The FERT Foundation is home to 12 research projects that focus on fluid fertilizer and 4R optimization. Members had the opportunity to meet researchers and learn about these projects during last week’s Fertilizer Research Forum. Each week we have been featuring a different researcher in this publication, and this week, we’d like you to meet 4R Researcher Dr. William Frame.
Researcher: Dr. William “Hunter” Frame is a native of Virginia and a graduate of Virginia Tech (B.S. and Ph.D.), as well as the University of Tennessee Knoxville (M.S.). He specialized in Crop and Soil Environmental Sciences and Plant Sciences, with his advanced degrees focusing on nitrogen fertilizer management in winter wheat, corn, and burley tobacco systems. Since May 2012, he has been a faculty member at Virginia Tech, serving as the Field Crop Agronomist. His program concentrates on addressing agronomic challenges in cotton production and enhanced efficiency nitrogen fertilizer management for non-legume field crops. Currently, he serves as the project director on the TFI 4R funded grant ($874,980): “An Integrated Approach for Nitrogen Management in Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) across the U.S. Cotton Belt” from 2019 to 2024. Outside of his research and Extension program responsibilities, Dr. Frame enjoys watching his daughter play softball and bow hunting for whitetail deer.
Dr. Frame’s work aims to:
- Quantify the agronomic response of contemporary cotton varieties adapted to major production regions to varying N rates and placement strategies
- Determine the impact of EEF’s on N transformations and increasing NUE in cotton production systems
- Measure gaseous N losses, other common greenhouse gases from common N fertilizers, and leaching of N applied at varying N application rates and placements with and without enhanced efficiency N fertilizer additives or products
