 |
| Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences VISION eXtra is e-mailed weekly to faculty and staff of Bumpers College and the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Division of Agriculture. This service is primarily for timely announcement of news and events for the AAES and Bumpers College. Submit items to hmedders@uark.edu. You may also wish to submit items to headline@uark.edu for posting on "UA Daily Headlines" for campus-wide distribution. |
Aug. 3, 2009 |
1. Division hosts Southern Region AHS/CARET meeting
2. Delta Classic UA Scholarships awarded for crop and environmental science majors
3. Poultry scientists help Guardsmen prepare to teach Afghan farmers
4. Field days address producers' concerns
5. NEREC field day to focus on resistant pigweed, insects and economics, Aug. 5
6. Resistant weeds research among RREC field day topics, Aug. 12
7. Pine Tree Station field day to focus on rice sustainability, Aug. 20
8. Save the dates for faculty reception and schlarship luncheon
9. Save the date for Division of Agriculture Awards Luncheon, Jan. 8
__________________________________________
1. Division hosts Southern Region AHS/CARET meeting
The Division of Agriculture hosted the Southern Region Administrative Heads Section of the Council on Agricultural Research, Extension and Teaching (CARET) Aug. 1-3.
Division faculty members and Bumpers College students gave presentations on a variety of research and extension programs, including undergraduate research projects.
CARET is a national grassroots organization created in 1982 by the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities' (formerly NASULGC) agriculture division. It is composed of representatives from the 50 states, the U.S. territories and the District of Columbia. CARET's mission is to advocate for greater national support and understanding of the land-grant university system's food and agricultural research, extension and teaching programs that enhance the quality of life for all people. CARET also works with national agricultural organizations to tell the story of agriculture.
The CARET delegate from Arkansas is Dow Brantley, a Lonoke County rice producer.
_________________________________________
2. Delta Classic UA scholarships awarded for crop and environmental science majors
 |
|
| Delta Classic scholarship recipients who attended the golf tournament in Helena: Holden Bell of West Memphis, Clay Dubach of Corning, Blake Wilkison of Brinkley, Will Coleman of Helena, and Louis Hamilton of Jefferson. |
The Delta Classic Scholarship Golf Tournament July 24 at the Helena Country Club raised more than $26,000 to fund scholarships for Bumpers College students majoring in crop management or environmental, soil and water science.
Robert Bacon, head of the department of crop, soil and environmental sciences in the university's Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences, said the tournament has raised over $238,000 for scholarships in ten years.
Seventy-six scholarships have been awarded, and an endowment is being built for the James L. Barrentine Endowed Scholarship, Bacon said. A former department head, Barrentine started the tournament in 1999.
Delta Classic scholarships of $2,000 each for 2009-2010 were awarded to Holden Bell of West Memphis, Jacob Coleman of DeWitt, Will Coleman of Helena, Clay Dubach of Corning, Will Gunnell of DeWitt, Louis Hamilton of Jefferson, Daniel Holaday of Wildwood, MO, Ashley Millwood of White Hall, Kevin Rorex of Inboden, and Blake Wilkison of Brinkley.
Richie Workman of Little Rock organized this year's tournament. A Local Field Advisor with Monsanto, he is a member of the CSES Alumni and Friends group.
Corporate sponsors for the tournament were Allen Canning Company, Arkansas Farm Bureau, Isle of Capri and Helena Chemical Company. Hole sponsors for the tournament were BASF, Bayer CropScience LP, Cheminova, Inc., Coco Distributors, Crop Production Services, Inc., Delta & Pineland Seed Co., Dow AgroSciences, Fuller Seed & Supply, Gillett Grain Services, Graves Enterprises, Helena Chemical Company,
Hickory Hills Pharmacy, Mary Louise Demoret & V. Poindexter Fiser, Mid-South Ag Equipment, Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., Producers Rice Mill, Inc.,
Syngenta Crop Protection, Inc., Valent , Weed Science - John Boyd, and Weed Science - Bob Scott.
Winning team sponsors and golfers were:
First Flight - Crop Production Services team #2 -Mike Fielder of Helena, Bobby Hudgens Jeter of Stuttgart, Bobby Lott of Hazen, and Lee Smart of Pine Bluff.
Second Flight - Helena Chemical Company team #2 - Mike Curtner and Danny Glenn of Wynne, AR, and Martin Knight and Jeff McCann of Germantown, TN.
Third Flight - Hornbeck Seed Company, Inc. - Wade Currie, Jim Craig, Bradley Hargrove, and Heath Whitmore of Wynne, AR.
