course from University of Wageningen
https://www.edx.org/course/sustainable-soil-management-soil-for-life

It's a twelve week course from one of the best universities in Europe.
It's a free course
Anyone else interested in signing up?

I'd be interested but have exams for green cert course over the next while. Have bookmarked the page though and will look it up when I've a bit more time.

Buford T. Justice XIX

I was wondering where to post this video about the birth of a gene deleted, rather than gene edited or added, calf in Brazil. The scientists located an absence of gene in a cattle breed that is heat resistant and proceeded to delete the same gene in a red Angus. They hope the new calf will show better heat resistance and thrive during the hot Summers and hope to have a large number on the ground in a few years, pending the decision whether this constitutes a GMO animal or not.


https://www.wsj.com/video/series/moving-upstream/this-gene-edited-calf-could-transform-brazil-beef-industry/D2D93B49-8251-405F-BC35-1E5C33FA08AF?mod=e2tw

Green&Red

Upstream wrote: »

Sustainable Soil Management: Soil for life
Free EdX online course from University of Wageningen
https://www.edx.org/course/sustainable-soil-management-soil-for-life

It's a twelve week course from one of the best universities in Europe.
It's a free course
Anyone else interested in signing up?

I've signed up, 8hrs per module is fairly saucy!

davidk1394

Green&Red wrote: »

I've signed up, 8hrs per module is fairly saucy!

What do you get at the end ?

ganmo

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

I was wondering where to post this video about the birth of a gene deleted, rather than gene edited or added, calf in Brazil. The scientists located an absence of gene in a cattle breed that is heat resistant and proceeded to delete the same gene in a red Angus. They hope the new calf will show better heat resistance and thrive during the hot Summers and hope to have a large number on the ground in a few years, pending the decision whether this constitutes a GMO animal or not.


https://www.wsj.com/video/series/moving-upstream/this-gene-edited-calf-could-transform-brazil-beef-industry/D2D93B49-8251-405F-BC35-1E5C33FA08AF?mod=e2tw

the eu have ruled that it is a gmo so they have a big hill to climb

Buford T. Justice XIX

https://twitter.com/SBakerMD/status/1049696517177503745?s=19

Say my name

Since the Bufordmeister has a post up on climate change, here's what needs to be done to bring down the carbon in the atmosphere. The link to the farm science part is farming and soil management has a 99% role in doing so.

https://qz.com/1416481/the-ultimate-guide-to-negative-emission-technologies/

yosemitesam1

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/oct/10/trees-ireland-biodiversity-sitka-birds-extinction?CMP=share_btn_tw&__twitter_impression=true

Say my name

Comparing grass monocultures with 4 grass species swards in drought conditions in Wexford and Switzerland.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-33262-9

Spoiler alert. The farmers who sowed a single variety grass in pasture are going what da phuck did I do that for?

yosemitesam1

Say my name wrote: »

Comparing grass monocultures with 4 grass species swards in drought conditions in Wexford and Switzerland.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-33262-9

Spoiler alert. The farmers who sowed a single variety grass in pasture are going what da phuck did I do that for?

Wouldn't take too much from that. The mono cultures were either ryegrass, chicory, white clover or red clover. You wouldn't expect the others bar ryegrass to do well on their own and the n rate with cutting was the equivalent of grazing with 0n so not really going to do any favours for ryegrass monoculture.


Would've been much more useful had they included other grass species and also did a higher fert rate.

Say my name

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

Wouldn't take too much from that. The mono cultures were either ryegrass, chicory, white clover or red clover. You wouldn't expect the others bar ryegrass to do well on their own and the n rate with cutting was the equivalent of grazing with 0n so not really going to do any favours for ryegrass monoculture.



Would've been much more useful had they included other grass species and also did a higher fert rate.

From a Wexford and SE point of view, the biggest take from that was what grows in drought conditions.

On the fert point there's hundreds of campaigners looking to reduce our fert usage so it's better to plan and do the research on that than not.

eoinmk2

Buford T. Justice V wrote: »

https://twitter.com/SBakerMD/status/1049696517177503745?s=19

This might be a stupid question, but why does the y axis scale (in meters) start in the minus for sea level rise and land and ocean temperature change?

ganmo

eoinmk2 wrote: »

This might be a stupid question, but why does the y axis scale (in meters) start in the minus for sea level rise and land and ocean temperature change?

I presume its relative, so in 1900 the sea was ~15cm lower than the present for that graph

Say my name

ganmo wrote: »

I presume its relative, so in 1900 the sea was ~15cm lower than the present for that graph

Zero could have been the starting point for proper recording either.
The minus figures could be from a different type of recording to after the zero point.

Green&Red

davidk1394 wrote: »

What do you get at the end ?

You can do it for free and get nothing only learning or pay and get a cert AFAIK

Mooooo

https://youtu.be/tuwwfL2o9d4

Buford T. Justice XIX

There's a lot of information in this one, a few interesting bits about the near future changes in agricultural crop areas.
https://e360.yale.edu/features/redrawing-the-map-how-the-worlds-climate-zones-are-shifting

Waffletraktor

Little look under the hood of using vary-rate seeding rates and what the maps base the soil on overlayed with yield mapping via combine. Based off a 2,800 acre block though maps are a few years old now.

