Life Sciences Commons^™

Agroecosystems Analysis From The Grass Roots: A Multidimensional Experiential Learning Course, Mary Wiedenhoeft, Steve Simmons, Ricardo Salvador, Gina Mcandrews, Charles A. Francis, James W. King, David Hole

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

An intensive, experiential travel course in Agroecosystems Analysis was conducted in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska (United States) during summers of 1998 and 1999. The intended student audience was advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate students. Pretravel readings and a week-long series of farm visits, which consisted of in-depth interviews with the farmers and their families, prepared student teams to analyze and evaluate the production, economic, environmental, and social sustainability of 10 farms. Students shared their analyses both orally and in written reports. Based on a multifaceted student evaluation process, we found that participants were highly motivated, strongly engaged with the course …

Mapping The Fas Locus Controlling Stearic Acid Content In Soybean, M. M. Spencer, V. R. Pantalone, E. J. Meyer, D. Landau-Ellis, D. L. Hyten Jr.

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Increasing the stearic acid content to improve soybean [Glycine max (L) Merr] oil quality is a desirable breeding objective for food-processing applications. Although a saturated fatty acid, stearic acid has been shown to reduce total levels of blood cholesterol and offers the potential for the production of solid fat products (such as margarine) without hydrogenation. This would result in the reduction of the level of trans fat in food products and alleviate some current health concerns. A segregating F₂ population was developed from the cross between Dare, a normal stearic acid content cultivar, and FAM94-41, a high stearic …

Intsormil 2003 Annual Report, John M. Yohe, Thomas Crawford Jr., Kimberly Christiansen, Joan Frederick

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

From 1980 to 1999, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the number of food-insecure people in developing countries fell from 920 million to about 800 million, yet in 2003, the International Food Policy Research Institute declared that "without significant changes in policies, public investments, and institutions, we simply will not achieve the 1996 World Food Summit goal-reaffirmed at the 2000 Millennium Summit and again last year at the World Food Summit: five years later of reducing the number of our fellow human beings who are food insecure by at least half by no later …

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 3, Mike Fitzgerald

Manure Matters (newsletter)

Two Key Livestock bills Before NE Legislature

State senators have advanced LB 210 to Select File on a 39-1 vote. The proposed legislation would exempt certain farm and ranch laborers from the Worker Compensation Act. Generally, employers of farm and ranch laborers would be exempt from providing workers’ compensation coverage if their employees are related to the employer and if the total number of employees not related to the employer does not exceed five. In the event an agricultural employer employs six or more unrelated, full-time employees the employer may still be exempt so long as less than 40% of …

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 1, Richard K. Koelsch, Wendy Powers

Manure Matters (newsletter)

Integrating Animal Feeding Decisions into CNMP Processes: Part 1

Environmental planning in animal production systems often requires an estimate of nutrient excretion. Standard values published by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) (SCS 1992), American Society of Agricultural Engineers (ASAE 1999), and MidWest Plan Service (MWPS 2000) commonly have been used for this purpose. However, these current procedures do not reflect the impact of producers' animal dietary decisions on nutrient excretion. The increasing variety of feed ingredient options, changes in nutritional programs to match improving genetic potential, and feeding strategies designed to reduce nutrient excretion are influencing the amount of …

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 2, Richard K. Koelsch, Wendy Powers

Manure Matters (newsletter)

Integrating Animal Feeding Decisions into CNMP Processes: Part 2

This is part 2 of a two part series, part one was discussed in Volume 9, Number 1.

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 4, Richard K. Koelsch

Manure Matters (newsletter)

New EPA Rules Targeting Livestock and Poultry Industry Congress passed the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972 to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters." Among its core provisions, it prohibits the discharge of pollutants from a point source to waters of the United States except as authorized by an NPDES permit. EPA's regulation of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) under the CWA dates to the 1970s. EPA established effluent guidelines for feedlots in 1974 based on the best available technology that was economically achievable for the industry. CAFO regulations issued in 1976 determined …

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 5, Bahman Eghball, Christopher Bauer, Charles A. Shapiro

Manure Matters (newsletter)

Reducing Spatial Variability of Soil Carbon and Phosphorus by Site-Specific Manure Application

Spatial variability can significantly influence crop performance across a field. Manure, a renewable resource, is an excellent source of nutrients that can be substituted for synthetic types of fertilizers. The carbon (C) and nutrients in manure can enhance the physical and chemical properties of soils, especially infertile soils, hence reducing soil spatial variability. Organic C constitute about 58% of organic matter in the soil (%OM = %OC x 1.724). Manure application not only provides nutrients for crops but also improves soil quality since the organic matter in manure …

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 6, Ron Sheffield, Juli Paschold

Manure Matters (newsletter)

The New CAFO Rules: What is Required in a Nutrient Management Plan?

As a part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) Final Rule, all CAFO owners are required to apply for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. Part of the process includes developing and implementing a Nutrient Management Plan (NMP). At a minimum, an NMP must include Best Management Practices (BMPs) and, for large CAFOs, procedures necessary to achieve effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs).

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 8, Laura Hillenbrand

Manure Matters (newsletter)

Excerpt from Seabiscuit

The halcyon days at the Tijuana track came to a spectacular end. On the backstretch early each morning men guided teams of horses on circuits of the barns, shoveling the mucked-out manure into wagons and driving the teams up the hill behind the backstretch, where they would dump it. The pile had been accumulating since 1917, and because the city received little rain to wash it down, it was enormous. “Oh my gosh.” Remembered trainer Jimmy Jones. “ It was as big as the grandstand.” Inside its depths, the manure fermented, generating scalding heat.
To the locals, …

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 7, Christopher G. Henry

Manure Matters (newsletter)

Land Application Setback and Buffer Requirements for NPDES Permitted Large CAFOs

Large Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) owners/operators are required to implement setbacks, buffers, or an alternative conservation practice on all fields to which manure is applied. This newsletter discusses the federal rules and some guidance on how the rule may be applied to land application sites. The setbacks and buffer requirements apply to large CAFOs only. Most states are authorized to implement the CAFO program and may have additional, more stringent requirements. Check with your state permitting authority to determine the requirements that apply to your operation.

