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COLLEGE NEWS
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FARM EQUIPMENT TO BE AUCTIONED MARCH 22
Surplus equipment used on Iowa State’s Research and Demonstration Farms will be put up for auction on March 22. Equipment includes tractors, harvesters, tillage implements, haying equipment, planters, trailers and lawn and garden equipment. The sale begins at 10 a.m. on the ISU Curtiss Farm. Take Elwood Drive south of Highway 30 a quarter mile, go west one mile on Oakwood Drive, then north one-half mile on State Avenue. Lunch will be available on the grounds. Contact: Denny Shannon, 4-1608 or shannond@iastate.edu.
ISU EXHIBITS AT NATIONAL MANRRS CONFERENCE
Iowa State will be well-represented at the career fair during the national Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) conference. The career fair will be open to the expected 800 attendees on the evening of March 25 and all day March 26 at the Polk County Convention Center, Des Moines. The College of Agriculture, the College of Design, the Department of Agronomy, the College of Agriculture Tribal College Initiative and ISU Extension will have exhibit booths to attract graduate students and future faculty and staff. ISU students, faculty and staff are invited to register, volunteer or visit the conference. The College of Agriculture and the ISU MANRRS Chapter, in partnership with Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., Deere & Co. and Cargill Inc., are hosting the conference. Contact: Mike Gaul, 4-4725 or mikegaul@iastate.edu. More: http://www.manrrs.org.
WHO’S INVOLVED IN MANRRS?
Who’s involved in MANRRS? A website profiles three students in the College of Agriculture -- Chansi Williams, M. Tiffany Laws and Toshiba Traynham -- who are are active in the ISU MANRRS Chapter and will be participating in the conference. The ISU MANRRS Chapter has 35 members.
SIGMA ALPHA BASKET AUCTION BEGINS TODAY
The second Sigma Alpha basket auction began at noon today, March 15, and will end at noon April 15. Clubs in the College of Agriculture and Sigma Alpha Delta Chapter advisers and members donated baskets. All winning bids will support the group’s philanthropic activities. Bidding takes place online. Each basket has a minimum starting bid with additional bids in $1 increments. The Forestry Club, MANRRS, Dairy Science Club, Block & Bridle, Soil & Water Conservation Club, Ag Business Club, AST Club and Horticulture Club donated baskets. Contact: Alicia Martin, aamarti@iastate.edu.
MARCH 22 THINK TANK TOPIC: BOVINE EMBRYO TRANSFER
The next Think Tank on Animal Agriculture on March 22 will discuss bovine embryo transfer. James West, owner of Westwood Embryo Services of Waverly, will make the presentation. Social time will begin at 6 p.m. with dinner at 6:30 p.m. and discussion at 7 p.m. in the Cardinal Room, Memorial Union. RSVP on or before noon Friday, March 19, by contacting Julie Roberts, jrober@iastate.edu. Cost of the buffet will be $13, payable at the door.
LEARN MORE ABOUT FUNDING FOR IOWA CORN RESEARCH
The Iowa Corn Promotion Board will hold a campus seminar on March 29 to discuss corn research needs and funding priorities for the next few years. The event will be held from 3 to 4 p.m. in the CCUR Theatre, 1951 Food Sciences. The ICPB has an annual research budget in excess of $1.3 million. The board is allocating resources in two primary areas: new utilization technologies and new corn traits through genetic engineering. Presenters will include Rod Williamson, director, research and regulatory affairs for ICPB, and three consultants to ICPB: Jim McLaren, StrathKirn Inc., Bob Mustell, retired from National Corn Growers Association; and Marion Bradford, retired from A.E. Staley Mfg. Co. Members of the ICPB Research Committee will attend. Refreshments will be served.
BLOCK AND BRIDLE CAKE AUCTION ENTRY DEADLINE TODAY
Block and Bridle Club aims to raise $5,000 for scholarships with its seventh annual cake auction. The auction will begin at 5:30 p.m., March 25, in the Farm Bureau Pavilion in Kildee Hall. Clubs, faculty or staff members interested in entering a cake must submit their names and a phone number today (Monday) to Dawn Stendel, stendel@iastate.edu, or 572-7817.
