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Science Update
Team takes STEPs to restore the West’s
threatened sagebrush communities
by Marlene Fritz
Of the original 100 million acres of sagebrush steppe land in the Western U.S.,
only about 57 million acres remain in sagebrush. Considered one of the continent’s
most threatened land types, sagebrush steppes are under siege by cheatgrass and
by junipers and pinyon pines, all of which distort historical fire patterns.
In Caldwell, UI Extension range economist Neil Rimbey is contributing to an intensive five-year, multi-agency study that is exploring ways to restore healthy and productive sagebrush communities through such land-management options as prescribed fire, mechanical thinning of shrubs and trees, and herbicide application. Called SageSTEP (Sagebrush Steppe Treatment Evaluation Project), it will also define the tipping points at which interventions should be deployed.
photo by @dreamstime.com
Two Idaho sites in six-state study
The project is funded by the Joint Fire Science Program of the Department of
Interior and the USDA Forest Service. It spans 20 sites in six states, including
Castlehead in southwestern Idaho and Roberts near Idaho Falls. Rimbey’s role is to develop ranch-level economic models that ranch managers can use to compare the cost-effectiveness of treatment strategies. “A lot of ranchers are concerned about the ecosystems they manage,” he says. “Our
sagebrush-dominated ecosystem functioned pretty well until cheatgrass and other
invasives came along.”
At the College of Natural Resources, colleague Steve Bunting is creating a fuels guide that will give land managers a better idea of potential fuel loads and their implications.
Research hydrologist Fred Pierson of the USDA Agricultural Research Service
in Boise is simulating 90-minute rainfalls with large standing pipes to quantify
erosion on different soil types. “You can’t depend on Mother Nature to rain for you,” he
says.
Coordinator Jim McIver of Oregon State University says project scientists are
exhaustively examining ecological responses to their treatments: for example,
which species of seeds will ants prefer to plant, which sagebrush-dependent birds
will begin to recover, and how aggressively must pinyon-juniper competition be
reduced to benefit sagebrush? “We’re measuring just about everything,” he says.
Contact Neil Rimbey at or visit www.sagestep.org.
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4-H market animals wearing not just ribbons, but electronic eartags
by Marlene Fritz
First, it was the steers. This year, it was most of the hogs and lambs, too.
In 37 of Idaho’s 44 counties, when 4-H’ers weighed in their market animals for
the fair, the livestock were sporting quarter-sized electronic eartags.
photo by Troy Maben
About 8,900 tags—enough for more than 80 percent of 2007’s 4-H livestock—were
issued to fair-going members of 4-H and FFA as a part of a joint project with
the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, says UI Extension beef specialist Jason Ahola. At early spring weighing and again at the fair, each animal's unique ID number was downloaded from the tag into a laptop computer via an electronic reader, allowing its average daily gain to be instantaneously calculated.
"The kids think it's kind of neat," says Jim Church, UI Extension educator in Idaho County. "They are not afraid of technology."
"It's really an education for them, "says Stephanie Etter, his counter in Canyon County. "If they decide to continue raising market animals after 4-H, they need to be aware of this."
Church thinks that some 4-H parents will soon be participating in the USDA's
voluntary National Animal Identification System (NAIS) - especially if electronically
tagged animals score a marketplace premium, or packers demand proof of age and
origin. NAIS is gaining national support as a means of tracing livestock diseases.
Contact Jason Ahola.
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Mixed viral infections draw more aphids
by Marlene Fritz
Of the eight viruses that aphids transmit to potatoes, the most important in Idaho and the U.S. are potato virus Y (PVY) and potato leafroll virus (PLRV). Increasingly, Idaho potatoes are being infected with both of them. Not only does a dual infection in Russet Burbanks worsen the stunting, yellowing, and leaf thickening prompted by PLRV, but it magnifies the otherwise subtle symptoms of PVY into severe ones.
It also attracts significantly more disease-transmitting green peach and potato
aphids than single infections—a pioneering finding on these aphids’ responses
to PVY and PLRV by UI entomologists Juan Manuel Alvarez and Rajagopalbabu Srinivasan
of Aberdeen.
“These plants are a better host for the aphids when they are double infected,” Alvarez says. Because virus infections elevate the concentrations of amino acids and soluble carbohydrates in plants, potatoes with mixed viral infections are likely to provide even more nutrition for aphid feeding and reproduction than those with single infections. Further, potatoes carrying both PVY and PLRV are more intensely yellow—a color that draws aphids—and
may emit more aphid-attracting odors.
Alvarez believes that the increased incidence of mixed-infected plants—along with new strains of PVY—help explain why PVY is surging across U.S. potato-growing regions. What’s
needed next: more research to develop broader control strategies.
Contact Juan Manuel Alvarez.
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Caldwell Complex open house draws legislators
by Marlene Fritz
When celebrating the grand opening of the new Caldwell Complex this September,
the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) invited
Idaho legislators to join the festivities. Two busloads of lawmakers disembarked
for a lunch catered by Alicia Watson—a client of the center’s commercial kitchen—and
a tour of the Food Technology Center (FTC) and videoconferencing facilities.
“I’m just amazed. I think it’s wonderful,” said Rep. Maxine Bell of Jerome. Inside the commercial kitchen where Idaho food entrepreneurs prepare, process, and package more than a hundred products, Bell observed: “You expect your land-grant university to be this innovative, but until you see it you don’t realize how far they’ve
gone. Somebody had a lot of vision.”
Legislators circled around as FTC director Drew Dalgetty explained the latest
venture of the facility’s pilot plant—helping Idaho wine producers improve the
quality of their products by testing their grapes before and after harvest and
their wines before bottling. If those new Snake River Valley wines could benefit
from a little more sugar or a little more acid, Dalgetty will let the producers
know precisely how much.
