The UNL Agronomy and Horticulture Fall 2021 Seminar Series kicks off with a presentation highlighting the agricultural benefits of biochar on Friday, Sept. 10. Seminars begin at 3:30 p.m. and will be in 150 Keim Hall, Nebraska East Campus or via Zoom.

For those wishing to attend in person, seating in Keim Hall is limited to 25 attendees and will be first come, first serve. The Keim 150 door will be open at 3:15 p.m. the day of the seminar.

Recordings of past seminars are also available in the Agronomy and Horticulture archives.

Sept. 17

Precision Conservation: Optimizing Agricultural Production and Natural Resource Conservation — Andrew Little, assistant professor, Landscape and Habitat Management, School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Humans are facing global challenges to meet food production, provide environmental protection, adapt to climate change, and address economic risk for farmers in the 21st century. Little will discuss new precision technologies and strategic conservation planning frameworks to optimize agricultural production, leading to increased profits while simultaneously reducing negative environmental impacts.

Presentation available via Zoom only. 

Sept. 24

Challenges of Developing a Resilient Cropping System in a Semi-arid Environment — Cody Creech, associate professor and Dryland Cropping Systems specialist, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 

Agricultural crop production in water limited environments has extreme variability from year to year. The lack of precipitation requires crop producers to use increasingly complex and novel strategies to mitigate losses and become more resilient in the face of an ever-changing climate.

Oct. 1

Increasing Pasture Productivity and Quality to Support Grazing Livestock — John Guretzky, Grassland Systems ecologist, Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 

This seminar will describe the structure and function of cool-season grass pastures in the Midwest including those dominated by perennials and seeded with annuals. Strategies and knowledge gaps to enhancing pasture productivity and quality through cultivar introductions, interseeding, and planting of simple to complex mixtures will be emphasized.

Oct. 8

Greenhouse Gas Fluxes Under Different Agricultural Practices — Is Climate-smart Agriculture Possible? — Eri Saikawa, associate professor, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Although agriculture contributes substantially to climate change, there is little discussion on how to mitigate the three major greenhouse gases and ammonia simultaneously from agricultural soils. This seminar presents findings from a project that aims to tackle this question in a corn field, while keeping the yield intact.

Oct. 15

New Insight in the Mode of Action of Glufosinate — Franck Dayan, professor, Agricultural Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins

The effect of glufosinate on glutamine synthetase and ammonia accumulation have been known for many years. However, our understanding of the contact action of this herbicide could not be accounted for by these effects. Our detailed investigation elucidated the biochemical mechanism leading to the rapid ROS-driven burn-down effect of glufosinate. During this research, we stumbled upon a physiological connection between glufosinate and PPO inhibitors that led to new synergistic herbicide mixtures.

Oct. 22

Using Cover Crops for Weed Suppression across Kansas — Anita Dille, professor and assistant head for teaching, Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan

Using cover crops as a component of weed management continues to be adopted despite diverse growing environments and cropping systems from east to west across Kansas. Research outcomes focused on managing cover crops for weed suppression will be presented. 

Oct. 29

Soil Mining in Cropping Systems in Argentina  — Juan Pablo Monzon, research assistant professor, Agronomy and Horticulture, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

The growing global demand for food, a competitive agricultural sector, and an intermediate yield gap level put Argentina in an excellent position to intensify crop production for the next 10 years. Higher yields have a higher nutrient requirement, and it is unclear whether current nutrient use in Argentina is enough to close the yield gap in a sustainable way.

Nov. 5

How to Model GxE and Use It For Plant Breeding: Examples From Our Researches — Hiroyoshi Iwata, associate professor, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo

Modeling genotype-environment interactions (GxE) and the use of GxE for genetic improvement have long been an important topic in breeding. We have been working on modeling GxE in rice and soybean. We are developing models to utilize high-throughput phenotyping data and historical breeding data. In this talk, I will introduce our modeling approaches and present future perspectives on the potential use of GxE for genetic improvement. 

Note: This presentation video will not be posted to the website.

Nov. 12

Searching for Short, Bald and Golden: The Modern Pursuit of Genes Underlying Soybean Traits — Bob Stupar, Department of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, University of Minnesota

The emergence of soybean genome sequence resources and new biotechnology and bioinformatic methodologies is accelerating the cloning and characterization of DNA polymorphisms that cause phenotypic variation. This presentation will focus on the ongoing pursuit of genes underlying important soybean phenotypes, including plant architecture and abiotic stress traits.

Nov. 19

The Wheat We Grow Versus the Wheat We Could Grow: Quantifying and Assessing Causes of Wheat Yield Gaps In the U.S. — Romulo Lollato, associate professor of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan

This presentation will summarize years of research quantifying and assessing causes of yield gaps in wheat using Kansas, the largest US winter wheat producer, as a case-study. Data presented will range from on-farm assessments of management and weather determinants of wheat yield, to detailed field experiments establishing the physiological determinants of yield and potential avenues to sustainably improve wheat production though optimization of genotype by management by environment interactions.

Dec. 3

Sotirios Archontoulis, faculty and extension, Iowa State University, Ames

Dec. 10

Jay Parsons, professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln