Tom Shanower Center Director
USDA-ARS-NPA Grain Marketing & Production Research Center 1515 College Avenue, Room 269 Manhattan KS 66502 (785) 776-2701
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The Grain Marketing and Production Research Center's mission is to solve
problems relating to the conservation, production, harvesting, storage,
marketing, and utilization of grain. Research emphasizes maximizing nutritional
value, consumer acceptance, and end-use performance while conserving resources
and maintaining overall quality during handling, conditioning, and storage.
Major research concerns wheat, sorghum, and corn; other investigations
include rice, barley, oats, soybeans, and triticale.
Located in Manhattan, Kansas, the Center is administered by the Agricultural
Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture. A focal point
for grain marketing research, the Center is located in the heart of the
Great Plains, which includes 13 states that produce more than two-thirds
of all U.S. wheat, corn, and soybeans. Research is conducted in cooperation
with Kansas State University, and an extramural program is conducted in
cooperation with several universities, industries, and scientific institutes.
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Operating from a 60,000 square foot facility and the nation's only research
grain elevator (50,000 bushel capacity), the Center is composed of five
research units. The
Engineering Research Unit provides new tools for measuring grain quality and for segregating
grain based on these different quality attributes. The
Grain Quality and Structure Research Unit is determining the relationships between the chemical content of
different types of grain and the end-use quality needs for various products
that are made from them. The
Plant Science and Entomology Research Unit is investigating the ability of insect pests and diseases to attack
the wheat plant at the genetic level and they are producing wheat germplasms
that provide resistance to these diseases and pests. The
Stored Product Insect Research Unit develops new methods for controlling insect pests in grain and food
products. The
Wind Erosion Research Unit is developing methods for controlling wind erosion of the soil along
with an expert software system that can be used to determine the effectiveness
of various erosion control systems.
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