Agriculture Commons^™

Veganic Agriculture In The United States: Opportunities For Research, Outreach, And Education, Alisha Utter, Mona Seymour

Urban and Environmental Studies Faculty Works

A growing number of farmers are excluding animal inputs from crop production, an approach commonly referred to as veganic or stockfree organic agriculture. This research-based article discusses the soil health and fertility strategies reported by a sample of U.S. veganic farmers. These approaches may be relevant beyond the veganic community to farmers seeking innovative methods for produce safety and nutrient cycling. Agricultural outreach professionals (AOPs), including Extension personnel, play a critical role in supporting veganic practices by serving as cross-pollinators between farmers and research institutions. Thus, the article endeavors to expand AOP familiarity with veganic practices and benefits.

2021 Weed Science Research Report – Blue Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document reports on field research conducted in 2021. It includes work on corn, soybean and the management of several weeds in North Dakota.

2021 Weed Science Research Report – Green Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document reports on field research conducted in 2021. It includes work on sugarbeet and the management of several weeds in North Dakota.

2021 Weed Science Research Report – Yellow Section, Ndsu Weed Science, Dept. Of Plant Sciences

Plant Sciences Weed Science Reports

The Weed Science team at North Dakota State University conduct field research in the State of North Dakota. This specific document reports on field research conducted in 2021. It includes work on minor crops and the management of several weeds in North Dakota.

Plant Species Identification In The Wild Based On Images Of Organs, Meghana Kovur

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Image-based plant species identification in the wild is a difficult problem for several reasons. First, the input data is subject to a very high degree of variability because it is captured under fully unconstrained conditions. The same plant species may look very different in different images, while different species can often appear very similar, challenging even the recognition skills of human experts in the field. The large intra-class and small inter-class image variability makes this a fine-grained visual classification problem. One way to cope with this variability and to reduce image background noise is to predict species based on the …

Soil Response Of Helicopter Liming In The Monongahela National Forest, Jarrett Douglas Fowler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Soils in the Monongahela National Forest (MNF) are acidic due to sandstone parent material, acid deposition, uptake of base cations by vegetation, and release of organic acids by organic matter (OM) decomposition. Increases in soil acidity have caused declines in forest health and changed species composition and nutrient status. Liming can neutralize soil acidity, but no large-scale liming projects have been done on acid forest soils in the USA. In anticipation of acquiring funding for a proposed liming project in the MNF, in 2007 and 2009 10 sites were selected to sample and analyze soils before lime was applied. In …

Agricultural And Food Security Impacts From The 2010 Russia Flash Drought, Eric D. Hunt, Francesco Femia, Caitlin Werrell, Jordan Christian, Jason A. Otkin, Jeff Basara, Martha Anderson, Tyler R. White, Christopher Hain, Robb Randall, Katie Mcgaughey

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

The flash drought and its associated heat wave that affected western Russia in the summer of 2010 had significant cascading agricultural and socioeconomic impacts. Drought indicators sensitive to soil moisture and evapotranspiration (ET) showed that the flash drought began in June 2010, then intensified rapidly and expanded to cover much of western Russia. By early July, almost all of the major wheat producing regions of Russia were experiencing extreme water stress to the winter and spring wheat crops. The timing of the onset of the flash drought was particularly devastating as the period of most rapid intensification overlapped with the …

Abrasive Weeding As A Vehicle For Precision Fertilizer Management In Organic Vegetable Production, Tran Kim Ngan Luong, Frank Forcella, Sharon Clay, Michael S. Douglass, Samuel E. Wortman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Abrasive weeding is a nonchemical weed control tactic that uses small, gritty materials propelled with compressed air to destroy weed seedlings. Organic fertilizers have been used successfully as abrasive grits to control weeds, but the goal for this study was to explore the effects of fertilizer grit, application rates, and background soil fertility on weeds, plant available nitrogen (N) uptake, and crop yield. Field trials were conducted in organic ‘Carmen’ sweet red pepper (Capsicum annuum) and organic ‘Gypsy’ broccoli (Brassica oleracea var. italica) and treatments included organic fertilizer grit (8N–0.9P–3.3K vs. 3N–3.1P–3.3K), grit application rates (low …

