Life Sciences Commons^™

Reconditioning Corn And Soybeans To Optimal Processing Moisture Contents, Michael D. Montross, Dirk E. Maier

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Experimental trials were carried out to evaluate the technical feasibility of reconditioning overly dry corn and soybeans to optimal market and processing moisture contents. Data obtained from experimental trials were used to validate an aeration simulation model. This model was used to evaluate the feasibility of reconditioning soybeans and corn. Reconditioning of grain was feasible at low airflow rates (0.11 m³ min^–1 t^–1) over a six-month period when an automatic aeration controller was used. Using downflow aeration and monthly unloading of the bin allowed for the greatest net economic gain. Predicted reconditioning in Des Moines, Iowa, …

Simulated Performance Of Conventional High-Temperature Drying, Dryeration, And Combination Drying Of Shelled Corn With Automatic Conditioning, Michael D. Montross, Dirk E. Maier

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Combination drying, based on computer simulation, was evaluated as an alternative drying technique to traditional high-temperature drying and dryeration. Simulation models of high-temperature crossflow drying and in-bin drying and conditioning were used to evaluate the performance of conventional crossflow drying and full-heat crossflow drying followed by dryeration or natural-air drying for Indianapolis, Indiana, and Des Moines, Iowa. Energy costs from propane, electricity, moisture shrink below the market moisture content, and dry matter loss were estimated to find the total average drying cost over 29 years. Dryeration and combination drying reduced the total drying cost by approximately 10% compared to conventional …

Root Growth And Development Of Float Tobacco Transplants Before And After Transplanting, L. V. Caruso, Robert C. Pearce, Lowell P. Bush

Agronomy Notes

In the production of float tobacco transplants, the seedling produces at least two different kinds of roots. The “media” roots are those that grow in the soilless medium within the float tray cell. They have a normal branched appearance similar to roots produced on soil-bed grown transplants. The “water” roots grow through the soilless medium in tray cells and into the nutrient solution below the float tray. They tend to be very fragile and less branched than roots growing in the soilless medium. In removal of seedlings from tray cells during transplanting, “water” roots are usually badly damaged or destroyed, …

Escherichia Coli Pathogen O157:H7 Does Not Survive Longer In Soil Than A Nonpathogenic Fecal Coliform, D. N. Mubiru, Mark S. Coyne, John H. Grove

Agronomy Notes

Survival rates for individual types of fecal organisms are quite different. Although some pathogens may persist as long as 5 years in soil, most fecal pathogens from human and animal waste usually die very quickly. Two to three months is sufficient in most cases to reduce pathogens to negligible numbers once they have been excreted or land-applied in animal wastes.

It is expensive and time- consuming to test for individual pathogens. Consequently, nonpathogenic fecal indicator bacteria, which are easily and inexpensively detected, are often used to study pathogen survival in soil and water. Current methods for rapidly detecting fecal indicator …

Trends In Alfalfa Production And The Beef And Dairy Industries In Kentucky During 1989-98, Dennis Hancock, Michael Collins

Agronomy Notes

On suitable soils, alfalfa produces the highest yield of nutrients possible from a perennial forage crop. However, high production costs and restrictive soil requirements have limited the production of alfalfa in Kentucky. High producing dairy cows respond well to premium quality forage, so alfalfa is a preferred forage crop in dairy production. Thus, alfalfa production is primarily contingent on the producer’s method of marketing the crop.

Evaporation Reduction Potential In An Undisturbed Soil Irrigated With Surface Drip And Sand Tube Irrigation, Masoud Meshkat, Richard C. Warner, Stephen R. Workman

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The efficiency of drip irrigation is highly dependent on evaporation losses occurring from the constantly saturated soil beneath emitters. Advent of subsurface drip irrigation is in part an approach to curb this inefficiency. An irrigation method, Sand Tube Irrigation (STI), is proposed to increase the efficiency of “Normal” surface applied drip Irrigation (NI method) on permanent tree crops without the need for burying the irrigation tubing. The sand tube consists of removing a soil core beneath the emitter and filling the void with coarse sand. A weighing lysimeter was constructed in the laboratory and instrumented to directly measure temporal evaporation …

The Effect Of Drying Soil Samples On Soil Test Potassium Values, Kenneth L. Wells, James E. Dollarhide

Agronomy Notes

Extreme temporal and spatial variability of soil test potassium values (STK) was measured on small plots (12-ft x 40-ft) being used for a STK correlation and calibration study on a Crider soil in Larue County, Kentucky. Twelve periodic samplings of the 20 small plots in this study over a period of 18 months showed as much as two-fold temporal differences in STK within individual plots, many of which had received no potassium (K) fertilizer during the study. Spatial variability of STK also varied as much as two-fold among the individual small plots at any given sampling time for similar treatments. …

Comparison Of Weed Management Strategies With Roundup Ready® Corn, J. A. Ferrell, William W. Witt

Agronomy Notes

Corn weed management during the past several years in Kentucky has centered around two herbicide families, the chloroacetamides (Dual, Frontier, Harness, Micro-Tech, Surpass) and the s-triazines (AAtrex, Bladex, Princep). These products have been used widely because they offer acceptable, full season control of many common warm season annual weeds at a reasonable price. This combination has been so popular that several premixtures that contain these types of herbicides (Bicep II, Bullet, Guardsman, Harness Xtra, Surpass 100, FulTime) are used commonly used in Kentucky. The key to this efficacious and economic program is atrazine because it controls most annual broadleaf …

Small Scale Temporal And Spatial Variability Of Potassium Soil Test Values On A Crider Soil, Kenneth L. Wells, James E. Dollarhide, Frank J. Sikora

Agronomy Notes

An on-farm, small plot study conducted in 1996, on a Crider soil in Larue County, Kentucky, resulted in unanticipated wide variability of soil test potassium (STK) values between spring and fall sampling. Because of this, the small plots were sampled monthly over a period of time with the objective of determining if such variability in STK values was real.