Feature Channels: Agriculture

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Use of beta agonists in cattle production has received considerable national attention. A Texas Tech veterinary epidemiologist has found that although there are significant benefits to the practice, an increase in death loss of cattle raises questions about welfare implications of its use.

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To buy, or not to buy? That is the question for the more than 5 million annual visitors to New York’s wineries. Cornell University researchers found that customer service is the most important factor in boosting tasting room sales, but sensory descriptions of what flavors consumers might detect were a turn-off.

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Wastewater used to irrigate farmers' fields may present public health risks to children and others.

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Global farmers could get better decision-making help as refinements are made to North Alabama soil moisture modeling research being done by an atmospheric science doctoral student at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH).

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Crops genetically modified with the bacterium Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) produce proteins that kill pest insects. Steady exposure has prompted concern that pests will develop resistance to these proteins, making Bt plants ineffective. Cornell research shows that the combination of natural enemies, such as ladybeetles, with Bt crops delays a pest’s ability to evolve resistance to these insecticidal proteins.

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A sweetener created from the plant used to make tequila could lower blood glucose levels for the 26 million Americans and others worldwide who have type 2 diabetes and help them and the obese lose weight, researchers said here today. Their report was part of the 247th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

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If significant climate change occurs in the United States it may be necessary to change where certain foods are produced in order to meet consumer demand. In a paper published online this week in the journal Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University provide an overview of current farmland use and food production in the Northeastern U.S., identifying potential vulnerabilities of the 12-state region.

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More than eight tons a month. That’s how much organic material in the form of spent coffee grounds the Austin-based Ground to Ground program diverts from area landfills and makes available to people in the community as compost.

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Cowpeas, known as black-eyed peas in the U.S., are an important and versatile food legume grown in more than 80 countries. Texas A&M University scientists are working to map the genes controlling drought and heat tolerance in recent varieties.

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Eat4-Health program teaches healthy eating and activity habits to students.

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Zebra chip disease in potatoes is currently being managed by controlling the potato psyllid with insecticides. But one Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service specialist is trying to manage the disease symptoms with alternative methods and chemistries.

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By engineering plants that emitted sex pheromones that mimic those naturally produced by two species of moths, researchers have demonstrated that an effective, environmentally friendly, plant-based method of insect control is possible.

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UF/IFAS researchers show that low-oxygen environment helps create better suitors in sterile-insect process.

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Understanding how antibodies work is important for designing new vaccines to fight infectious diseases and certain types of cancer and for treating disorders of the immune system in animals and humans. In research to be presented at the 58th Annual Biophysical Society Meeting, Dr. Damian Ekiert will explain how the immune systems of cows are used to understand the diversity of antibodies and how that knowledge could improve the health of both people and livestock.

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When every extra expense makes a difference in profitability, farmers often wonder which management decisions are worth the extra cost. Mississippi State University researchers studied rice seed treatments for effectiveness in managing crop pests.

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A recent nationwide online survey of U.S. consumers by Kansas State University found that freshness and safety were the most important values consumers placed on buying popular livestock products, including milk, ground beef, beef steak and chicken breast. Consumers felt environmental impact, animal welfare, origin and convenience were least important when making food purchasing decisions.

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Castor hasn't been grown in the U.S. since 1972. Now, a study from UF/IFAS shows that, using proper techniques, the crop that's used for many industrial applications, can be grown in Florida.

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An associate professor of clinical pharmacology of anatomy and physiology is part of a team of researchers from Egypt, Jordan and the U.S. that is evaluating the effect of chronic lead intoxication in goats.

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An international team of researchers has discovered that a process that turns on photosynthesis in plants likely developed on Earth in ancient microbes 2.5 billion years ago, long before oxygen became available.

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American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown issued the following comments on the Agricultural Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013, passed by Congress today.

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Sunflower farmers have known for a long time that they are at increased risk for combine fires, but an answer to this nerve-wracking problem may be just around the corner. A team of agricultural engineers at South Dakota State University found that sunflower debris ignites at temperatures that are 68 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit lower than residue from corn or soybeans. When sunflower dust is drawn into the fan that pulls air through the radiator to cool the engine, some bits of debris can ignite. The patent-pending device encases the turbocharger and exhaust manifold and then a fan pulls in clean air to cool the chamber, while keeping the system exterior within a safe temperature range.

