Robert Pore's Ag Blog

LAKEWOOD, Colo. – Phone calls directly to ranchers in southeast Colorado helped evaluate the safety of those ranchers’ families and the well being of Colorado livestock during the blizzard recovery operation. This process was made possible by the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).

Those with registered premises were called on Wednesday and Thursday by the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s State Veterinarian’s Office. Those phone calls helped locate animals and find out if they have had access to feed.

"Starvation and dehydration are certainly animal health concerns and we are pleased that we could utilize the system in this emergency situation,” said State Veterinarian Dr. John Maulsby.

Maulsby, who has been in southeast Colorado assisting with relief efforts, was speaking about the National Animal Identification System’s premises registration. Emergency hay drops had begun when the decision was made to use this tool in the six counties hit hardest by the storm to make contact with ranchers, ensuring they had been able to get feed to their livestock.

“Having direct access to livestock owners gave us the opportunity to quickly assess the situation,” said Colorado Division of Emergency Management Director, George Epp. “Protecting the health of Colorado livestock is a top priority to this operation and NAIS was a big help.”

Aerial surveillance crews continue to search for additional herds; meanwhile, the Colorado and Wyoming National Guard are performing hay drops to get feed to stranded livestock. So far, more than 70 tons of hay has been delivered by helicopters and a C-130 military transport plane.

Generators are being utilized to help communities without electricity to pump water. Large tankers are also being used to deliver water to necessary locations.

Labels: Ag news: Animal Agriculture

Irvine, Calif. -- Countering Charles Darwin's view that evolution occurs gradually, UC Irvine scientists have discovered that plants with short life cycles can evolutionally adapt in just a few years to climate change.

This finding suggests that quick-growing plants such as weeds may cope better with global warming than slower-growing plants such as Redwood trees -- a phenomenon that could lead to future changes in the Earth's plant life.

"Some species evolve fast enough to keep up with environmental change," said Arthur Weis, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology. "Global warming may increase the pace of this change so that certain species may have difficulty keeping up. Plants with longer life cycles will have fewer generations over which to evolve."

The study appears the week of Jan. 8 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Weis and researchers Steven Franks and Sheina Sim studied field mustard, a weedy plant found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. In a greenhouse, they grew mustard plants at the same time from seeds collected near the UCI campus in the spring of 1997 -- two years before a five-year drought -- and seeds collected after the drought in the winter of 2004. Seeds can remain dormant but alive for years and be revived with a little water and light. The plants were divided into three groups, each receiving different amounts of water mimicking precipitation patterns ranging from drought to very wet conditions. In all cases, the post-drought generation flowered earlier, regardless of the watering scheme.

This shift in genetic timing was further confirmed with an experiment that crossed the ancestors and descendents. As predicted, the intergenerational hybrids had an intermediate flowering time.

"Early winter rainfall did not change much during the drought, but the late winters and springs were unusually dry. This precipitation pattern put a selective pressure on plants to flower earlier, especially annual plants like field mustard," Franks said. "During drought, early bloomers complete seed production before the soil dries out, whereas late bloomers wither before they can seed."

The technique of growing ancestors and descendents at the same time allowed the scientists to determine that the change in flower timing was in fact an evolutionary shift -- not a simple reaction to changing weather conditions. This method, pioneered by Albert Bennett, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and acting dean of the School of Biological Sciences at UCI, has been used with bacteria, but this is the first study to make full use of it with a plant species. Bennett and his colleagues froze ancestral strains of E. coli so they could evaluate the bacterium's adaptive evolution after culturing it at elevated temperatures for thousands of generations.

Today, Weis is the organizing chairman of Project Baseline, a national effort to collect and preserve seeds from contemporary plant populations. Decades from now, plant biologists will be able to "resurrect" these ancestral generations and compare them to their descendents. By that time, advanced DNA technology may make it possible to sequence the entire genome of individual plants and at low cost. If so, biologists will be able to measure how much plants have evolved with climate change and pinpoint the evolution's underlying genetic basis.

Scientists expect global warming to alter air circulation patterns over the Pacific Ocean, and climate models predict frequent and extreme fluctuations in precipitation along the coast, which likely will affect plant life.

