Brundage to the rescue

In southeastern Idaho’s irrigated wheat fields, growers need a wheat they can fertilize and irrigate for generous yields and hefty test weights but that won’t topple over before harvest. "Most of the soft white winter wheats that we grow in Idaho were not developed for irrigation," says University of Idaho wheat breeder Ed Souza of Aberdeen. Like the standard-bearer Stephens, they were developed before farmers began managing their crops intensively and coaxing their grains’ productivity to its genetic limits.

Two years ago, Souza and Moscow-based counterpart Bob Zemetra released Brundage—a relatively short, stiff-strawed, high-yielding, high test-weight grain whose cookies and graham crackers could tempt Nabisco into large-scale contracts. Interest is also rising among area farmers and elevator managers, who predict that many southeastern Idaho wheat growers will try planting at least a little Brundage this year.

"When something is working well, it gets through the farmer grapevine pretty fast," says John Peake, elevator manager for General Mills in American Falls.

—Marlene Fritz

Consumer economics for Idaho kids

New exit standards for state high schools mandate education in consumer economics, but most Idaho teachers lack training and materials in this subject area. To address this need, Marilyn Cross Bischoff, extension educator in Ada County, together with Linda Fox, director of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at UI, provided statewide training for Idaho teachers August 10 and 11 in Boise. An impressive array of financial specialists spoke on topics including credit, budgeting, basics of savings and investments, home-buying, and avoiding fraud. Instructional materials and resources were provided to the 46 attendees as well. The workshop was sponsored by the Idaho Financial Literacy Coalition, which is a group of agencies and professionals dedicated to providing financial management education in Idaho. See http://www.uidaho.edu/fcs/iflc for more information.

—Kate Painter

A ranch for research

A picturesque 925-acre ranch situated six miles north of Salmon is now designated the Nancy E. Cummings Research, Extension, and Education Center, after a lease agreement with the University of Idaho. Locally known as the Hot Springs Ranch, it will serve both as a model working cow-calf ranch and as a locus for research, education, and extension programs for Lemhi and Custer counties and for the regional ecosystem. The ranch is slated to become the College of Agriculture’s 11th research and extension center by 2007.

Dick Battaglia, head of the Department of Animal and Veterinary Science and superintendent of the center, anticipates that faculty from different disciplines will soon be conducting integrated projects at the ranch. Sustainable cattle production, forage production, water quality, irrigation management, alternative crops, ecology, public lands management, and economic modeling are included in these plans. In addition, university courses, student internships, short courses, extension workshops, and youth programs designed to meet community needs have been proposed.

"This is great for all of us at the College of Agriculture," says Battaglia. "It gives us so many ways to integrate all of the things of which we’re capable."

For the next three years, the UI will rent the ranch for $1 a year from the Auen Foundation. If the center meets mutually agreed-upon performance expectations, the foundation will transfer ownership to the UI through a four-year gifting process between 2004 and 2007. The ranch will operate with the counsel of a producers’ advisory group and will hold periodic field days for the public.

—Marlene Fritz

Plant science degree program in Twin Falls

UI students in Twin Falls can now complete a B.S. degree in plant science on the College of Southern Idaho campus. This degree program offers two areas of specialization, crop science and horticulture, preparing students for a wide variety of professional careers in agronomic or horticulture crops. The program is made possible through an innovative partnership among the University of Idaho, College of Southern Idaho, and Idaho State University. The UI Twin Falls location also offers a complete degree program in agriculture science and technology.

--Kate Painter