COLLEGE NEWS
- June orientation programs underway
- 100 attend groundbreaking at Seed Science Center
- Crop management career event draws 26 FFA teams
- Horticulture faculty hit the highway
- Waste management consortium funds projects
- Milk the State Fair for all its worth: Sign up now
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- Check your e-mail for Ag Online survey
INFOGRAZING
- Horticulture flowering in Iowa economy
- The case of the disappearing soil association
EXTERNAL VOICES
- The responsibility of university workers
MARGINALIA
- Heartening news for hammock potatoes
C O L L E G E N E W S
JUNE ORIENTATION PROGRAMS UNDERWAY
College of Agriculture summer orientation programs have begun.
Orientation dates in June are the 11th & 12th, 18th &
19th, 20th & 21st and 25th & 26th. The 475 prospective
students expected to attend will spend time in the departments,
meet their advisers and register for classes. New this year: Incoming
students will get e-mail addresses in the Brenton Center and their
ISU Cards. For more information, contact Ag Student Services,
4-2766.
100 ATTEND GROUNDBREAKING AT SEED SCIENCE CENTER
This morning (Friday) about 100 people attended the groundbreaking
ceremony for an addition to the Seed Science Center. The addition
will include a new seed training, demonstration and conference
facility and a remodeled classroom and seed health testing lab.
Thirty-eight seed companies, associations and individuals are
providing more than $550,000 for the $660,000 project, and the
College of Agriculture is contributing $100,000. Projected completion
date: Early 1997.
CROP MANAGEMENT CAREER EVENT DRAWS 26 FFA TEAMS
The Hampton FFA team won the third annual Ag Ed/FFA Crop Management
Career Development Event held June 7 at ISU. Agronomy professor
Ken Larson organized the event and department faculty and staff
helped with the 96 students from 26 FFA teams who judged hay,
silage, oats and soybeans for seed; corn and soybeans for marketing;
and identified crop and weed seeds, plants and insect pests. The
students also took a test covering crop management and production
practices. Maquoketa Valley FFA, Washington FFA and St. Ansgar
FFA finished second through fourth. The top four teams were all
coached by ISU ag alumni: Dean Dodd, Bret Iverson, Duane Van Winkle
and Dale Gruis, respectively.
HORTICULTURE FACULTY HIT THE HIGHWAY
Six horticulture faculty members started the summer with their
own Road Scholar Tour, traveling to southwest Iowa to visit the
Earl May headquarters and nursery at Shenandoah, the McClaren
Nursery near Shenandoah and the Sjulin Nursery at Hamburg. This
was the second such tour, giving faculty members a chance to get
acquainted with Iowa horticulturists and their enterprises. A
third is planned for the fall. (See "Infograzing" for
facts on Iowa horticulture.)
WASTE MANAGEMENT CONSORTIUM FUNDS PROJECTS
The Waste Management Research Consortium, formed earlier this
year by ISU and North Carolina State University, has funded its
first six projects to address swine industry problems. The projects
will involve ag engineers, economists, agronomists and soil scientists
at each university. For more information: Colin Scanes, 4-1823.
MILK THE STATE FAIR FOR ALL ITS WORTH: VOLUNTEER NOW
College of Agriculture faculty and staff volunteers are needed
to staff the college's exhibit at the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 8-18.
This year's display has a dairy theme, with past and present ISU
dairy activities and information on how milk is made. Two volunteers
work each four-hour shift, starting at 9 a.m. Volunteers get free
admission and parking tickets. To sign up, contact Jennifer Bensen,
4-3538 (bensen@iastate.edu) or Marty Behrens, 4-5616 (behrens@iastate.edu).
DEADLINES & REMINDERS
July 1 --Leopold Center Conference and Workshop Support Program
deadline, 4-1854
C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K
CHECK YOUR E-MAIL FOR AG ONLINE SURVEY
On the heels of this issue you'll find an Ag Online survey in
your e-mail box. Please take a few minutes right away to answer
the 14 questions and return it -- we're hoping for a high response
rate. And from those subscribers who return the survey, five will
be picked at random to receive a book on improving communications.
We want your comments to help improve the newsletter, so please
respond today. For more information: Brian Meyer, 4-0706, bmeyer@iastate.edu.
I N F O G R A Z I N G
HORTICULTURE FLOWERING IN IOWA ECONOMY
The horticulture industry, the fastest-growing sector of agriculture
in Iowa, contributes $475 million in gross income each year to
the state's economy, according to the Iowa State Horticultural
Society. The society provides these statistics:
Number of businesses in Iowa's horticulture industry: 2,400
Percentage of industry's annual gross income that comes from
golf courses or sod and turf businesses: 19
From vegetable, fruit and nut production: 19
From floriculture: 12
From nurseries: 12
From professional services: 10
From Christmas trees: 5
Honey and beeswax, in millions of pounds, produced annually:
5
Apples, in millions of pounds, harvested in 1993: 9.5
Growing area, in millions of square feet, used for floriculture:
4.6
Iowa-grown Christmas trees, in millions, sold each year:
1
THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING SOIL ASSOCIATION
In last issue's "Infograzing" we ran statistics on ISU's
Research and Demonstration Farms, including that Iowa has 20 major
soil associations and the farms covered 12 of them. A subsequent
e-mail from the agronomy department read: "Who stole one
of Iowa's soil associations?" Iowa has 21 major soil associations
-- the standard number that's been used by soil experts for 40-some
years. We stand corrected.
E X T E R N A L V O I C E S
THE RESPONSIBILITY OF UNIVERSITY WORKERS
"Universities are monuments to the hope that through education
and deeper understanding we can create better lives for ourselves
and our children . . . Those of us who work in these national
treasures have a responsibility to understand the requirements
of a changing environment and to act so as to keep universities
alive and well." William H. Danforth, chairman of the board,
Washington University, St. Louis. (Science, September 1995)
M A R G I N A L I A
HEARTENING NEWS FOR HAMMOCK POTATOES
Poulan/Weed Eater is test-marketing robotic, solar-powered lawn
mowers. The self-propelled, turtle-shaped mower is powered by
34 solar cells along its back, and can cut about a third of an
acre on a sunny or hazy day. Underground wiring along a property's
perimeter keeps the unit within bounds. It retreats when it encounters
obstacles and stops if it turns over or hits wayward toes or tennis
balls. Punch in a security code and the 12-pound unit screeches
and becomes inoperable should a thief or curious child try to
make off with it. (Wall Street Journal, May 31)