Agronomy and Crop Sciences Commons^™

Your Sco/Eco Policy Under The Hood: What County Yield Is The Rma Using?, Cory Walters, Ken Harrison, Connor Whalen

Cornhusker Economics

Over the past decade, crop insurance has continued to expand contract offerings through new area-based policies. Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) was introduced in the mid-2010s. Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) was introduced in the early 2020s, and Margin Protection (MP) was introduced in the mid-to-late 2010s. The ECO premium subsidy was recently increased for the 2025 crop year to further encourage producer participation. Both the SCO and ECO programs have experienced increased participation for a variety of reasons.

Twas Facilitates Gene-Scale Trait Genetic Dissection Through Gene Expression, Structural Variations, And Alternative Splicing In Soybean, Delin Li, Qi Wang, Yu Tian, Xiangguang Lyv, Hao Zhang, Huilong Hong, Huawei Gao, Yan-Fei Li, Chaosen Zhao, Jiajun Wang, Ruizhen Wang, Jinliang Yang, Bin Liu, Patrick S. Schnable, James C. Schnable, Ying-Hui Li, Li-Juan Qiu

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

A genome-wide association study (GWAS) identifies trait-associated loci, but identifying the causal genes can be a bottleneck, due in part to slow decay of linkage disequilibrium (LD). A transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) addresses this issue by identifying gene expression–phenotype associations or integrating gene expression quantitative trait loci with GWAS results. Here, we used self-pollinated soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) as a model to evaluate the application of TWAS to the genetic dissection of traits in plant species with slow LD decay. We generated RNA sequencing data for a soybean diversity panel and identified the genetic expression regulation of 29 …

Genetic Diversity Of Soybean Dwarf Virus In Two Regions Of Mainland Australia, Benjamin S. Congdon, Murray Sharman, Monica Kehoe

Biosecurity Research Articles

Soybean dwarf virus (SbDV; family Tombusviridae, genus Luteovirus, species Luteovirus glycinis) is an RNA plant virus that is transmitted solely by aphids in a persistent, circulative and non-propagative manner. SbDV causes significant losses in cultivated Fabaceae, especially in subterranean clover (Trifolium subterraneum) pastures of mainland Australia. SbDV isolates are classified into four phenotypically distinguishable strains: YP, YS, DP, and DS. Y and D strains differ primarily in their host range, and P and S strains in their primary vector species. Genetically, Y and D strains separate into two clades in every genomic region except for …

2025 Western Australian Crop Sowing Guide, Stacey Power, Brenda Shackley, Blakely Paynter, Mark Seymour, Harmohinder Dhammu, Bronte Wackett

Bulletins 4000 -

The 2025 Western Australian Crop Sowing Guide has been compiled by officers of the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development. It provides information to support variety decisions for each of the major crops for the upcoming season.

Blackbird, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

The introduced common blackbird (Turdus merula) is a pest in eastern Australia. It damages commercial fruit crops and may compete with native birds. The species is prohibited in Western Australia and individuals found here are destroyed.

The Western Australian Organism List (WAOL) contains information on the area(s) in which this pest is declared and the control and keeping categories to which it has been assigned in Western Australia (WA). For more information, see our website at dpird.wa.gov.au.

Spot Form Net Blotch And Its Management In Barley, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Spot form net blotch (SFNB) has become increasingly more common in Western Australia (WA) due to the widespread cultivation of susceptible varieties, such as Spartacus CL and RGT Planet.

These crops generate large amounts of inoculum, which is carried between seasons on infected stubble. Crops grown onto or located close to infected stubble are at greatest risk of infection. The disease can be effectively managed using a combination of varietal selection, crop rotation, and fungicides.

Control The Green Bridge For Pest And Disease Management, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

In Western Australia's climate, the survival of pests and diseases over summer is often critical in determining outbreaks of pest and disease epidemics in broadacre crops during the subsequent cropping season.

