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Quick Facts
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The centennial for the department was in 2002. The department was created in the College of Agriculture and originally included crops, soils, and agricultural engineering.
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The Iowa Agricultural Experiment Association was organized in 1908 and served to multiply and disseminate seed of new cultivars and demonstrate other practices in cooperation with Agronomy.
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Agronomy faculty members were prominent in creating the Iowa Corn Growers Association in 1902, the Small Grain Growers Association soon afterward, and assisted in merging the Iowa Corn and Small Grain Growers Association in 1913; the American Society of Agronomy (before 1908); the Soil Science Society of America in 1936 (W. H. Stevenson, A. G. Norman, P. E. Brown); and the Crop Science Society of America in 1955 (Iver Johnson, George Sprague, H. D. Hughes).
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The corn breeding program at Iowa State began in 1922 - the first Iowa State College and USDA hybrids were available for planting in 1933.
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Introduced Iowa Stiff Stalk Synthetic (BSSS) the most important inbred lines in the maize industry; parent of nearly half of all maize produced in temperate regions of the world (Sprague, Russell, Hallauer).
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Agricultural Climatology research was established in the department in 1945 - it is believed to be the first in the U.S.
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The nation's first extension climatologist was appointed at the department in 1979.
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