Waffletraktor

Seed rates governed by yield map results and head counts per m2 post tillering. Field has a steep hill on the narrow bit with light sandy soil and turns very heavy towards the bottom headland.

yosemitesam1

Waffletraktor wrote: »

Seed rates governed by yield map results and head counts per m2 post tillering. Field has a steep hill on the narrow bit with light sandy soil and turns very heavy towards the bottom headland.

How do the seed rates vary according to yield? High yield high seed rate?

Waffletraktor

yosemitesam1 wrote: »

How do the seed rates vary according to yield? High yield high seed rate?

Thought i'd put another bit in, aim for a certain no. of heads of wheat in this case per m2 for when all's said and done in May/June to what gives about the best average yield. The lighter bit tends to get better germination due to being a bit drier and better soil contact, heavier lower tends to be half drowned come the spring so the aim is to start with higher plant no's expecting to get maybe 1 tiller per plant to survive vs 2 from lighter ground. It's usually June that lack of moisture flips thngs round and light ground loses yield potential. The brown in top left corner represents 170/kg/ha seed rate vs 265 in the dark blue in the bottom corner. The orange would represent the target rate in this case. You could see it as the crop half drowning over the winter before using fertiliser regieme to try mnage tiller no's before moisture stress/maturity kicks in to manage no. of tillers you get and in turn your no. of heads of grain per m2. After that it's bushel weights and the amount of grains per head dictates things but you've no impact on that really. Other reasons for higher seed rate is out compete weeds(blackgrass or leatherjackets etc etc)
The screens off an ipad which takes in the tractors gps signal to say where it is, rate maps are preloaded in and it tells the drill what it should be putting on at that moment in time.

Gawddawggonnit

Waffletraktor wrote: »

Thought i'd put another bit in, aim for a certain no. of heads of wheat in this case per m2 for when all's said and done in May/June to what gives about the best average yield. The lighter bit tends to get better germination due to being a bit drier and better soil contact, heavier lower tends to be half drowned come the spring so the aim is to start with higher plant no's expecting to get maybe 1 tiller per plant to survive vs 2 from lighter ground. It's usually June that lack of moisture flips thngs round and light ground loses yield potential. The brown in top left corner represents 170/kg/ha seed rate vs 265 in the dark blue in the bottom corner. The orange would represent the target rate in this case. You could see it as the crop half drowning over the winter before using fertiliser regieme to try mnage tiller no's before moisture stress/maturity kicks in to manage no. of tillers you get and in turn your no. of heads of grain per m2. After that it's bushel weights and the amount of grains per head dictates things but you've no impact on that really. Other reasons for higher seed rate is out compete weeds(blackgrass or leatherjackets etc etc)
The screens off an ipad which takes in the tractors gps signal to say where it is, rate maps are preloaded in and it tells the drill what it should be putting on at that moment in time.

Could you see a benefit on index4 soils?
Was the initial investment on creating a soil map steep?

blue5000

The Goosberry hill field you showed us, was that the pH map, or the harvest yield with blue at bottom? Sorry if I'm missing something.

Waffletraktor

blue5000 wrote: »

The Goosberry hill field you showed us, was that the pH map, or the harvest yield with blue at bottom? Sorry if I'm missing something.

It a seed rate map for vari-rate seeding, the soil maps are a little out of date now but still an interesting reference. The maps 8 years old now but were up dated in 2015 to improve accuracy due to extra layers/ more samples but if you were out in the field the different patches would coincide with changes in soil type as alot of the ground was layed down via glaciers. For reference this is gooseberry hill on the map.

Waffletraktor

Gawddawggonnit wrote: »

Could you see a benefit on index4 soils?
Was the initial investment on creating a soil map steep?

To be honest accurate and multiple years yield maps are a better guide imo, as it doesn't always do what the maps say or might be hidden behind a N facing steep bank etc etc. We do it as have the maps done and aim to take variability out of the equation so can go flat rate N programs in the main.
Cost 8£/acre 8 years ago and £5/acre to update in 2015 as just got soil chemical analysis done. £.40/acre for annual work done with yield maps/p+k/ph.

Buford T. Justice XIX

A little article about the ways to treat the different greenhouse gasses as regards their contribution to global climate change.


https://theconversation.com/why-methane-should-be-treated-differently-compared-to-long-lived-greenhouse-gases-97845


Methane is more polluting but short lived in the atmosphere while carbon dioxide is less polluting but remains much longer in the atmosphere.

Buford T. Justice XIX

I thought I'd fire this up. A NZ trial is beginning on successful 2 stage drainage channels from the US for reducing nutrient runoff during flooding events.
https://twitter.com/DairyNZ/status/1070059247042420736?s=19

yosemitesam1

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237352881_Mycorrhizae_possible_explanation_for_yield_decline_with_continuous_corn_and_soybean


Over time in the soil microbial community changes to reflect what is grown. In mono cultures the mycorrhizae fungi that are selected for by any crop tend to be more adapted to be parasitic on that crop than the strains selected by different crops. Part of how rotation increases yield in the absence of obvious diseases like take all, but continuous diversity would be better again as the selection is then always for mutualism and never parasitism

Buford T. Justice XIX

There's research being done in the US into improving the efficiency of photosynthesis and researchers are predicting a 40% improvement in production efficiency, going by work on tobacco plants.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/01/03/681941779/scientists-have-hacked-photosynthesis-in-search-of-more-productive-crops

Say my name

NASA have balanced the books on the question about the increase in methane in the atmosphere.
Spoiler alert ..increased fossil fuels and rice farming and the annual variation of fires.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-led-study-solves-a-methane-puzzle