Agricultural Science Commons^™

Citizen Scientists: Efforts By The Tri-Societies To Inject Science Into Us Policymaking, E. Bergfeld, K. Glasener

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The Tri-Societies (American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and Soil Science Society of America), the largest life science professional societies in the United States (US) dedicated to the agronomic, crop and soil sciences, encompass approximately 18,000 members globally and include approximately 14,000 certified professionals who are a direct conduit to the farming communities across the US. The Tri-Societies' US-based federal science policy programmes have been active for decades. There is a Washington, DC-based Director of Science Policy, Congressional Science Fellows (CSF) and Science Policy Interns.

Increasing Rye Cover Crop Biomass Production After Corn Residue Removal To Balance Economics And Soil Health, Sabrina J. Ruis, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, Paul J. Jasa, Glen Slater, Richard B. Ferguson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Low or variable cover crop (CC) biomass production could limit CC benefits. Longer CC growing periods via late termination could increase CC benefits, especially under limited crop residue return. We studied whether early (2–3 wk before planting)- or late (at planting)-terminated winter rye (Secale cereale L.) CC maintains soil properties, crop yields, and farm income under 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% corn (Zea mays L.) residue removal in rainfed and irrigated no-till in the U.S. Great Plains after 6 yr. Early-terminated CCs produced < 1 Mg ha^-1 of biomass while late-terminated CCs averaged 1.6 Mg ha^-1 at the rainfed …

Unraveling Prevalence And Effects Of Deleterious Mutations In Maize Elite Lines Across Decades Of Modern Breeding, Shichao Sun, Baobao Wang, Changyu Li, Gen Xu, Jinliang Yang, Matthew B. Hufford, Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra, Haiyang Wang, Li Wang

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Future breeding is likely to involve the detection and removal of deleterious alleles, which are mutations that negatively affect crop fitness. However, little is known about the prevalence of such mutations and their effects on phenotypic traits in the context of modern crop breeding. To address this, we examined the number and frequency of deleterious mutations in 350 elite maize inbred lines developed over the past few decades in China and the United States. Our findings reveal an accumulation of weakly deleterious mutations and a decrease in strongly deleterious mutations, indicating the dominant effects of genetic drift and purifying selection …

Soybean Tolerance To Ultra-Low Doses Of Dicamba: Hormesis Or Not, Luka Milosevic, O. Adewale Osipitan, Jon E. Scott, Stevan Z. Knezevic

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The widespread use of dicamba across the soybean growing regions of the United States resulted in increased off-target movement of this herbicide to susceptible vegetations. There are speculations that a drift of sublethal (ultra-low) doses of dicamba can enhance soybean growth and yield through a phenomenon called hormesis. Field studies were conducted during 2018 and 2019 to determine whether soybean growth and yield can be enhanced with ultra-low doses (0.0112–56 g ae ha^-1) of dicamba, applied at three growth stages (V2, R1 and R2). There was no evidence that the ultra-low doses of dicamba (0.0112–56 g ae ha …

Method Developments To Identify Loci And Selection Patterns Associated With Genotype By Environment Interactions In Soybean, Mary M. Happ

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

For many complex traits such as grain yield, genotype by environment (GxE) interactions are a prevalent source of phenotypic variation. Exploring the capacity of different methodologies to help describe and quantify the GxE interaction landscape for grain yield is an important step in informing plant breeders what the most viable strategies for management and exploitation of GxE may be. In this endeavor, we compared the results from multiple genome wide association studies (GWAS) that used either stability estimators as a phenotype to capture GxE variance, or directly mapped GxE in a mixed model for yield. Leading into this study, a …

Ranchsatdb: A Genome-Wide Simple Sequence Repeat (Ssr) Markers Database Of Livestock Species For Mutant Germplasm Characterization And Improving Farm Animal Health, Naveen Duhan, Simardeep Kaur, Rakesh Kaundal