Desi Chickpea – Essentials For Growing A Successful Crop, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Chickpeas are a suitable break crop for heavier soils with pH above 5.5 in calcium chloride. For trouble free chickpea growing, select a current variety with tolerance to Ascochyta, have a disease management plan, use an inoculant at sowing, and sow into a clean paddock, as post emergent broadleaf herbicide application can be ineffective.

Calculating Canola Seeding Rate And Recording Sheet, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Canola seeding rate needs to be high enough to get a good establishment to set up the crop for its potential yield and provide insurance against slugs, mites, disease, and other seeding issues. However, there is no point spending more on seed than needed.

This is the companion page for the online Canola seeding rate calculator, which enables you to calculate the seed rate you require for your target plant density.

Control Small Weeds In Crops, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

In an integrated weed management program, control of weeds should occur in the fallow, pre-sowing, early post-emergent, and in-pasture phases. Weed control can be achieved through killing weeds (particularly seedlings) with cultivation, herbicides, targeted weed control in wide-row cropping, targeted control of small patches of weeds, and biological control tactics.

Field Pea – Essentials For Growing A Successful Crop, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

This factsheet provides essential management practices for growing a successful field pea crop.

Managing Frost Risk, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Frost occurs on clear nights in early spring when the air temperature drops to 2°C or less. Crop damage from frost may occur at any stage of development but is most damaging at or around flowering.

Frost is difficult to manage, and damage will be unavoidable in some seasons. Risk management options proven to reduce frost risk include paddock zoning, crop and variety selection, time of sowing, stubble management and managing inputs. The greatest gains result from in paddock choice/zoning, crop and variety choice, and manipulating the canopy.

Understanding Session Disparities And Advancing Experiential Learning In Turfgrass Management, Luqi Li

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

PLAS 229: Introductory Turfgrass Management Laboratory is a sophomore-level course focusing on the practical skills required in turfgrass management. This portfolio documents the teaching methods, course materials, and an analysis of student learning outcomes with a focus on understanding disparities in student performance across sessions and enhancing practical skills through applied activities. Statistical analysis revealed that Session A outperformed Session B on two key field quizzes. This disparity is attributed to logistical differences: students in Session A attended the hands-on, field-based learning opportunities, while Session B faced scheduling conflicts that limited engagement with critical content. These findings underscore the importance …

Summer- And Fall-Planted Cover Crops Across Nebraska: Assessing Performance Using Aerial Imagery And Evaluating Short-Term Soil Impacts, Grace Emperatriz Pacheco Jiron

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Cover crops are widely recognized for improving soil health and promoting sustainability in agricultural systems. Despite the increasing use of monitoring tools like aerial imagery, their application in evaluating summer-planted cover crops in the Great Plains remains limited, hindering effective management strategies. Fall-planted cover crops provide long-term environmental benefits, including enhanced soil quality and erosion control; however, understanding their short-term effects on soil properties is crucial for encouraging adoption. This study assessed summer- and fall-planted cover crops across Nebraska, integrating aerial imagery and soil health analyses.

Over two years, fifteen summer-planted monocultures and five mixtures were evaluated for establishment, biomass …

Three-Horned Bedstraw, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

Three-horned bedstraw (Galium tricornutum), otherwise known as bedstraw, rough bedstraw, rough fruit corn bedstraw, and corn cleavers, is an annual weed that poses a significant threat to Western Australia’s grains industry. It is a declared pest in Western Australia (WA). A weedy member of the Rubiaceae (madder family), it is closely related to cleavers (Galium aparine)

Bedstraw is a high priority eradication target for Western Australia.

Rabbit Control: Fumigation, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Biosecurity factsheets

Fumigation for rabbit control involves the introduction of poisonous gas into a warren. It is one of the best control methods to use where low numbers of rabbits live in a few widely scattered warrens. The threat to non-target animals is minimal. This factsheet should be read in conjunction with registered product labels and directions for use. Check the Department of Health, Western Australia website (health.wa.gov.au) for public health requirements for the use of phosphine fumigation.