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Andrew Novakovic is a professor in Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Science’s Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, whose research focuses on the U.S. dairy industry and federal policy related to dairy, other agriculture and food. He explains the complex new dairy policy, which the Senate is expected to vote on early this week.

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A research team led by Wayne State University, in collaboration with Michigan State University, has identified a single gene in honeybees that separates the queens from the workers. The scientists unraveled the gene’s inner workings and published the results in the current issue of Biology Letters. The gene, which is responsible for leg and wing development, plays a crucial role in the evolution of bees’ ability to carry pollen.

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Honeybee health continues to be a serious concern for beekeepers, fruit and vegetable growers, almond producers, and researchers. As the debate about pesticide use continues, Mississippi farmers and beekeepers, along with other stakeholders, have developed a voluntary program of cooperative standards called the Mississippi Honey Bee Stewardship Program.

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Genetically modified (GM) crops and foods and ingredients made available with the techniques of modern biotechnology have recently been dominating food and agriculture news coverage in the United States. Food Technology magazine contributing editors Bruce Chassy, PhD, University of Illinois and Wayne Parrott, PhD, University of Georgia, and John Ruff, CFS, past IFT president dispel myths and clarify common consumer questions when it comes to GMOs.

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An international research team has determined the distribution of species of vegetation over nearly half the world’s land area could be affected by predicted global warming.

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As citrus growers search for alternative crops, they may find economic potential in peaches.

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An algorithm could help scientists assist citrus growers predict when to plant and harvest their crop further in advance.

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Sorry, boys. In the end, mothers favor daughters – at least when it comes to Holstein dairy cows and how much milk they produce for their offspring, according to a new study by Kansas State University and Harvard University researchers. The research may have implications for humans.

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Spraying fungicide to kill coffee rust disease, which has ravaged Latin American plantations since late 2012, is an approach that is "doomed to failure," according to University of Michigan ecologists.

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Virginia Tech researchers who first discovered a devastating pest in India and devised a natural way to combat it have now put an economic value on their counterattack: up to $309 million the first year and more than $1 billion over five years.

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An international collaboration with strong Aggie ties has figured out how to make a longer cotton fiber — information that a Texas A&M University biologist believes could potentially have a multi-billion-dollar impact on the global cotton industry and help cotton farmers fend off increasing competition from synthetic fibers.

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FDA-approved beta-agonists in cattle feed are widely used to help feedlot cattle efficiently produce more lean muscle, but one beta-agonist, Zilmax, was voluntarily suspended by its manufacturer due to animal welfare concerns. K-State researchers are looking into how heat stress and other environmental factors might play a role in this issue and affect cattle mobility and feed intake.

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The scientists are trying to understand how populations of microorganisms regulate emissions of nitrous oxide from streams and rivers.

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FDA-approved beta-agonists in cattle feed are widely used to help feedlot cattle efficiently produce more lean muscle, but one beta-agonist, Zilmax, was voluntarily suspended by its manufacturer due to animal welfare concerns. K-State researchers are looking into how heat stress and other environmental factors might play a role in this issue and affect cattle mobility and feed intake.

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While subsoil compaction is easy to ignore because it’s hard to see, it definitely deserves more study.

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University of Adelaide researchers have compiled statistics from 44 countries to develop the first database of the world's winegrape varieties and regions.

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Using the largest dated evolutionary tree of flowering plants ever assembled, a new study suggests how plants developed traits to withstand low temperatures, with implications that human-induced climate change may pose a bigger threat than initially thought to plants and global agriculture.

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Yields of rice, wheat and corn appear to have maxed out on 30 percent of the world's agricultural croplands, according to a University of Nebraska-Lincoln study published in Nature Communications.

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A new analysis combining climate, agricultural, and hydrological models finds that shortages of freshwater used for irrigation could double the detrimental effects of climate change on agriculture.

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UF Professor Dean Gabriel and colleagues have mapped a new strain of the citrus greening genome in Brazil.

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Today, December 12, JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, has published an environmental research technique that could turn the age-old task of watering crops into an exact science.