Plants, Soils and Climate Student Research

Microsatellites, also known as simple sequence repeats (SSRs), are polymorphic loci that play an important role in genome research, animal breeding, and disease control. Ranch animals are important components of agricultural landscape. The ranch animal SSR database, ranchSATdb, is a web resource which contains 15,520,263 putative SSR markers. This database provides a comprehensive tool for performing end-to-end marker selection, from SSRs prediction to generating marker primers and their cross-species feasibility, visualization of the resulting markers, and finding similarities between the genomic repeat sequences all in one place without the need to switch between other resources. The user-friendly online interface …

Sustainability Of Permanent Grassland On A Low Moor Soil With Different N And K Nutrient Management, K. Orlovius, J. Pickert

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

After the reunification of Germany fertilisation with P and K was strongly reduced in the eastern states of Germany due to the poor financial situation of the farms. Particularly on sites with a low nutrient delivery capacity, such a nutrient management strategy implies the risk of decreasing soil fertility. On a low moor soil with permanent grassland a 4 - year trial with different N and K fertilisation was set up to study the development of dry matter production and K concentrations in the grass.

Genomes To Fields 2022 Maize Genotype By Environment Prediction Competition, Dayane Cristina Lima, Jacob D. Washburn, José Ignacio Varela, Qiuyue Chen, Joseph L. Gage, Maria Cinta Romay, James Holland, David Ertl, Marco Lopez-Cruz, Fernando M. Aguate, Gustavo De Los Campos, Shawn Kaeppler, Timothy Beissinger, Martin Bohn, Edward Buckler, Jode Edwards, Sherry Flint-Garcia, Michael A. Gore, Candice N. Hirsch, Joseph E. Knoll, John Mckay, Richard Minyo, Seth C. Murray, Osler A. Ortez, James C. Schnable, Rajandeep S. Sekhon, Maninder P. Singh, Erin E. Sparks, Addie Thompson, Mitchell Tuinstra, Jason Wallace, Teclemariam Weldekidan, Wenwei Xu, Natalia De Leon

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Objectives The Genomes to Fields (G2F) 2022 Maize Genotype by Environment (GxE) Prediction Competition aimed to develop models for predicting grain yield for the 2022 Maize GxE project field trials, leveraging the datasets previously generated by this project and other publicly available data.

Data description This resource used data from the Maize GxE project within the G2F Initiative [1]. The dataset included phenotypic and genotypic data of the hybrids evaluated in 45 locations from 2014 to 2022. Also, soil, weather, environmental covariates data and metadata information for all environments (combination of year and location). Competitors also had access to ReadMe …

Role Of Biotechnology In Creating Sustainable Agriculture, Saurav Das, Manjit Kumar Ray, Dinesh Panday, Piyush Kumar Mishra

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

This narrative review paper discusses the role of biotechnology in the development of sustainable agriculture. The paper begins by defning sustanability and highlights the importance of biotechnology in establishing sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is an approach that prioritizes meeting current food and fiber production needs while conserving and enhancing natural resources for future generations. To achieve agricultural sustainability, it is necessary to strike a balance between economic viability, environmental stewardship, and social responsibility. This can be difficult, especially in the face of biotic and abiotic stresses such as pests, diseases, climate change, soil degradation, and water depletion. The prevalence of …

Evaluation Of Salvinia Weevil Establishment, Dispersal, And Environmental Pressures Impacting The Giant Salvinia Biological Control Program, Korey Danielle Pham

LSU Master's Theses

Giant salvinia (Salvinia molesta Mitchell), an invasive free-floating aquatic fern, invaded the Toledo-Bend reservoir along the Texas-Louisiana border in the 1990s. The rapid spread threatens critical ecosystems, economies, and cultural services by altering water quality, and impacting fishing, hunting, and navigation. To combat this issue, the LSU AgCenter has been rearing and distributing the salvinia weevil (Cyrtobagous salviniae Calder and Sands), which has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing giant salvinia populations within a matter of months to a few years. The first study assessed the impact of propagule pressure on salvinia weevil effectiveness in outdoor mesocosms and revealed that …

