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Improving Your Own Open-pollinated Corn
After you have decided on the best variety (or varieties), begin improving that variety by a selection process. There are several ways to improve varieties. The simplest is called mass selection. You...
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Measuring Corn Quality
OK, you say — so high quality is important when you feed your crops, but I grow corn to sell, and the market only pays for bushels; why should I worry about quality? First of all, you aren’t really...
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Harvesting and Storing Corn
Generally, when growing corn for grain, you will want to plant a variety that has a short enough growing season to mature before frost, and plant it early to be sure it gives a high yield. The use of a...
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Book Excerpt: Talking Chicken
Commonly seen on many small farms now is a reworking of materials at hand to create a brooder unit adequate to house chick lots of fifty to one hundred head until they are three to five weeks of age....
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Weed Management Techniques for Corn Growers
The simple truth is that nearly all weeds grow best in poor soil—unbalanced, tight, depleted, “dead” soil. And that is just what our modern agricultural methods have created over the last few decades....
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Non-Toxic Control of Common Corn Insects
There are dozens of kinds of insects that attack all parts of the corn plant—roots, stalk, leaves, and cob. As we have said, they are just part of nature’s clean-up crew, eating the sick plants. Source
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Non-Human-Food Uses for Soybean Crops
Although most soybean producers strictly grow their beans to sell on the market, high quality soybeans are a valuable source of animal food. It is always better to feed crops you have grown to your...
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Using Soybeans as Food
Soybeans contain more protein than lean meat. Two pounds of soybeans supply the protein equivalent of 5 pounds of boneless beef, 15 quarts of milk, 6 dozen eggs or 4 pounds of cheese.Source
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Choosing the Right Soybean Seeds for Your Farm
By Dr. Harold Willis As soybean seeds lose moisture they change from large, kidney bean shaped to smaller and nearly round. When dry, the seed contains about 40% protein, 21% oil, 34% carbohydrates and...
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Tips for Saving Soybean Seeds
Soybean seeds should be dried to about 13% moisture and kept in ventilated containers.Source
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Are GMO Soybeans the Way to Go?
Considerable experience by sustainable and organic farmers has shown that it is not necessary to grow high-tech crops to obtain high yields and to produce high quality, nutritious food. Source
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Why Mindfulness is Essential for Farmers and Their Health
As farmers we face weather extremes, deadlines, unforeseen calamities and a variety of demands on our minds, bodies and bank accounts. We work days that can stretch far into the nights regardless of...
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Dealing With Herbicide Drift
The degree to which crops are damaged from drift depends on the level of the susceptibility of the crop, its growth stage, environmental conditions, herbicide formulation, droplet size and the spray...
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Watering Best Practices for Crops
All any farmer really wants is the best uptake of plant nutrients for his or her crops. In order to make sure crops efficiently uptake all they need, crop expert Esper K. Chandler says, “We have to...
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Identifying and Controlling Weeds
It has been noted that in a few hundred more years — considering the present rate of discovery — we will have all the answers on the role of trace minerals in crop production. Answers for the...
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What, Exactly, Is Humus Made Of?
The proportion of minerals has increased in cultivated soils during our era in comparison with past eras in which consistently humid heat promoted the formation of organic soil material over huge...
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Symptoms of Unhealthy Soil
Structural deterioration takes place to a greater or lesser degree in almost every field, and its consequences include soil that is too silty or too compacted.Source
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Nutrients & Minerals Needed for Soybeans to Grow
Soybean production factors out as follows: a 50-bushel crop takes 280 pounds of nitrogen. Source
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Soybean Seed Management
In selecting which variety you wish to plant, assuming you are growing field soybeans, you need to consider several things. First, buy the best quality seed you can find. Certified tested seed is...
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