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Agroecosystems Entomology Lab, Research Summary 2020

West Central Research and Extension Center, North Platte

Contents

Introduction: Agroecosystems Entomology Lab

Project # 1: Chemigation efficacy and spray deposition on corn for the control of western bean cutworm

Project #2: Insecticide application on western bean cutworm eggs and response of predators to treated eggs

Project #3: Investigating the Role of Spiders in Integrated Pest Management for Biological Control of Nebraska Crop Pests

Project #4: Modeling the potential global geographic distribution of Striacosta albicosta using MaxEnt

Project #5: Diversity and abundance of arthropods in industrial hemp fields of Nebraska

Optimization Of Conditions For Heat Pretreatment And Enzymatic Predigestion Of Ddgs For Pigs, Kevin Jerez-Bogota

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The high fiber content of corn dried distillers’ grains with solubles (DDGS) can limit its utilization in swine diets. Pretreatment with heat and enzymatic predigestion of whole stillage (WS; slurry material that is dried into DDGS) can alleviate negative effects of dietary fiber and can improve digestive and fermentation characteristics of the feedstuff. However, optimal time and temperature of the heat pretreatment of WS, and best enzymes for predigestion of WS have not been identified. Experiments were conducted to identify optimal conditions for heat pretreatment and multienzyme predigestion of WS for pigs. First experiment was conducted to identify optimal temperature …

From Active Duty To Agriculture: Engaging Veterans In Farming And Gardening, Daria Domin

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

Second in a series of Innovative AT Practices briefs, From Active Duty to Agriculture: Engaging Veterans in Farming and Gardening describes a long standing initiative by the Kansas Assistive Technology Program that aids veterans and active duty soldiers transitioning into civilian life by providing them with opportunities in agriculture.

Fall Broccoli Production In High Tunnels, Wenjing Guan

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

A fall broccoli trial was conducted in a high tunnel at the Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center, Vincennes, IN in 2016 to test the potential of growing broccoli in high tunnels after tomato. Six broccoli cultivars were evaluated in the trial. Seedlings were transplanted in the high tunnel on Sep. 2. Plants started to form heads in the middle of October. The first harvest occurred on Oct. 25 on cultivars Blue Wind and Green Magic. Harvest for cultivars Belstar and Arcadia started the latest on Nov. 11. Cultivars Green Magic and Blue Wind developed about 2 side heads per plant, which …

Summer Squash Variety Evaluation For Early-Season Production In High Tunnels, Wenjing Guan

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

Crops that can set fruit without pollination have an advantage for early-season high tunnel production. With a diverse fruit shape and color, summer squash is a valuable crop providing diversity, especially for the early farmers market. Six selected summer squash cultivars that are either indicated as parthenocarpic cultivar in seed catalogs or showed high capability to set fruit without pollination in the previous study were evaluated in a high tunnel trial in spring 2018 at the Southwest Purdue Agricultural Center, Vincennes, IN.

Deciphering The Past To Inform The Future: Preparing For The Next (“Really Big”) Extreme Event, Debra Pc Peters, N Dylan Burruss, Gregory S. Okin, Jerry L. Hatfield, Stacey Lp Scroggs, Haitao Huang, Colby W. Brungard, Jin Yao

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

Climate change will bring more extremes in temperature and precipitation that will impact productivity and ecosystem resilience throughout agroecosystems worldwide. Historical events can be used to identify drivers that impact future events. A catastrophic drought in the US in the 1930s resulted in an abrupt boundary between areas severely impacted by the Dust Bowl and areas that were less severely affected. Historical primary production data confirmed the location of this boundary at the border between two states (Nebraska and Iowa). Local drivers of weather and soils explained production responses across the boundary before and after the drought (1926–1948). During the …

Evaluation Of Transplant Root Length On Bell Pepper Yield And Quality, Ron G. Goldy, Kyle Ferrantella

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Performance Of 18 Fresh Market And Eight Saladette Tomato Cultivars In Southwest Michigan In 2019, Ron G. Goldy, Kyle Ferrantella

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Spring Black Rot-Resistant Cabbage Cultivar Evaluation, Chris Smigell, John Strang, John Snyder

Midwest Vegetable Trial Reports

No abstract provided.

Contents, Discovery Editors

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

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Dean, Deacue Fields

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

No abstract provided.

Corn Response To Wastewater-Recycled Phosphorus Fertilizers, Shane R. Ylagan, Kristofor R. Brye

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

The ability to recycle phosphorus (P) from wastewaters could provide a sustainable, continuous source of P that might also help protect surface water quality from P enrichment. The mineral struvite (MgNH4PO4 · 6H2O) is an understudied material that can be created from P- and nitrogen (N)-containing wastewater and has been shown to have agricultural fertilizer value. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of electrochemically precipitated struvite (ECST), chemically precipitated struvite (Crystal Green; CG), diammonium phosphate (DAP), monoammonium phosphate (MAP), rock phosphate (RP), and triple superphosphate (TSP) on corn (Zea mays) response in a greenhouse pot study. …

The Influence Of Land Use On The Pollen Diet Of Honey Bee (Apis Mellifera) Colonies In Ellis County, Kansas, Ryan Engel