Genetic Resources And Precise Gene Editing For Targeted Improvement Of Barley Abiotic Stress Tolerance, Sakura Karunarathne, Esther Walker, Darshan Sharma, Chengdao Li, Yong Han

Grain and Other Field Crops Research Articles

Abiotic stresses, predominately drought, heat, salinity, cold, and waterlogging, adversely affect cereal crops. They limit barley production worldwide and cause huge economic losses. In barley, functional genes under various stresses have been identified over the years and genetic improvement to stress tolerance has taken a new turn with the introduction of modern gene-editing platforms. In particular, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated protein 9 (Cas9) is a robust and versatile tool for precise mutation creation and trait improvement. In this review, we highlight the stress-affected regions and the corresponding economic losses among the main barley producers. We collate about …

Protecting Wa Crops Issue 31 - July 2023, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Protecting WA Crops

Protecting WA Crops Issue 31 - July 2023 contents:

• New project to reduce Rhizoctonia impact in low and medium rainfall zones
• Meet Crop Protection team member – Dr Ahmed Saad

Sheep Worms – Sustainable Summer-Autumn Worm Control, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Animal production and livestock factsheets

A summer drenching program for sheep worm control is now recognised as a key cause of drench resistance in Western Australia. However, some small changes can increase the sustainability of pre-emptive control programs. Drenches in summer should always be given to younger, growing sheep (current and previous year’s age groups), whereas adult sheep should be drenched in autumn, or if drenched in summer, some should be left untreated (if drenching at all). Research shows that this reduces the chance of developing drench resistance but still provides effective worm control.

Pestfacts Wa Issue 09 - July 2023, Alan Lord, Christiaan Valentine, Kithsiri W. Jayasena, Andrea Hills, Geoff J. Thomas, Ciara Beard, Cindy L. Webster

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 9 - July 2023 contents:

• Native budworm are active early
• Powdery mildew
• Slime mould

Evaluating Drill Interseeded Cover Crop Establishment And Nitrogen Impact In Irrigated Corn, Victor De Sousa Ferreira

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

The adoption of cover crops as a strategy to improve soil health and cropping systems sustainability is on the rise in the United States. PRE herbicides with soil residual activity are widely applied in corn production systems to prevent early season weed development, crop-weed competition, and yield loss. When preemergence herbicides are applied in the field, the active ingredients remain in the soil rhizosphere for a period of time, killing weed seedlings as they emerge. However, PRE herbicides can also impact the establishment of interseeded cover crops. Greenhouse bioassay was conducted to evaluate the preemergence herbicide carry-over potential to interseeded …

Pestfacts Wa Issue 11 - July 2023, Alan Lord

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 11 - July 2023 contents:

• Native budworm activity update

Pestfacts Wa Issue 10 - July 2023, Svetlana Micic, Cindy L. Webster, Benjamin S. Congdon, Kylie Chambers

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 10 - July 2023 contents:

• Russian wheat aphid
• Turnip yellows virus detected in flying green peach aphids and in canola
• Bacterial blight, Septoria avenae blotch and leaf rust are appearing in oats

Maintaining Grassland Plant Diversity While Controlling Woody Plant Encroachment, James Stubbendieck, Kay L. Kottas, S. J. Tunnell, S. J. Palazzolo

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The tallgrass prairie region of the United States is a fragmented grassland ecosystem. Much of the 1 to 2% of the remaining prairie is being degraded by invading woody plants, which frequently results in a shift from grassland to woodland. Smooth sumac (Rhus glabra L.), a shrub native to the region, can rapidly increase in density and become dominant in the plant community. Prescribed fire alone is not a constraint to this resprouting species (Stubbendieck et al., 2003). Herbicides are useful tools for managing woody plants in grasslands, but the negative response of desirable plants to herbicides is …

Do Species And Functional Diversity Indices Reflect Changes In Grazing Regimes And Climatic Conditions In Northeastern Spain?, F. De Bello, J. Leps, M. T. Sebastià

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Understanding the mechanisms that maintain biodiversity in various ecosystems enables the development of management practices that prevent degradation (Canals & Sebastia, 2000). Each diversity index reflects some compositional properties and could be influenced differently by stress and disturbance factors (Magurran, 2004). In this study, we aim to reveal 1) which management practices and environmental factors affect biodiversity in rangelands of northeastern Spain and 2) the relationship between species diversity and functional diversity (SD and FD).

