Archive
Major Land Use of the United States
Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2007 from ERS (Click on image below).
By Cynthia Nickerson, Robert Ebel, Allison Borchers, and Fernando Carriazo
Economic Information Bulletin No. (EIB-89) 67 pp, December 2011
Mapping tool for renewable energy resources
The National Renewable Energy Lab has put together an interactive website showing best locations for a number of renewable energy sources, including biomass
The Importance of Ag Research
Everett Griner at Southeast AgNET tells us today how agriculture research is slowing down in the current economic/political environment. This is not good for agriculture. American farmers now compete in an ever-changing global economy. To compete, they must innovate, and innovation means taking risks – innovative practices and crops are by definition possible (likely?) to fail. Agricultural researchers take this risk for farmers (at least some of it). Our excellent extension professionals (extension agents and TSPs at federal, state and NGO’s) pass this knowledge – sans risk - to producers. Congress should consider this in budget decisions….
“…Guess who’s going to be affected by these decisions? YOU.” – E. Griner.
Soil and Pasture Rental Rates from UDSA
Protecting American Farmland
NRCS and the American Farmland Trust have put together a Farmland Information Center with lots of resources (searchable) on the economics, legislation and practicality of preserving and protecting farmland.
Field Borders for Wildlife
Missouri Extension has published a great guide for installing field borders (herbaceous strips of vegetation replacing crops at field edges) entitled Field borders for agronomic, economic and wildlife benefits. The document illustrates some important principles of corridor design that we focus on in my course, but that are not incorporated (intentionally!) into farm plans nearly enough. The document is b/w, but color versions of the pictures can be viewed on the html version HERE.
Food safety and wildlife habitat
Food safety concerns (like the e. coli – spinach scare) are influencing the amount of natural habitat in some agricultural areas.
From the article ” That translates into ripping out trees and bushes to create sterile buffer zones, up to 100 metres wide, to keep deer and other animals out of “crop blocks.” Not only does this strategy do little to impede the wildlife – which in any case is highly unlikely to carry E. coli – but it also destroys habitat for insects that pollinate plants or eat pests. The buffers also promote erosion and allow pollutants into streams.“
I am all for food safety, but grassland buffers may reduce E. coli in runoff containing cattle feces, {which are being ‘scorched’ -Sam Riffell}.
How this plays out for wildlife will worth watching.
{Thanks to Ralph Maughan’s Wildlife News for putting me on to this}
Farm Bill Review
“…buried deep in this monster bill are what could be the seeds of change.” FarmPolicy.com summarizes the new Farm Bill. Many of these seeds of change may be good for conservation.
Common Sense Conservation
CP33 – Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds – is a relatively new practice available through continuous sign-up Conservation Reserve Program. Specifications for the buffers were designed with northern bobwhite and other grassland birds in mind. A big plus is that economic research suggests these buffers are profitable for the producer, too.
Listen to 4 farmers tell their own story (click image below) about incorporating CP33 Habitat Buffers into their farming operations (courtesy Forestry & Wildlife Research Center at Mississippi State University).
