DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Iowa State University is revising the way its crop specialists work with farmers on the best ways to plant and care for soybeans and corn. Traditionally corn specialists worked with corn growers and soybean specialists worked with soybean producers. Now, however, the university says it’s putting together a new team of integrated cropping systems specialist.

They will focus on how corn and soybean production interacts with soil, weather, cover crops, crop rotation and management practices and support farmers’ use of data-driven technologies in precision agriculture. The team is led by Sotirios Archontoulis, who joined Iowa State in 2012.

Mark Licht, extension field agronomist for central Iowa since 2011, moved to the Ames campus as part of new team.