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Welcome to our NPA News and Events page, which provides a brief digest of news from around the NPA along with event announcements. Also check out our NPA Awards page for news on our latest award recipients. Additional NPA news and events information may also be found using the Location links at right. Also at right are links to national ARS and USDA news sites and resources, along with links of interest to the younger generation.
News from around the NPA:
NPA Location News Briefs:
NPA Weekly Activity Reports/Key Mission Area News
(View past Key Mission Area News here)
October 7, 2008
ARS Researchers Participate In Joint Meeting Of Five Science Societies: (USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT) NPARL researchers John Gaskin, W. Bart Stevens, Upendra Sainju, Jay Jabro, Andy Lenssen and Brett Allen all participated in the 2008 Joint Annual Meeting of five scientific societies Oct. 5-9 in Houston, TX. The meeting theme was “Celebrating the Year of the Plant” and brought together five Societies in an unprecedented joint technical program featuring papers from all geological disciplines and the soil, agronomic, and crop sciences. The societies represented include: The Geological Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Studies. Contributions from scientists at the Sidney, MT ARS lab included the following presentations:
- NPARL Botanist and Pest Management Research Unit Leader John Gaskin spoke at the Impact of Global Climate Change on Plant Genetic Resources Symposium on the “Hybridization and Plant Invasions” discussing the implications of increased plant invasion involving hybrid and how hybridization can force us to alter our methodology for controlling plant invasions.
- NPARL Agronomist W. Bart Stevens’ talk was entitled “Tillage and Irrigation Method Effects on Yield and Quality of Sugarbeet and Malting Barley” and discussed the use of reduced tillage and high-efficiency irrigation systems to reduce fuel and water inputs in those crops compared to conventional practices.
Sidney, MT ARS researchers presenting posters at the joint meeting were:
- NPARL Soil Scientist Upendra Sainju presented two posters entitled “Cropping Sequence Effect on Dryland Crop Root and Soil Properties” and “Tillage, Cropping Sequence, and Nitrogen Fertilization Effects on Dryland Soil Carbon Dioxide Emission and Carbon Content (GRACEnet Project).”
- NPARL Weed Ecologist Andrew Lenssen presented a poster entitled “Crop Diversification and Management System Influence Yield and Weeds in the Northern Great Plains.”
- NPARL Soil Physicist Jay Jabro whose poster was entitled “Tillage Depth Effects on Soil Physical Properties, Sugarbeet Yield and Quality.”
- NPARL Agronomist Brett Allen whose poster was entitled “Dryland Corn Seeding Rate and Row Configuration Impacts on Biomass, Grain Yield, and Water Use.”
- Drs. Stevens, Sainju, Lenssen, Jabro and Allen are all members of NPARL’s Agricultural Systems Research Unit.
Montana ARS lab hosts international Wheat Stem Sawfly Conference October 13-14. (USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT) The Fourth International Wheat Stem Sawfly Conference will be held Oct. 13-14 at the Agricultural Research Service's Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) in Sidney, MT. The 1-1/2-day conference, held only every three to five years, brings together scientists from across the region, the Prairie Provinces of Canada, and from Montpellier, France, to discuss ongoing and future research into the biological, cultural and chemical control of wheat stem sawfly. Topics for the conference include discussions on the genetics of the wheat stem sawfly and new wheat varieties intended to help combat the pest, as well as biological and cultural management research and survey information. Among the scheduled presenters are wheat breeders Luther Talbert and Phil Bruckner, entomologists David Weaver and Kevin Delany, and chemical ecologist Micaela Buteler, all with Montana State University–Bozeman; cereal agronomist Brian Beres and entomologist Hector Carcamo of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, Alberta; and entomologist Walker Jones and molecular biologist Marie-Claude Bon, both with the USDA-ARS European Biological Control Laboratory in Montpellier, France. The wheat stem sawfly is a serious pest in the Northern Great Plains and Canada, causing yield losses of more than $100 million a year, with annual losses in Montana alone exceeding $25 million.