Development Of Mping-Based Activation Tags For Crop Insertional Mutagenesis, Alexander Johnson, Edward Mcassey, Stephanie Diaz, Jacod Reagin, Priscilla S. Redd, Daymond R. Parrilla, Hanh Nguyen, Adrian Stec, Lauren A.L. Mcdaniel, Thomas E. Clemente, Robert M. Stupar, Wayne A. Parrott, C. Nathan Hancock

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Modern plant breeding increasingly relies on genomic information to guide crop im- provement. Although some genes are characterized, additional tools are needed to effectively identify and characterize genes associated with crop traits. To address this need, the mPing element from rice was modified to serve as an activation tag to in- duce expression of nearby genes. Embedding promoter sequences in mPing resulted in a decrease in overall transposition rate; however, this effect was negated by using a hyperactive version of mPing called mmPing20. Transgenic soybean events carrying mPing-based activation tags and the appropriate transposase expression cassettes showed evidence of transposition. …

The Role Of Peer Irrigators On The Choice And Intensity Of Use Of Irrigation Techniques, Noah Hayward, Kent Kovacs

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

The use and the proportion of farmland that uses prominent irrigation practices in Arkansas were evaluated. A bivariate sample selection model evaluated the determinants of the share of irrigated land in a farm that uses each practice. In addition, the relationship between the irrigation practices a peer uses and the use and intensity of five common irrigation practices was evaluated. If a peer of an Arkansas farmer used center pivot irrigation, this increased the probability that the farmer used center pivot irrigation by 66 percentage points. A peer that used pivot irrigation decreased the proportion of irrigated land that used …

Exploring How Maternal Phosphorus Status Affects Calf Growth And Performance, Elizabeth Lafferty, Beth Kegley, Brittni Littlejohn, Jeremy Powell

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Phosphorus is an important component of bodily functions and is critical for adequate growth and development. This experiment evaluated the effect of maternal phosphorus intake on the growth and health of the calves. Treatments were 1) a free-choice mineral containing no supplemental P or 2) a free-choice mineral with 4% supplemental phosphorus. Primiparous, or pregnant for the first time, crossbred Angus beef cows (n = 36) were stratified by body weight and pregnancy status (bred by artificial insemination or natural service) then assigned to pasture groups (4 groups, 2/treatment, 9 heifers/group). These bred heifers had been receiving these same dietary …

A Decision Tool To Identify Population Management Strategies For Common Ravens And Other Avian Predators, Andrea F. Currylow, Brenda J. Hanley, Kerry L. Holcomb, Timothy Shields, Stephen Boland, William I. Boarman, Mercy Vaughn

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Some avian species have developed the capacity to leverage resource subsidies associated with human manipulated landscapes to increase population densities in habitats with naturally low carrying capacities. Elevated corvid densities and new territory establishment have led to an unsustainable increase in depredation pressure on sympatric native wildlife prey populations as well as in crop damage. Yet, subsidized predator removal programs aimed at reducing densities are likely most effective longer-term when conducted in tandem with subsidy control, habitat management, and robust assessment monitoring programs. We developed decision support software that leverages stage structured Lefkovitch population matrices to compare and identify treatment …

Identification And Utilization Of Genetic Determinants Of Trait Measurement Errors In Image-Based, High-Throughput Phenotyping, Yan Zhou, Aaron Kusmec, Seyed Vahid Mirnezami, Lakshmi Attigala, Srikant Srinivasan, Talukder Zaki Jubery, James Schnable, Maria G. Salas Fernandez, Baskar Ganapathysubramanian, Patrick S. Schnable

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The accuracy of trait measurements greatly affects the quality of genetic analyses. During automated phenotyping, trait measurement errors, i.e., differences between automatically extracted trait values and ground truth, are often treated as random effects that can be controlled by increasing population sizes and/or replication number. By contrast, there is some evidence that trait measurement errors may be partially under genetic control. Consistent with this hypothesis, we observed substantial non-random, genetic contributions to trait measurement errors for five maize (Zea mays) tassel traits collected using an image-based phenotyping platform. The phenotyping accuracy varied according to whether a tassel exhibited …

