Learn about Corn planting, tillage, irrigation, economics, pests, fertility, and weeds.
This report summarizes on-farm performance of irrigated silage corn hybrids at Benson (Cache County) in 2006. The site is at 4439 ft elevation and has a long-term average of 2800 corn growing degree days (50/86° F) per year. Hybrids were seeded with a six...
The purpose of this fact sheet is to help the reader understand the concepts and formulas in determining GDD.
Properly harvested and stored, corn silage is extremely palatable, superior to other forages in energy content, a great fiber source, and relatively consistent in quality. The high palatability of corn silage encourages feed intake which contributes to hi...
Interest in no-till (NT) crop production practices has increased greatly among Utah farmers and ranchers in recent years. The primary benefits of implementing a cropping system with little or no tillage includes improved soil quality (improved soil moistu...
The research community and fertilizer industry have developed and utilized a framework termed “4R nutrient management” to help improve fertilizer stewardship. For decades, national and international organizations and institutes such as The Fertilizer Inst...
Accurate flow measurement is important to irrigation water management and water rights accounting and protection. Accurate flow measurement is essential in ensuring equitable water distribution to water rights holders and shareholders within irrigation co...
A guide to the best chemigation practices
Utah’s climate can often be harsh and unpredictable. As the nation’s second driest state, Utah is commonly subject to droughts. Extensive statewide droughts have often lasted 5 to 6 years. It is imperative that farmers are well prepared to defend against ...
Crop variety selection is one of the most important choices on the farm. Crop genetics determine a significant portion of the yield potential and resource use efficiency. Crop types and genetics that use water more efficiently will become increasingly imp...
The Great Basin is primarily located in Nevada, western Utah, and small sections of southern Oregon and Idaho. The Great Basin is noted for its arid conditions and high percentage of publically owned land. The potential for solar energy generation in the ...
Irrigators in Utah experienced rapidly increasing energy costs from the mid 1970s to the late 1980s. These costs remain relatively high. Those who are pumping from deep wells are particularly interested in ways to cut back on energy use without doing away...
Accurate water measurement is essential to maintaining equity of water delivery within an irrigation company or water districts. Good management of our scarce water resource is dependent upon quantifying supplies and uses with accurate measurement techniq...
There are many good things about surface irrigation, but the labor requirements and large water withdrawals can diminish its feasibility in situations with limited access to labor or water. In this fact sheet, we will describe two of these systems current...
Irrigation canals placed in native soil or lined with earth can have seepage water losses varying from 20 percent to more than 50 percent. Well designed, new compacted earth lined canals can have reduced seepage losses similar to concrete lined channels. ...
Salt is important in plant and soil management. Excessive salt concentrations in soil can cause water to be less available to plants because of the osmotic forces of salt in the soil water. Excessive concentrations of some salt ions can also be toxic to p...
In semiarid soils of the Western U.S., altering soil pH is not easily accomplished nor straightforward. Recall that pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance. More specifically, Utah’s soil pH range can be 1,000 times more acidic or alka...
Manure and wastewater are valuable resources that can reduce fertilizer needs and help improve soil and your bottom line. Sampling and testing of manure and wastewater is needed so one can apply the manure and nutrients appropriately.
New technologies like MDI have the potential to improve irrigation efficiency thereby increasing water available to the crop and conserving water by reducing loss. If you are considering MDI on your farm, it will be important to carefully review its poten...
Sodic soils are soils with excess sodium. Sodic soils are encountered with increasing frequency in Utah, usually in the lower, flatter areas of our valleys. Sodic soils probably developed over many years when the water table was high and the soils were to...
Why conduct soil sampling for crops? The answer is simple and intuitive for most involved in agriculture. Regular soil sampling, testing, and associated guidance on fertilization and soil amendments help develop and maintain more productive and healthy
Deficit irrigation strategies with varying effectiveness can be employed in many cases to maximize production and profit. These strategies can include modifying irrigation schedules, concentrating irrigation to critical crop growth stages, reducing rates,...
It is important to consider the possible hydrologic impacts of irrigation optimization efforts to avoid implementing practices that have little appreciable effect relative to the desired outcome. Examples of desired outcomes include increasing supply reli...
A VFD can make sense in a variety of irrigation applications. Here are 6 of the major applications where one might consider a VFD (also see Henry and Stringham, 2013 and USDA-NRCS, 2010):
If you are connected to a municipal system, your water is probably categorized as “culinary or municipal water” and is used for everything from drinking and bathing to washing the car to watering tomatoes. However the Utah Division of Water Rights takes a...
Alfalfa is the most important crop in Utah, both in terms of acreage and revenue. Although often overlooked, one of the most critical decisions made in alfalfa production is determining which variety to plant. This report summarizes dry matter (DM) yields...
Enterprise budgets are the building blocks of a farm or ranch. They represent estimates of income and expenses for a specific period of time using a set of production practices and inputs for that enterprise. This research contains sample costs and return...
