Agriculture Commons^™

Sheep Updates 2015 - Merredin, Bruce Mullan, Kate Pritchett, Kimbal Curtis, Chris Wilcox, Lynne Bradshaw, Geoff Lindon, Katherine Davies, Joe Young, Stephen Lee, Dawson Bradford, Khama Kelman, Lucy Anderton, Jaq Pearson, Jackie Jarvis, Ben Patrick

Sheep Updates

This session covers fourteen papers from different authors:

1. The Sheep Industry Business Innovation project, Bruce Mullan, Sheep Industry Development Director, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia

2. Western Australian sheep stocktake, Kate Pritchett and Kimbal Curtis, Research Officers, Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia

3. Wool demand and supply - short term volatility, long term opportunities, Chris Wilcox, Principal of Poimena Analysis

4. Myths, Facts and the role of animal welfare in farming, Lynne Bradshaw, president, RSPCA WA

5. Latest research and development on breech strike prevention, Geoff Lindon, Manager Productivity and Animal Welfare, AWI

6. …

Pilbara Regional Biosecurity Group Inc. Annual Report 2014/15, Pilbara Regional Biosecurity Group Inc.

Recognised Biosecurity Group Annual Reports

The Pilbara RBG is a not for profit association formed under the Associations Incorporation Act 1987, providing declared pest control programs for land managers, particularly in the pastoral zone. The associations’ primary purpose is the control of declared pests using funding from Declared Pest Rates paid by landholders on pastoral stations. These Declared Pest Rates funds are matched dollar for dollar by the WA Government to reflect the public benefit of controlling declared pest animals and weeds. The association is formally recognised by the Hon Minister for Agriculture and Food as a recognised biosecurity group (RBG).

Carnarvon Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc. Annual Report 2014/15, Carnarvon Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc.

Recognised Biosecurity Group Annual Reports

About the Carnarvon Rangelands Biosecurity Association The CRBA is a not for profit association formed under the Associations Incorporation Act 1987, providing declared pest control services for land managers throughout Carnarvon, Exmouth, Murchison and Upper Gascoyne Shires. The associations’ primary purpose is the control of declared pests using funding from Declared Pest Rates paid by landholders on pastoral stations. These Declared Pest Rates funds are matched dollar for dollar by the WA Government to reflect the public benefit of controlling declared pest animals and weeds. The association is formally recognised by the Hon Minister for Agriculture and Food as a …

Goldfields Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc. Annual Report 2014/15, Goldfields Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc.

Recognised Biosecurity Group Annual Reports

The Goldfields Nullarbor Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc.(GNRBA) is unique in rangeland management across Western Australia. It has a huge area to service and is working hard to provide a top class service to ratepayers. It is now well recognised as being a leader in the RBG’s in WA.

Kimberley Rangelands Biosecurity Association Invasive Species Activity Report 2014/15, Kimberley Rangelands Biosecurity Association

Recognised Biosecurity Group Annual Reports

The Kimberley Rangelands Biosecurity Association (KRBA) has an annual Large Feral Herbivore culling program that includes feral donkeys, horses and camels with other animals such as water buffalo and pigs targeted when located. The program focusses primarily on donkeys, using the radio telemetry technique with horses and camels culled opportunistically during tracking. Currently there are 135 active collars throughout the region.

Meekatharra Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc. Annual Report 2014/15, Meekatharra Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc.

Recognised Biosecurity Group Annual Reports

The Meekatharra Rangelands Biosecurity Association Inc (MRBA) is an industry body with a membership of all pastoralists in the Shires of Yalgoo, Mount Magnet, Cue and Meekatharra. The Association has been established under the Biosecurity and Agricultural Management Act 2007 with a charter to manage and control declared pests, both animal and plant.

First Year Biomass Production Following Application Of Various Size Strip Thinnings In A Young Hardwood Stand In West Virginia., Ashlee Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Strip thinning can reduce stand density to promote better growth of residual trees and has potential to create a woody bioenergy feedstock in addition to enhancing and maintaining early successional habitat for wildlife. However, little research has been conducted on strip thinning within young hardwood stands to determine if these are viable attributes of strip thinning. The goal of this study was to assess the first year biomass production after strip thinning among three different cut strip widths (8 ft, 12 ft, and 16 ft) in a 22-year-old mixed mesophytic hardwood stand. Woody biomass production from stump sprouts and true …