_________________________________________
3. Poultry scientists help Guardsmen prepare to teach Afghan farmers
 |
|
| Dustan Clark, interim associate center director of extension and extension veterinarian at the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science, identifies for Major Doug Christerson various organs in a chicken during a necropsy session. Major Christerson's National Guard unit was learning to identify several causes of disease in poultry. |
Poultry science faculty members recently taught poultry production basics to a National Guard agricultural development team headed to Afghanistan.
Soldiers from the 1-45 Agricultural Development Team of the Oklahoma National Guard attended a Poultry Production Short Course July 29. The guardsmen will be deployed to Afghanistan in October and will train Afghan farmers on raising poultry as a food source.
The Unit, led by Major Doug Christerson, attended the 8-hour short course to learn a variety of information and techniques regarding the basic anatomy of the chicken, the recognition, treatment and prevention of common diseases, bird nutrition, breeder management, and managing small flocks.
"This team will face many challenges in their mission," said Dustan Clark, interim associate center director of extension and extension veterinarian. "It is a religious taboo for men to teach women in Afghanistan and women are the ones who care for livestock and poultry. This unit has four women and they will do the actual training."
Other challenges the unit may face include illiteracy among those they are training, language barriers, rudimentary equipment (at best) and security for the farmers. "The country is still at war and is suffering from a 12 year drought, in addition to over 40 years of war and unrest," said Clark.
The training of the locals will take place at a university as well as in villages in the surrounding areas. Those trained at the University will return to their homes and pass what they learned about basic poultry production to others in their area and so on.
Lectures and demonstrations were conducted by Division of Agriculture faculty members Susan Watkins, extension poultry specialist; Keith Bramwell, extension reproductive physiologist; Dustan Clark, interim associate center director of extension and extension veterinarian; Nick Anthony, professor of poultry breeding and genetics, and Anne Fanatico, research associate with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Poultry Production and Product Safety Research Unit. Josh Payne, area animal waste management specialist for the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service - Oklahoma State University, also lectured on the value of litter as a fertilizer.
_________________________________________
4. Field days address producers' concerns
Summer field days are continuing with a series of events to address producers' concerns.
Aug 5. Crops Field Day. Northeast Research and Extension Center, Keiser. (See story below.)
Aug 5. Turfgrass Field Day. Horticulture Farm, Arkansas Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Fayetteville. To register or for more information: http://turf.uark.edu/education/field.html.
Aug 12. RREC Field Day. Rice Research and Extension Center, Stuttgart. (See story below.)
Aug 20. Pine Tree Research Station, Colt. (See story below.)
Oct 21. Forestry Field Day. Livestock and Forestry Research Station, Batesville.
_________________________________________
5. NEREC field day to focus on resistant pigweed, insects and economics, Aug. 5
Farmers' struggles to stay ahead of resistant weeds and insect pests will be a theme at a field day Wednesday, Aug. 5, at the Northeast Research and Extension Center at Keiser. The center is a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Indoor presentations on economic issues and a complementary lunch will follow two hours of research plot tours, starting at 9 a.m., center Director Fred Bourland said.
Anders Reynolds, an aide to Congressman Marion Berry, will give a legislative update, and extension specialists will discuss current crop conditions and challenges.
"Populations of pigweed resistant to glyphosate (Round-up) have exploded in production fields this year," Bourland said. The biology and aggressive growth of this weed make it particularly difficult to control, he added.
Division of Agriculture weed scientist Ken Smith will discuss research and extension recommendations for dealing with herbicide resistance, particularly pigweed (palmer amaranth) resistance to Round-up in cotton and soybeans.
Entomologists Glenn Studebaker and Tina Teague will focus on tarnished plant bugs (TPB) in cotton and give an update on current insect pest activity in all crops.
Cotton growers are applying less insecticides thanks to boll weevil eradication and bollworm resistant cotton varieties, allowing some pests formerly overshadowed by the "major" pests to increase, Bourland said.
Bourland, a cotton breeder, said "cotton genotypes vary in response to TPB from highly attractive and susceptible to moderately resistant. Depending on movement of TPB, the highly susceptible genotypes may be useful as a trap crop. Multiple sources of resistance have been identified and are being combined. Moderately resistant lines may be used in combinations with other strategies to reduce the impact of this pest."
Discussions of economic issues in the NEREC auditorium will be led by:
-- Archie Flanders, Division of Agriculture economist based at NEREC, on costs and returns for crops as affected by increases in commodity and input prices;
-- Bob Stark, a division economist based at the Southeast Research and Extension Center, Monticello, on the economics of herbicide resistance; and
-- Scott Stiles, a division risk management specialist based at Arkansas State University, on the inherent risk in crop prices and other factors that impact profitability.
A field day schedule is online at http://aaes.uark.edu/nerec.html.
