7am News, Sports and Obits
Latest WGIL news
Click to play or
Right click and "Save Target As" to download
Click for Galesburg, Illinois Forecast
Home - Cancellations - Community Events - Contact Us - Mornings - News - Obituaries - Pictures - Programs - Special Events Audio - Sports - Weather
Agronomist Talks About Mild Winter & Soil Conditions
A local agronomist says while some may be worried about soil conditions ahead of planting time, he's not -- at least not yet.

There have been reports that the mild weather might be harmful to soil conditions -- and specifically, the amount of nitrogen in the soil -- making it potentially hard for corn planting.

Lance Tarchione works for Monsanto and tells the WGIL Mid-Day that might be a question to ask if it were milder than this.

"The nitrogen question is probably one that comes from when the soil is warm enough, we can have denitrification occurring," Tarchione said. "We can lose nitrogen from the soil. Microbial activity speeds up as soils warm up. Soil conditions -- even though we've had a warm winter -- they haven't have been warm enough for any of...those problematic things to be occurring."

Tarchione says while the winter certainly has been mild, and temperatures reached 70 twice this week, he'd be more concerned about soil conditions if there was a longer string of 60 or 70 degree temperatures.

Tarchione says most farmers would like a dry spring, and moisture the rest of the way in the growing season. Precipitation, he says, has so far been about normal.
03 08 12 by Newsroom
News management powered by Xpression News

Click here for the WGIL News Archive

Click here for national news

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.