Return to Report Index
List of Research Projects

Introduction

Welcome to the first issue of the ILLINOIS AGRONOMY REPORT. This is the first in what we hope will become an ongoing series of research reports, weather summaries, and project listings for each of the Research and Education Centers (REC's). Much of this information has up to now been published in annual reports by each Center individually. By changing to a unified format, we are attempting to improve efficiency and to reduce costs. But our main objective is to produce a report that is more useful to the readers.

The main way in which we hope this format improves the usefulness is by including more complete research report than we have normally included in the annual reports from each Center. We plan to include research reports only on projects that have been completed, or at least are in their final stages. This will allow authors to draw conclusions based on the whole study, as most of us need to do in any case, rather than drawing "interim" conclusions. A drawback to this approach is timeliness. We plan, after this inaugural issue, to publish the Illinois Agronomy Report by the end of the calendar year, thus making it available to crop producers and advisers for the winter. It will be difficult to get final reports on research completed in the current season in a publishable format by December, though in some cases we will try to do that. Even with the drawback of timeliness, however, we think this is an approach worth pursuing.

There are six Crop Sciences REC's in Illinois (see inside the front cover for the locations), each staffed with an agronomist and a farm foreman, with some additional staff at some of the Centers. These persons are responsible for "making good research happen" at the REC's, and it is their efforts that make the system work. Current superintendents(S) and foremen(F) are: Brownstown -- Adam Anderson (S) and Lindell Deal (F); Dixon Springs -- Steve Ebelhar (S) and Ron Hines (Senior Research Specialist, IPM); DeKalb -- Lyle Paul (S) and Dave Lindgren (F); Monmouth -- Eric Adee (S) and Marty Johnson (acting F); Orr Center -- Glenn Raines (S) and Mike Vose (F); and Urbana -- Bob Dunker (S) and Mike Plotner (F).

This first issue of the unified Illinois Agronomy Report is being published somewhat late, and with a smaller number of research reports than we hope to have in the future. Nonetheless, we hope that you find it useful, and that it will whet you appetite for receiving future reports. If you have suggestions to make on format or content, please let me know.

Emerson D. Nafziger Professor of Crop Production and Coordinator, REC's

e-mail: ednaf@illinois.edu Phone: 217 333-4424

Return to Report Index
List of Research Projects