Cover crops management for no-till grain crop production

"Cover crops are forage grasses, legumes, small grains or other crops grown to protect and improve the soil. Cover crops are becoming increasingly important in Missouri, because soil losses of 10. 9 tons of cropland per acre are occurring annually through sheet and rill erosion. About 20 cents worth of nutrients is lost in each ton of soil, which means a loss of over $2 per acre per year. In addition to soil loss from erosion, Missouri is losing nutrients equivalent to over$25 million in fertilizer each year."--First page.Z.R. Helsel, M. DeFelice, D. Buchholz (Department of Agronomy College of Agriculture)New 11/86/8

Ice Age Epochs and the Sun's Path Through the Galaxy

We present a calculation of the Sun's motion through the Milky Way Galaxy over the last 500 million years. The integration is based upon estimates of the Sun's current position and speed from measurements with Hipparcos and upon a realistic model for the Galactic gravitational potential. We estimate the times of the Sun's past spiral arm crossings for a range in assumed values of the spiral pattern angular speed. We find that for a difference between the mean solar and pattern speed of Omega_Sun - Omega_p = 11.9 +/- 0.7 km/s/kpc the Sun has traversed four spiral arms at times that appear to correspond well with long duration cold periods on Earth. This supports the idea that extended exposure to the higher cosmic ray flux associated with spiral arms can lead to increased cloud cover and long ice age epochs on Earth.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

Analyzing cropping systems (1983)

In tight financial times, businesses often try to reduce spending and improve their profits. Many farmers are currently operating their businesses under such conditions. Wise management decisions can improve profits in farming while reducing cash flow needs

No-till checklist (1993)

Reviewed October 1993

No-till planting sytsems

"In no-tillage planting systems, a planting is made directly into an essentially unprepared seedbed. Evaluate the economical and practical feasibility if you consider a no-till planting system. You won't always completely eliminate tillage, and your management ability and experience often determine the economic reward."--First page.Zane R. Helsel, Daryl D. Buchholz, Gary Hoette, and L.E. Anderson (Department of Agronomy), Einar Palm (Department of Plant Pathology), George Thomas (Department of Entomology), Don Pfost (Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture)New 7/83/10

No-till checklist (1984)

Zane R. Helsel, Daryl D. Buchholz, Gary Hoette, and L.E. Anderson (Department of Agronomy), Einar Palm (Department of Plant Pathology), George Thomas (Department of Entomology), Don Pfost (Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture)New 1/84/10

No-till checklist (1987)

Zane R. Helsel, Daryl D. Buchholz, Gary Hoette, and L.E. Anderson (Department of Agronomy), Einar Palm (Department of Plant Pathology), George Thomas (Department of Entomology), Don Pfost (Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Agriculture)Revised 10/87/10