Fumigation may be used in areas where access is limited, such as fence lines, around trees, and on riverbanks, but it may be difficult …

Clomazone And Oxyfluorfen Combinations In A Flooded Rice System, Jason K. Norsworthy, Casey H. Arnold, Thomas R. Butts, Trenton L. Roberts, Chad W. Shelton

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Rice producers battle herbicide-resistant weeds worldwide while producing rice for ≥50% of the world’s population. Oxyfluorfen can provide rice producers with an alternative site of action for barnyardgrass control, as there are no documented cases of grass weeds being resistant to the herbicide in the mid-southern United States. Oxyfluorfen is anticipated to be labeled in the Roxy Rice Production System and may be sold as a clomazone/oxyfluorfen premixture; hence, experiments were conducted in 2021 and 2022 to evaluate preemergence-applied clomazone/oxyfluorfen ratios compared to clomazone alone on silt loam and clay soils. All ratios of the herbicides caused less than 7% …

Assess Weed Population Density, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

The most accurate way to estimate the weed population of a paddock is to count the number of plants in an area of known size at numerous locations.

Use a quadrant, which may be square or circular, to carry out weed plant counts. The number and location of counts needed to estimate the weed population will vary depending on the distribution pattern.

Canola – Essentials For Growing A Successful Crop, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Ensuring the basics of canola agronomy are followed can minimise the financial risk of growing canola, which can be higher than other crops due to high input costs, particularly seed and fertiliser.

Barley Leaf Diseases And Their Management, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Barley leaf diseases such as scald, net blotches (net form and spot form), powdery mildew, ramularia leaf spot, leaf rust, and barley yellow dwarf virus, and cereal yellow dwarf virus can reduce yield and grain quality. Correct identification is important in disease management, as diseases differ in their best management strategies.

Insect Pests And Their Management In Oats, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Field pests

Damage from invertebrate pests is generally not a major factor for oat crops, however there is a zero tolerance to live pests in export hay.

Significant damage can occur if pest populations build up. Planning rotations to minimise pest carryover, timely sowing, adequate crop nutrition, and good control of weed and root diseases will assist in reducing the likelihood of crop damage by insect pests. Check crops regularly throughout their growth for field insects.

• Control redlegged earth mite and lucerne flea during the seedling stage if necessary.

• Aphids should be checked for and controlled from flag …

Factors Affecting Herbicide Performance, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Herbicide performance can vary greatly depending on factors including compatibility of herbicides, water quality, sprayer decontamination, and controlling stressed weeds. This page outlines these issues and demonstrates how to assess herbicide performance to achieve the best from your herbicides.

Resistance To Acetyl Coenzyme A Carboxylase (Accase) Inhibitor In Lolium Multiflorum: Effect Of Multiple Target-Site Mutations, Gulab Rangani, Ana Claudia Langaro, Shilpi Agrawal, Reiofeli Algodon Salas-Perez, Juan Camilo Velasquez, Christopher E. Nelson, Nilda Roma-Burgos

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum Lam.) is a persistent weed species that poses significant management challenges in key agricultural crops such as wheat, corn, cotton, and soybean. This study investigated the prevalence of resistance to ACCase inhibitor herbicides, specifically diclofop and pinoxaden, among field-collected Italian ryegrass populations. The survey revealed widespread resistance to diclofop and emerging cross-resistance to pinoxaden. To elucidate the physiological mechanism of ACCase herbicide resistance, we investigated mutations in the carboxyl-transferase (CT) domain of the ACCase enzyme, a critical region for herbicide sensitivity. Using dCAPS assays and CT domain sequencing, several known resistance-conferring mutations were detected in …

Oxyfluorfen Use In Combination With Clomazone Or Quinclorac, Jason K. Norsworthy, Casey H. Arnold, Thomas R. Butts, Chad W. Shelton

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oxyfluorfen is a herbicide that inhibits protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase and has shown significant potential in its ability to control barnyardgrass. Oxyfluorfen is categorized as a Group 14 herbicide by the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC)/Weed Science Society of America (WSSA). Despite its current lack of labeling for use on rice in the mid-southern United States due to its potential to cause crop injury, the introduction of a trait in rice that confers resistance to oxyfluorfen could provide producers with an effective alternative site of action for weed control. Field experiments were conducted during the 2021 and 2022 growing seasons near …