Incorporation Of Summer Annual Mixtures Into Grazing Systems In Kentucky, Kelly Marie Mercier

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Utilizing summer annual grass-legume forage mixtures has the potential to improve forage yield and nutritive characteristics, and/or animal performance during times when cool-season pasture growth is limited by high temperatures. Legumes can utilize atmospheric nitrogen, which can increase crude protein and forage digestibility in mixtures. As nitrogen application generally improves both the yield and nutritive characteristics of summer annual forages, but can have a negative effect on legume competitiveness, nitrogen fertilizer recommendations for legume-containing summer annual mixtures are not well established.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the feasibility of utilizing summer annual mixtures in Kentucky, USA. The first experiment …

Pheromone Antagonism In Plutella Xylostella (Linnaeus) By Sex Pheromones Of Two Sympatric Noctuid Moths, Fu Min Wang, Zhi Jie Shen, Coby Schal, Junwei J. Zhu, Guo Xin Zhou, Yu Lei Wang, Ji Rui Wang, Jian Yu Deng, Nian Feng Wan

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

BACKGROUND: Responses to sex pheromones are commonly antagonized by pheromone components of closely related species. Pheromone antagonism has not been widely explored for phylogenetically distant species that have completely different pheromone components. Yet, pheromone components of sympatrically occurring species may also interfere with each other even if these species are distantly related. Here, the effects of heterospecific pheromones on electrophysiology (electroantennogram, EAG) and behavioral responses were tested on the diamondback moth Plutella xyloslella (Plutellidae) and two sympatric noctuid moth species, Spodoptera litura and Spodoptera exigua, whose larvae also feed on Brassica crops.

RESULTS: The sex pheromone blend of P. xyloslella, …

Forages For Conservation And Improved Soil Quality, John F. Obrycki, Douglas L. Karlen

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

Forages provide several soil benefits, including reduced soil erosion, reduced water runoff, improved soil physical properties, increased soil carbon, increased soil biologic activity, reduced soil salinity, and improved land stabilization and restoration when grown continuously or as part of a crop rotation. Ongoing research and synthesis of knowledge have improved our understanding of how forages alter and protect soil resources, thus providing producers, policymakers, and the general public information regarding which forage crops are best suited for a specific area or use (e.g. hay, grazing or bioenergy feedstock). Forages can be produced in forestland, range, pasture, and cropland settings. These …

Antibacterial Activities Of Nepetalactones Against Public Health-Related Pathogens, Anuradha Ghosh, Enya V. Zhu, Haichuan Wang, Ludek Zurek, Junwei J. Zhu

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

The antimicrobial activities of (Z,E)- and (E,Z)-nepetalactones, 2 major compositional compounds from the essential oil of catnip (Nepeta cataria), were first discovered from fly larval development media studies with over 98% inhibition of bacterial growth. Further investigation demonstrated inhibition of the growth of various bacterial species of public health significance. Catnip oil showed antibacterial activity against 5 Gram-positive and 9 Gram-negative bacteria. The antimicrobial activity varied among the original essential oil from the plant and its major compositional compounds as a blended mixture or an individual compound. Growth inhibition was observed against 5 Neisseria species, with particularly strong inhibition against …

Evaluation Of Leaf Spot Resistance In Wild Arachis Species Of Section Arachis, Alicia Massa, Renee Arias, Ronald B. Sorensen, Victor S. Sobolev, S. P. Tallury, H. T. Stalker, Marshall Lamb

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

Wild diploid Arachis species are potential sources of resistance to early (ELS) and late (LLS) leaf spot diseases caused by Passalora arachidicola (syn. Cercospora arachidicola Hori), and Nothopassalora personata (syn. Cercosporidium personatum (Berk. & Curt.) Deighton), respectively. Within section Arachis, limited information is available on the extent of genetic variation for resistance to these fungal pathogens. A collection of 78 accessions representing 15 wild species of Arachis section Arachis from the U.S peanut germplasm collection was evaluated for resistance to leaf spots. Screening was conducted under field (natural inoculum) conditions in Dawson, Georgia, during 2017 and 2018. Accessions differed …

