Agriculture Commons^™

Domestication Reshaped The Genetic Basis Of Inbreeding Depression In A Maize Landrace Compared To Its Wild Relative, Teosinte, Luis Fernando Samayoa, Bode A. Olukolu, Chin Jian Yang, Qiuyue Chen, Markus G. Stetter, Alessandra M. York, Jose De Jesus Sanchez-Gonzalez, Jeffrey C. Glaubitz, Peter J. Bradbury, Maria Cinta Romay, Qi Sun, Jinliang Yang, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Edward S. Buckler, John F. Doebley, James B. Holland

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Inbreeding depression is the reduction in fitness and vigor resulting from mating of close relatives observed in many plant and animal species. The extent to which the genetic load of mutations contributing to inbreeding depression is due to large-effect mutations versus variants with very small individual effects is unknown and may be affected by population history. We compared the effects of outcrossing and self-fertilization on 18 traits in a landrace population of maize, which underwent a population bottleneck during domestication, and a neighboring population of its wild relative teosinte. Inbreeding depression was greater in maize than teosinte for 15 of …

Identification Of Candidate Genes And Genomic Regions Associated With Adult Plant Resistance To Stripe Rust In Spring Wheat, Amira M. I. Mourad, Mohamed A. Abou-Zeid, Shamseldeen Eltaher, P. Stephen Baenziger, Andreas Börner

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Wheat stripe rust (caused by Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) is a major disease that damages wheat plants and affects wheat yield all over the world. In recent years, stripe rust became a major problem that affects wheat yield in Egypt. New races appeared and caused breakdowns in the resistant genotypes. To improve resistance in the Egyptian genotypes, new sources of resistance are urgently needed. In the recent research, a set of 95 wheat genotypes collected from 19 countries, including Egypt, were evaluated for their resistance against the Egyptian race(s) of stripe rust under field conditions in the two …

Relationships Among College-Level Science Course Enrollment, Environmental Perception, And Pro-Environmental Attitude: Evidence From The Us General Social Survey, Mazbahul G. Ahamad, Fahian Tanin

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Understanding pro-environmental attitudes is critical to encouraging pollution-minimizing behaviors. Therefore, identifying associated factors is essential for understanding different types of pro-environmental attitudes. We aimed to investigate the associations among individuals’ college-level science course enrollment and their perceptions of the level of spending to improve and protect the environment, as well as their pro-environmental attitudes. We used nationwide population-based cross-sectional survey data from 2,348 individuals obtained from the General Social Survey in the United States. An ordered logistic model was used to examine the associations among college-level science course enrollment, environmental perception, and pro-environmental attitude. We found that science course enrollment …

Cold Conditioned: Discovery Of Novel Alleles For Low-Temperature Tolerance In The Vavilov Barley Collection, Ahmad H. Sallam, Kevin P. Smith, Gongshe Hu, Jamie Sherman, Peter Stephen Baeziger, Jochum Wiersma, Carl Duley, Eric J. Stockinger, Mark E. Sorrells, Tamas Szinyei, Igor G. Loskutov, Olga N. Kovaleva, Jed Eberly, Brian J. Steffenson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Climate changes leading to higher summer temperatures can adversely affect cool season crops like spring barley. In the Upper Midwest region of the United States, one option for escaping this stress factor is to plant winter or facultative type cultivars in the autumn and then harvest in early summer before the onset of high-temperature stress. However, the major challenge in breeding such cultivars is incorporating sufficient winter hardiness to survive the extremely low temperatures that commonly occur in this production region. To broaden the genetic base for winter hardiness in the University of Minnesota breeding program, 2,214 accessions from the …

2021 Seedless Pickling Cucumber Variety Trial, Ben Phillips, Jessica Good

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

A pickling cucumber variety trial was planted at the Saginaw Valley Research and Extension Center (43.399097, -83.694497, Frankenmuth, Michigan). Bejo (BJ), Nunhems (NU), Rijk Zwaan (RZ), and Sakata (SK) seed companies donated parthenocarpic (seedless) varieties for mechanical once-over harvest. The top five varieties each had Total Percent Recovery scores of 100%. When arranged in order of their highest combined clean yields of the most profitable fruit sizes (2B + 3A + 3B), they were NU 2106 (711 bu/a), NU 2105 (699 bu/a), RZ 16 (639 bu/a), RZ 11 (446 bu/a), and BJ Aristan (303 bu/a).

Sustainable Intensification For A Larger Global Rice Bowl, Shen Yuan, Bruce A. Linquist, Lloyd T. Wilson, Kenneth G. Cassman, Alexander M. Stuart, Valerien Pede, Berta Miro, Kazuki Saito, Nurwulan Agustiani, Vina Eka Aristya, Leonardus Y. Krisnadi, Alencar Junior Zanon, Alexandre Bryan Heinemann, Gonzalo Carracelas, Nataraja Subash, Pathula S. Brahmanand, Tao Li, Shaobing Peng, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future rice systems must produce more grain while minimizing the negative environmental impacts. A key question is how to orient agricultural research & development (R&D) programs at national to global scales to maximize the return on investment. Here we assess yield gap and resource-use efficiency (including water, pesticides, nitrogen, labor, energy, and associated global warming potential) across 32 rice cropping systems covering half of global rice harvested area. We show that achieving high yields and high resource-use efficiencies are not conflicting goals. Most cropping systems have room for increasing yield, resource-use efficiency, or both. In aggregate, current total rice production …

Hyperseed: An End-To-End Method To Process Hyperspectral Images Of Seeds, Tian Gao, Anil Kumar Nalini Chandran, Puneet Paul, Harkamal Walia, Hongfeng Yu

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

High-throughput, nondestructive, and precise measurement of seeds is critical for the evaluation of seed quality and the improvement of agricultural productions. To this end, we have developed a novel end-to-end platform named HyperSeed to provide hyperspectral information for seeds. As a test case, the hyperspectral images of rice seeds are obtained from a high-performance line-scan image spectrograph covering the spectral range from 600 to 1700 nm. The acquired images are processed via a graphical user interface (GUI)-based open-source software for background removal and seed segmentation. The output is generated in the form of a hyperspectral cube and curve for each …

Climate And Agronomy, Not Genetics, Underpin Recent Maize Yield Gains In Favorable Environments, Gonzalo Rizzo, Juan Pablo Monzon, Fatima Amor Tenorio, Réka Howard, Kenneth G. Cassman, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Quantitative understanding of factors driving yield increases of major food crops is essential for effective prioritization of research and development. Yet previous estimates had limitations in distinguishing among contributing factors such as changing climate and new agronomic and genetic technologies. Here, we distinguished the separate contribution of these factors to yield advance using an extensive database collected from the largest irrigated maize-production domain in the world located in Nebraska (United States) during the 2005-to-2018 period. We found that 48% of the yield gain was associated with a decadal climate trend, 39% with agronomic improvements, and, by difference, only 13% with …

South Dakota Farmers’ Perceived Extreme Weather Frequency And Adaptation Measures, Tong Wang, Jim Ristau

South Dakota Farm Survey

Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) conducted surveys of eastern South Dakota (SD) commodity crop producers with the support of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council. Using publicly available addresses of government program participants, a random sample of 3,000 producers were sent the survey in 2018. 650 were ineligible and 708 responded to the survey for a response rate of 30%. In 2021, the same producers who took the survey in 2018 were asked to take a follow up survey. 94 were ineligible, and 350 responded for a 59% response rate. Producers could take the survey online or via …

South Dakota Farmers’ Usage Of Integrated Crop & Livestock Management, Tong Wang, Jim Ristau

South Dakota Farm Survey

Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) conducted producer surveys in the eastern part of South Dakota in both 2018 and 2021. Producers could take the survey online or via mail and were asked questions about their farm, farming practices including usage of soil and water conservation practices, and their values. Using publicly available addresses from the Farm Service Agency, a random sample of 3,000 producers were sent the survey in 2018. 650 were ineligible, and 708 responded to the survey for a response rate of 30%. In 2021, the same producers who took the survey in 2018 were asked …

South Dakota Farmer Survey Chemical Use On Cropland, Tong Wang, Jim Ristau

South Dakota Farm Survey

Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) conducted surveys with South Dakota (SD) commodity crop producers in the eastern part of the state in both 2018 and 2021. Producers could take the survey online or via mail and were asked questions about their farm, farming practices including usage of soil and water conservation practices, challenges, and benefits to using conservation practices, and their attitudes about the environment. Using publicly available addresses from the Farm Service Agency of government program participants, a random sample of 3,000 producers were sent the survey in 2018. 650 were ineligible, and 708 responded to the …

South Dakota Farmers’ Usage Of Cover Crops, Tong Wang, Jim Ristau

South Dakota Farm Survey

Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) conducted producer surveys in the eastern part of South Dakota in both 2018 and 2021. Producers could take the survey online or via mail and were asked questions about their farm, farming practices including usage of soil and water conservation practices, and their values. Using publicly available addresses from the Farm Service Agency, a random sample of 3,000 producers were sent the survey in 2018. 650 were ineligible, and 708 responded to the survey for a response rate of 30%. In 2021, the same producers who took the survey in 2018 were asked …

South Dakota Farmers’ Usage Of Diversified Crop Rotations, Tong Wang, Jim Ristau

South Dakota Farm Survey

Researchers at South Dakota State University (SDSU) conducted producer surveys in the eastern part of South Dakota in both 2018 and 2021. Producers could take the survey online or via mail and were asked questions about their farm, soil and water conservation practices, and their values. Using publicly available addresses from the Farm Service Agency, a random sample of 3,000 producers were sent the survey in 2018. 650 were ineligible, and 708 responded to the survey for a response rate of 30%. In 2021, the same producers who took the survey in 2018 were asked to take a follow up …

Measuring Ecosystem Services From Soil Health. Vermont Payment For Ecosystem Services Technical Research Report #1, Alissa C. White, Heather M. Darby, Benjamin Timothy Dube, Bryony Sands, Joshua W. Faulkner, Meredith Albers, Maggie Payne

UVM Extension Faculty Publications

There are a multitude of approaches to evaluating soil health and the soil processes influenced by soil health. As the state of Vermont explores innovative programs that compensate farmers for soil health and associated ecosystem services, the selection of soil health indicators and quantification methods is a foundational first step that influences other aspects of program design. What is measured determines the ecosystem services that can be inferred, the accuracy of data that informs decisions, and programmatic transaction costs. Simply put, what is measured matters. The PES Working Group identified organic matter, bulk density, aggregate stability, greenhouse gas flux from …

A Method For Visualizing Water Flow Through Modified Root Zones, Dallas M. Williams

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As the number of impervious surfaces in urban environments increases, the ability of modified root zones to infiltrate water is becoming more important. Current methods of tracing water flow through soil profiles include excavating large pits in situ or analyzing soil cores in the laboratory with computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. While useful, these methods may not be suitable for urban settings or practical in every laboratory. We propose a new method that is less invasive, does not require extensive technical equipment and can reliably trace water movement through the soil profile in order to calculate flow rate based …

American Burying Beetle, Plant Richness, And Soil Property Responses To Collapse Of Juniperus Virginiana Woodlands With Fire, Alison Ludwig

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Grasslands are declining in the Great Plains due to land use changes, woody plant encroachment, and loss of historic fire cycles. Prescribed burn associations have utilized prescribed fire to collapse invading woodlands and allow the restoration of grasslands. This fire is considered “extreme” because it is capable of changing the structure and function of an ecosystem. Our study site is the Loess Canyons Experimental Landscape, a long-term, ecoregion-scale experiment to apply prescribed fire across the region to restore grasslands. The Nebraska Natural Legacy Project established the Loess Canyons ecoregion as a Biologically-Unique Landscape in 2005 with the state’s wildlife action …

Livestock Grazing Impacts On Crop And Soil Responses For Two Cropping Systems, Alyssa Kuhn

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Diversified crop, forage, and livestock systems are assumed to be more sustainable and economically competitive than traditional cropping systems. Objectives of this study were to determine effects of integrating grazing livestock into corn (Zea mays)-soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) (C-S) and corn-soybean-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) (C-S-W) cropping systems on plant population, grain yield, soil nutrients and soil carbon dioxide (CO₂) flux following winter grazing corn residue (both systems) and an oat (Avena sativa) cover crop (C-S-W only) planted after wheat. For the 2019 and 2020 production seasons, neither corn nor soybean plant …

Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2020, Jeremy Ross

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

The 2020 Arkansas Soybean Research Studies includes research reports on topics pertaining to soybean across several disciplines from breeding to post-harvest processing. Research reports contained in this publication may represent preliminary or only data from a single year or limited results; therefore, these results should not be used as a basis for long-term recommendations. Several research reports in this publication will appear in other University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station publications. This duplication is the result of the overlap in research coverage between disciplines and our effort to inform Arkansas soybean producers of the research …

Seeding Rate Effects On Forage Mass And Vegetation Dynamics Of Cool-Season Grass Sod Interseeded With Sorghum-Sudangrass, John A. Guretzky, D. D. Redfearn

