College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online
May 9, 2016 – No. 899
Top Stories
Matthew Welter Serves as CALS Student Marshal at ISU Commencement
Matthew Welter, graduating magna cum laude in agricultural biochemistry, served as the CALS student marshal at the ISU commencement ceremony in Jack Trice Stadium on May 7. Welter is shown with Dean Wendy Wintersteen. After graduation, Welter will work as a discovery breeding intern with Monsanto and then start graduate school, focusing on agricultural pest management research. He was escorted by David Acker, associate dean for academic and global programs and Raymond and Mary Baker Chair in Global Agriculture, who stepped in for Donald Beitz, distinguished professor of animal science and biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, who was called away to a funeral.
Research
ISU Researchers Receive Grant to Study Antimicrobial Resistance in Animal Production
An interdisciplinary team of researchers at ISU has received a nearly $1 million grant to study antimicrobial resistance in animal production systems. The three-year grant from USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture includes Adina Howe and Michelle Soupir, agricultural and biosystems engineering, along with personnel at USDA and Grinnell College. More
ISU Review Shows Limited Farm-Scale Testing of Odor Technologies
Jacek Koziel, agricultural and biosystems engineering, and a team of five other ISU researchers reviewed 265 academic journal articles studying technologies to reduce odor and gaseous emissions from livestock and poultry operations. The review, published in the journal Data in Brief, showed that most such technologies undergo lab testing but never reach farm-scale study. More
Teaching and Students
ISU Students Win Overall Prize at Judging Conference
ISU students won the overall sweepstakes award among four-year institutions at the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Judging Conference, April 14-16 at the University of Minnesota Crookston. The ISU Ag Knowledge Bowl team won first place for the sixth year in a row. More
FSHN Students Test New Food Products
Food science and human nutrition students pitched their products at this year’s Dyscovry Foods New Product Showcase after testing their products with nearly 20 food industry professionals. In teams of three to four, Lester Wilson and Ken Prusa’s 41 students developed 11 new food products in less than 15 weeks.
ISU Students Learning Abroad Over Summer
CALS is offering 10 learning abroad opportunities this summer. ISU students will be taking part in the following programs led by CALS faculty and staff.
- Heritage Breeds – United Kingdom, with Jodi Sterle, animal science.
- Global Food and Agriculture – China, with Kevin Duerfeldt and Maggie Sprecher, horticulture.
- International Industrial/Academic Leadership Experience – Taiwan, with Joseph Vanstrom, agricultural and biosystems engineering.
- Beef and Horse Production – Brazil, with Peggy Auwerda and Brad Skaar, animal science.
- Study of Japanese and Chinese Pork Industry – Japan and China, with Jodi Cornell, global agriculture programs; Maynard Hogberg, animal science; and Jay Harmon, agricultural and biosystems engineering.
- Production and Processing Sustainable, Safe and Nutritional Food – France, with Kurt Rosentrater, agricultural and biosystems engineering.
- Dean’s Global Agriculture and Food Leadership Program – Rome, with Joe Colletti, CALS senior associate dean; Shelley Taylor, global agriculture programs; and Steven Lonergan, animal science.
- Service Learning: Creating a School Garden – Uganda, with Julie Blanchong and Richard Schultz, natural resource ecology and management; Tom Brumm, agricultural and biosystems engineering; and Dorothy Masinde, Gail Nonnecke and Elly Sukup, horticulture.
Extension and Outreach
Extension Part of Iowa Source Water Ag Collaborative
ISU Extension and Outreach is a founding member of the Iowa Source Water Ag Collaborative, dedicated to providing Iowans information and resources to protect their drinking water. The collaborative’s recently unveiled website has source water information and resources for private well users, communities, farmers, landowners and professionals.
Extension to Host RUSLE2 Soil Loss Workshop
ISU Extension and Outreach, in collaboration with the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service and Iowa Department of Natural Resources, has scheduled a workshop to train livestock producers and service providers on how to use the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation 2 and the Iowa Phosphorus Index in nutrient management and manure management plans. RUSLE2 software calculates soil loss for a given field which is needed for figuring out the Iowa Phosphorus Index. More
Around the College
Lamkey to Serve on APLU Future 2050 Food Security Commission
Kendal Lamkey, professor and chair of agronomy, will serve on the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities’ Future 2050 Food Security Commission. The objectives of the project are to identify key constraints to our food system’s ability to sustainably feed the world, how institutions of higher education can best provide knowledge to remove food security constraints, and how resources from the public and private sector can be aligned to support solutions.
Borlaug Fellow Works with ISU to Improve Corn Breeding
Abdalla Dao, a Borlaug Fellow, will be spending three months at ISU to improve corn breeding in Burkina Faso. He will be working with Thomas Lubberstedt, professor and K.J. Frey Chair in Agronomy and director of the R.F. Baker Center for Plant Breeding. Dao applied for the Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship as a scientist at Burkina Faso’s Environmental and Agricultural Research Institute.
Suza to Speak at eLearning Africa Conference
Walter Suza, assistant professor in agronomy and director of the ISU Plant Breeding E-Learning in Africa project, will be speaking at the 11th eLearning Africa conference in Cairo, Egypt, on May 24-26. More
ISU Agriculture Honor Society Presents Awards
The Iowa Chapter of the Honor Society of Agriculture, known as Gamma Sigma Delta, presented awards April 21 to CALS alumni, faculty and students. More
- Distinguished Achievement in Agriculture Award – Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Thomas Loynachan, agronomy.
- Alumni Award of Merit – Larry Shover, president, Iowa State Dairy Association.