A Snowball Effect: A Pandemic’S Impacts On Household Food Insecurity In The United States, Sidie Sahid Sisay

Dissertations and Theses

Economic insecurity exists whenever income sources are uncertain, and this is a failure of a fundamental human right. The Covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented disruptions to the US economy and has created unparalleled food insufficiency and economic hardships. Before the pandemic, household food insufficiency existed but downplayed in the political arena. In 2019, 10.5 percent of households in the US lived in extreme poverty and were food insecure, the lowest since 1959, but the pandemic has had devastating effects on household food insufficiency. This paper uses nationally representative data from the Census Bureau’s weekly household pulse survey, coupled with standard …

Skeleton Weed Program 2020/21: Annual Report To Grain Growers, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Agriculture reports

No abstract provided.

Midwestern U.S. Diurnal Temperature Range: Spatial And Temporal Trends From 1900-2018, Kelly Ann Swaney

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

In the Corn Belt region of the United States, the twentieth century saw many land use changes as the land had been converted from the natural landscape to cropland. As the twentieth century progressed, numerous advancements occurred to increase the crop acreage, crop density, and amount of irrigated land. All of these changes contributed to higher rates of evapotranspiration, which put more moisture into the low levels of the atmosphere. This additional moisture played a role in changing the radiative fluxes and, as a result, the surface temperature. The Diurnal Temperature Range (DTR) is examined across the 1900 to 2018 …

Perceived Stressors Of Filipinos In South Korea And The Development Of An Appreciative Resilience-Focused Wellness Program, Monica H. Walet, Emely D. Dicolen, Joeffrey M. Calimag

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

People are faced with numerous challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has affected all the areas of their well-being - physical, psycho-emotional, social, financial, and spiritual. Overseas Filipinos, specifically the Filipinos in South Korea, are not exempted from these. It is in this light that this research analyzed the factors that affect the well-being of Filipinos in South Korea and propose a sustainable program that would provide the needed support to navigate their unique challenges and perceived requirements for personal growth. A total of 353 Filipinos from various sojourns participated in the survey: Employment Permit System workers, marriage migrants, …

Decolonizing Food Systems Research – The Case Of Household Agricultural Food Access In Bikotiba, Togo, Katryna Maria Kibler

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Indigenous West African farmers are among the most climate change threatened globally. Food insecurity is prevalent in West Africa because ecological, social, political, and economic instabilities, and globalization worsen climate pressures. In this study, I collaborated with the community of Bikotiba (bih-CO-ti-buh), Togo, to understand their household agricultural food access, one aspect of resilience to food insecurity. I adopted a feminist approach of reflexivity, radical vulnerability, and radical empathy, combined with decolonizing principles, to argue that there could be an ethical way for well-trained Western researchers to engage Indigenous communities, if negotiated carefully. Together, Indigenous Research Assistants and I developed …

A Case Study Of Avocado, Berry, And Apple Trade Through Nafta, Jose A. Lopez, Hovhannes Mnatsakanyan

Faculty Publications

A Source-Differentiated Almost Ideal Demand System (SDAIDS) model was estimated for berries, apples, and avocadoes imported through NAFTA prior to the new USMCA. Elasticity estimates are useful for measuring consumers’ responsiveness to changes in fresh-fruit prices or expenditures. This study found the demands for berries, apples, and avocadoes were price inelastic; and that cases of substitute fresh-fruit imports were more frequent than complements. The study also assessed expected changes in US fresh-fruit imports through NAFTA in the wake of a tariff on Mexican fresh fruits as frequently propagated by politicians in the news. The combined direct and indirect impacts from …

Crop Salinity Tolerance Induction Using Novel Biostimulants (Saltibio), Elomofe Ikuyinminu

Theses

Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses affecting crop production, especially in arid and semi-arid areas. Most of the vegetable crops are salt sensitive, growing inadequately in salinised soils due to the accumulation of toxic ions from prolonged, inadequate irrigation programs. A meaningful approach to counteract salinity stress and increase crop yield is the use of protein hydrolysate biostimulants (PHBs). The main objectives of this study were to generate legume-derived PHBs by enzymatic hydrolysis, evaluate their ability to induce salinity stress tolerance in plants, and understand their mode of action. A full compositional and structural analysis of the generated …