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Interseeding annual warm-season grasses into perennial cool-season grasses has the potential to increase summer forage mass and nutritive value. Knowledge of how seeding rate affects annual warm-season grass establishment, forage mass, and vegetation dynamics remains limited. From 2016–2017, we conducted a field experiment evaluating the effects of seeding rates on sorghum-sudangrass (Sorghum bicolor x S. bicolor var. sudanense) density and forage mass and on the frequency of occurrence of plant species in cool-season grass sod in Lincoln, NE. The experiment had a completely randomized design consisting of six replicates of four seeding rates [0, 14, 28, and 35 …

Impact Of Urbanization Trends On Production Of Key Staple Crops, José F. Andrade, Kenneth G. Cassman, Juan I. Rattalino Edreira, Fahmuddin Agus, Abdullahi Bala, Nanyan Deng, Patricio Grassini

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Urbanization has appropriated millions of hectares of cropland, and this trend will persist as cities continue to expand. We estimate the impact of this conversion as the amount of land needed elsewhere to give the same yield potential as determined by differences in climate and soil properties. Robust spatial upscaling techniques, well-validated crop simulation models, and soil, climate, and cropping system databases are employed with a focus on populous countries with high rates of land conversion. We find that converted cropland is 30–40% more productive than new cropland, which means that projection of food production potential must account for expected …

Influence Of Surfactant-Humectant Adjuvants On Physical Properties, Droplet Size, And Efficacy Of Glufosinate Formulations, Estefania G. Polli, Guilherme S. Alves, Jesaelen Gizotti De Moraes, Greg Robert Kruger

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Glufosinate efficacy is inconsistent among weed species and under environmental conditions that favor rapid droplet drying. Surfactant-humectant adjuvants could maximize glufosinate efficacy by increasing wetting and penetration into the leaf surface while decreasing evaporation rate (ER). However, there is a lack of information in the literature about the interaction of surfactant-humectants adjuvants with glufosinate. The objective of this study was to investigate the influence of surfactanthumectant adjuvants on the physical properties, droplet size, and efficacy of two glufosinate formulations. Laboratory, greenhouse, and field studies were conducted at the Pesticide Application Technology Laboratory of the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. Treatment design …

Prosopis Glandulosa Persistence Is Facilitated By Differential Protection Of Buds During Low- And High-Energy Fires, Heath D. Starns, Carissa L. Wonkka, Matthew B. Dickinson, Alexandra G. Lodge, Morgan L. Treadwell, Kathleen L. Kavanagh, Douglas R. Tolleson, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr, William E. Rogers

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Rangelands worldwide have experienced significant shifts from grass-dominated to woody-plant dominated states over the past century. In North America, these shifts are largely driven by overgrazing and landscape-scale fire suppression. Such shifts reduce productivity for livestock, can have broad-scale impacts to biodiversity, and are often difficult to reverse. Restoring grass dominance often involves restoring fire as an ecological process. However, many resprouting woody plants persist following disturbance, including fire, by resprouting from protected buds, rendering fire ineffective for reducing resprouting woody plant density. Recent research has shown that extreme fire (high-energy fires during periods of water stress) may reduce resprouting …

Managing Vegetation Around Fruit Trees, Teryl Roper

All Current Publications

Fruit trees thrive along the Wasatch Front and in many other locations in Utah. Backyard fruit trees are very common in Utah, and producers quickly become attuned to insect and disease pests that can swiftly spoil substantial amounts of fruit. They are typically less aware of the detrimental effect of competing vegetation around fruit trees. This fact sheet describes the nature of vegetation competition and proposes management strategies to reduce or eliminate competition.

Genome-Wide Dna Polymorphism Analysis And Molecular Marker Development For The Setaria Italica Variety “Ssr41” And Positional Cloning Of The Setaria White Leaf Sheath Gene Siwls1, Hui Zhang, Sha Tang, James C. Schnable, Qiang He, Yuanzhu Gao, Mingzhao Luo, Guanqing Jia, Baili Feng, Hui Zhi, Xianmin Diao

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Genome-wide DNA polymorphism analysis and molecular marker development are important for forward genetics research and DNA marker-assisted breeding. As an ideal model system for Panicoideae grasses and an important minor crop in East Asia, foxtail millet (Setaria italica) has a high-quality reference genome as well as large mutant libraries based on the “Yugu1” variety. However, there is still a lack of genetic and mutation mapping tools available for forward genetics research on S. italica. Here, we screened another S. italica genotype, “SSR41”, which is morphologically similar to, and readily cross-pollinates with, “Yugu1”. High-throughput resequencing of “SSR41” …

