Hello, CALS colleagues,
Last Friday was the leadership meeting of the partnership that supports the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative under the direction of professors Mike Castellano and Sotirios Archontoulis in the agronomy department. This is an extraordinary effort involving support from a number of key ag industry groups, CALS, ISU Extension, and the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. After the first year of activity showed such promise (2022), IDALS moved to provide $1 million a year to enable the effort to really move forward. This past growing season, there were more than 400 on-farm trials across the state to assess the relationship between variable rates of N fertilization superimposed on a wide variety of farmer-made management decisions for the production of corn in corn-following-corn and corn-following-soybean rotations. The effort will lead to advances in the understanding and management of nitrogen in crop production, promoting productivity, profitability and environmental performance. Check out the Iowa Nitrogen Initiative website and this ISU News Service story about the initiative for more information and to see some aerial photos of the variable rate plots.
On Tuesday evening this week, we have the finale of the Food Insecurity Challenge that was launched two weeks ago with a terrific presentation by the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition's Sandy Andrews. The event is being carried out under the leadership of CALS’ Carmen Bain and Judy Eyles of the Ivy College of Business and the Pappajohn Center for Entrepreneurship. More than 100 students from across the university have been participating and working hard to develop innovative ideas to combat hunger. Consider coming out to hear their final pitches and celebrate all the teams and the winners on Tuesday, Nov. 19, from 5-8 p.m. in the Memorial Union Great Hall.
This week, we close in toward the week of Thanksgiving/fall break and the run-up to the holiday season. Take time to thank the people around you at work for their role in supporting you and supporting the whole of your unit or department, the college and the university. It’s a team effort, with each of us playing an integral part.
My very best and have a great week. - Dan
Scenes from CALS
