Category: Publications

Managing Risks with Cover Crops

This guidebook titled Managing Risks with Cover Crops aims to help farmers understand how to use cover crops without sacrificing profitability.

PCM Releases New Data Summary for 2015-2021

A report summarizing the entire PCM dataset is available now. The pull-out booklet provides clear, objectively analyzed, aggregated, and anonymized results for over 12,000 agricultural fields in Illinois spanning PCM’s full dataset and demonstrating the financial and environmental differences resulting from various tillage, nutrient management, and cover crop practices. “PCM is only available in priority…
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Cost & Returns from Different Nitrogen Application Timing in Illinois

By Gary Schnitkey, Dale Lattz & Laura Gentry Overall returns on Illinois grain farms are projected to be much lower in 2019 than recent years, resulting in more consumer about managing input costs. Fertilizer, seed, and pesticide costs represent a large portion of the total cost of producing corn, with fertilizer costs historically larger than…
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Strip-Till Implementation in Illinois

By Gary Schnitkey & Laura Gentry Strip-till is a relatively common tillage practice on farmland that will be planted to corn in east-central Illinois, accounting for about 14% of the acres planted to corn in Precision Conservation Management (PCM) from 2015 to 2018. Returns to strip-till have been roughly the same as other one-pass tillage…
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Tillage Passes & Returns on Corn-Soybean Farms in East-Central Illinois

By Gary Schnitkey & Laura Gentry There is great diversity in number and type of tillage operations used to grow corn and soybean in east-central Illinois. As 2019 appears to be a low-income year, reducing tillage passes is one way to reduce costs. This may be more of an option in 2019 since fewer fall…
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The Economic Advisability of Lowering 2019 Nitrogen Application Rates on Corn

By Gary Schnitkey & Laura Gentry Spring field operations will soon begin, and nitrogen applications on corn will commence. More nitrogen will be applied this spring than is typical because wet weather limited fall applications. University-recommended nitrogen application rates in Illinois are between 140 and 180 pounds of actual nitrogen per acre for corn-following-soybeans. For…
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