Iowa Ag Connection - Field Day Aug. 24 to Focus on New Crop Forecasting Project

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Field Day Aug. 24 to Focus on New Crop Forecasting Project
Iowa Ag Connection - 08/18/2017

An Iowa State University project to forecast and evaluate real-time soil and crop conditions in specific fields will be the subject of a field day Aug. 24 at the Agricultural Engineering/Agronomy Farm near Boone.

The Forecast and Assessment of Cropping sysTemS (FACTS) project uses information from 33 cropping systems across Iowa to answer questions about the impact of current weather conditions on crop yields, as well as the status of soil, water and nitrogen availability. Details about the project are available at: https://crops.extension.iastate.edu/facts/

Its goal is to provide quantitative answers to questions that farmers commonly ask, such as: the potential yield, nitrogen availability and the yield effects of using more nitrogen, planting more seeds or having more soil moisture available.

The field day, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 9 a.m. with registration. The program starts at 9:30 a.m. at the farm, which is located at 1308 U Ave., Boone. It will conclude with lunch served at noon.

The speakers scheduled to present include:

- Kendall Lamkey, chair of the Department of Agronomy, opening remarks and vision

- Sotirios Archontoulis, assistant professor of agronomy, FACTS overview, soil and water dynamics and root depths

- Mike Castellano, associate professor of agronomy, soil nitrogen dynamics

- Andy Vanloocke, assistant professor of agronomy, evapotranspiration stations

- Dennis Todey, director of the National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, 2017 weather

- Mark Licht, assistant professor of agronomy, 2017 yield predictions

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