Minimizing Risks Of Off-Target Movement Of Florpyrauxifen-Benzyl By Coating Onto Urea, Bodie L. Cotter, Jason K. Norsworthy, Thomas R. Butts, Trenton L. Roberts, Andy Mauromostakos

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Commercialization of florpyrauxifen-benzyl as Loyant^® in 2018 as a synthetic auxin herbicide in rice was followed by soybean injury due to off-target movement of spray applications in the mid-southern United States. Concerns surrounding off-target movement led to the exploration of an alternative application method to help alleviate the issue. Field experiments were conducted in 2020 and 2021 to explore the likelihood of a reduction in soybean injury following applications of florpyrauxifen-benzyl coated on urea in narrow- and wide-row soybean systems and to determine the likelihood of volatilization from this novel application method. Florpyrauxifen-benzyl spray-applied at 0.18 g ai ha …

Climate Smart Agriculture, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

There are several programs encouraging producers to reduce their carbon intensity, including United States Department of Agriculture climate-smart agriculture programs, the 2024 Nebraska Climate Action Plan, and the 2024 Nitrogen Reduction Incentive Act. The hope is that producers with lower carbon intensity (CI) scores will receive a premium for their products. Producers would be well advised to learn more about these programs, as reducing carbon intensity in agriculture seems to be an emerging agricultural policy trend that will be with us for some time to come.

Dissecting The Genetic Architecture Of Sunflower Disc Diameter Using Genome-Wide Association Study, Yavuz Delen, Ravi V. Mural, Semra Palali-Delen, Gen Xu, James C. Schnable, Ismail M. Dweikat, Jinliang Yang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) plays an essential role in meeting the demand for edible oil worldwide. The yield of sunflower seeds encompasses several component traits, including the disc diameter. Over three consecutive years, 2019, 2020, and 2022, we assessed phenotypic variation in disc diameter across a diverse set of sunflower accessions (N = 342) in replicated field trials. Upon aggregating the phenotypic data from multiple years, we estimated the broad sense heritability (H²) of the disc diameter trait to be 0.88. A subset of N = 274 accessions was genotyped by using the tunable genotyping-by-sequencing (tGBS) method, …

Postharvest Blown-Arc Plasma Treatment Did Not Reduce Fusarium Graminearum Or Its Mycotoxins In Field-Infested Wheat Grain, Maninder Kaur, M Kowalczyk, Daniel Huberli, Kirsty L. Bayliss

Biosecurity Research Articles

The increasing prevalence of Fusarium graminearum, a major causative pathogen of Fusarium head blight in cereal crops, leads to contamination of grain with mycotoxins, which necessitates the development of effective management strategies. This study investigated whether postharvest Blown-Arc plasma treatment could reduce F. graminearum and associated mycotoxins in field-infested grain. Postharvest Blown-Arc plasma treatment for 60 or 180 s was trialled to reduce Fusarium graminearum and deoxynivalenol (DON) mycotoxins in field-infested wheat grain. Changes in fungal components of the grain microbiome following the treatment were assessed using metabarcoding analysis of the nuclear ribosomal internal transcribed spacer gene region, …

Bean Yellow Mosaic Virus And Its Management In Lupins, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Bean yellow mosaic virus (BYMV) is an aphid-transmitted virus that commonly causes necrotic symptoms that kills lupin plants when infected early before pod set. When plants are infected after pod set, black pods develop (known as black pod syndrome).

BYMV is found predominantly in high rainfall areas of the Western Australian (WA) grainbelt. This page outlines the symptoms, diagnosis, factors favouring disease risk and spread, yield and quality impacts, and management for BYMV in lupin crops in WA

Cucumber Mosaic Virus And Its Management In Narrow Leafed Lupins, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Grains and other field crops factsheets

Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) is a seed- and aphid-borne virus that infects narrow-leafed lupins. Western Australian (WA) grainbelt regions most at risk are the high rainfall zones of the northern and central agricultural region and the south coastal region.

The principal infection source for lupin crops is sowing infected lupin seed.