ARS Scientist to chair a FAO/IAEA consultants meeting devices and systems for early and rapid detection of animal diseases: On October 13-15, William Wilson, ARS microbiologist, Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Laboratory, Laramie, WY, will participate and act as chairman in a Consultants Meeting on devices and systems for early and rapid detection of animal diseases, early response to emerging diseases. The meeting will discuss amplification and non-amplification systems, biosensor, nanotechnology devises and equipment, sniffer technologies, remote sensing, communication technologies, administrative and logistical set-ups, networks and partnerships. Wilson will give a presentation on tools for early detection from pen-side to high-throughput.
September 10, 2008
ARS Scientist To Attend Conference In China: September 21-26, Paul Flinn, Research Biologist with the Biological Research Unit, Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, KS, will make a presentation “Effects of Outside Air Temperature on Movement of Phosphine Gas in Concrete Elevator Bins” at the Controlled Atmosphere and Fumigation Conference in Chengdu, China.
August 27, 2008
ARS Laboratory Hosts Ethnobotany Walk-N-Talk: On August 15th, the Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory hosted Linda Different Cloud-Jones, Ethnobotanist from the Standing Rock Lakota Nation, who led a walking tour of the native pastures at the USDA-ARS lab in Mandan, North Dakota. Cloud-Jones selected native plants and shared extensive information on their nutritional and medicinal use by native peoples. Thirty-five individuals interested in natural health and native plants from as far away as Minnesota joined her. Staff at the lab provided a barbecue for their guests following the tour to facilitate continued discussions. Cloud-Jones has been an audience favorite at the lab’s annual ‘Friends & Neighbors Day’ which attracted over 1000 guests this past July. She begins her PHD program in Ethnobotany at Montana State University in Bozeman in September.
ARS Scientist to Present at Major Biomass Biofuels Conference: On October 10th, Dr. David Archer, USDA-ARS Agricultural Economist will present “Corn Stover as Feedstock for Cellulosic Ethanol – Cost, Availability, and Sustainability” at the Platts 3rd Annual Cellulosic Ethanol and Biofuels conference in Chicago, Illinois. Over twenty of the nation’s foremost biofuel authorities were invited to present new research and development information at this key industry educational symposium.
ARS Grain Marketing and Production Research Center to Host Meeting of the Food Protection Committee of the International Association of Operative Millers: On 3-4 September, the ARS Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, KS, will host a meeting of the Food Protection Committee of the International Association of Operative Millers. The committee meets three times a year, and consists of about two dozen members from most of the major U.S. grain processing companies. Jim Throne, Research Leader of the ARS Biological Research Unit in Manhattan, will attend the meeting to report on recent ARS stored-product insect research of interest to the committee and to discuss the grain processing industry’s research needs.
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August 13, 2008
ARS Entomologist To Speak About Stored-Product Insect Pests at Thailand's Postharvest Technology Innovation Center At Chiang Mai University: On August 15-25, Jim Throne, Research Leader of the Biological Research Unit at the Grain Marketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, KS, will present two seminars on his research entitled "Computer modeling of the population dynamics of stored-product pests" and "Entomological applications of near-infrared spectroscopy" at Chiang Mai University, Thailand. He also will discuss postharvest pest management techniques and future collaborative research with scientists at the Postharvest Technology Innovation Center.
August 7, 2008
CDC Branch Chief Presents Entomology Seminar: On August 4, CDC Entomology Branch Chief Dr. Bob Wirtz presented a seminar “An Overview of CDC Entomology Branch Activities” at the Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, KS. His presentation included CDC work targeting vector-borne diseases such as malaria and lymphaitic filariasis. He also discussed the joint CDC-ARS work where they are applying NIR techniques developed by the ARS Engineering Research Unit to identify and age-grade disease vectors.
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July 16, 2008
ARS Lab Hosts Kansas Farm Bureau Delegation: On July 10th a delegation of eight producers and staff members from the Kansas Farm Bureau visited the Grain Marketing and Production Research Center (GMPRC), in Manhattan, KS. Dr Thomas Shanower, Director, gave the group an overview of the Agricultural Research Service and GMPRC’s mission and research. The group then met with several researchers. Dr. Brad Seabourn updated them on activities in the Hard Winter Wheat Quality Laboratory; Dr Floyd Dowell demonstrated high-speed kernel sorting technology developed in the Engineering Research Unit; and Dr Richard Beeman, reviewed research in the Biological Research Unit, including work on red flour beetle genomics.
