The Case of Phosphate Fertilizer

Many an Iowa farmer is aware that some day he may need to use commercial fertilizer, especially phosphate, in order to produce crops satisfactorily. He wonders, Has that time arrived? Could I profitably increase my crop yields by applying fertilizer

Farm tenure in Iowa: VI. Landlord-tenant relationships in Southern Iowa

Tenancy in Iowa has increased steadily during the past 50 years and has, no doubt, been a contributing factor responsible for some of the major misuses of land and some of the impoverishment found in rural community life and institutions.2 Previous studies show that tenants have a higher percentage of their total farm land in crops and more of their crop land in corn and soybeans than do owner operators.3 A lower yield of corn and oats accompanies these crop systems on tenant farms

Eroded Soils Need Phosphorus

When the top soil has washed away or blown away—crop yields drop. Most farmers know this. But just why won’t the subsoil produce as well as the original top soil? Is there any particular element that we can add to eroded soils which will step up crop yields? These are questions we have been looking into at the Iowa Station

Adjusting crop acreages for war production to the soil resources of Iowa

To some people soil conservation is a peacetime luxury; to others it is a first essential of land use. Some say, We are at war now, what does soil matter? Plow it up. Others say, For many years we have been learning conservation; we must not now throwaway our gains. Both attitudes are right if we distinguish between soils which are subject to serious erosion and those which are not, but they are wrong when applied to all soils without regard to their differences. Actually, we face the necessity of exploiting our soils to the point where we will obtain the most food and raw materials over the next 3 to 5 years. We face a serious food shortage in terms of\u27 the needs of our armed forces, our civilian population, our allies and the hungry masses which will soon be freed from tyranny. To meet these needs we should produce the maximum amount of feeds and food products required. We also need to adjust our diets to consume more of those foods which yield the most nourishment per acre

Time To Pay Back The Soil?

Iowa farmers have been cropping their land heavily for several years to meet war demands for food. Now they are beginning to think about replacing the fertility they\u27ve pulled from the soil during the heavy production years. Most farmers feel that they should be turning their land back to regular rotation. However,they don\u27t like to take this step as long as prices for corn and livestock are high

Fertilizer Backs Bombs

One source of “ammunition” for the “war food front” which many an Iowa farmer should seriously consider using this year is commercial fertilizer. If used wisely, it can profitably increase crop production

Manure- Valuable Soil Builder

Good farmers for years have considered the manure produced on their farms a valuable fertilizer and many carefully conducted experiments have shown that these farmers have been right

Role of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium fertilizers in continuous corn culture on Nicollet and Webster soils

The possibility of growing continuous corn is receiving increasing consideration with the changing agricultural patterns. Farmers are devoting more and more acres to intensive cropping sequences in which corn follows corn more often. The practice of continuous corn-growing consecutive corn crops on the same land-is on the increase. This is because corn is the most profitable crop generally grown in the Corn Belt, because limitations in production technology have been eased, and because farm product demands or values have altered. Early research with crop rotations generally resulted in conclusions that continuous culture of inter tilled crops, especially of corn, was less profitable than other alternatives and resulted in decreasing soil fertility and continuously declining yields. The early experiments indicated that a crop rotation, including a nitrogen-fixing legume, was needed to increase or even maintain fertility levels. These experiments usually did not explore the use of N, and, if they did, the N usually was used in low amounts, probably because of the high cost. Forage-producing crops were also necessary for the livestock program, which then included draft horses, and the manure byproduct from the animals helped maintain fertility levels

Yield tests and land valuation

Valuation of farm land depends, in the main, on farm income, which in turn depends on crop yields and farm prices. Crop yields, to go back still another step, rest largely on soil and climate. Consequently, a careful measurement of soil productivity, as determined by crop yields, is a fundamental aspect of farm valuation. Measurement of soil productivity in terms of yield differences has been hampered by the influence of management. Two farms of equal quality may produce unequal yields, not because of soil differences but because of managerial differences. In order to measure soil variation some method of controlling the management variable has to be followed. One method is to obtain a group of representative, randomized yield samples, the mean of which will represent average or typical management. Another solution, the one followed for the most part in this study, is to take yield samples of various soil conditions within an individual field, thus holding management constant