Reproductive inefficiency costs cattle and sheep producers billions of dollars each year. For cattle and sheep producers, reproductive success drives profitability. Every missed pregnancy means fewer calves or lambs to sell, reduced herd productivity, and lower returns. Across the livestock industry, those losses add up to billions of dollars each year. For more than 50 years, researchers at land-grant universities …
Celebrating National Pollinator Week
Did you know? More than 80% of flowering plants and about 75% of food crops depend on pollinators, making their health essential to agriculture and our food supply. Growing Pollinator Habitat Creating habitat is one of the most immediate and effective ways to support pollinators. Whether in backyards or across entire landscapes, habitat creation is foundational to pollinator recovery. In …
From the Lab to the Field: Land-grant Universities Confront the New World Screwworm Threat
As federal and state agencies strengthen surveillance for the New World screwworm, land‑grant universities in the Southwest are emerging as critical partners in national preparedness. From Texas to California, research stations, veterinary labs, and Cooperative Extension experts are mobilizing to protect livestock, wildlife, and rural economies. In moments of emerging agricultural threats, science must quickly move from the lab to …
Building Resilient Food Systems: Precision Agriculture and Innovation
Across the country, land-grant university researchers are driving precision agriculture and innovation, using tools like AI, drones, and advanced breeding techniques to help farmers make smarter decisions, boost productivity, and build more resilient food systems. Featured photo courtesy of University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. New Pest-ID tool helps farmers make smart decisions to tailor managementIowa Agriculture and Home …
Researchers Studying Avian Disease Resistance and Immunity Win National Award for Outstanding Collaboration and Impact
ST LOUIS, Mo., Sept. 16. — At the Joint agInnovation and Extension Awards Ceremony, Dr. Chris Ashwell and Dr. Jason Hubbart received the 2025 Excellence in Multistate Research Award on behalf of a multistate team working to understand the genetic bases of immunity and resistance to avian diseases. Avian diseases such as avian influenza, Marek’s disease, and Newcastle disease cause …
Managing nutrients and water quality
Nutrients are essential for crops, but must be managed properly. Nutrients provided by fertilizer, manure, compost, cover crops, and other means are essential for the profitable, sustainable production of crops for food, fiber, and bioenergy. Nutrient management is key to maintaining or increasing plant productivity, ensuring soil health, protecting ground and surface water resources from potential harm, and using farmers’ …
Managing water resources
Managing our water resources is essential. Clean water is essential for drinking, agriculture, energy, recreation, aquatic habitats, and other uses, but America’s water resources face complex issues such as climate change, pollution, and increasing demand. Many farmers, communities, and leaders are concerned about water scarcity and quality. Research guides effective solutions. Researchers at land-grant universities and partners across the U.S. are working …
Controlling pests and protecting pollinators
Most agricultural systems in the Northeast rely on pesticides to ensure high yields and profits, but pesticides can pose risks to essential pollinators and environmental health. To reduce reliance on pesticides, scientists are exploring ways to harness natural plant defenses, such as emitting chemicals that slow insect feeding, inhibit infections, call beneficial insects to their aid, or warn other plants. …
Mitigating the impacts of agrochemicals
Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, and other agrochemicals are used on farms to protect crop yield and quality and in urban and residential settings to control pests and weeds. Despite important uses, agrochemicals can leach into soil and groundwater or flow into surface waters, where the chemicals can adversely affect human and environmental health. Agrochemicals can also accumulate in edible organisms, creating …
Agriculture and natural resource management in western United States
Climate information – historical, real-time and predictive – is vital for the sustainable management of agriculture and natural resources. Climate change poses major challenges to agriculture and natural resources in the western United States. Climate data are key to practices, tools, legislation, programs and policies that protect and enhance water, soil and air. With so many different entities collecting climate …