- Author: Ben Faber
A recent website just posted hopes to make research papers available to the general public. Many times these papers are locked away in archives or libraries and are hard to access. This website wants to change that. It is sponsored by various group0s, including USDA, University of Missouri, industry, Resource Conservative Districts and other entitites. It's a small data base at this point, but hopes to build over time. check it out:
http://soilhealthinstitute.org/about-us/
There's a lot of distracting stuff at the site, but the guts are at
http://www.soilhealthinstituteresearch.org/Home/Search
Other good ag websites are the USDA's National Ag Library:
USDA's Agricola
https://agricola-nal-usda-gov.ezproxy.lib.vt.edu/
USDA's ATTRA which is loaded with basic and detailed farming information:
USDA's Farming Information Center
https://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic
It's a new year, READ ON!!!!
- Author: Ben Faber
It just came to my attention that there is a map of all the oil pipelines in the US. If you go to the bottom/left side and put in the state and county, it will be revealed. This is mainly for those growers who need to be aware of pipelines and tillage or any other work in the aerea of a pipeline.
https://www.npms.phmsa.dot.gov/PublicViewer/
pipeline
- Author: Ben Faber
Because of potential contamination of mulches from pesticides, mulch use is being called into question and testing may be required for mulches applied to organic orchards. This is a recent ruling. As always, anything applied to a certified organic operation should be cleared with the certifier first.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/beyond-pesticides-federal-court-finds-usda-process-for-allowing-pesticide-contaminated-compost-improper-and-stops-use-300288112.html
- Author: Ben Faber
Here's a wide range of information on drought resources from ATTRA, the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service - https://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/summaries/summary.php?pub=458
A project of the National Center for Appropriate Technology