Impact Of Grazing Regimes On Mean Sward Height: Implications For The Management Of Bird Habitats In Agricultural Landscapes, M. Tichit, D. Durant, E. Kernéïs

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Grazing in wet grasslands is a key process to manage foraging and nesting habitats for waders. Grazing has positive and negative effects related to the importance of sward conditions for these species and to nest-trampling by cattle. For settlement and nesting, lapwings need a short sward ( ≤ 10cm; see Durant et al., this congress). However, when lapwings settle in early spring, grasslands seldom are grazed yet, due to low soil carrying capacity. We studied the effect of autumn and winter grazing regimes on sward structure in early spring, and the effect of grazing regime in early spring on …

Soil Carbon Sequestration Under Three Years Of No-Till Forage Cropping Systems, D. H. Min, J. D. Deyoung, Richard Leep

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The effects of reduced tillage on soil organic carbon (SOC) are generally well established (Chan et al., 2002; Cabardella & Elliott, 1992). The effects of different crops are also somewhat understood (Drinkwater et al., 1998). However, many of these studies are done in the laboratory to study the effects of crop residues on SOC. Many forage-based systems have very little crop residue returned to the field. What residue does return is often in the form of manure or compost, which is usually broken down much more rapidly than most crop residues. The objective of this study is to …

Number And Viability Of Seeds Recovered From Faeces Of Ruminant Animals, Alaba O. Jolaosho, Olufemi S. Onifade, O. M. Arigbede, Jimoh A. Olanite, T. O. Akinola

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Ruminants play a significant role in the dissemination of plant seeds as a result of ingested seeds during grazing on pasture escaping digestion that are voided with the faeces and returned to the seed bank (Russi et al., 1992).

Population Changes Of Invasive Annuals In California Annual And Perennial Grasslands, Richard King

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Some non-native annual forbs and grasses can be invasive in California's annual grassland region. Taeniatherum caput-medusae (L.) Nevski and Centaurea solstitialis L. can spread quickly, become nearly monospecific stands, and reduce carrying capacity for livestock and wildlife. Centaurea also can be toxic to horses. Lathyrus hirsutus L. is less invasive, but the seed is toxic to various livestock. Since 1991, the author has raised beef cattle on 16 ha of predominantly annual grassland where these 3 species occur, and a family member has raised cattle on approximately 40 ha of adjacent property. Surface soils in this hilly land are …

The Effect Of Sheep Grazing At Two Stocking Rates On The Seedling Recruitment Of Grassland Forbs, Johannes Isselstein, Markus Kowarschik, S. Bonn, M. Hofmann

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Limitations for seedling recruitment are major constraints to maintain and enhance plant species diversity in productive grasslands (Bakker & Berendse 1999). Grass sward condition plus species-specific requirements for germination and survival determine the recruitment success. Therefore, a field experiment investigated the establishment of oversown seeds from wildflower forbs in relation to grass sward management.