"If we go out today and collect a large number of seeds and freeze them, they will be a resource available to the next generation of scientists," Weis said. "Because of global warming, the evolution explosion is already under way. If we act now, we'll have the tools necessary to determine in the future how species respond to climate change."

Labels: Ag news: Science

LINCOLN — A University of Nebraska-Lincoln conference at four cities in January and February will provide perspective on a variety of agricultural management and outlook issues for 2007.

The Cornhusker Economics Management and Outlook Conference is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Jan. 30 in Beatrice, Jan. 31 in Norfolk, Feb. 1 in Sidney and Feb. 2 in Kearney.

Each conference will feature a morning session covering the outlook for the livestock and grain industries in 2007, along with discussion of policy outlook, including development of the new farm bill.

The keynote session, from 1-3:30 p.m., will be "Food, Feed, Fuel and Farms: Agriculture's Role and Response to Bioenergy Sector Developments."
"Bioenergy is the hottest topic in agriculture today," said Brad Lubben, a UNL public policy specialist who's helping organize the conference.

The conference will include discussion by UNL experts about several aspects of bioenergy, including industry outlook, crop and livestock sector outlooks and resulting policy implications.

Registration costs $25, which covers lunch and all conference materials. Call (800) 535-3456, or e-mail ssterkel1@unl.edu for more information. The conference Web site is at http://www.agecon.unl.edu/resource/cemoc.html. Online registration is available at http://cariregistration.unl.edu. Once there, search for "Cornhusker Economics" for registration information.

Kearney locations and contacts:
‰ Kearney, Feb. 2, Buffalo County Extension Office; Brent Plugge, (308) 236-1235

The conference is sponsored by UNL Extension and UNL's Department of Agricultural Economics, both part of the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Labels: Ag News: Agri-business

HASTINGS - Ag Processing Inc (AGP) a cooperative announced this week that it has expanded processing of VISTIVETM low-linolenic soybeans to six of its nine soybean processing plants for 2007, including its Hastings' plant.

AGP, the fourth largest soybean processor in the United States, has added the processing of VISTIVE variety soybeans to its plant locations in Eagle Grove,
Iowa; Emmetsburg, Iowa; Manning, Iowa; and Hastings.

VISTIVE soybeans, developed through conventional breeding, contain three percent linolenic acid as compared to the typical eight percent level found in traditional soybeans. The result is
a more stable soybean oil that, for certain applications, does not need partial hydrogenation, which produces trans fatty acids (trans fats).

“The entire soybean industry has worked hard on developing healthier ingredients to reduce the presence of trans fats in foods,” said Dave Tegeder, Senior Vice President, Refined Vegetable Oils. “VISTIVE low-linolenic soybean oil enables food companies such as the Kellogg Company and KFC Corporation to reduce trans fats in their products."

With the expansion of the VISTIVE program to six of its soybean processing plants in 2007, company officials said there will be even more premium opportunities for soybean producers through their local AGP member cooperatives.

AGP is expanding our program for this trait-enhanced oil to meet the increasing need of its food customers to provide healthier alternatives to the American consumer.

Labels: Ag News: Agri-business

MINNEAPOLIS – New Cargill subsidiary Emerald Renewable Energy LLC today announced plans to develop four 100 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plants in the Midwestern United States. The newly formed company is considering several potential sites in the Cornbelt.

Emerald Renewable Energy is a privately held, limited liability company formed by Cargill to develop and invest in renewable energy projects in the United States. Cargill will provide the initial development capital for the projects. Emerald Renewable Energy will contract with Cargill for services to support the facilities, including corn supply, natural gas, price risk management and the marketing of ethanol and distillers grains.

"Emerald Renewable Energy will have access to Cargill's world-class expertise in trading, sourcing corn, plant construction and operations, risk management and bulk commodity transportation,” noted Scott Portnoy, Cargill corporate vice president with responsibility for its Biofuels and Bioproducts businesses.

Emerald Renewable Energy has reached agreement with a globally recognized EPC contractor to design and construct their facilities. This contractor has initiated engineering and permitting efforts and will participate with Cargill in the design and construction of all four plants. To finance the debt capital for the construction of the plants, Emerald has nominated BNP Paribas as lead arranger and Santander Investment and Standard Chartered as senior co-lead arrangers.

