CROPS HIGHLIGHT NEW TRENDS THURSDAY AGENDA

New Trends in Agriculture speakers will discuss how to maintain and care for soil during seminars at the agriculture extravaganza to be held at the Show Me Center on Southeast Missouri State University campus This week.

The New Trends program starts today, but soil seminars will be conducted Thursday, starting at 9 a.m.

"The soils is very dynamic," say soil experts. "It determines how our crops grow and the income a farmer receives."

`Prescription Fertilization' and `Soil Compaction, Real World Facts' are subjects of crop product seminars Thursday.

Proper fertilization, correct amounts and kinds of fertilizer based on soil test analysis and crop needs will be discussed.

A new system already being demonstrated on area farms will be discussed by Dr. Daryl Buchholz, Extension Soil Fertility Specialist for the University of Missouri.

Buchholz explains that each field is made up of many diverse soils of different types and analysis, the usual fertilization practice is to make a blanket application over the whole field based on the average analysis of a single soil sample.

This, Buchholz says, over-fertilizes some areas while under-fertilizing others often with the wrong fertilizer or an improper ratio. `Prescription Fertilization' utilizes many soil samples from a grid over a field, with the sample data and location programmed into a computer aboard a fertilizer aboard a fertilizer applicator truck.

As the fertilizer truck moves across the field, the computer utilizes the sample data and blends and applies the rates and kinds of fertilizer needed for that spot of the field. "This saves the farmer dollars, feeds the crop properly for optimum yield and reduces excess fertilization which could pollute the environment," says Buchholz.

Dr. Stewart Melvin, Ag Engineer from Iowa State University at Ames, has studied the effects of soil compaction on crop production and soil characteristics on an Iowa farm.

This `Real World' study utilizing tractors, combines, tillage equipment with various tire sizes, duals, tracks during different moisture conditions emphasizes the effects of soil compaction and crop yields.