URBANA, Ill. - Research at the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) at the University of Illinois continues to improve the dry-grind process used to produce ethanol from corn.

“One of the major challenges in the dry-grind process is use of high corn solid loadings needed to achieve high ethanol concentrations and make distillation more economical,” says Vijay Singh, director of IBRL and a professor in the U of I Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

URBANA, Ill.  – Shelly Nickols-Richardson has been named Interim Associate Dean and Director of Extension within the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at the University of Illinois.

“Dr. Nickols-Richardson brings a tremendous amount of administrative leadership experience to this role, which will serve well as she works closely with all of us to evolve the Extension enterprise to the next level of excellence,” says Kim Kidwell, dean of the College of ACES.

URBANA, Ill. - University of Illinois Extension has received a five-year, $1.5 million grant from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to help farmers and landowners reduce nutrient loss into Illinois waterways.

Extension will use the award to hire two watershed coordinators, who will work in high priority areas and help producers implement best management practices identified in the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.

URBANA, Ill. – You wouldn’t use the same knife to cut through a thick steak as you would to slice an angel food cake, right? Although that may be a ridiculous comparison, the same principle holds true when harvesting various crops. One blade doesn’t slice all. Researchers at the University of Illinois tested four blades to find the one that most efficiently cuts sugarcane.

URBANA, Ill. – Bangladesh produces a substantial number of agricultural products, such as mango, and although most other developing countries have adopted modern technologies, post-harvest processing in Bangladesh is still predominantly being done manually. Grading, sorting, and processing is slow going. Add to that poor storage and packaging, inefficient handling and transportation, and other issues. As a result, post-harvest losses, of especially perishable products, can reach 40 to 50 percent.

URBANA, Ill. – University of Illinois Extension has scheduled workshops to provide Illinois livestock producers the manure management training they need to meet the requirements of the state's Livestock Management Facilities Act.

The 2018 Certified Livestock Manager Training workshops, held in 12 locations throughout the state, will begin Feb. 7, 2018, in Springfield and end March 14, 2018, back in Springfield.

URBANA, Ill. – An ear of corn averages about 800 kernels. A traditional field method to estimate the number of kernels on the ear is to manually count the number of rows and multiply by the number of kernels in one length of the e ar. With the help of a new imaging machine developed at the University of Illinois breeders can learn the number of kernels per ear, plus a lot more information than can be manually observed.

URBANA, Ill. – When a field of soybeans is ready to harvest, speed is of the essence. But harvesting grinds to a halt every time the combine operator has to climb down out of the cab to manually check for quality—whole, un-split beans without stray husk material. Researchers from Kyoto University and University of Illinois recently developed a machine to automate the process, evaluating bean quality on the fly, so harvesting can go on uninterrupted.

URBANA, Ill. - University of Illinois Extension will offer a unique workshop for livestock producers who use, or are considering, mortality composting. The Animal Mortality Composting Workshop will be held on Friday, Nov. 3 from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. near Perry, Illinois.

As part of the Illinois-National Taiwan University Global Issues Forum, the ACES Office of International Programs sponsored a seminar on vertical farming presented by Dr. Wei Fang.

Dr. Fang is a professor in the Department of Bio-Industrial Mechatronics Engineering and Director of the Center of Excellence for Controlled Environment Agriculture at National Taiwan University. He has worked on vertical farming methods for nearly three decades.