ARS Researchers Participate In Montana State University Research Center Field Day: On July 16th, NPARL Plant Pathologist Robert Lartey and Agronomist Bart Stevens both gave invited presentations at Montana State University’s Eastern Ag Research Center Field Day in Sidney, Montana. Dr. Lartey’s talk was entitled “Biological seed treatments for sugarbeet and barley,” and included discussion of his work with a new fungal biocontrol agent for Cercospora leaf spot disease in sugarbeet, that is also showing promise against net blotch in malting barley. For his part, Dr. Stevens discussed “Nitrogen fertilizer placement in strip-tilled sugarbeet.” Both scientists are members of the Sidney ARS lab’s Agricultural Systems Research Unit.
Montana ARS E-Cycling Program Featured In USDA Employee Publication: The May-June 2008 issue of “USDA News” includes an article about the rural e-cycling program begun by employees of the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney, MT. The article, entitled “ARS Helps Make 'E-Recycling' A Reality In Rural America,” describes how NPARL Safety Specialist Jackie Couture and her fellow employees helped develop a community-wide electronics recycling program in their small Montana town in 2005 that is now serving as a model for others in rural areas across the state and elsewhere. The “USDA News” is available online at the USDA website under the “USDA Employee Services” link.
ARS Scientist Keynote Speaker For Symposium At International Conference On Sustainable Ag in Japan: On July 2-6, NPARL Soil Scientist Upendra Sainju was invited to give the keynote address at the Farming Systems and Agro-ecology Symposium at the International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture and Environment in Sapporo, Japan. Dr. Sainju’s presentation was entitled “Management Practices Impact on Soil Carbon Sequestration and Greenhouse Gas Emission.” More than 200 scientists from around the globe attended the conference which focused on issues surrounding sustainable crop production and improved soil and environmental quality, with an emphasis on increasing carbon sequestration, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and sustaining crop yields. In addition to his symposium presentation, Dr. Sainju was also invited to speak to the faculty, staff, and farmers of Hokkaido and Ibaraki Universities, respectively, in Sapporo and Tsukuba Science City, Japan, on July 4th and 9th. The invitations were extended by Dr. Hajime Araki (Hokkaido University) and Dr. Masakazu Komatsuzaki (Ibaraki University). His presentation at both venues was entitled “Bicultural Cover Crops for Sustaining Crop Yields and Improving Soil and Water Quality.” The lectures have helped to establish future research collaborations between the Sidney, MT ARS lab and the two Japanese Universities, where research on cover crops is just beginning. Dr. Sainju is a member of NPARL’s Agricultural Systems Research Unit.
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July 10, 2008
ARS Scientists To Attend The Fourth International Tribolium Meeting In Belgium: On July 28-29, 2008, Dick Beeman and Marce Lorenzen from the ARS Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, KS, will participate in the Fourth International Tribolium Meeting in Ghent, Belgium. Dr. Beeman will make a presentation and also meet with European cooperators on their mutually NRI-funded project, Insertional Mutagenesis in Tribolium. Dr. Lorenzen was invited to present a talk about her work relating to the Tribolium genome project.
ARS Scientist To Attend The Fourth International Conference In Africa For Comparative Physiology And Biochemistry In Kenya: On July 19-25, 2008, Brenda Oppert from the ARS Grain Marketing and Production Research Center, Manhattan, KS, will participate in the Fourth International Conference in Africa for Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry in Maasai Mara, Kenya. She is co-organizer of the symposium "Insect gut physiology and nutrition: new targets for control." She is also giving an invited talk: Inhibitor strategies to control coleopteran pests: Part 2, Microarray analysis, and is junior author on two other presentations.