SCIENCE AND POLICY WORKSHOP FOR FACULTY, STAFF MAY 11-13
College of Agriculture faculty, staff and graduate students are invited to participate in a May 11-13 workshop that will provide participants with tools and practical resources to facilitate more effective engagement of their science with the policy process. Sessions will include topics such as communicating scientific findings to lay audiences, giving testimony before legislative and regulatory panels and writing effective policy briefs. The workshop is the culminating event of a two-year project supported by an endowment to the Department of Agronomy through its Global Agricultural Science and Policy Initiative. There is no fee to attend the workshop and lunches will be provided. Space will be limited to 25 faculty or professional and scientific staff and 15 graduate students. An application form will be available in late March. Faculty and staff who attend the entire workshop will receive a $500 stipend to support future research, teaching or professional development activities related to enhancing science and policy connections. For more information: Clare Hinrichs, 4-5154 or hinrichs@iastate.edu.
TAKLE EXPRESSES CONCERNS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING
Gene Takle, professor of agronomy and geological and atmospheric sciences, believes weather extremes may be the norm in the future due to global warming. "It's clear that the planet is warming and it's warming at an unprecedented rate," Takle said. "Something as big as this planet changes very slowly, so when we see changes that are large and abrupt, in comparison to a normal scale of change, it's alarming."
NEW ISU SOYBEAN OIL PASSES THE "FRY TEST"
People gathered March 9 at Iowa State for a typical celebration -- speeches, balloons and food. The guest of honor? A bottle of soybean oil. Soybean varieties developed by College of Agriculture researchers were used to produce the oil. Learn more in "Agriculture in Action."
USDA GRANT TO IMPROVE BIOSECURITY OF SEEDS
Iowa State is the lead institution on a $900,000 federal grant to develop new ways to prevent the spread of diseases carried by seeds. The four-year project, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will develop new techniques to detect seedborne pathogens, as well as training diagnosticians in using new methods.
GOOD FOR BUSINESS: A HELPING HAND FOR GRAIN ELEVATORS
Pulling Iowa’s grain elevator companies out of the 20th century and positioning them to compete in a modern, specialty-grain, sometimes biotech-wary market is the aim of a quality management project by grain specialists at Iowa State. Charles Hurburgh, professor-in-charge of the Iowa Grain Quality Initiative in the College of Agriculture, has piloted the effort.
GUIDELINES FOR FERTILIZER APPLICATION AFTER MANURE STUDIED
Farmers who apply manure to fields must decide if the corn they'll plant will also need an application of commercial nitrogen fertilizer in order to get the best yields. On-farm research trials led by Iowa State researchers have shown that soil tests taken after corn plants emerge is an effective tool to help them make that decision.
NEW FACT SHEETS TARGET LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY PRODUCERS
A new set of 24 fact sheets and related slide presentations is designed to help livestock and poultry producers deal with revised federal regulations for concentrated animal feeding operations. A national team of 20 land-grant university faculty, USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service staff and National Pork Board staff collaborated on the project, managed through the Midwest Plan Service at Iowa State.
