In a video clip filmed in North Carolina’s Outer Banks, a 4WD truck grew mired. Its 60 PSI tires dug deeper and deeper, rendering the vehicle helpless as its operator tried to back away from the mess. The narrator reduced tire pressure to 15 PSI, enabling the truck to easily back out of its sand tra...

According to Dan Quinn, Purdue University agronomist, examining corn ears from your fields helps estimate what yield might be. Examining corn ears prior to harvest helps growers visualize how the corn plant was impacted by different factors throughout the growing season, and why their yields may be ...

Three years ago, Canadian wildfires were ramping up. The maximum impact was felt in the northern tier of the U.S. during the second week of June 2023. Firefighters scrambled to put out blazes in Quebec, where more than 160 forest fires were roaring. These fires were fueled by high temperatures and d...

Around mid-April, a reader from western New York asked me a question about prussic acid. Before I discuss our conversation, I’ll share some background information. For a long time prior to this phone call, I thought that term had a German origin. With some online sleuthing, I learned that the term o...

As I’m writing this column in late April’s pre-dawn, it appears that spring has not quite grabbed the climate reins from winter. Autmn-planted winter annuals are looking pretty good – crops like wheat, rye, triticale, barley and speltz. But perennial crops are taking their sweet time breaking dorman...

The U.S. plants significantly less acreage of this summer annual than it did a century ago. Buckwheat was once a much more widespread crop before the late Industrial Revolution introduced new technologies. The center-point of such technologies were fertilizers based on chemical ingredients which inc...

Ten days after spring 2026 started, a serious electric storm hit our part of Central New York. During the early pre-dawn, lightning bolts struck (fortunately not too close to us). This electric storm was caused by the southern branch of the northern jet stream surging northward. In such an event, a ...

In March 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (part of the World Health Organization) pronounced judgment against the herbicide ingredient glyphosate. IARC said that glyphosate “probably causes cancer in humans.” Most of the pillars in the ag chemical community opposed that declarat...

According to the American Meteorological Society’s Glossary, “Spring snow, also called corn snow or granular snow, is a coarse granular, wet snow, resembling finely chopped melted ice.” Wet snow falling on tall, sturdy trees can break branches; the problem is even worse on immature trees. With lanky...

There are five days left of winter as I’m writing this column. Winter has been colder than normal for most of the Northeast, a fact reflected in our electric bill and fuel oil consumption. Utica’s official snowfall has been about a third higher than normal, a claim which our village of Hartwick (35 ...

In 1972, then-President Richard Nixon expressed great worry that most of America’s supply of imported oil could become quite vulnerable to a strangle-hold focused on the Strait of Hormuz. Such a constriction could be enacted by our adversaries in the Middle East. The Strait of Hormuz is approximatel...

I have begun rewatching the TV series “Band of Brothers.” The series’ title comes from William Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” There’s an underlying agricultural theme to the English bard’s play. That theme supports the military overtones of a 15th century battle that occurred Oct. 25, 1415. That military ...

Corn was originally a tropical grass from high elevation areas of central Mexico (about 7,400 feet above sea level). Today, corn still prefers conditions typical of that area – warm daytime temperatures and cool nights. Areas that consistently produce high corn yields share some significant characte...

According to Steve Culman, Ph.D., soil scientist at Ohio State, cation exchange capacity (CEC) is a fundamental soil property used to predict plant nutrient availability and retention in the soil. It is the potential of available nutrient supply, not a direct measurement of available nutrients. Soil...

Punxsutawney Phil typically emerges to look for his shadow around 7:25 a.m. on Feb. 2 at Gobbler’s Knob in Pennsylvania. If he sees his shadow, legend dictates six more weeks of winter; if he doesn’t, an early spring is predicted. My first woodchuck hunting experiences took place at our home farm in...