Manure Matters, Volume 9, Number 9, Christopher G. Henry, Mike Reynolds

Manure Matters (newsletter)

Low Water Stream Crossings for Cattle (LWSC)

Livestock access to streams, specifically, cattle access to streams in pastures has become of concern in the development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). There is very little information available to planners on the contribution of nitrogen, ammonia, phosphorus, and human health-related microorganisms to stream segments from rangeland cattle. A common modeling solution in the development of TMDLs is to exclude livestock from streams in order to reduce nutrient loads. Although this approach seems simplistic, it is problematic for owners and managers of rangeland livestock.
Many producers are now choosing to supply water …

Alteration Of Soil Water Content Consequent To Root-Pruning At A Windbreak/Crop Interface In Nebraska, Usa, Qingjiang Hou, James R. Brandle, Kenneth Hubbard, Michele Schoneberger, Carlos Nieto, Charles A. Francis

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Root-pruning is generally recommended as an appropriate treatment to reduce competition for soil water and/or nutrients and suppression of crop yield in areas adjacent to windbreaks. Several recent studies suggest, however, that factors other than soil water might be causing yield reduction at the interface. For two consecutive years, we evaluated root-pruning effects on soil water at the windbreak/crop interface under both cropped (soybean [Glycine max (L) Merr.] variety ‘Iroquois’, 1997) and non-cropped (1998) conditions in Mead, Nebraska, USA. Volumetric soil water content near the windbreaks was systematically measured at various soil depths, distances from the windbreak, …

Forage Yield And Economic Losses Associated With The Brown-Midrib Trait In Sudangrass, M. D. Casler, Jeffrey F. Pedersen, D. J. Undersander

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Brown-midrib genes increase digestibility due to reduced lignification in sudangrass, Sorghum bicolor subsp. drummondii (Nees ex Steud.) de Wet & Harlan. Brown-midrib lines are known to be low in forage yield potential, but this reduction in forage yield has not been previously quantified. The objectives of this study were to quantify the increase in forage quality and decrease in forage yield and to provide an economic assessment of this dichotomy. Piper and Greenleaf (normal leaves) were compared with their brown-midrib counterparts and four highly selected brown-midrib (FG) lines at two locations for 2 yr. Brown-midrib lines averaged 9.0% lower in …

Registration Of Rn582 Sorghum Germplasm Line, J. F. Pedersen, J. J. Toy

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

RN582 sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.)Moench] germplasm line (Reg. no. GP-591, PI 628277) was developed jointly by the USDA-ARS and the Agricultural Research Division, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Nebraska, and was released in September 2001.

RN582 is an S₆ selection from the cross (RTx430 ms₃ms₃X E 35-1) X E 35-1. RTx430 was developed and released by the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station (Miller, 1984) and was provided to this project containing the nuclear male sterility gene ms₃ by A.B. Maunder in 1988. E 35-1 is an Ethiopian land race with white …

Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Soil Indicators Four Years After Manure And Compost Applications, Daniel Ginting, Anabayan Kessavalou, Bahman Eghball, John W. Doran

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Understanding how carbon, nitrogen, and key soil attributes affect gas emissions from soil is crucial for alleviating their undesirable residual effects that can linger for years after termination of manure and compost applications. This study was conducted to evaluate the emission of soil CO₂, N₂O, and CH₄ and soil C and N indicators four years after manure and compost application had stopped. Experimental plots were treated with annual synthetic N fertilizer (FRT), annual and biennial manure (MN1 and MN2, respectively), and compost (CP1 and CP2, respectively) from 1992 to 1995 based on removal of 151 …

Registration Of ‘Ne422t’ Winter Triticale, P. Stephen Baenziger, K. P. Vogel

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

NE422T triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack) (Reg. no CV-27, PI 629028) was developed cooperatively by the Nebraska Agricultural Experiment Station and the USDA-ARS. It was jointly released in 2001 by the developing institutions. NW422T was selected from the cross ‘Trical’/‘UB-UW26’ where Trical is most likely ‘Trical 100’ (a forage triticale developed by Resource Seed Inc., a subsidiary of Goldsmith Seed Company, Gilroy, CA) and UB-UW26 is an unknown winter triticale germplasm line given to the breeding program in the 1980s.The cross was made in 1990. The F₁ generation was grown in the greenhouse in 1990-1991. The F₂ and F …

Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms In Soybean, Y. L. Zhu, Q. J. Song, D. L. Hyten, C. P. Van Tassel, L. K. Matukumalli, D. R. Grimm, S. M. Hyatt, E. W. Fickus, N. D. Young, P. B. Cregan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) provide an abundant source of DNA polymorphisms in a number of eukaryotic species. Information on the frequency, nature, and distribution of SNPs in plant genomes is limited. Thus, our objectives were (1) to determine SNP frequency in coding and noncoding soybean (Glycine max L. Merr.) DNA sequence amplified from genomic DNA using PCR primers designed to complete genes, cDNAs, and random genomic sequence; (2) to characterize haplotype variation in these sequences; and (3) to provide initial estimates of linkage disequilibrium (LD) in soybean. Approximately 28.7 kbp of coding sequence, 37.9 kbp of noncoding perigenic DNA, and …