Readings and lectures
A branch of agriculture dealing with field-crop production and soil management?
What is agronomy?
The transformation of a non‑arid landscape to an arid landscape, usually through a combination of climate changes and human‑induced soil degradation.
What is desertification?
Used to move excess water from a field to a ditch.
What is tile drainage?
Three general components that determine profitability of a crop harvested from a field?
What are 1) yield, 2) crop market value, and 3) production costs?
Example of a pulse crop
What are lentils, chickpea, dry beans, and peas?
GHG associated with dairy production. Can be captured and used generate electricity.
What is methane?
Two ways to build soil organic matter
What are 1) reduce losses and 2) increase additions?
Most efficient type of irrigation.
What is drip (also known as micro-irrigation)?
The difference between crop yields observed at any given location and the crop’s potential yield at the same location given current agricultural practices and technologies.
What is a yield gap?
Marketing spin used to deceptively make products appear to be more sustainable.
What is greenwashing?
Amount of food that is never consumed.
What is 1/3?
Tool used to completely invert soil. Effective at killing weeds, incorporating amendments, and preparing seedbeds prior to planting crops. Also can degrade soil health and requires relatively large amounts of fuel and labor.
What is a moldboard plow?
Soil management system used in large scale field crop production that can effective keep crop roots out of standing water. Used by Norm Vaill in NY.
What is ridge tillage?
System where two or more crops are grown
simultaneously on the same field
Origin (name and year) of the definition of sustainable agriculture.
What is the Brundtland Report ‘Our Common Future’ 1987, which was commissioned by United Nations?
Difficult but important problems set by various institutions or professions to encourage solutions or advocate for the application of government or philanthropic funds.
What are Grand Challenges?
Reason(s) why healthy soil has sufficient but not excess supply of nutrients?
What are 1) avoid excess weed growth, 2) reduce risk of environmental pollution, 3) prevent unhealthy crop growth (excess vegetative growth, susceptiability to insect pests and disease, etc.)?
Aquifer in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska that has been severely depleted over the past century.
What is the Ogallala aquifer?
Name for leaving a cropland either uncropped, weed-free or with volunteer vegetation for at least one growing season in order to control weeds, accumulate
and store water, regenerate available plant nutrients, and restore soil productivity.
What is fallow (fallowing)?
The current geological age, viewed as the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.
What is the Anthropocene?
Using less intensive farming methods that conserve biodiversity within agricultural fields
What is Land sharing?
Person who developed “Law of the Minimum” in 1828
Who is Carl Sprengel and Justus von Liebig?
Crop used to diversify production and help conserve moisture. Profitable alternative to alternative to bare fallow periods in western Nebraska.
What are field peas?
The practice of tilling, planting, and performing all cultural operations in a parallel direction to the field slope
What is contour farming?
Approach to conserving biodiversity that uses intensive agriculture to produce more food on less land so that some could be set aside to conserve biodiversity
What is land sparing?