Growth Spurts

Grass filter strips placed in riparian zones not only curb soil erosion, but also block and degrade the widely used herbicide atrazine, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists report.
Atrazine has been used extensively to suppress weeds in corn production for decades, but because it’s applied directly to soil it’s especially prone to losses in surface runoff. [...]

Farmers know that agricultural equipment can cause compaction in no-till crop fields, but Ohio State University researchers have found that, depending on soil type, compaction can be severe and persist for years.
Based on 20 years of compaction studies at various locations in Ohio, just one year of harvest traffic on clay soils can reduce corn [...]

Organic farming can build up soil organic matter better than conventional no-till farming can, according to a long-term study by the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS).
The nine-year study at the Henry A. Wallace Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland, contradicts the conventional wisdom that no-till is the best soil builder because it eliminates plowing [...]

In agriculture, less is sometimes more.
Reduced tillage can increase soil carbon.
Lower corn yields can net higher profits.

These are the conclusions of USDA Agricultural Research Service studying the economic and environmental effects of tillage.
Corn leaves a lot of crop residue, so many growers till fields intensively when preparing soil for the next crop. To find out [...]

Not all cornstalks can be converted to ethanol. If conservation of soil organic matter is taken into account, producers must cut in half the amount of cornstalks they can plan on harvesting to produce ethanol, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study. See the details.