Soil And Crop Response To Stover Removal From Rainfed And Irrigated Corn, Ian Kenney, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, Deann R. Presley, Charles W. Rice, Keith Janssen, Brian Olson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Excessive corn (Zea mays L.) stover removal for biofuel and other uses may adversely impact soil and crop production. We assessed the effects of stover removal at 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100% from continuous corn on water erosion, corn yield, and related soil properties during a 3-year study under irrigated and no-tillage management practice on a Ulysses silt loam at Colby, irrigated and strip till management practice on a Hugoton loam at Hugoton, and rainfed and no-tillage management practice on a Woodson silt loam at Ottawa in Kansas, USA. The slope of each soil was <1%. One year after removal, complete (100%) stover removal resulted in increased losses of sediment by 0.36–0.47 Mg ha-1 at the irrigated sites, but, at the rainfed site, removal at rates as low as 50% resulted in increased sediment loss by 0.30 Mg ha-1 and sediment-associated carbon (C) by 0.29 kg ha-1. Complete stover removal reduced wet aggregate stability of the soil at the irrigated sites in the first year after removal, but, at the rainfed site, wet aggregate stability was reduced in all years. Stover removal at rates ≥ 50%resulted in reduced soil water content, increased soil temperature in summer by 3.5–6.8 °C, and reduced tem-perature in winter by about 0.5 °C. Soil C pool tended to decrease and crop yields tended to increase with an increase in stover removal, but 3 years after removal, differences were not significant. Overall, stover removal at rates ≥50% may enhance grain yield but may increase risks of water erosion and negatively affect soil water and temperature regimes in this region.

Understanding Rice Adaptation To Varying Agro-Ecosystems: Trait Interactions And Quantitative Trait Loci, Shalabh Dixit, Alexandre Grondin, Cheng-Ruei Lee, Amelia Henry, Thomas-Mitchell Olds, Arvind Kumar

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Background: Interaction and genetic control for traits influencing the adaptation of the rice crop to varying environments was studied in a mapping population derived from parents (Moroberekan and Swarna) contrasting for drought tolerance, yield potential, lodging resistance, and adaptation to dry direct seeding. A BC₂F₃-derived mapping population for traits related to these four trait groups was phenotyped to understand the interactions among traits and to map and align QTLs using composite interval mapping (CIM). The study also aimed to identify QTLs for the four trait groups as composite traits using multivariate least square interval mapping (MLSIM) …

Overexpression Of Sbmyb60 Impacts Phenylpropanoid Biosynthesis And Alters Secondary Cell Wall Composition In Sorghum Bicolor, Erin D. Scully, Tammy Gries, Gautam Sarath, Nathan A. Palmer, Lisa Baird, Michelle J. Serapiglia, Bruce S. Dien, Akwasi A. Boateng, Zhengxiang Ge, Deanna L. Funnell-Harris, Paul Twigg, Thomas E. Clemente, Scott E. Sattler

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The phenylpropanoid biosynthetic pathway that generates lignin subunits represents a significant target for altering the abundance and composition of lignin. The global regulators of phenylpropanoid metabolism may include MYB transcription factors, whose expression levels have been correlated with changes in secondary cell wall composition and the levels of several other aromatic compounds, including anthocyanins and flavonoids. While transcription factors correlated with downregulation of the phenylpropanoid biosynthesis pathway have been identified in several grass species, few transcription factors linked to activation of this pathway have been identified in C4 grasses, some of which are being developed as dedicated bioenergy feedstocks. In …

A Roadmap For Functional Structural Variants In The Soybean Genome, Justin E. Anderson, Michael B. Kantar, Thomas Y. Kono, Fengli Fu, Adrian O. Stec, Qijian Song, Perry B. Cregan, James E. Specht, Brian W. Diers, Steven B. Cannon, Leah K. Mchale, Robert M. Stupar

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Gene structural variation (SV) has recently emerged as a key genetic mechanism underlying several important phenotypic traits in crop species. We screened a panel of 41 soybean (Glycine max) accessions serving as parents in a soybean nested association mapping population for deletions and duplications in more than 53,000 gene models. Array hybridization and whole genome resequencing methods were used as complementary technologies to identify SV in 1528 genes, or approximately 2.8%, of the soybean gene models. Although SV occurs throughout the genome, SV enrichment was noted in families of biotic defense response genes. Among accessions, SV was nearly eightfold less …

Rural Year-Round Growing To Ameliorate A Possible Negative Effect From Climate Change, Kimberlie A. Brussa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) suggested that, as the world population grows, food and water shortages will become even more serious issues (IPPC's 2014 predictions about the future effects of climate change (CC), Year-round growing (YRG) may provide a way for communities to extend growing seasons, expand local farm systems, and provide food year round. This case study included a detailed analysis of responses from representatives of all sectors of rural Mesa County, Colorado, regarding YRG and a local food and farm plan due to CC. The case was bounded by time (6 months of data collection) which …

Increasing Student Interest In Poultry Science Careers Through 4-H, Peggy Lynn Armstrong