A Chickpea Genetic Variation Map Based On The Sequencing Of 3,366 Genomes, Rajeev K. Varshney, Manish Roorkiwal, Shuai Sun, Prasad Bajaj, Annapurna Chitikineni, Mahendar Thudi, Narendra P. Singh, Xiao Du, Hari D. Upadhyaya, Diego Jarquin

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Zero hunger and good health could be realized by 2030 through effective conservation, characterization and utilization of germplasm resources1 . So far, few chickpea (Cicerarietinum) germplasm accessions have been characterized at the genome sequence level2 . Here we present a detailed map of variation in 3,171 cultivated and 195 wild accessions to provide publicly available resources for chickpea genomics research and breeding. We constructed a chickpea pan-genome to describe genomic diversity across cultivated chickpea and its wild progenitor accessions. A divergence tree using genes present in around 80% of individuals in one species allowed us to estimate the divergence of …

Sampling Bias Exaggerates A Textbook Example Of A Trophic Cascade, Elaine M. Brice, Eric J. Larsen, Daniel R. Macnulty

Aspen Bibliography

Understanding trophic cascades in terrestrial wildlife communities is a major challenge because these systems are difficult to sample properly. We show how a tradition of non-random sampling has confounded this understanding in a textbook system (Yellowstone National Park) where carnivore [Canis lupus (wolf)] recovery is associated with a trophic cascade involving changes in herbivore [Cervus canadensis (elk)] behaviour and density that promote plant regeneration. Long-term data indicate a practice of sampling only the tallest young plants overestimated regeneration of overstory aspen (Populus tremuloides) by a factor of 4–7 compared to random sampling because it favoured plants taller than the preferred …

Evaluation Of Cold-Hardy Grapes On The Wasatch Front, Michael Caron, Taun Beddes, Michael Pace, Brent Black

All Current Publications

Grapes can be an excellent addition to home gardens and a revenue opportunity for small-acreage farms. Utah’s Wasatch Front region, along with portions of Cache Valley, are well suited to grow grapes, particularly the more cold-hardy cultivars. Many new cold-hardy cultivars have been introduced over the last few decades, including both wine and table types. However, many of these newer cultivars have not been adequately tested in Utah’s unique climate. Utah State University Extension conducted a grape cultivar comparison planting in Lehi, Utah. This fact sheet reviews the outcomes of the study and offers information on tested varieties that have …

Economic Contribution Of Agriculture And Food To Arkansas’ Gross Domestic Product 1997-2020, Leah English, Jennie Popp, Wayne Miller

Research Reports and Research Bulletins

Agricultural production, processing, and retail industries are major contributors to Arkansas’ GDP. Agriculture contributes to the state economy through direct agricultural production, value-added processing, and agricultural retail activities. The Agriculture and Food Sector, which is comprised of agricultural production, processing, and retail industries, promotes economic strength through various interactions with other industries. The use of non-agricultural goods and services as inputs into the agricultural sector promotes diversified growth in Arkansas’ economy and thus plays a vital role in maintaining economic stability throughout the state. This report 1) compares the relative size of the Agriculture and Food Sector in Arkansas with …

Growing Faba Beans On The South Coast Of Western Australia, Sarah Belli, Carla Milazzo, Emma Pearse, King Yin Lui, Grace Williams, Jeremy Lemon

Grain and other field crops published reports

Editors: Megan Abrahams, Andrew Blake and Vanessa Stewart (DPIRD)

Foreword

Thirty-three years ago I started work in Esperance on broadleaf crops. One of the best things my boss set up for me was arranging visits with several lupin farmers so I could follow their crops from seeding, through the growing season, to harvest. It was a great way to quickly get an idea of the choices farmers make and the reasons why.

With today’s busy lives, most farmers would be hard pressed to have the luxury of visiting many other farmers multiple times to learn how to grow a crop. …

2021 Cantaloupe Variety Evaluation In Indiana, Wenjing Guan, Dan Egel, Dennis Nowaskie, Dean Haseman

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

Indiana ranks sixth in cantaloupe production in the US. A total of 1,800 acres of cantaloupes were planted in Indiana with a production value of $8.6 million in 2018 (USDA 2021). Melon produced in Indiana is primarily eastern-type cantaloupes. Traditional eastern-type cantaloupes have less pronounced netting, larger fruit size, softer flesh and shorter shelf life compared with western-type cantaloupes. They are harvested at quarter-slip to full-slip stage, and require frequent harvest. Recently, extended shelf life varieties have been developed and are becoming attractive in the eastern market. This variety trial included 11 traditional eastern-type cantaloupes, as well as extended shelf-life …