Sotirios Archontoulis

Dr. Sotirios Archontoulis is an assistant professor of integrated cropping systems at the Department of Agronomy. His main research interests involve understanding complex Genotype by Management by Environment interactions and modeling various components of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Dr. Archontoulis's overall goal is to investigate practices that can increase the efficiency of system by means of increasing crop yields and simultaneously decreasing inputs or losses such as water and nitrogen. His approach combines field experimentation and use of mechanistic simulations models.

April 12, 2024 9:27 AM

Iowa soils can hold 9-12 inches of water in the soil profile and most parts of Iowa have shallow water tables at about 4-7 feet depth. These two sources of water, together with the precipitation, provide water for crop production. Typically, a 250 bu/ac corn yield requires about...

Crop Production
July 7, 2023 9:43 AM

The smoke from the 2023 Canada wildfires was noticeable in Iowa, especially on June 28 and 29, and concerns about impacts on crop productivity were voiced. The smoke from the California wildfires (August 2021) was evident in Iowa too, however, this did not have a negative effect on crop...

Crop Production
May 12, 2022 10:54 AM

The planting is slow in 2022 – according to last Monday’s USDA Crop Progress Report corn planting was at 14% and soybean planting was at 7% complete. This is nearly two weeks behind normal. This week’s warm temperatures have driven up soil temperatures but wet soil conditions are still the...

Crop Production
May 6, 2022 10:34 AM

Corn and soybean planting is progressing very slowly across the state. The starting soil conditions (temperature, water, nitrogen) however are very different from last year. In this blog we’ll benchmark soil conditions using simulated data from...

Crop Production, Weather
June 14, 2021 12:32 PM

Across most of Iowa, corn is near V6 stage and much of Iowa is under some degree of drought stress. The exception being extreme southeast Iowa. Being at V6 stage means corn ear initiation is occurring and in the coming week the number of kernel rows on the ear will be determined. This is the...

Crop Production
May 24, 2021 2:43 PM

Sandy to clay soils have different hydrological properties such as wilting point, field capacity, and saturation level (Fig 1a). Wilting point means no water is available to plants, field capacity means near optimum moisture for plant growth, and saturation means the soil pores are full of water...

Crop Production
May 24, 2021 1:55 PM

The Forecast and Assessment of Cropping sysTemS (FACTS) webpage is evolving. When it was launched in 2015, FACTS provided forecasts soil moisture, nitrogen, phenology, and crop yields at two Iowa locations. In 2016, it was expanded to six Iowa...

Crop Production
April 22, 2021 3:03 PM

The optimum rate of Nitrogen fertilizer application on corn varies from year to year and from field to field. Here we provide simulation data to aid decision making.

We simulated 25,000 fields across the U.S. Corn Belt from 1984 to 2021 using the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator...

Crop Production
April 22, 2021 2:42 PM

The concern for not having enough water during the 2021 growing season is increasing. Observations from Iowa fields (i.e., deep soil samples and tile drainage experiments), and analytical frameworks (i.e., Drought monitor) indicate below normal moisture in parts of Iowa. Here, we benchmark the...

Crop Production
July 10, 2020 2:55 PM

Each year, decisions on planting date and cultivar selection are the major deciding factors on yield potential. Under current, year-to-year variable weather patterns and future climate change these decisions have become much more important. And there is a known knowledge gap on how future...

Crop Production
July 8, 2020 10:23 AM

Since July 1 high humidity and temperatures have been scorching Iowa. Okay, maybe that is a little extreme. June has led to dry conditions across much of central and southwest Iowa. Heat and dry weather are not desired weather conditions in the 2 weeks before or after pollination. This four-week...

Crop Production
June 15, 2020 10:18 AM

Radiation is down up to June 1 according the latest FACTS extrapolations.

The springtime decreases in radiation—especially in May—could have caused yellowing corn leaves and slowed down leaf appearance rates (radiation and moisture play a role in phenology, even though temperature is the...

Crop Production
May 8, 2020 11:07 AM

The Forecasting and Assessment of Cropping Systems (FACTS) from Iowa State Extension and Outreach results as of May 5 extrapolate that Iowa soils a bit drier than neighboring Illinois or Indiana, but shouldn’t be an issue moving forward:

...
Crop Production
April 23, 2020 3:41 PM

The Forecasting and Assessment of Cropping Systems (FACTS) project is up and running with accurate, recent data to inform decision making for a variety of industry professionals. FACTS is an ongoing project developed to forecast and evaluate in...

Crop Production
August 22, 2019 3:02 PM

Update on crop and soil status across the I-states – August 21, 2019

This year the FACTS project is providing a suite of regional scale maps to assist decision making. The data provided is based on APSIM model simulations which are driven...

Crop Production
August 21, 2019 9:02 AM

According to the latest NASS report, the 2019 corn crop is about 2-weeks behind normal in terms of reaching dent stage. What are the implications of this delay in grain filling period and end of season yield? We address this question by examining two key weather variables; solar radiation and...

Crop Production
June 19, 2019 10:50 AM

The Forecast and Assessment of Cropping sysTemS (FACTS) webpage has been updated to include regional scale forecasts. These regional scale forecast cover the three I-states providing weather, soil water, and soil N mineralization information....

Crop Production
July 20, 2017 2:13 PM

Water and temperature affect many crop processes simultaneously ranging from crop growth, development, photosynthesis, respiration, water transpiration, grain fill, and nutrient cycling. The magnitude of high temperature or drought stress depends also on the stage of the crop. Another factor...

Crop Production, Weather
May 3, 2017 9:11 AM

The cold, rainy weather this past weekend has presented challenging conditions for corn fields that have already been planted. Now that the weather is improving it’s good to start thinking about what the consequences might be and what to look for. Heat unit accumulation has been negligible since...

Crop Production
November 7, 2016 3:30 PM

The effect of cover crop on crop yields, soil health, and nitrate-nitrogen (N) leaching is complex and variable from year to year. From an environmental point of view, the higher the rye biomass production at termination day, the higher the likelihood of increasing soil organic carbon and...

Crop Production
August 15, 2016 9:38 AM

A new FACTS (Forecast and Assessment of Cropping sysTemS) forecast occurred on August 11, 2016. The forecast can be found here.

The weather this growing season continues to be the big story and can be characterized by two...

Crop Production