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The demand for poultry science graduates to fill available positions in the poultry industry continues to increase. At the same time, there are not enough graduates to fill the positions. The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of the poultry curriculum in the 4-H program and student recruitment through the 4-H program into the Poultry Science Department. The targeted populations were 4-H leaders who implement the poultry curriculum and university students who were currently studying poultry. Career development theories suggest that previous experiences during adolescence can be a major influence in future vocation choice. A mixed methods …

Engineering Triterpene Metabolism In Tobacco, Zuodong Jiang

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Terpenes comprise a large diverse class of natural products and many of them attract interest because of their physiological function, therapeutic and industrial values. Triterpene oils including squalene (C30), botrycococcene (C30) and their methylated derivatives (C31-C37) generated by the green algae Botryococcus braunii race B, which have recently received significant attention because of their utility for advanced biofuels. However, the slow growth habit of B. braunii makes it impractical as a robust biofuel production system. In this thesis, we firstly evaluated the potential of generating high levels of triterpene (C30) production in tobacco plants by diverting carbon flux from cytosolic …

Urea Formulations On The Productivity Of Bermudagrass And Bermudagrass-White Clover Pastures, Caitlin Timberlake

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon L.) is a perennial warm-season grass that is very responsive to nitrogen (N) fertilization. Excessive N applications have negative environmental consequences and make maintaining mixed swards difficult. This study determined the effects of enhanced efficiency (EE) N fertilizers and fertilizer rate on bermudagrass yields, nutritive values, and white clover persistence. Nitrogen sources included urea, urea formulated with Agrotain^® (U+A), urea with Agrotain^® and dicyandiamide (SuperU), a polymer-coated urea (ESN), ESN+urea (75% ESN, 25% urea), and methylene urea (MU). In the urea formulation trial, SuperU and U+A maximized forage yields at lower N rates. The …

Effects Of Refuges On The Evolution Of Resistance To Transgenic Corn By The Western Corn Rootworm, Diabrotica Virgifera Virgifera Leconte, Jennifer Deitloff, Mike W. Dunbar, David A. Ingber, Bruce E. Hibbard, Aaron J. Gassmann

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte is a major pest of corn and causes over a billion dollars of economic loss annually through yield reductions and management costs. Corn producing toxins derived from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) has been developed to help manageD. v. virgifera.However, previous studies have demonstrated the ability of this species to evolve resistance to Bt toxins in both laboratory and field settings.

RESULTS: We used an experimental evolution approach to test the refuge strategies for delaying resistance of D. v. virgifera to corn producing Bt toxin Cry34/35Ab1. In the absence of refuges, D. v. virgifera developed resistance to …

Efficacy Of Ultraviolet Radiation To Control Lactic Acid Bacteria In Wine Must, Brian D. Williams

All Master's Theses

The use of shortwave ultraviolet (UV_c) radiation to control lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in wine production was studied. A simulated wine sterilizer was built using a commercially sourced ultraviolet (UV) sterilizer commonly used in aquariums and ponds. After growing cultures in test tubes, samples of five different species of LAB were introduced into white grape juice adjusted for brix and pH to match that of wine must commonly found in the Yakima Valley American Viticultural Area. The mixture was then agitated and allowed time to evenly distribute the bacteria throughout the juice. The juice was sent through the …

A Market-Based Approach For Valuing Ecosystem Services On Coastal Properties, Michelle A. Savolainen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As part of ongoing efforts to assess ecosystem services provided by wetlands, this research focuses on estimating the private monetary value of wetland services to residential property owners in Louisiana and Alabama using a hedonic price model. Understanding that tradeoffs must be made with limited resources, valuing ecosystem services is important for policy and decision making purposes, such as determining how much public and private financial resources should be put towards wetland maintenance and restoration. Data on property transactions, wetland coverage, and built infrastructure were collected for the analysis. Based on theory and results from a Box-Cox model, the log-linear …

Evaluating Commodity Farm Program Selection And Economic Return Variability On Representative Farms In The Mississippi River Delta Region Using A Risk Return Framework, Michael Anthony Deliberto

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The Agricultural Act of 2014, signed February 7, 2014, introduces a new era of federal support in the production of major agricultural commodities in the United States for the 2014 through 2018 crop years. The ultimate result of the Act was a 954-page piece of legislation that represented market-oriented policies such as the creation of an area-wide shallow loss revenue support program for covered commodities and a greater reliance on crop insurance products offered as a suite of risk management tools available to producers. The impact that this law has on agricultural producers in the Mississippi River delta region of …

Essays On The Effect Of Trade Facilitation On Bilateral Agricultural Trade, Trina Biswas

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation offers three independent studies that each contributes to the literature on trade facilitation. The papers are built on the gravity model framework where the relationship between trade facilitation variables and the volume of agricultural exports across the border are examined. To deal with the issue of endogeneity, instrumental variable regression is used. The study also corrects for sample-selection bias present in the trade data. The first paper examines the role of e-governance on bilateral agricultural trade. The study finds that better quality of e-governance promotes agricultural exports. Specifically, according to the findings of the paper, the quality of …

Nebraska Broadband Initiative, Charlotte Narjes, Rebecca J. Vogt, Connie Hancock

Cornhusker Economics

The Nebraska Public Service Commission, Nebras-ka Information Technology Commission Community Council (NITC), University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), Nebraska Department of Economic Development (DED) and Applied Information Management (AIM) have cooperatively led the effort to address the broadband planning needs of Nebraska’s communities. UNL has led the planning component and is the fiscal agent for the planning part of the grant.

