Here’s the release from Colorado Corn:
The Colorado Corn Administrative Committee allocates thousands of dollars annually to research endeavors, and has already made sure 2016 will be no different, as the organization recently committed $211,389 to research projects.
These efforts come in addition to the organization’s approximately $185,000 invested in ongoing or recently concluded research endeavors.
Over the years, Colorado Corn has provided dollars, as well as input and resources, to a long list of projects that have evaluated irrigation methods, alternative water-transfer methods, seed varieties, root structure, livestock, farm safety, environmental impacts, biofuels, rotational fallowing and a number of other aspects of farming, all to help producers become more efficient.
Along the way, Colorado Corn has teamed up with municipalities, businesses, universities, research facilities, the state of Colorado and many others – relationships the organization will continue building upon in the never-ending efforts to bring more tools and knowledge to Colorado’s producers.
“Each of these projects represents yet another step in Colorado Corn’s efforts to help farmers produce more food with less resources, and also discovering the most sustainable methods of doing so,” said Colorado Corn Executive Director Mark Sponsler. “Like other research endeavors we’ve supported over the years, these new projects and their results will play a critical role for the future of our farmers and our state’s $40-billion agriculture industry.”
Following all-day meetings and presentations in recent weeks, the Colorado Corn Administrative Committee’s Research Action Team agreed to fund the following endeavors:
• $141,282 ($47,094 per year, over three years) to Colorado State University’s Raj Khosla, Robin Reich and Louis Longchamps, to research and determine the most productive, efficient, profitable and sustainable water, nutrient and seed management strategies for irrigated corn. In particular, this project will examine the agronomic advantages of using variable rate precision-irrigation management, precision-nitrogen management strategies, and variable seeding rates.
• $31,580 to Kirk Broders at Colorado State University, to complete a comprehensive survey of bacterial, fungal and viral pathogens of corn grown in Colorado, including foliar, ear, stalk and root pathogens. This information will later be used to direct future pathological studies of corn at CSU.
• $21,240 to Jerry Johnson and Sally Sauer with Colorado State University, to continue testing yield performance of four drought tolerant corn hybrids compared to four traditional, non-drought tolerant hybrids at three different plant densities under dryland production conditions in northeast Colorado.
• $17,287 to Louis Comas with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service, to continue overseeing development of a tool for monitoring and managing water stress in corn.