By STEVE BINDER
Illinois Correspondent

DECATUR, Ill. — Researchers from the southern end of Illinois will be spending a lot more time in the central part of the state studying growing conditions in rare, large-plot settings totaling 2,500 acres.

The new addition for researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale more than doubles the size of land the campus now uses for its entire agriculture program – and it comes courtesy of SIUC graduate and farmer Howard G. Buffett.

Buffett will provide some hands-on assistance during the initial six-year program, he said, staying in the central Illinois area during the growing season and getting behind the wheel of large implements. But, as he told officials at SIUC, when it comes to research, he’ll leave the studying and conclusions to the “experts.”

“He told us, ‘You’re the scientists, you do the research,’” said Bryan Young, a weed science and agronomy professor who will lead SIUC’s research team. “Also, he’s encouraged us to get as many disciplines involved as possible. Rarely do you have so many different aspects covered in work like this.”
The multiyear research program could last up to 20 years, said SIUC ag school Interim Dean Todd Winters. “We’ve never been able to look at some of these things long-term, and on such large plots,” he said. “This is an exciting opportunity.”

The research team will study everything from tilling methods, watershed impact, disease-resistant crops and the economics connected with each. A sample experiment will look at different types of nitrogen fertilizers, how they are applied and how they work with various tilling practices, and analyzing how microbes in the soil are affected, how the watershed is affected and then developing an economic analysis.

It’s all in the name of identifying the best practices for use by others with similar soil types, Young said. “The long-term aspect of this, along with using large-scale plots, should yield some new and useful data,” he added.
“Research like this hasn’t been done before because it’s a lot of work and it costs a lot of money. We often do research based on what happens in a 10-by-40-foot plot. Howard is providing us plots that are 80 acres. Conducting this research on big acreage means you can talk to a farmer who has 2,000 acres and convince them that what you are doing is a good thing that will work for him, too.”