Enterprise budgets are the building blocks of a farm or ranch. They represent estimates of income and expenses for a specific period of time using a set of production practices and inputs for that enterprise. This research contains sample costs and return...
Size and scope and crop production costs and returns for counties in Utah.
2008 Commodity Insurance Fact Sheet for Corn in the following counties: Beaver, Box Elder, Cache, Carbon, Davis, Duchese, Emery, Grand, Iron, Juab, Millard, Salt Lake, Sanpete, Sevier, Tooele, Uintah, Utah, and Weber.
To protect your investment in agricultural pesticides, a boom sprayer should be calibrated at the start of the season and whenever application conditions change. Also, sprayer output should be periodically checked throughout the season to assure proper ap...
In Utah, there are typically three generations of corn earworm (CEW) each year. The first generation of adults either come from overwintering pupae (southern and central Utah) or migrate into northern Utah. The adult moth is tannish brown with a 1 1/2 inc...
Pesticides are substances that control unwanted organisms. A pesticide can be used to prevent, destroy, repel, or mitigate pests. Common pest organisms include insects, plants, fungi, bacteria, plant-parasitic nematodes, viruses, snails and slugs, and nui...
Western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, is one of the most devastating corn insect pests in the United States. In some years, corn rootworms can cause up to $1 billion in yield loss and control costs. In Utah, western corn rootworm has been...
Biochar is a charcoal product formed from heating a high carbon material in an environment with limited oxygen. By heating in this type of environment, much of the carbon biomass is retained. This process is referred to as pyrolysis. The materials that ar...
The importance of rotating out of a declining alfalfa stand is well established. As the alfalfa stand ages, forage yield and quality decline, while weed, insect, and disease pressures increase.
The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide the current state of knowledge on cover crop management for Utah based on USU research and local grower experience.
Environmental concerns over nitrate contamination of ground water, and the desire of land managers to increase the efficiency of their fertilizer investment, can both be satisfied more completely through diagnostic testing for nitrogen (N) soil fertility....
The purpose of this fact sheet is to provide general information on forms of fertigation for primary plant nutrient, fertigation timing, and fertigation economics.
In semiarid soils of the Western U.S., altering soil pH is not easily accomplished nor straightforward. Recall that pH is a measure of the acidity or alkalinity of a substance. More specifically, Utah’s soil pH range can be 1,000 times more acidic or alka...
Manure and wastewater are valuable resources that can reduce fertilizer needs and help improve soil and your bottom line. Sampling and testing of manure and wastewater is needed so one can apply the manure and nutrients appropriately.
Scientific communities have researched and debated the issues and benefits of soil sustainability and conservation for decades. From those efforts, “soil health” has emerged as the educational face of efforts to protect and improve the quality and product...
This how-to guide will cover benefits and best practices for conducting successful on-farm research.
Sodic soils are soils with excess sodium. Sodic soils are encountered with increasing frequency in Utah, usually in the lower, flatter areas of our valleys. Sodic soils probably developed over many years when the water table was high and the soils were to...
Why conduct soil sampling for crops? The answer is simple and intuitive for most involved in agriculture. Regular soil sampling, testing, and associated guidance on fertilization and soil amendments help develop and maintain more productive and healthy
Crop rotation is an important practice in the production of field and forage crops, with well-known benefits of improving the soil (moisture, structure, fertility, and organic matter), minimizing pests and diseases, and providing economic diversification....
On an field scale, using soil and manure test data together with crop nutrient use information to balance manure and fertilizer nutrients with crop needs.
Urea (46-0-0) usually has the lowest cost per pound of nitrogen compared to other single-element nitrogen fertilizers. However, urea undergoes unique chemical transformations when field applied and severe losses in efficiency may result if special managem...
Although there is a lot of truth to the above statement, anyone who has made a living in agriculture on a farm or ranch would probably agree that the list of certainties could easily be expanded to include weeds. Since the time of the earliest U.S. settle...
Goatsrue is an aggressive invasive plant and a declared Utah state noxious weed (Category 1B). It was introduced into the Cache Valley in 1891 and spread through the irrigation canals, streams, and rivers of the Bear River drainage. Cache County has one o...
Scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium) is an invasive species native to Eurasia. It was likely introduced into North America during the late 19th century (Young & Evans, 1969). Due to the plant’s size and prickles, a stand can damage pasture productivity, r...
Dyer's woad (Isatis tinctoria) was introduced into Utah during the mid-19th century as a source of indigo dye. The plant escaped cultivation and has spread across rangelands, foothills, and other sites throughout the Intermountain West.
Invasive noxious weeds have been described as a raging biological wildfire – out of control, spreading rapidly, and causing enormous economic losses. Millions of acres in North America have been invaded or are at risk of being invaded by weeds, including ...
