Less water, better Merlot taste and yield

by Marlene Fritz

Growing wine grapes in the parched, high-desert heat of southwestern Idaho demands irrigation.

But irrigation isn’t just another expense in the wine grape industry—it’s an opportunity to enhance grape quality by deliberately stressing the crop during particular stages of plant growth and fruit development.

Krista Shellie, a research horticulturist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service stationed at the University of Idaho’s Southwest Idaho Research and Extension Center, Parma, is examining impacts of various “deficit irrigation” schemes on Merlot grapes.

In a 3-year study near Nampa, she found that the most effective strategy is to begin water-stressing the vines right after fruit set and to alleviate the severity of that stress about 7 to 8 weeks later, after the grapes have turned purple and softened. “That produces the best ‘berry’ quality components, combined with yield,” she says. 

Another finding: Producers can reduce seasonal water consumption by almost a third by restricting irrigation to 35 percent of estimated crop water requirements between fruit set and color change. They restore irrigation to only 70 percent from color change through harvest. “Wine grapes in general are pretty tough,” she says. “That’s why we can apply this stress to enhance quality.”

It’s official! Snake River Valley Wines

Regions that naturally get more rainfall can’t use deficit irrigation to manage their grapes. Indeed, the terroir—or interplay of soils, rocks, climate, history, geography, and viticulture—of southwestern Idaho and eastern Oregon has been declared sufficiently different from other grape-growing areas to warrant a distinctive name for its wines.

In April 2007—thanks in part to documentation by Shellie and University of Idaho Associate Research Geologist Virginia Gillerman—wine grape growers in an 8,263 square mile area from Twin Falls into Oregon won federal approval to market their products as “Snake River Valley” wines.

“We’re already getting calls and e-mails from people all over the country who want to try our wines,” says Ron Bitner, acting director of the Idaho Grape Growers and Wine Producers Commission. “It’s generated a lot of excitement.”

Contact Krista Shellie at kshellie@uidaho.edu.

Finland scientist shares challenges of researching anti-cancer plants

by Bill Loftus

Many high-value pharmaceuticals, for example in cancer therapies, contain active ingredients from nature. Today 25 percent of all pharmaceuticals in Western society contain at least one active natural ingredient. But finding enough wild plants or cultivating them for medical uses is time consuming.

Finland’s Kirsi-Marja Oksman-Caldentey shared these observations with University of Idaho students and faculty during her November 2006 visit to Moscow. She gave the John and Olga LeTourneau Memorial Lecture about her research on plant-derived compounds that may provide important drugs to treat human diseases.

The chief research scientist at Finland’s  VTT Technical Research Center also    outlined efforts by today’s scientists to speed up harnessing healthful ingredients, including chemical synthesis and plant cell and tissue cultures.             

Duane LeTourneau attended, honoring both Oksman-Caldentey and the memory of his parents who encouraged him to pursue an academic career that spanned  38 years at the University of Idaho as a biochemistry professor

Since Duane and his wife, Phyllis, established an endowment to fund the lectureship in 1987, scientists from across the U.S. and Europe have traveled to Moscow to present their research and interact with students and faculty during seminars and individual sessions.

Among Oksman-Caldentey’s interests is the Madagascar periwinkle, the source of a potent anti-cancer drug. Her research group is also probing anti-oxidant compounds that make berries both colorful and healthful.

“Moscow can be way off the beaten path, so this is a chance for our students, faculty, and staff to hear from scientists with a reputation for excellence,” LeTourneau said.

CALS professor takes E. coli education to a restaurant

by Donna Emert

It takes moxy to discuss E. coli O157:H7 over supper and a pint.

Fortunately for the crowd of about 60 who gathered last April at the Coeur d’Alene Brewing Company, a pub and restaurant in Coeur d’Alene, CALS Professor Carolyn Hovde Bohach has both moxy and intimate knowledge of the best data available on E. coli O157:H7.

Bohach has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles and a book in the area of bacterial pathogenesis, many of the articles specifically on E. coli O157:H7. Her research focuses on the relationship between healthy cattle that carry the pathogen and human infection. 

Escherichia coli O157:H7 is one of the bacteria living in the lower intestines of ruminant animals. It assists in waste processing, vitamin K production, and food absorption. Cows live healthy lives with billions of the bacteria in their systems.
Yet consuming fewer than 100 of the microscopic critters can prove deadly to susceptible humans, especially the very young and the elderly.

Her presentation is part of “Science on Tap, Coeur d’Alene,” informal lectures that provide a casual forum on science that impacts our everyday lives. See the fall 2007 schedule at www.uirp.com. Contact Bohach at cbohach@uidaho.edu.

Four bean varieties sharpen Idaho’s competitive edge

by Marlene Fritz

CALS bean breeder Shree Singh released not one, but four new varieties of dry beans this spring—the first products of an 8-year-old breeding program that has graduated with honors from its groundworking period and begun to take off.

Proving their merit in Idaho, regional, and national trials are:

Sawtooth—a large-seeded, full-season, high-yielding great northern that matches standard-bearing UI 425 in production but offers superior resistance to bean common mosaic virus (BCMV), rust, and Fusarium root rot.

Hungerford—a full-season great northern that resists BCMV and rust.            Exceptionally large seed size should interest top-dollar European markets.

Kimberly—a light-colored, full-season pinto outyielded all other beans in the U.S.-Canadian 2006 Cooperative Dry Bean Nursery. It offers recessive resistance to BCMV and bean common mosaic necrosis virus, and it resists beet curly top virus and rust. Slow to darken, it retains for longer the market-pleasing ability to absorb water—and cook—quickly.

Shoshone—a high-yielding, light-colored, medium-maturing pinto that offers resistances similar to Kimberly and is even slower to darken.

