Agronomic Crops

Agronomic crops are grown in all fifty states and many countries around the globe. What is an agronomic crop? Agronomic crops typically involve a crop that is grown for grain, feed, or for processing into oil, starch, protein and flour. Major agronomic crops in the US include corn (grown for feed, ethanol or processing), soybeans, wheat, hay (alfalfa and legume and grass mixtures), rice, peanuts and cotton. Hay is also considered a forage. Growing agronomic crops is an integrated system. It is important to understand how the soil works and interacts with the growing crop, what nutrients the growing crop needs and when and how these nutrients can be applied, how a crop grows and how the environment interacts with the crop at all growth stages. In addition, it is important to know how pests (weeds, insects and diseases) affect crops at various growth and how to control crop pests. Growing crops involves soil, plant, crop and weed sciences, plant genetics, entomology and plant pathology. Crop production, as a result of scientific and applied research, continually changes. Just in the last decade many producers and crops retailers have started using global positioning to gain more understanding of how soil fertility varies through out a field as well as to apply fertilizers based on how this fertility varies. Global positioning is also used to measure the size of a field, measure yield at a given place in the field, and guide implements across the field to prevent over lap and improve land use efficiency. Crop genetics have also changed tremendously. Producers are able to grow crops that are resistant to certain environmentally safe herbicides. They are also able to grow crops that are resistant to injurious insects allowing producers to eliminate or reduce overall insecticide use. Examples of future crop genetics improvements include growing crops for the healthier oil that can be extracted, for certain starch characteristics, and growing grass crops that can yield more with less nitrogen and that will produce well even during seasons when rainfall is limited. Scientific research provides us with valuable information on how to efficiently and effectively grow agronomic crops.