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Grow 21: Enhancing North Dakota's Economy Through
Agriculture
Agency Major Accomplishments
NDSU Main Research Center 2007-09 Report on Investments
- Continued breeding, disease and insect tests, fertility tests, responses to weed pressure, determination of desirable agronomic processing and products, and economic impacts for 14 major crops and several new crops.
- Leafy spurge infestation was reduced from its peak of 1.5 million acres to 862,000 by 2007, the lowest amount since 1971. In addition to regaining over $14 million in grazing and recreational land use, a combination of herbicide and Aphthona spp. biological control agents has saved approximately $500,000 annually in herbicide costs.
- The soluble fiber consisting of Beta-glucans in oat has been demonstrated to lower blood serum cholesterol level, improve the ratio of high density lipoprotein (HDL) vs. low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and moderate glucose metabolism of type II diabetics when included in human diets.
- In the past 4 years, HRSW cultivars released by the NDSU Hard Red Spring wheat breeding program occupied 50 to 60% of total HRSW acreages. In addition, some of these varieties are leading cultivars in MT and MN.
- Glenn, a 2005 HRSW release, was the leading wheat cultivar in the State, with more than 20% of wheat acreage. In addition to Glenn, HRSW cultivars released by this program have improved diseases resistance and agronomic/quality traits that contribute substantially to the economic development of the state and income of wheat growers and industry while meeting the export market requirements.
- NDSU corn breeding efforts continue to identify genetic combinations that possess high yield, early maturity, and rapid drydown, traits that are important for North Dakota to expand upon its record acreage of 2.6 million acres in 2007.
- NDSU barley researchers have identified a breeding line with improved FHB resistance and acceptable malt quality. This line accumulates about 30% less DON than Robust, a popular barley cultivar.
- NDSU plant breeders released seven cultivars in 2008 (one HRSW, two soybean, and four dry edible bean), all of which are well adapted to the North Dakota environment.
- NDSU plant pathologists help determine optimum timing for and rates of fungicide applications and helps identify new fungicide chemistries to control diseases, saving producers tens of millions of dollars during recent Fusarium head blight epidemics alone.
- Disease forecasting systems that were developed, maintained, improved, and/or made accessible to the public by plant pathologist are an important tools for managing a variety of important diseases on several crops such as wheat, barley, sugarbeet, potato, and canola.
- Research on managing diseases of newer crops (such as pulse crops) and on new diseases in the state that affect established crops (such as anthracnose on dry bean and soybean cyst nematode) help develop and protect the agricultural economy.
- Studied ways to increase the understanding of the effect of gestational events upon the long-term health and viability of the offspring. This research has enabled enhanced understanding of feeding ewes and cows during gestation resulting in healthier offspring and greater economic returns to the rancher.
- Developed better recommendations for both sheep producers and cow-calf producers to increase viability of the offspring which, in turn, enhances economic efficiency. This also has implications that could extend to human health issues.
- Iron deficiency chlorosis of soybean leads to yellowing, stunting, and severely reduced yields. The most cost-effective control measure is planting a resistant variety. Since 2001 the NDSU soybean research team has screened over 1500 varieties and breeding lines for resistance to chlorosis.
- Determined that plant-root development and soil development is enhanced with managed grazing. Managed grazing enhances several soil properties, most notably soil infiltration.
- Assessed the impact of alternative Farm Bills and presented results in U.S. House and Senate hearings.
- Studied the risk of illness due to antibiotic resistance brought about by contamination of food by food-borne pathogens.
- Evaluated the outlook of the U.S. and world wheat and sugar industries; the outlook for the ND farm economy; analyzed the economics of corn-based and cellulosic ethanol production; and examined economics effects of the recent trend of the U.S. dollar depreciation on ND agricultural exports and agricultural inflation.
- Ag engineers are exploring the use of sugarbeet pulp for cellulosic ethanol production.
- Characterized and tested canola meal protein composition for use in biocomposite materials and other industrial bioproducts.Higher value use of canola protein would benefit producers and processors.
- High throughput analysis of canola seed identified a line that produced 12% more oil/acre than the average checks.
- Epoxy resins from canola oil for use in composite materials are being produced using a green, toluene-method method and characterized. The resins may be blended at up to 35% with synthetic epoxy resin.
- Evaluated water mass balance of drained and undrained fields, with emphases on validation of evapotranspiration estimates by satellite-based remote sensing models.
- NDAWN assists growers and many other agricultural sectors with information that allow better decisions to be made for enhanced crop productivity.
- Evaluated differences in land management on carbon sequestration in soil profiles on the upland landscape component adjacent to wetlands.
- Studied the effects of tile drainage and subsequent subirrigation on crop productivity and surface and subsurface water quality.
- Evaluated more rapid tests to predict breadmaking quality and evaluated the suitability of new technologies to screen early generation germplasm.
- Characterized the quality of soybeans for soy food for developing new markets in South East and East Asia.
- Developed models to predict how moisture, relative humidity, temperature and time affect the extraction of soy proteins in soymilk and tofu quality.
- Evaluated the fractionated components of many crop commodities grown in ND for functional and nutraceutical ingredients.
- Flaxseed is a significant source of omega-3 lipids, which has been shown to reduce certain forms of cancer.