- Teaching Mission Award – Ann Marie VanDerZanden, horticulture.
- Research Mission Award – John Patience, animal science.
- Extension Mission Award – Hongwei Xin, agricultural and biosystems engineering.
- International Mission Award – Jack Dekkers, animal science.
- Senior Scholarship – Sarah Myers, animal science.
- Sophomore Scholarship – Ashley Vaughan, biology.
CALS Alum Named Land Institute President
CALS alum Fred Iutzi has been named president of The Land Institute, a nonprofit agriculture research organization based in Salina, Kansas. Iutzi received a master’s degree in sustainable agriculture and agronomy from ISU. More
Governor Branstad Tours INRC Projects
Governor Terry Branstad visited Iowa Nutrient Research Center field sites at the ISU Ag Engineering/Agronomy Research and Demonstration Farm on April 25 to sign a proclamation celebrating Soil and Water Conservation Week. The governor and attendees were presented cover crop and bioreactor research at the farm. The Iowa Learning Farms’ Conservation Station served as a backdrop to the event. More
Calendar
May 18: Iowa Learning Farms Webinar
Iowa Learning Farms next webinar will be held May 18 at 1 p.m. and discuss monarch conservation in Iowa. The guest speaker is Steven Bradbury, professor of environmental toxicology in the departments of natural resource ecology and management and entomology at ISU.
Funding Opportunities
Digital Agriculture Big Data Meeting to be Held May 16-17
There is still time to register for the Digital Agriculture Spoke All-Hands Meeting being hosted by ISU on May 16-17 at the Scheman Building. The Digital Agriculture Spoke is devoted to building partnerships and resources that will address emerging big data issues in the agricultural ecosystem. Stakeholders from academia (including early career researchers, post-docs, graduate students and undergraduate students); industry, government and other organizations are invited. There is no fee to attend, but registration is required. Modest funding is available for travel costs for non-ISU early career researchers. More
Travel Support Opportunity to Attend Software Carpentry Workshop
The Great Plains Network, a consortium of universities and state networks in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Arkansas, will provide travel stipends to 18 early career researchers to attend the Software Carpentry Workshop on June 3-4 in Kansas City, MO. The stipends are available to graduate students, undergraduate students and junior faculty to cover travel, lodging and registration costs. More
Commodity Boards Can Propose Topics for AFRI Requests for Applications
The 2014 Farm Bill allows eligible national and state commodity boards to propose topics for research that they are willing to equally co-fund with USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Proposed topics must relate to the established priority areas of the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program to be considered for inclusion in AFRI Requests for Applications. The first round of commodity board topics are being included in some of the FY 2016 requests for applications. More
Funding Information, Opportunities and Deadline Reminders
Dates listed are application deadlines. Contact: Roxanne Clemens, rclemens@iastate.edu. Additional information is posted at CALS Pre-Award Resources.
TBA: DOE EERE Notice of Intent to Issue DE-FOA-0001554 Wind Energy – Eagle Impact Minimization Technologies and Field Testing Opportunities. More
Monthly deadlines: Mechanism for Time-Sensitive Research Opportunities in Environmental Health Sciences (R21). More
June 3: USDA NRCS Iowa Conservation Innovation Grants. More
June 6 (concept paper): DOE Project Development for Pilot and Demonstration Scale Manufacturing of Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biopower (PD2B3). More
July 1: Woodard & Curran Foundation - Clean Water Initiatives.
July 3: USDA Risk Management Education - Crop Insurance Education in Targeted States; Iowa is not a targeted state. More
July 3: USDA Risk Management Education Partnerships Program; crop insurance education and risk management training. More
July 6: HHS Refugee Agricultural Partnership Program; $300,000 over three years. More
July 7: USDA NIFA – AFRI FY 2016 Food Security Challenge Area.
July 29 - Sept 19 (dates vary by application type): NSF Prediction of and Resilience against Extreme Events. More
Aug. 1: NIH BD2K Mentored Career Development Award in Biomedical Big Data Science for Intramural Investigators (K22) Grant. More
Aug. 3: USDA NIFA - AFRI FY 2016 Food Safety Challenge Area; emphasis on antimicrobial resistance.
Aug. 4: USDA NIFA - AFRI FY 2016 AFRI Water for Agriculture Challenge Area. More
Communications Kiosk
Punctuation for Essential and Nonessential Phrases
An essential phrase is a word or group of words critical to the reader’s understanding of what the author had in mind and should not be set off from the rest of a sentence by commas. “They ate dinner with their daughter Julie.” Because they have more than one daughter, the inclusion of Julie’s name is critical if the reader is to know which daughter is meant. A nonessential phrase provides more information about something that may be helpful to the reader’s comprehension, but the reader would not be misled if the information were not there. Nonessential phrases should be set off by commas. “Indian corn, or maize, was harvested.” Maize provides the reader with the name of the corn, but its absence would not change the meaning of the sentence. (Associated Press Stylebook, 2015 edition, pg. 94)
Marginalia
Connecting College Students to Agriculture: A Success Story
Robert Beckstead, associate professor of poultry science at the University of Georgia, saw how disconnected students were to agriculture, how they were missing job opportunities and how misinformation could shape their opinions. So he started a class to help college students connect back to agriculture – Effects of Global Agriculture on World Culture. More
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online
Julie Stewart, Editor
jstewart@iastate.edu, (515) 294-5616
https://www.cals.iastate.edu/news/agonline
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Online, the newsletter for faculty and staff in Iowa State University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, is published by email every Monday. The deadline for submitting content is 12 p.m. on Friday.