Feature Channels: Agriculture

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Learn how Kansas State University researchers are using spectral analysis to increase the efficiency of the soybean breeding line selection process. Spectral analysis, a method of analyzing the electromagnetic radiation coming from plants and other objects, is being used in the K-State Agronomy Department to determine the level of photosynthetic activity of vegetation in many different situations.

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A shift away from traditional coffee-growing techniques may be increasing the severity of an outbreak of 'coffee rust' fungus that has swept through plantations in Central America and Mexico, according to a University of Michigan ecologist who studies the disease.

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Faced with an increasingly hungry world and limited supplies of water for food production, how do we ensure water security for future generations? That's the central question being addressed at a AAAS symposium on Sunday, Feb. 17.

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A team of researchers from Michigan are characterizing simple, cheap measurements of labile soil organic matter that could predict the performance of corn crops and help farmers optimize their cropping systems.

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Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign find that Bt corn has higher yields and uses nitrogen more efficiently than non-Bt corn.

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Researchers from Oklahoma State University use soil water deficits to create a "calendar" of seasonal drought patterns.

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Ecologists at the University of Toronto and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) have found that, given time, invading exotic plants will likely eliminate native plants growing in the wild despite recent reports to the contrary. A study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reports that recent statements that invasive plants are not problematic are often based on incomplete information, with insufficient time having passed to observe the full effect of invasions on native biodiversity.

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Beef production in the United States is expected to decrease 4.8 percent in 2013, the second largest year-over-year decrease in 35 years. Many analysts expect the 2013 numbers to be followed by a 2014 decrease of 4.5 percent or more.

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For many years, cheap grain meant almost anything that enhanced grain use and feedlot measures of technical efficiency were consistent with beef industry efficiency. This is no longer true.

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Chefs and home cooks in the eastern U.S. could soon have easier access to a homegrown “super food,” thanks to a Cornell-led team of researchers working to expand broccoli's availability at farms, farmer's markets and grocery stores from Maine to Florida.

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Researchers in China investigate corn's ability to act as a trap crop and control sunflower broomrape.

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Climate change poses a major challenge to humanity’s ability to feed its growing population. But a new study of sorghum, led by Stephen Kresovich and Geoff Morris of the University of South Carolina, promises to make this crop an invaluable asset in facing that challenge.

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In the rain forests of the Congo, where mammals and birds are hunted to near-extinction, an impenetrable sound of buzzing insects blankets the atmosphere.

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The future landscape of the American Midwest could look a lot like the past—covered in native grasslands rather than agricultural crops. This is not a return to the past, however, but a future that could depend on grasslands for biofuels, grazing systems, carbon sequestration, and other ecosystem services. A major threat to this ecosystem is an old one—weeds and their influence on the soil.

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A comprehensive map three years in the making is telling the story of humans’ impact on the Great Lakes, identifying how “environmental stressors” stretching from Minnesota to Ontario are shaping the future of an ecosystem that contains 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.

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The American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America commend PCAST on a report that identifies threats to America’s agricultural preparedness and proposes recommendations for strengthening it.

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Giant ragweed lives up to its name, towering over crops and choking out surrounding plant species. Just one ragweed plant per square meter has been shown to reduce crop yields 45 to 77 percent. Now giant ragweed has evolved resistance to the herbicide glyphosate, which had been effective at controlling the weed.

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Dalhousie Faculty of Agriculture scientist, Dr. Raj Lada, driven by a commitment to rural sustainability, is providing support and research to innovate the Christmas tree industry in Eastern Canada. Lada has established the first, national (international) Christmas tree Research Centre (CRC) in Truro/Bible Hill.

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Justine Vanden Heuvel is a an assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture at Cornell University and a former cranberry specialist at the UMass Cranberry Station in East Wareham, Mass. She comments on the challenges and triumphs of the 2012 cranberry season.

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No Thanksgiving dinner is complete without a succulent roasted turkey. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that consumers cook and eat more than 45 million turkeys every Thanksgiving. Very few Americans, however, know much about the difference between their gravy-smothered poultry and the poultry that earlier generations of Americans ate to celebrate the holiday. “Ancient turkeys weren’t your Butterball,” said Rob Fleischer, head of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics. “We set out to compare the genetic diversity of the domestic turkeys we eat today with that of the ancestral wild turkey from South Mexico. Some of what we found surprised us.”

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An international scientific collaboration that includes two Kansas State University researchers is bringing home the bacon when it comes to potential animal and human health advancements, thanks to successfully mapping the genome of the domestic pig.

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The popularity of organic foods and products continues to climb, creating greater demand for organic agriculture. Effective natural alternatives to synthetic chemical weed and pest management are needed to meet organic standards. Essential oils, such as clove oil, offer an avenue to explore.

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Soil scientists and archeologists have uncovered evidence that the Maya grew corn sustainably in the lowlands of Tikal, Guatemala, but that they may also have farmed erosion-prone slopes over time.

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The 1930s Dust Bowl was a singular event in U.S. history, but Dust Bowl-like droughts and conditions do still occur. Experts are available to discuss what events like the 2012 U.S. drought mean for us now and how we can prepare for similar events in the future.

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Twenty years after its inception, the continued need for water quality improvement has led to a call for further advancement of the Phosphorus Index.

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What is the best course of action when an invading noxious weed threatens to attack crop yields and assault grazing land? Invite a friend to dinner. In this case, the friend is a plant-eating insect—the stem-mining weevil.

