Crossing Alabama took an entire day. When we crossed the Mississippi river there was a huge cheer.

After spending the night in Pine Bluff, AK We visited the Rice Research Center in Stuttgart. Located on 1022 acres, we were happily greeted by Dr. Chris Deren on a bicycle.

Despite a major concern with a plateau in rice yields, the plant breeders here are working on some varieties that are getting over 200 bushels per acre.

Good friends reunited Dr. Buhr and Dr. Deren both Gators

After the rice research center we hit the road for some more hard miles. Here is some limestone in the northeast corner of AK... en route to the Loess Hills of Iowa

We landed about 8 miles south of Minden, Iowa, at the beautiful house of Richard and Vivian Dau. Here was our site in the morning

At Pioneer Hi-Bred International. This is a leading plant-breeding company, part of Du Pont, and we toured some of their trial fields and greenhouses. There is normally a no-photography policy in the building but we persuaded them to make an exception for the Incredible Hulk soybean. Incidentally, Pioneer Hi-Bred was originally begun by none other than... Henry A. Wallace.

Talking with Jerry Hatfield from the National Soil Tilth Research Lab. Jerry had a lot of good info on nitrogen runoff pollution and the hypoxic zone in the Gulf of Mexico as it relates to agriculture in the Midwest... ask your travel course student about it sometime. We ended up collecting a couple of passersby to listen in on the agriculture discussion. (Not shown- the nice lady in green is Mrs. Hatfield.)

A view of Iowa from atop the tower at the Hitchcock center in the beautiful Loess Hills of Iowa.

A look at the rich wind blown silt soils unique to Iowa and parts of China. The texture is similar to that of flour.

A view from atop a tower at the Loess Hills with Park Ranger Brett Ford overlooking a massive prairie restoration effort that almost became a huge landfill.

A massive effort is being made to restore the native grasses to their natural populations. Invasive oaks, sumacs and cypress have taken advantage of the altered habitat. Controlled burning as seen in this picture will allow the grasses to replace trees over time.

The texture of Loess soil is comparable to that of baking flour

UF students are trying to pay rent by helping to weed Richard and Vivian Dau's garden.

A memorable evening which included all the students reading and discussing our research topics for the trip

The topography of Iowa forces farmers to use some interesting terraced landscapes including Broad flats, narrow flats and grass backs.

A beautiful Sunrise in the quiet town of Minden, Iowa

A symbolic tribute to the efforts made by former vice president and secretary of agriculture Henry Wallace. He was not widely supported by many despite his dedication for the "common man".

These mosaic tiles will "erode" over time, much the same as valuable soil is washed into our rivers and oceans.

Wise words to live by -Henry Wallace

After arriving in Ames, Iowa, students finally got some downtime. This is the future of agronomy trying to get a Frisbee and a sneaker down from the tree. Good news for Agronomy, both were safely recovered thanks to some teamwork.

After staying with some students from Iowa State University, we went to visit Monsanto. This is a look at some of the machinery they use out in the fields.

Monsanto's genetic engineering department was incredibly informative. They invest 2 million dollars a day in research to develop higher yielding varieties through various methods. No pictures allowed inside to protect confidentiality.

A small glimpse of stored seed ready for distribution.

Come harvest time, this factory will be "rocking"...storing and distributing America's seed corn.

Henry Wallace's farm is maintained organically. Here is a look at some clover fixing nitrogen back into the soil.

Crown Vetch and Harry Vetch may be a desirable cover crop for farmers to use on their fields as seen at the Wallace farm. In this "photo-op", we stand behind crown vetch, bull thistle and many other native perennials.

Genetic diversity is a primary concern of crop production. While meticulously selected varieties provide stability and increased yields, there is constant battle against insect and disease resistance. The key to plant tolerance often lies in the origins of our crops such as teosinte and corn. This is the seed vault in Northeast Iowa containing thousands of varieties of seeds for many of the crops grown throughout the world