Each plant will use nearly 40 million bushels of corn annually and produce 100 million gallons of ethanol and over 300,000 tons of dry distillers grains for animal feed each year. The plant sites being considered include greenfield locations as well as co-locations with Cargill grain elevators and other utility infrastructure providers. The plants are expected to create about 40 jobs per location.

Labels: Ag News: Agri-business

President Bush signed a major disaster declaration for Nebraska on Sunday night. Gov. Dave Heineman had requested an expedited disaster declaration for parts of Nebraska damaged by recent severe winter storms.

"I want to personally thank President Bush and his disaster response team at FEMA for moving so quickly to approve our request for a federal disaster declaration," Gov. Dave Heineman said. "Much of central Nebraska remains without power or powered by alternative means, and this assistance to the public entities trying to accelerate the recovery efforts in our communities is welcome and warranted under these difficult circumstances."

The Governor's request included damage from winter storms beginning Dec. 19 and ending Jan. 2. The President approved federal emergency funding for emergency protective action and debris removal in all 57 counties included in the Governor's request. Those counties are Adams, Antelope, Blaine, Boone, Brown, Buffalo, Cedar, Chase, Cheyenne, Clay, Custer, Dawson, Dixon, Dundy, Fillmore, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Garden, Garfield, Gosper, Greeley, Hall, Hamilton, Harlan, Hayes, Hitchcock, Holt, Howard, Kearney, Keith, Keya Paha, Kimball, Knox, Lincoln, Logan, Loup, Madison, Merrick, Morrill, Nance, Nuckolls, Perkins, Phelps, Pierce, Platte, Polk, Red Willow, Rock, Seward, Sherman, Stanton, Valley, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler and York.

The federal emergency funding provides assistance to state and local government agencies, as well as qualified private nonprofit organizations, for actions taken to prevent or reduce long term risks to life and property from natural hazards following the storms. Preliminary damage estimates from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and public power utilities across Nebraska indicated at least $58 million in damages to public infrastructure. Those numbers are increasing as more utilities and governmental agencies compile detailed damage assessments.

Emergency power has been supplied to all Nebraska communities over the weekend, and some that had been relying on portable emergency generators are now tied to the power grid. The communities of Heartwell, Riverton and Upland have had their power restored and are no longer on emergency generators.

There had been a temporary power outage in a portion of Holdrege early Monday morning, when a power surge in a large emergency generator caused a small fire and shutdown of the generator. The problem was quickly identified and fixed, and power was restored.

Not all customers are receiving service yet, even though the list of communities to be powered has been completed. Approximately 7,000 to 8,000 customers remain without power across the 12 affected public power districts, according to public power officials. That number represents residences and businesses, and is not a count of individuals. The total may fluctuate as additional customers receive power, or as previously unknown outages are discovered. Most of those still without service live in rural or remote areas. Line crews continue to repair and replace downed lines, but some customers may still be a week or two from being re-connected.

High winds are a concern on Monday, as the National Weather Service has issued wind advisories for many areas in the affected area. Power district officials caution the public to stay clear of power lines, particularly during high wind conditions. The power lines and structures are in a fragile state until repair and replacement work can be completed, and there may be additional outages as a result of wind-related incidents.

Wind may hamper repair efforts, as well, as line crews encounter hazardous or unstable situations due to the weather. Because of the condition of the system, the potential for overloading, and the possibility of weather issues, public power districts strongly encourage their customers to conserve electrical power.

Labels: Ag News: Rural events

Lincoln — Nebraska State Senator Annette Dubas (34th Legislative District) launched a website for the 34th Legislative District Monday.

"Running a campaign that trumped the importance of growing communities and family farms through the availability of up to date technology, the website is a tool to communicate directly with the constituents she represents," Dubus said.

Dubas is one of only a handful of legislators who maintain a direct website.

"Rural economic development is the fundamental principle to growing central and western Nebraska," Dubus said. "Technology can make that happen. We live in a day and age when blogging is more effective than making 100 phone calls."

She said building the technology infrastructure available to citizens in rural Nebraska, "...they will come."

First we have to start by linking people together through the available technology," Dubus said. "I know my constituents are there. And now, they will be given the opportunity to participate through the Internet. Surely the results will be positive."

The website can be accessed at http://www.annettedubas.com/

Labels: Ag News: Rural events