Renewable Farming

October 2018

More reasons for those black clouds over combines at soybean harvest

Consulting agronomist Bob Streit describes the fungal invasion of many Midwest soybean fields, and suggests some remedial answers for healthier crops in future seasons. Oct. 31, 2018   By Bob Streit — The latest NASS figures tell that corn harvest still has about 40% left to go. Bean harvest is further along and with the shorter […]

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Is there a link between lung diseases and molds in harvest dust?

Darker shades of color in corn and soybean fields offer evidence that persistent rains which delayed harvest have also multiplied an array of molds. And for the first time, a farmer has sent us visual evidence from running combines that GMO soybeans shed more dust — and molds — than non-GMO beans.  October 23, 2018 —

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A revealing reason to split stalks after harvest, as well as early in the growing season

We’ve always encouraged corn growers to look inside cornstalks in spring, from about the four-leaf stage on, to detect early signals of brown, rotting gunk in the xylem tubes near the root crown. That’s a barometer of season-long root health, thus showing the stalk’s ability to transport water and nutrients to leaves and kernels. October 18,

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What nutrient does your corn need — in the largest amounts — through the growing season?

Many corn growers will probably answer, “nitrogen.” That’s because we’ve been conditioned by nearly a century of mineral fertilizer research and marketing to think nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. But the correct answer is carbon. Crops extract carbon from carbon dioxide, the compound which our United Nations officials branded a pollutant, and convinced the U.S. Supreme

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How Dave Schwartz achieves the classic corn-grower’s goal: Mature ears on green stalk

Healthy, 300-bu. plus corn on rolling hillsides with a corn suitability rating in the mid-50s? See the photos below taken at the Dave Schwartz farm a few miles west of Guthrie Center, Iowa. October 13, 2018 — The photos below were shot Oct. 1 by crop consultant Bob Streit of Boone, Iowa. He and Dave

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Farmers fighting stalk rot see major benefits from biologically healthy soil

The rivers of rain which lashed much of the upper Midwest in September and early October spawned an array of stalk rot fungi and bacteria which are now threatening substantial corn yield losses. Here’s a tool you can use this fall — soon as possible — to keep corn alive longer in future years. The final 40 bu. or

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Geneticist who created GMO potatoes for J.R. Simplot urges: “Take them off the market.”

Caius Rommens, a genetic engineer who first worked at Monsanto and then for J.R. Simplot, published an editorial today on the Independent Science News website saying that he “renounces” his development work at Simplot and urges that the genetically altered potatoes he personally developed for that firm “should be withdrawn from the market.” October 8, 2018

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First-ever audit of raw climate data discredits long-claimed “man-made global warming”

Australian researcher John McLean conducted an exhaustive audit on the key long-term climate data which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change uses for its “consensus” on man-made global warming. He found the data has been severely corrupted and manipulated. His conclusion: Today’s “consensus” of man-made world warming is built on an unreliable foundation. It’s a shaky base from

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