A Basis For Designing Policies To Optimize Soil Carbon Sequestration In Southeastern Us Grasslands, Joel R. Brown, D. L. Faulkner

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Increasing the amount of carbon (C) stored in terrestrial ecosystems is an important part of most national greenhouse gas (GHG) management strategies. Among the policy and program options available to achieve increased C sequestration, improved management of grasslands offers an attractive option to both reduce atmospheric concentrations of C and enhance environmental co-benefits (soil quality, water quality, food and fibre production, and wildlife habitat). In the United States, incentives for applying improved land management practices come primarily via federal government conservation programs administered by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). While private sector markets offer opportunities to increase the …

The Nature Of Sequestered Carbon In Different Irish Mineral Soils, C. M. Byrne, D. Fay, J. A. Ferreira, M. H. B. Hayes

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Humic substances (HS) provide the major sinks for carbon (C) in soils. Although HS have a degree of resistance to microbial degradation, they are degraded in time. Humin, the HS component in association with the soil mineral colloids, has greatest resistance to degradation. To understand the extent to which soil can be a sink for C it is important to know the soil mineralogy, and to be aware of aspects of the structures of the humic components. Enhanced biological oxidation occurs in soils in long term cultivation. Its effects can be observed by comparing the amounts and compositions of the …

Conversion Of Native Grassland To Coniferous Forests Decreased Stocks Of Soil Organic Carbon And Microbial Biomass, Lidong Li, Elnaz Hosseiniaghdam, Rhae A. Drijber, Elizabeth Jeske, Tala Awada, J. Hiller, Michael Kaiser

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Aims Encroachment of woody species into grasslands is a global phenomenon that affects ecosystem services, including soil organic carbon (SOC) storage and microbial community structure. We determined stocks of SOC and soil microbial biomass as affected by conversion of grasslands to coniferous forests.

Methods We examined SOC and soil δ¹³C signatures under three vegetation covers: native grasslands, eastern redcedar (Juniperus virginiana), and ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), at six soil depths (0 − 10, 10 − 30, 30 − 100, 100 − 170, 170 − 240, 240 − 300 cm). Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) …

Classim: A Relational Database Driven Crop Model Interface, Dennis Timlin, David Fleisher, Maura Maura, Kirsten Paff, Wenguang Sun, Sahila Beegum, Sanai Li, Zhuangji Wang, Vangimalla Reddy

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Crop models are valuable tools for examining the interactions of cultivar characteristics, environment, and management practices, and how they affect crop growth and development. The difficulty in finding all the data needed to set up a simulation can often deter potential users from utilizing a crop model. Model interfaces are necessary to make these complex tools accessible to end-users who may lack the expertise needed to work with the models directly, but who would benefit from the information generated by the models. As crop models vary in terms of input and output structures, there is no one universally compatible interface, …

Tillage, Green Manuring And Crop Residue Management Impacts On Crop Productivity, Potassium Use Efficiency And Potassium Fractions Under Rice-Wheat System, Sandeep Sharma, Pritpal Singh, Hayssam M. Ali, Manzer Hussain Siddiqui, Javed Iqbal

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

The conventional crop production practices including intensive tillage and open field crop residue burning in world’ largest rice-wheat system (RWS) are adversely affecting crop productivity besides deteriorating natural resources and ecosystems’ sustainability. In order to improve system productivity, potassium (K) use efficiency and apparent K balance, adoption of conservation tillage in a RWS with residue management is considered highly effective. We therefore, studied the effect of wheat straw retention and green manure (GM) in rice (main plot treatment), and tillage and rice residue management in subsequent wheat (sub-plot treatments) on crop productivity, K use efficiency and its transformation amongst different …

The Effect Of Dairy Cow Genotype On Modelled Greenhouse Gas Emissions Derived From Pasture Based Milk Production Systems, Dan K. Lovett, L. Shalloo, P. Dillon, Frank O'Mara

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

A three-year systems comparison study was undertaken to see if progressively increasing the genetic potential for milk production of the dairy cow is desirable within pastoral based systems of spring milk production (Kennedy et al., 2002). The production data was inputted into the Moorepark Dairy System Model (MDSM) (Shalloo et al., 2004) to describe the economic, biological and production efficiency of each system. Output was then used to model whole farm greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (Lovett et al., in press) from the nine systems studied (three concentrate levels by three genotype levels). Only the genotype effects are …