All four boast moderate to high levels of resistance to heat, water stress, or drought and are expected to perform well in Western bean-growing environments.

“We’re breeding for total performance—not one characteristic at a time,” says Singh. The Idaho Bean Commission contributed toward the varieties’ development. Breeder and foundation seed will be maintained by the Idaho Foundation Seed Program. Call Kathy Stewart-Williams at 208.423.6655 for availability.

Contact Shree Singh at singh@kimberly.uidaho.edu.

Extension educators join fight against West Nile Virus in Idaho

by Marlene Fritz

Facing what would eventually be 65 human cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) and three deaths, Elmore County leaders looked at the hard facts: with no mosquito abatement program, they needed to develop an emergency control strategy and apply for state emergency control funds … fast.

When they approached University of Idaho Extension Educator Mir Seyedbagheri for help last summer, the answer was yes. Under the direction of Elmore County Disaster Services—and in cooperation with the Elmore County Commission, Idaho State Department of Agriculture,  Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, and even the Idaho Bureau of Homeland Security—Seyedbagheri quickly recruited  his program assistant and former weed technician and hit the ground running.

You could say they went the extra mile, but—armed with GPS units—they actually mapped 90,000 acres for mosquito hotspots that would be sprayed several  days later. After the spray planes left, the team returned to the hotspots and verified 86 to 95 percent mosquito control.

Because he was also bombarded with calls from concerned residents, Seyedbagheri wrote a comprehensive article on WNV and its control for a local newspaper. Across the state, other UI Extension educators recruited WNV speakers for their public meetings, developed PowerPoint presentations, responded to requests for media interviews, and even distributed the biocontrol agent Bacillus thuringiensis, a naturally occurring bacterium that can kill mosquitoes in the larval stage.

“People call our office because somehow, when they call us, we get an answer for them,” says Seyedbagheri. “You feel like they’re family and that you should do something.”

He believes the emergency spray effort reduced illness and possibly even   prevented additional WNV deaths in Elmore County. “Oh, I tell you, I heard so many compliments. People said, ‘God bless you, I can go in my garden. My kids can play. We can go horseback riding.’”

Contact Mir Seyedbagheri at mirs@uidaho.edu.

High hopes for low-profile, better-smelling dairies

by Marlene Fritz

It looks like a warehouse, but it’s a dairy barn—one that’s a lot healthier for the average cow. Indeed, University of Idaho Extension Waste Management Specialist Ron Sheffield calls it “probably the best indoor cow environment that I’ve ever seen.”

In May and August 2006, Sheffield and graduate student Mario de Haro Marti were invited to participate in an intensive evaluation of a pioneering low-profile, cross-ventilated dairy barn in North Dakota. “It was nice to work with some of the best dairy and animal housing experts from around the country—all at the same barn at the same time,” Sheffield says.

He and de Haro Marti led the team’s analysis of air emissions, while scientists from other universities and private industry examined additional factors.

Less ammonia, cost, smog, smell

Ammonia concentrations within the barn of 1,084 to 1,370 parts per billion compare with the 4,000 ppb Sheffield has measured in Idaho’s typical naturally ventilated freestall barns. Lower concentrations of ammonia are crucial to the health of cows, which breathe in volatilized ammonia from wastes. Lower emissions of ammonia also benefit airsheds—like those in the Boise Valley and eastern Idaho—where they contribute to fine particulate levels and smog formation.

The UI Extension researchers detected absolutely no hydrogen sulfide within the barn, implying very little “rotten-egg” odor downwind and a better-smelling barn.

Sheffield says the nearly square design works well because fans pull air across the barn’s width rather than its length, and most of the air flows through at cow level rather than above it. The price is right, too, because the nearly flat-roofed barn requires less structural steel than conventional barns and because dairy producers can use relatively inexpensive, prefabricated building designs.

“It’ll be a challenge at first, because it’s different,” Sheffield says, “but it will  likely catch on.” In fact, it’s slated for the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences’ proposed Idaho Center for Livestock and Environmental Studies in the Magic Valley.

Contact Ron Sheffield at rons@uidaho.edu.

Hefty gains for Nampa firm with Hispanic workers

by Marlene Fritz

Throughout the Pacific Northwest, food processors face stiff challenges. National and global competition is fierce, rising costs squeeze already slim profit margins, and the cultural and language barriers posed by non-native workers can hinder productivity improvements.

But Great American Appetizers—a  Nampa-based producer of premium breaded and battered appetizers—has risen to those challenges with the assistance of a TechHelp lean manufacturing program aimed at food processors with non-English-speaking workers. Managers say their waste-trimming, profit-enhancing “lean transformation” generated $10.46 million in increased sales, reduced costs, and deferred expansion within 12 months.

Funded by a U.S. Department of Labor grant, a team led by University of Idaho  Extension Food Processing Specialist Jeff Kronenberg taught both lean manufacturing and food safety principles to the firm’s predominantly Hispanic workforce and helped it earn the federal certification it needed to add meat to its product line.

Helping employees take an active role

Because lean manufacturing depends on input from line workers to identify and eliminate wasteful activities, Kronenberg says “you want to make sure that they understand and that they are able to overcome any cultural issues that might prevent them from taking an active role.”

Indeed, plant superintendent Luis Garcia says, “productivity is up, waste is down, and the overall picture is a lot of improvement and more communications.”

“I think it’s fantastic that we were able to help a small- to midsized Idaho food business become more successful and sustainable,” says Kronenberg. “If UI Extension is going to assume a significant role in improving Idaho’s economy, then we must work with the manufacturing segments because it provides jobs, has secondary impacts on services and suppliers, and drives much of our economy.”

TechHelp is a partnership of Idaho’s three state universities.

Contact Kronenberg at jkron@uidaho.edu.

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