Crop and Soil Sciences

News and Information

Green Bay fields chief puts Penn State turf education to good use January 10, 2012 With the defending National Football League champion Green Bay Packers having another great season and securing home-field advantage in the NFL's upcoming playoffs, millions of people will by looking at Allen Johnson's work when they watch the games. No doubt the fields manager of famous Lambeau Field will have the playing surface in top shape when the Packers host their first playoff game, and he will employ expertise he gained from Penn State in the process. He is a graduate of the University's Advanced Turfgrass Management Certificate Program.

Student Stories: Steelers fan/turfgrass student interns with Eagles November 29, 2011 Pittsburgh Steelers fan George Peters scored the internship of a lifetime -- in enemy territory. The turfgrass science major in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences interned at Lincoln Financial Field with the Philadelphia Eagles grounds crew. Peters, from Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa., has been interested in sports-turf management since high school and relished the opportunity to get hands-on experience.

Pesticide-resistant weeds closing in on Pennsylvania November 22, 2011 The challenge of weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate -- the active ingredient in Round-Up herbicide -- has become an evolving national threat, with new challenges emerging and spreading annually. At least three glyphosate-resistant species on the horizon for Pennsylvania require new strategies to combat them, according to a specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences. Penn State Extension weed scientist Dwight Lingenfelter said several resistant species currently are approaching Pennsylvania. These weeds were controlled routinely over the years with glyphosate-based herbicide programs, but now the effectiveness of those programs is dwindling.

Penn State receives $2.3 million organic-agriculture research grant October 31, 2011 Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences have been awarded a $2.3 million grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate how certain cover crops and rotations can improve production of organic commodities. The study's goal is to determine whether diverse cover crop mixtures -- as opposed to a single-species cover cropping -- can enhance ecosystem functions in a corn-soybean-wheat cash crop rotation that produces organic feed and forage, according to project leader Jason Kaye, associate professor of soil biogeochemistry.

Plant ecologist honored by Ecological Society of America October 24, 2011 A post-doctoral scholar and instructor in Penn State's Department of Crop and Soil Sciences has been recognized by the Ecological Society of America as a 2011 ESA Education Scholar. Emily Rauschert, a plant ecologist who works in the Department of Crop and Soil Science's Weed Ecology Lab, also was appointed by the society to a two-year term as a contributing editor of the Ecological Society of America EcoEd Digital Library.

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