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The Biggest Grower competition offers high school students summer learning, scholarship Monday, May 4, 2020

The Biggest Grower competition offers Nebraska high school students the opportunity to learn how to start their own garden and small growing operation. | Shutterstock

Nebraska Extension and the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture have launched a new high school student gardening competition to take place this summer. Participants could win a $50 Amazon gift card or scholarship.

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Home-built scanner keeps maize study spinning forward Monday, May 4, 2020

Brandi Sigmon operates a homemade cob scanner in a shed at her rural Gage County home. Sigmon and her husband, Benny Mote, built the scanner to help further a maize study during the university’s facility shutdown. Sigmon, an assistant professor or practice in plant pathology, is being assisted here by her son, Wyatt.

A pivot by Nebraska’s Brandi Sigmon is helping a multi-season maize study move forward despite COVID-19-related limitations.

Full story at Nebraska Today

Doctoral candidate honored with teaching excellence award Friday, April 24, 2020

Betty Walter-Shea, CASNR interim associate dean (left), presents Salvador Ramirez with the Holling Family Teaching Assistant Teaching Excellence award March 11 at the Nebraska East Union.

Salvador Ramirez, an agronomy doctoral candidate in soil and water sciences, was honored with a Holling Family Teaching Assistant Teaching Excellence Award March 11 at the Nebraska East Union. The award was one of 10 Holling Family Awards for Teaching Excellence given to Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources senior faculty, junior faculty and teaching assistants this year.

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Curriculum committee works to unify department and create opportunity for students Friday, April 17, 2020

Students work on their hydroponic projects this fall in Horticulture 307 Hydroponics For Growing Populations taught by Stacy Adams, agronomy and horticulture associate professor of practice.

A major undertaking began in 2018 as the Agronomy and Horticulture Curriculum Committee worked to consolidate three of the department’s degree programs — agronomy, horticulture and turfgrass & landscape management.

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Crops judging team finishes season, looks ahead to fall Thursday, April 16, 2020

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Crops Judging Team places third overall in the four-year division at the NCTA Collegiate Crops Contest March 7 in Curtis, Nebraska. The team includes Jared Stander (from left), Justin Zoucha, Korbin Kudera, Sarina Janssen, Jacob Vallery, Katie Jo Steffen and Adam Stiegel, team coach.

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln intercollegiate Crops Judging Team finished the season on top and now looks ahead to fall competitions. The spring contests helped prepare students for the NACTA Judging Conference that was scheduled for April 1 – 4 at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. However, the competition was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Nebraska On-Farm Research Network publishes results of 2019 farmer-conducted research online Thursday, April 9, 2020

Farmers across Nebraska participated in more than 100 research studies in 2019 as part of Nebraska Extension’s On-Farm Research Network. Results from the 2019 studies, as well as from studies from previous years, are now available online.

Read full story at IANR News

Jhala receives Epsilon Sigma Phi Early Career Outstanding Extension Leadership Award Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Amit Jhala, University of Nebraska–Lincoln associate professor of agronomy and horticulture and Nebraska Extension weed management specialist, was honored with the Early Career Outstanding Extension Leadership Award from Nebraska’s Alpha Upsilon Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi.

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Mint: New crop for the Panhandle? Tuesday, April 7, 2020

A mint variety trial plot at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center

Mint is not grown commercially in Nebraska on a large scale yet – there are less than 500 acres – but a project at the University of Nebraska Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff is aimed at providing answers about whether farmers could grow it here and which varieties might grow best.

Read full story at Panhandle Research and Extension Center

Amori and Ortez receive agronomy awards Friday, April 3, 2020

Anthony Amori and Osler Ortez, University of Nebraska–Lincoln doctoral students, were selected by the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture for awards.

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Martinez discovers Nebraska through online education Wednesday, April 1, 2020

On his farm near Santa Ana, El Salvador, Carlos Martinez stands in a sugarcane field plowed with a tractor and machinery he built. Carlos Eduardo Somoza Vargas

After he became the manager of his family farm, Carlos Martinez of El Salvador wanted to learn more about agronomy, so he researched online for educational opportunities and classes. He found the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Agronomy and Horticulture Online and Distance Education program and decided to start with a noncredit course in plant science taught by Don Lee, professor of agronomy and horticulture. Martinez, ended up earning a Master of Science in agronomy, specializing in crop physiology and production from Nebraska.

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