U.S. Competition Of Hard Spring Wheat Characteristics, Jacquiline Danso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is a changing landscape in the wheat market from the emergence of foreign ownership of local elevators, increased consolidation in the milling sector, technology advancement, and changes in transportation. The changing landscape of the wheat market has been associated with greater degrees of vertical coordination through integration, strategic alliances, and contractual relationships. Particularly greater vertical integration has occurred between the millers, county elevators, and export and country terminal elevators. The greater integration of the milling sector has raised concerns by the Department of Justice Anti-trust division to the competitiveness of the flour market, and has only conditionally approved recent …

Focus Paddocks Trial Report - Benchmarked Result Summary 2010 - 14, Martin Harries, Geoff Anderson

Grain and other field crops published reports

This report was co-funded by GRDC through project no. DAW00213 - Putting the Focus on Profitable Crop and Pasture Sequences in WA.

Crop and pasture sequences in south-western Australia have changed in the past decade. These survey results from the Focus Paddock project provide data to help growers employ profitable and sustainable crop and pasture sequences. The project compiled information on the nature, suitability and productivity of crop and pasture sequences from 184 paddocks over five years. The results of the analyses of chemical and physical attributes of the soil, weed counts and disease management are presented here.

The survey …

Generation Of An Attenuated, Cross-Protective Pepino Mosaic Virus Variant Through Alignment-Guided Mutagenesis Of The Viral Capsid Protein, Godwill M. Chewachong, Sally A. Miller, Joshua J. Blakeslee, David M. Francis, Thomas Jack Morris, Feng Qu

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Mild variants of many viruses are able to protect infected plants from subsequent invasion by more severe variants of the same viruses through a process known as cross-protection. In the past, the cross-protective viral variants were commonly derived from mild field isolates that were sometimes genetically heterogeneous, providing variable levels of crossprotection. Here, we report a novel approach to rapidly generate crossprotective variants of the tomato-infecting Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) independently of the availability of mild field isolates. Our approach sought to attenuate PepMV by mutating less conserved amino acid residues of the abundantly produced capsid protein (CP). These less-conserved …

Msym 109: Physical Principles In Agriculture And Life Sciences—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, David Mabie

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark course portfolio was developed for MSYM 109 - Physical Principles in Agriculture and Life Sciences. The class is a general service course taken by majors as a prerequisite for future coursework along with several other CASNR majors to fulfill their physics course requirement. MSYM 109 is a high enrollment course, with 115 students in lecture, along with four separate 30 person recitation sections. This portfolio was developed to assess the following objectives: 1. Identify, evaluate, and justify the course objectives 2. Assess and evaluate the course pedagogy and assessment methodology 3. Analyze the historical students assessment results against …

Precision Agriculture Usage And Big Agriculture Data, Mike Castle, Bradley D. Lubben, Joe Luck

Cornhusker Economics

Agricultural producers have quickly adopted precision agriculture technologies in recent years. With the availability of global positioning system (GPS) signals and other technology, producers can track yields, steer and control equipment, monitor field conditions, and manage inputs at very precise levels across a field, offering the potential to substantially increase productivity and profitability.

Fortifying Farms And Ranches Against Weed Invasion, Utah State University

All Current Publications

The traditional approach to weed management on most farms or ranches is similar to a person running on a treadmill. A treadmill allows a person to run or walk while staying in one place. As the exercise deck cycles around and around, the user exerts energy to maintain the set pace, but never really goes anywhere.

Agricultural producers spend a great deal of resources (time and money) on what can be thought of as a weed management treadmill. The weed treadmill is always in motion. Treadmill speed is controlled by how well or how poorly the weeds were managed in …

Graywater Systems, Roslynn Brain, Jeremy Lynch, Kelly Kopp

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes graywater. Though not suitable as drinking water, graywater can be used for irrigation particularly of trees and shrubs, whose woody stems serve as additional filters for contaminants that may be present.

2015 Costs And Returns For Irrigated Soft White Wheat, Box Elder County, Lyle Holmgren, Mike Pace

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides a budget containing sample costs and returns to establish and produce soft white wheat under flood irrigation in Box Elder County. It is intended to be a guide used to estimate income and expenses, list inputs and production practices, and provide a framework for the whole farm plan.