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Pollinators are integral to plant ecology as well as to worldwide food availability and security. Understanding how human-driven land use change impacts the nutrition of managed honey bees is important in pollinator conservation efforts and can contribute towards combating recent pollinator declines. The objective of this study was to determine sources of forage for honey bees across different land use types in Ellis County, Kansas, through pollen analysis and taxonomic identification. Replicate study colonies were placed in three separate land use types: Urban, Cropland, or Native/Semi-native prairie. Pollen was sampled every 7 to 14 days throughout a growing season (April …

Interactive Effects Of The Co2 Enrichment And Nitrogen Supply On The Biomass Accumulation, Gas Exchange Properties, And Mineral Elements Concentrations In Cucumber Plants At Different Growth Stages, Xun Li, Jinlong Dong, Nazim S. Gruda, Wenying Chu, Zengqiang Duan

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The concentration changes of mineral elements in plants at different CO₂ concentrations ([CO₂]) and nitrogen (N) supplies and the mechanisms which control such changes are not clear. Hydroponic trials on cucumber plants with three [CO₂] (400, 625, and 1200 µmol mol⁻¹) and five N supply levels (2, 4, 7, 14, and 21 mmol L⁻¹) were conducted. When plants were in high N supply, the increase in total biomass by elevated [CO₂] was 51.7% and 70.1% at the seedling and initial fruiting stages, respectively. An increase in net photosynthetic rate …

Evaluating The Impact Of Grafting On Local Tomato Production In Nebraska, Raihanah Hassim, Samuel E. Wortman, Ashley A. Thompson, Stacy A. Adams

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

Grafting has been successfully used in vegetable production for tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, and watermelon. Besides its usefulness for managing soil-borne diseases, grafting can improve nutrient uptake and yield. However, few studies have assessed the effects of grafting and soil fertility management on yield of open field-grown tomatoes in the Midwest. Therefore, the objective of this two-year research was to better document the effects of grafting heirloom and hybrid tomato cultivar onto hybrid tomato rootstocks on tomato yield and quality. The field experiments were located at the University of Nebraska Lincoln - East Campus in Lincoln, West Central Research and …

The Economics Of On-Farm Rice Drying In Arkansas, Clayton J. Parker, Lanier Nalley

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

Globally, rice producers are faced with the temporal problem of deciding the optimal time to harvest rice. When harvested, paddy rice is typically at a harvest moisture content (HMC) between 15% and 22% and subsequently dried by the mill to a moisture content (MC) of 12.5%. Riceland Foods Inc., the largest miller of rice in the world, uses a stair-step pricing model to charge farmers to dry, which can complicate the timing of harvest as producers try to balance the tradeoff of minimizing drying costs by waiting to harvest at lower HMC vs. maintaining higher rice quality typically observed when …

Characterization Of Jasmine Rice Cultivars Grown In The United States, Anastasia K. Mills, Ya-Jane Wang

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

Jasmine rice from Thailand accounts for about 60% to 70% of U.S. imported rice, primarily due to its preference by ethnic Asians as well as the general American population. Recently new U.S. jasmine rice cultivars have been developed independently at three rice research stations in Arkansas, California, and Louisiana, but their properties have not been characterized. The objective of this research was to characterize and compare the physical appearance, chemical composition, thermal and pasting properties, cooked rice texture, and starch structures of the newly developed U.S. jasmine rice from Arkansas, California, and Louisiana, to be compared with jasmine rice samples …

The Biofiltration Ability Of Asparagus Densiflorus To Remove Sulfur Dioxide From The Indoor Atmosphere, Rhiannon De La Rosa, Mary Savin

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

Sulfur dioxide is an inorganic compound (IC) and air pollutant that causes health risks in humans. The buildup of sulfur dioxide (SO2) in enclosed indoor spaces is, therefore, a concern to human health, especially since the average person spends 90% of his/her time indoors. This study focused on decreasing SO2 concentration in a cost-effective and simple way—by using botanical biofiltration, or the uptake of pollutants by plants. Research in biofiltration has focused mostly on the remediation of volatile organic compounds (VOC). However, research has also shown that plant species that remediate VOC efficiently also have the potential for efficient IC …

The Political Preference Of Arkansas Farmers And Ranchers, Rachel J. Barry, Donna L. Graham

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

Access to information is critical to improving production efficiency, but little is known about how farmers are informed on the policy or issues influencing programs related to farming. This research sought to determine the sources of communication used by farmers and ranchers to form opinions about agricultural policy and candidates, identify the issues important in voting, and their level of participation in the political process. Face-to-face interaction was the preferred form of communication in farm organization meetings, with friends, or farm agencies. Magazines were the preferred source of print communication, and university/extension websites were preferred for internet sources. Broadcast media …

Dynamic Balancing Of Foraging And Defensive Effort Contribute To The Optimality Of The Honey Bee Robbing Strategy, Grayson James Grume

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

The optimality of a foraging strategy shifts in response to dynamic ecological conditions and the need to devote effort to other tasks. Nest defense and foraging effort in the honey bee may trade off as both tasks are performed by a shared workforce of physiologically-specialized individuals in exclusive roles. Honey robbing is a foraging strategy predicted to benefit from simultaneous increases in foraging and defensive effort, but may be constrained by workforce specialization. We developed a methodology to induce robbing behaviors with uninhabited bait hives. We used this methodology to evaluate foraging and defensive effort before and during robbing by …