A Narrative Review On Environmental Impacts Of Cannabis Cultivation, Zhonghua Zheng, Kelsey Fiddes, Liangcheng Yang

Faculty Publications - Agriculture

Interest in growing cannabis for medical and recreational purposes is increasing worldwide. This study reviews the environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation. Results show that both indoor and outdoor cannabis growing is water-intensive. The high water demand leads to water pollution and diversion, which could negatively affect the ecosystem. Studies found out that cannabis plants emit a significant amount of biogenic volatile organic compounds, which could cause indoor air quality issues. Indoor cannabis cultivation is energy-consuming, mainly due to heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and lighting. Energy consumption leads to greenhouse gas emissions. Cannabis cultivation could directly contribute to soil erosion. Meanwhile, …

Geometric Morphometric Analyses Define Riverine And Lacustrine Species Flocks Of Himalayan Snowtrout (Cyprinidae: Schizothorax) In Nepal, Binod Regmi, Marlis R. Douglas, David R. Edds, Michael E. Douglas

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Freshwater fishes in the river and lake systems in the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau are morphologically diverged but the evolutionary relationship of putative subspecies separated in these freshwater systems has not been explored. Snowtrout (Schizothorax spp.) are minnows (Cyprinidae) broadly distributed in Asia. Body shapes of 3 Lake Rara (northwest Nepal) endemics (S. macrophthalmus, S. nepalensis, S. raraensis) and 2 widely distributed riverine species (S. progastus, S. richardsonii) across 3 drainages in Nepal (i.e. Karnali, Gandaki, and Koshi Rivers) were studied using geometric morphometry. Data were derived from museum voucher specimens/tissues collected …

Developing Whey Protein Encapsulated Probiotics And Evaluating Environmental Listeria Using Whole-Genome Sequencing, Shayanti Minj

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study, a novel value-added dairy-based health formulation was developed using whey protein hydrolysate and probiotic organisms. In the first part of the study, different forms of whey proteins, concentrate WPC80, isolate WPI90, and hydrolysates WPH10, WPH15 and WPH20 were screened for bioactivities (antimicrobial, antioxidant, and antihypertensive activity). Hydrolysate WPH10, exhibiting the highest bioactivities was conjugated with maltodextrin. A batch of 2L conjugated solution was spray dried in a Niro drier with an inlet and outlet temperature of 200⁰C and 90⁰C, and alternatively, freeze dried at −80 °C under 50 mTorr vacuum. The bioactivities of the conjugated samples were …

Roles Of Non-Frankia Bacteria In Root Nodule Formation And Function In Alnus Sp., Kelsey Christine Mercurio

Honors Theses and Capstones

Plant roots are home to a wide variety of beneficial microbes; understanding and optimizing plant-microbe interactions may be critical to enhance global food security in a sustainable, equitable way. With the help of their nitrogen-fixing bacterial partner, Frankia, actinorhizal plants form symbiotic root nodules and play important roles in agroforestry and land reclamation. However, Frankia does not live alone in nodules, and the other microbial residents may contribute to nodule formation and function. We collected root nodules from alder trees (Alnus sp.) in 2018 and 2019, then isolated DNA and individual bacterial strains to characterize the nodule microbial …

Optimisation Of Grass Measurement Technologies Through Field Experimentation And Numerical Simulation Methods, Darren Joseph Murphy

Theses

Maximising pasture utilisation through optimal grassland management is vital in terms of ensuring the economic sustainability and mitigating the environmental impact of both Irish and global pasture-based livestock production. Frequent and accurate measurement of grass quantity and quality is one of the main methods of maximising grass production and utilisation on pasture-based farms. The most prominent grass measurement tool used on Irish pasture is the rising plate meter (RPM), however, there are a range of issues with this method including operator bias, precision and difficulties in accounting for spatial variation. Currently, there is no definitive protocol for grass measurement which …