_________________________________________
6. Resistant weeds research among RREC field day topics, Aug. 12
Weed control to prevent or manage herbicide resistance in rice and soybeans, which is a growing problem for Arkansas farmers, will be one of the topics at the annual Rice Research and Extension Center field day Aug. 12.
Reece Langley, USA Rice Federation vice president for government affairs, will be the keynote speaker at an inside program following field tours, which begin at 8 a.m.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture center is nine miles east of Stuttgart on Hwy. 130.
Center director Chris Deren said Division of Agriculture weed scientists Bob Scott and Jason Norsworthy will lead a one-hour tour of research plots where herbicide treatments are being studied. The weed research tour will depart at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
Three other tours will focus on:
* rice varieties with departures at 8 a.m., 9 a.m. and 10 a.m.;
* rice and soybean fertility, diseases and insects with departures at 8 a.m., 8:30 a.m., 9 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.; and
* rice quality, tillage and the economics of irrigation at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m.
Reece Langley will discuss legislative issue affecting the rice industry during an indoor program, starting about 10:45 a.m. Short updates will be given by chairmen of the rice, soybean, wheat and corn/grain sorghum research and promotion boards and Dave Gealy of the USDA-ARS Dale Bumpers National Rice Research Center.
On the weed tour, Norsworthy and Scott will discuss tests of new herbicides, strategies to prevent herbicide resistance and practices for managing fields with resistant weed populations.
"Resistance is the number one issue we are facing in rice weed control," Norsworthy said.
The herbicide-resistant population of barnyardgrass, which is the most troublesome weed in rice fields, is growing rapidly, Norsworthy said, based on his screening of samples of weeds that survive herbicide treatments in farmers' fields.
"About 50 percent of the samples of barnyardgrass herbicide failures I have screened over the past three years have been propanil resistant," Norsworthy said.
Propanil is in one of five basic herbicide chemistries for rice that include various herbicide brand names. Herbicide resistance in Arkansas has been confirmed in four of the five chemistries, Norsworthy said.
"We are quickly running out of modes of action. We need new chemistries," said Norsworthy, who is an associate professor of crop, soil, and environmental sciences based in Fayetteville. Scott is a professor of crop, soil, and environmental sciences based at the extension field research center at Lonoke.
Keys to preventing herbicide resistance include use of different herbicide chemistries and proper application to ensure complete control in a field, Norsworthy said. One healthy barnyard grass plant can produce 100,000 seeds, so just a few plants in a field can create a large soil bank of resistant weed seed, he said.
A field day program is online at http://riceresearchcenter.com .
_________________________________________
7. Pine Tree Station field day to focus on rice sustainability, Aug. 20
Jennifer James, a Jackson County rice producer and chairman of the new USA Rice Federation Sustainability Task Force, will speak at a crops field day Thursday, Aug. 20, at the Pine Tree Research Station.
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture research station is eight miles west of Colt on Hwy. 306.
Station Director Roger Eason said a two-hour tour of research plots, starting at 9 a.m., will be followed by James' presentation and a sponsored lunch in the station's large meeting facility.
"The U.S. rice industry has a long history of protecting its natural resources and ecosystems," federation Chairman Jamie Warshaw said. "With the creation of the Sustainability Task Force, the industry now has the means to advance these principles and practices, and to communicate the industry's commitment to sustainably produced rice to policy-makers, consumers and customers."
In addition to James, task force members from rice-producing states include Ray Vester of Stuttgart, Bill Reed of Riceland Foods, Keith Glover of Producers Rice Mill and Glenn Nevins of Anheuser-Busch. An advisory group of rice researchers includes Terry Siebenmorgen in Arkansas and others from rice-producing states.
Research tour topics and Division of Agriculture scientists at each stop will include:
-- Weed control in rice, Jason Norsworthy;
-- Weed control in soybeans, Chase Bell;
-- Soybean fertility, Jeremy Ross;
-- Rice breeding program, Karen Moldenhauer;
-- Rice water weevil and grape colapsis, Gus Lorenz;
-- Rice fertility, Rick Norman; and
-- Soybean diseases and Asian rust update, Scott Monfort.
_________________________________________
8. Save the dates for faculty reception and scholarship luncheon
The annual Fall Faculty reception is scheduled for September 24 and the Bumpers College Scholarship Luncheon will be October 9.
_________________________________________
9. Save the date for Division of Agriculture Awards Luncheon, Jan. 8
Faculty and staff awards will be presented at the Division of Agriculture Awards Luncheon Jan. 8, 2010, in Little Rock.
AAES and Bumpers College Web sites:
http://aaes.uark.edu/
http://bumperscollege.uark.edu/