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Not only are feedlots paying record prices for feed and essentially record prices for feeder cattle, it has been recognized for quite a while now that the supply of feeder cattle will be increasingly inadequate to maintain feedlot inventories at any price.

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Instead of an early snowfall this time of year, farmers along the eastern seaboard are dealing with flood waters and wind damage from Hurricane Sandy, which is expected to affect everything from poultry production to grocery prices.

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A Kansas State University professor's research analyzing lipids is helping scientists around the world understand plant responses and develop better crops that can withstand environmental stress.

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On October 23 at 1pm, top USDA and academic researchers will address agriculture and climate in a special session of the Soil Science Society of America’s annual meeting. And they’ll take on a third, largely new aspect of climate change and agriculture: how nitrogen pollution compounds climate change, and vice versa. The work draws from a new special report to the United States’ National Climate Assessment published in the journal Biogeochemistry.

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Scientists have identified three neighboring genes that make soybeans resistant to the most damaging disease of soybean. The genes exist side-by-side on a stretch of chromosome, but only give resistance when that stretch is duplicated several times in the plant.

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Weed scientists in Oregon have found that the timing of herbicide application along with reseeding of native grasses offers the best recipe for restoring native grasslands while controlling invasive weeds. Grasslands are a valuable resource for ecosystems, providing soil conservation, food and fiber production, and wildlife habitat. When threatened by invading exotic species, the quality and quantity of forage for wildlife can be reduced, fire frequencies can be altered, soil moisture and nutrients can be depleted, and the costs of land management can increase.

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Cornell University, New York’s Land Grant university, has several teams of researchers and extension specialists working to support the state’s growing wine industry. These experts say it was a challenging year for the region’s vineyards and bottlers, but that 2012 should prove to be a very good year.

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Drought conditions have had a significant effect on feeder cattle supplies, with feedlots expected to feel a noticeable pinch in the months ahead as they will be unable to maintain current inventories.

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Researchers at Arizona State University are examining the ethical aspects of food production and consumption. They are helping consumers navigate the maze of moral choices involved in filling their plates and bellies. And they are finding that being morally mindful can lead to better nutrition, as well.

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It’s a battleground down there — in the soil where plants and bacteria dwell. Even though beneficial root bacteria come to the rescue when a plant is being attacked by pathogens, there’s a "dark side" to the relationship between the plant and its white knight, according to University of Delaware research reported in Plant Physiology.

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Kochia, a weed that is rapidly becoming more abundant across southern Canadian prairies and the Great Plains of the United States, can reduce crop yields by up to 60 percent. Fighting this weed has become difficult because more than 90 percent of kochia populations are now resistant to acetolactate synthase (ALS)-inhibiting herbicides. The phenomenon of negative cross-resistance, however, may offer another path to defeating the spread of this weed.

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The “siloed” structure of U.S. health agencies is hindering efforts to spot and combat animal-to-human afflictions, such as West Nile Virus, New York University sociologist Colin Jerolmack has concluded after conducting an organizational analysis of their operations.

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Conservationists, government agencies, and landowners often have different ideas about the best uses for land and natural resources. When these stakeholders build partnerships that achieve common goals and meet their individual needs, it is something to celebrate. To increase awareness of successful partnerships in land management and to encourage future collaborations, the Bureau of Land Management, USDA Agricultural Research Service, and the Society for Rangeland Management organized a special conference session and journal.

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Top wheat experts are reporting a breakthrough in their ability to track strains of a deadly, rapidly mutating wheat pathogen called stem rust that threatens wheat fields from East Africa to South Asia.

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Salk findings of a key genetic mechanism in plant hormone signaling may help save crops from stress and help address human hunger.

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Georgia Tech Professional Education will be conducting a course at Georgia Tech-Savannah on September 20, 2012 that will provide the tools to prevent violations, and create a safer facility for any employee or employer that receives, handles, stores, processes, or ships bulk raw agricultural commodities.

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Already ranked by some as number one in nutrition among vegetables, the traditional sweet potato can be nutritionally supercharged with a simple, inexpensive electric current treatment that increases its content of healthful polyphenols or antioxidants by 60 percent, scientists said here today. Their report on the first electrical enhancement of sweet potatoes, a dietary staple since prehistoric times, was part of the 244th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

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Oklahoma State University research indicates that excessively hot summertime temperatures can shorten the gestation length of beef cows, altering animal management requirements.

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Even as crops resistant to 2,4-D herbicide are being developed, populations of weeds are also developing a resistance. A 2,4-D–resistant variety of the waterhemp weed has been found, and its spread could lessen the impact of an herbicide widely used in grassland and crop production. Despite worldwide use of 2,4-D since the 1940s, only 17 weeds were previously known to be resistant to it.

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Salk study finds stress triggers widespread epigenetic changes that aid in disease resistance.

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Chris Henke specializes in courses on science and technology, work, the environment, and research methods. In addition to my work in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, he is also a member of Colgate's Environmental Studies Program.

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The Alliance to Feed the Future today announced the availability of new, free curricula to help students in grades K-8 learn about modern food and agricultural production and how American farmers and producers provide safe, nutritious and abundant food choices every day.

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The chronic drought that hit western North America from 2000 to 2004 left dying forests and depleted river basins in its wake and was the strongest in 800 years, but those conditions will become the “new normal” for most of the coming century. Such climatic extremes have increased as a result of global warming.

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