CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

Dr. Grandy is a Professor of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of New Hampshire. He is an internationally recognized expert in soil ecology and biogeochemical cycling in soils, studying the regulation of nutrient cycling in forest and agricultural ecosystems. He will summarize recent research that has caused some to rethink how applied nitrogen fertilizer cycles into and out of organic matter during the growing season, highlighting how crop rotation and cover cropping alter the timing and rates of nitrogen released for plant uptake. By doing so, we will challenge the farmers to consider how this new view of soil nitrogen cycling might lead to refined practices that further enhance nitrogen use efficiency. 

Dr. Thompson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences at Michigan State University. Building upon her initial training as a corn geneticist, she has more recently applied the tools of remote sensing, computational modeling, and high-throughput phenotyping to study how crops grow and respond to stress under various field conditions. She will be presenting recent work that updates our understanding of corn’s yield response to nitrogen and the classification of Type I, II, and III hybrids. Using new data on inbred and hybrid corn, she will describe how consistently yield responses are observed in the field and how genetic variations have been associated with those differing responses to nitrogen fertilizer.

Dr. Wilhelm is an Assistant Professor of Agronomy at Purdue University where he teaches and conducts research on the components and processes that dynamically alter soil health. He has extensively studied soil microorganisms and how they contribute to soil quality and plant performance. He will be sharing recent research characterizing how different approaches to soil sampling and testing affect one’s perception of soil fertility in different environments. In doing so, he will highlight how sampling time, farm management, and soil test lab procedures can affect the values seen on a soil test report.