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July 2, 2008
North Dakota Water Users Group Tours Montana ARS Laboratory: (USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT) More than 100 members attending the North Dakota Water Resource Districts Association’s 2008 Annual Summer meeting in Williston, ND, toured the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (Sidney, MT) and the co-located Montana State University Eastern Plains Eastern Agricultural Research Center on June 30. The half-day tour was sponsored by the ND Water User’s Association and featured irrigated research conducted by ARS and MSU on high value and alternate crops and also showcased the new weed and insect pest biological control Quarantine facility nearing completion at the Sidney ARS lab. Helping lead tours were NPARL Agronomist Bart Stevens and Physical Scientist William Iversen, both with the lab’s Agricultural Systems Research Unit; and Entomologist Dave Kazmer, who’s with the lab’s Pest Management Research Unit.
ARS Soil Scientist Participates In 2008 ASABE Meeting: (USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT) NPARL Soil Scientist Jay Jabro participated in the 2008 Annual International Meeting of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers in Providence, RI June 29-July 2. At the Session Dr. Jabro presented a poster entitled “In-situ Soil-Water Retention and Field Water Capacity Measurements in Two Contrasting Soil Textures,” which described a study showing that two different types of sensors (Watermark and Time Domain Reflectometry) both provided accurate in-situ soil water retention data that can be used in agricultural and environmental applications including irrigation management and scheduling. The paper was co-authored by fellow NPARL researchers R.G. Evans, Y. Kim and W.M. Iversen, all, like Jabro working in the Sidney ARS lab’s Agricultural Systems Research Unit. The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is an educational and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food, and biological systems. Founded in 1907 and headquartered in St Joseph, Michigan, ASABE comprises 9,000 members in more than 100 countries.
ARS Scientist Invited To Speak At 23rd International Congress Of Entomology: (USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT) NPARL Research Entomologist Stefan Jaronski has been invited to give two talks at the 23rd International Congress of Entomology (ICE) in Durban, South Africa, July 6-12. Dr. Jaronski will be discussing “Field efficacy of Metarhizium anisopliae and Beauveria bassiana against immature Mormon crickets” and “Differences among populations in susceptibility of the grasshopper Melanoplus sanguinipes to a generalist fungal pathogen” during his invited presentations. Dr. Jaronski will also be contributing a third presentation on “The challenges of commercializing microbial pest control agents in the U.S.” In addition to his ICE talks, Dr. Jaronski has also been invited to visit BCP, Ltd., a producer of Beauveria and Metarhizium, where he will discuss mass production methods. Dr. Jaronski is a member of NPARL’s Pest Management Research Unit. The ICE is held once every four years and is the only international meeting for entomology. The theme for 2008 is “Celebrating Entomology: Contributions to Modern Science.”
ARS Microbiologist To Present Research On A Vesicular Stomatitis Virus Transmission Cycle: On July 12-16, microbiologist Barbara Drolet, ARS Arthropod-Borne Animal Diseases Research Laboratory, Laramie, WY, will present research that describes the transmission of VSV from contaminated pasture grassland plant species to grasshoppers at the annual meeting of the American Society for Virology in Ithaca, NY.
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June 4, 2008
Montana ARS Researchers Participate In New Frontiers Conference: On June 2, (USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory, Sidney, MT) NPARL Research Leaders Drs. John Gaskin (Pest Management Research Unit) and Robert Evans (Agricultural Systems Research Unit) participated in the “2008 New Frontiers Conference: Propelling Montana Research” held in Bozeman, Montana. The event, which showcased the globally competitive research going on in Montana through a series of presentations, workshops and networking opportunities, attracted more than 400 business people, academics, politicians and government officials, including executives from such major companies, such as 3M, Abbott, General Electric, Eli Lilly and Boeing, along with representatives from research entities such as the National Science Foundation and smaller start-up businesses. Dr. Gaskin participated in the Agriculture Panel of the Montana Research Showcase and gave a presentation entitled “Agricultural Solutions through Innovative Science,” which incorporated information on research conducted at the Sidney ARS facility, as well as providing information on how interested parties could collaborate with ARS in developing related products or technologies for commercialization. ARS Northern Plains Area Technology Transfer Coordinator Bryan Kaphammer also participated in the conference, discussing funding and partnering opportunities with ARS at the regional and national levels. This first “Research Summit” in Bozeman was sponsored by Montana U.S. Senator Max Baucus, the Montana State University System and TechRanch and brought together Montana research and business leaders to promote commercialization and development of new technology in Montana.
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