DEADLINES AND REMINDERS
March 16-17: Dairy Processing Workshop, more: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/newsrel/2004/mar04/mar0402.html
March 25: Paul L. Errington Memorial Lecture, James Estes, a U.S. Department of Interior research biologist, 8 p.m., 1414 Molecular Biology Building
March 25-27: 2004 national Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) conference March 25 to 27 in Des Moines, more: http://www.manrrs.org/conferences/index.asp?nav=upcoming
March 29: Statewide Academy on Iowa Community Foundations and Philanthropy, Hotel at Gateway Center, more: http://www.cvcia.org/content/conference/
April 29: Connect with Iowa, College of Agriculture faculty visit to Manning
April 30: Deadline for registering for the College of Veterinary Medicine Pet Pig Symposium June 4-6, contact: Janean Berhow, 4-3837 or jaberhow@iastate.edu
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COMMUNICATION KIOSK
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TODAY IS THE IDES OF MARCH
The soothsayer's warning to Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March," has forever linked the date with a sense of foreboding. But in Roman times the expression was simply the standard way of saying "March 15." According to the ancient Roman calendar, “ides” can refer to the 15th of March, May, July or October or the 13th of any other month. (infoplease, http://www.infoplease.com/spot/ides1.html)
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INFOGRAZING
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TRAINING SESSION FOR COMMUNITY OF SCIENCE MARCH 22
The Vice Provost for Research is planning another training session to learn more about using the Community of Science (COS) database. The workshop will be held at 1:30 to 3 p.m., Monday, March 22, in 115 Ross. In the session, time will be devoted to discussing how to seek grant funding in general and detailed discussion about the COS database. Seating is limited. To request registration, e-mail Sreeparna Mitra, mitra@iastate.edu, or Diane Meyer, meyerd@iastate.edu. The Community of Science database consists of a funding opportunities section that is a significant source of grant information on the Web. The database is updated daily and contains more than 23,000 records, representing over 400,000 funding opportunities worth more than $33 billion. The ISU workshop will include hands-on training in a computer lab, where participants will learn how to search for funding opportunities using the COS database, locate colleagues in their field of interest at ISU and elsewhere, set up their profiles and customize criteria as an individual COS member to receive e-mail alerts about opportunities that match their interests.
GATHERING DATES FOR THE NEXT ISU CALENDAR
The ISU Alumni Association is gathering information to be included in the 2004-2005 ISU Calendar of Events. The calendar will be available in July. If you have events you wish to have included in the calendar, send them by April 9 to AshLea Anderson, aanderson@alumni.iastate.edu or fax: 4-9402. Due to space limitations, not all events will be included, but every attempt will be made to cover wide range of campus activities. Events to consider for inclusion should fall between Aug. 1, 2004, and Aug. 31, 2005.
BEEF MUSCLE PROFILING RESEARCH SOUGHT
The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Center for Research and Knowledge Management seeks research proposals related to muscle product characteristics. Proposals must be postmarked by April 9. Contact: Gail Stecker, 4-4781 or gstecker@iastate.edu.
OHIO CONSUMERS "SLIGHTLY POSITIVE" ON GM PRODUCTS
Ohio consumers had a slightly positive attitude toward genetically modified products, but perceived some risks associated with the production of genetically modified plants and animals, according to a recent study. Researchers at Ohio State University assessed consumer attitudes of rural and urban residents last winter. The study, "Consumer Attitudes Toward GMOs: The Ohio Experience" is available as a PDF that can be downloaded from the Journal of Food Science.
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EXTERNAL VOICES
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USDA AIR QUALITY AWARDS ‘A NEW DIRECTION FOR SOUND SCIENCE’
On March 11, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced that $5.1 million had been awarded to 11 institutions to conduct air quality research. (ISU College of Agriculture researchers Steve Hoff, agricultural and biosystems engineering, Wendy Powers, animal science, and Joe Colletti, natural Rrsources ecology and management, were lead investigators for three of the awards, amounting to nearly $1.4 million.) “These air quality awards represent a new direction for fundamental and applied research at USDA to provide sound science that protects the environment while maintaining a viable agricultural production system," said Veneman. Rodney Brown, deputy undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics, said, “The grants will target the impact of air quality resulting from farm animal operations, greenhouse gases, emissions from post-harvest practices, and improved methods for measuring gases in the atmosphere.” The 11 institutions receiving awards were:
Iowa State University--$1,399,971 (3 awards)
North Carolina State University--$479,818
Kansas State University--$477,775
USDA-FS, Seattle, Wash.--$475,059
University of Connecticut--$466,130
Montana State University--$421,184
Purdue University--$460,000
Cornell University--$400,365
NASA Langley Research Center--$223,052
USDA-ARS, Lubbock, Texas--$196,646
Florida A&M University--$100,000
Next issue: March 22
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AG ONLINE
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EDITORS
Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu, and Brian Meyer, bmeyer@iastate.edu
Phone: (515) 294-5616 Web site: http://www.ag.iastate.edu/aginfo/
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