Meanwhile, the pilot plant’s “bread-and-butter” work is processing and preparing foods slated for chemical and fertilizer residue testing and helping Idaho food processors modify or develop their products. It’s
one of only four laboratories in the country to conduct such EPA-required Good
Laboratory Practices research.
“We help people be successful,” President Tim White told the legislators. “We’re
an incubator of ideas.”
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Potato meeting draws participants from around the corner … and
around the world
by Marlene Fritz
Mexican plant pathologist Hector Lozoya-Saldana came to the 91st annual meeting
of the Potato Association of America in Idaho Falls to exchange information on
late blight and potato viruses “precisely in the potato capital of the United
States.”
Canadian consultant Andre Gagnon, who conducts variety trials in Quebec, came
to hear about new directions in breeding—like selecting potatoes for their vitamin
C content and other nutritional value.
Scottish researcher Mark Taylor came to describe his genetic studies of such sensory traits as color and flavor in potatoes.
And among the 266 registrants were participants in an unusual session for an
otherwise academic meeting—a morning of presentations designed for potato growers and industry representatives. They learned about a new low-sugar potato that resists fry-darkening sweetening during low-temperature storage and about research into a new method of assessing a crop’s
nitrogen status. They found that emerging strains of potato virus Y appear to
be replacing the old one and that innovative variety marketing includes potatoes
with their own Web sites and fan clubs.
Spuds are still big potatoes in Idaho
Conference co-chair William Bohl, UI Extension educator in Blackfoot, says participants
from as far away as Australia and Japan heard 83 presentations on production
management, marketing, physiology, plant protection, and breeding and genetics. “Among scientists, it’s about cooperation—comparing results, looking at different environments, sharing information, and collectively coming up with solutions to problems,” he
said.
UI Extension economist Paul Patterson told participants that the combined direct
and indirect economic impacts of potatoes in Idaho remain “huge”: the industry is responsible for one in 20 jobs and one in 20 dollars of the state’s gross product. “We’re not small potatoes,” he
said.
As to the origin of the term “spud”? Washington State University’s Mark Pavek revealed that it’s from the Middle English word “spuda” for
a potato-digging dagger.
Contact William Bohl.
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New technology turns potential dairy pollutant into potential product
by Marlene Fritz
How much dairy manure farmers can apply to their fields depends largely on how much phosphorus is in that manure. Overapplication of phosphorus threatens water quality by promoting excessive plant growth and decay, depleting oxygen for fish.
On a 2,000-cow dairy in Jerome, UI waste management engineer Ron Sheffield is
installing a prototype of a low-cost technology that—according to six small-scale preliminary tests—can
remove more than 80 percent of phosphorus from the milk parlor wastewater of
open-lot dairies.
The cost? Just 6 cents per cow per day.
The research is funded by the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, Independent Dairy
Environmental Action League, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Results due by mid-2008
“We have a nutrient management plan and—with our limited land base—we can’t be over 40 parts per million in phosphorus,” says
cooperating dairyman Bill Stouder. By mid-2008, Stouder should know how well
the process works.
The technology involves mixing a slurry of calcium carbonate, or agricultural lime, with dairy wastewater in a cone-shaped tank. Through gravity and a rapid chemical reaction, clean water flows off the top of the tank while calcium phosphate settles at the bottom. The process was initially developed for the swine industry by USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists in Florence, S.C.
“Depending on the farm, we can either pump the settled phosphorus over the farm’s existing solids separator or we can bag it and transport it off the farm,” where
it can be further processed into commercial fertilizer, Sheffield says.
The initial trials also indicate that the technology can remove about two-thirds
of the phosphorus from a “flush” dairy—one where manure is flushed through barns with recycled water—although
at a higher cost. Sheffield is seeking funding for a flush dairy demonstration.
Contact Ron Sheffield.
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UI Extension educators deliver financial common sense—2-cent tips—via
podcast
by Marlene Fritz
photo by
© Wayne Ruston
Dreamstime.com
Two years ago, Madison County Extension educator Luke Erickson hadn’t even heard
of iPODs; then, he won one. Now, he and colleague Lyle Hansen of Jerome County
are partnering on their own podcasts, delivering personal financial education
in a dual-host radio-show format.
Listeners can download the 20- to 30-minute podcasts onto their own computers,
iPODs, or other MP3 players. Erickson and Hansen say the program—jokingly called 2-cent tips with Luke and Lyle—can
change the lives of Idahoans 2 cents at a time.
The county extension educators designed their podcasts to supplement their Idaho’s Two Cent Tips newsletter, available at http://extension.ag. uidaho.edu/madison and http://extension.ag.uidaho.edu/jerome. They’re
motivated, because they say Americans have lost their way when it comes to spending.
“Our grandparents had a common-sense mentality where you bought things by saving up for them,” says Erickson. “We’re trying to re-instill that common sense. When we teach these concepts to college-age students, they say, ‘This is great. I’m so glad you told me this stuff because nobody else has before.’”
The podcast format comes naturally to Erickson and Hansen because they love teaching
and they want to make a difference in people’s lives.
“Americans are constantly being hit by advertisements and told they need to spend money,” Hansen says. Too often, the result is a $10,000 credit-card balance that can take 20 years to pay off at a minimum payment of 3 percent. “We
want to help break that stereotype of instant gratification. Forget about that
pasta spinner on TV. Find a way to reward yourself without breaking the bank
and getting yourself one missed paycheck away from financial disaster.”
Soon, they hope to add a call-in feature and make their message a dialog.
Contact Erickson and Hansen. Listeners
can subscribe through iTunes or such
podcast directories as odeo.com and podcast.net.
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