Urbana, Illinois, USA
March 23, 2012
University of Illinois crop sciences professor Emerson Nafziger is pleased to announce that, thanks to a recent agreement among the parties involved, the Illinois Agronomy Handbook is available online at http://extension.cropsci.illinois.edu/handbook
According to Nafziger, "For decades, the Illinois Agronomy Handbook has been a major source of agronomic information in Illinois and throughout the Corn Belt." Since it was first produced in the 1970s, it was updated 22 times until the 2001-2002 edition. The subsequent edition, named the 23rd, was current until 2009, during which time an online version that included some calculators was developed.
"A few years ago, we decided to do another, more thorough, revision," said Nafziger. The result was the 24th edition, published in mid-2009, which completely revised some sections. After its publication, the web-based 23rd edition was taken down.
Nafziger says that the 24th edition has enjoyed good sales and is in wide use. But without special funding and with the need to sell paper copies to recoup the investment in the Handbook, it is has not been possible to put up a web-based version until now. "We hope to get some of the calculators revamped and running in the near future," he said.
Chapters can be viewed and downloaded from the website. "While we expect that this may be the last time the handbook is published as a book on paper, we think that individual authors will now be able to revise chapters as needed," Nafziger said. "We also anticipate that the chapters may form the framework on which we can add other information and links as they are developed."
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