State Board of Agricultural Research & Education Corn Granting
Committee
April 17, 2009 Conference Call
Meeting Minutes
The conference call was called to order at 8 a.m. CST. Voting members present were Jeff Enger, Larry Hoffman, Robert Stover and Wallie Hardie. Non-voting members present were Tom Lilja and Dr. Ken Grafton. Also present was Lori Capouch.
It was moved and seconded to appoint Jeff Enger as Chair of the committee. The motion carried.
The following proposals were considered:
Using Cation/Anion resin membrane probes to determine corn
nitrogen (N) use efficiency when using commercial N fertilizer or manure N in
corn production
Researcher: Ron
Wiederholt
Amount requested: $7,285
Nitrogen (N) fertilizer costs constitute the majority of expense to produce a corn crop. Utilizing N whether sourced from commercial fertilizer or manure in the most efficient way possible requires a high level of management. Without research to build recommendations to fully use manure N, there is a significant amount of money being lost by producers who have to over-purchase commercial N fertilizer. To address this issue, this project will use cation/anion probes to track N levels in the soil over the growing season to help understand the level of N available to plants form commercial fertilizer N vs. manure N. The data will also help determine how efficient corn is at using N from different sources.
Mitigating the impact
of excess soil moisture early in the season on corn growth and nitrogen use
efficiency
Researcher: Joel Ransom
Amount requested: $8,597
Experiments will be conducted to determine the impact of tile drainage and different fertilization practices on corn growth in eastern ND where early in the spring excess moisture in the soil often causes corn to be yellow and grow slowly. Tile drainage is growing in popularity in eastern ND because excess soil moisture has been a reoccurring problem in recent years. The proposed research will be the first to document how tile drainage can effect corn growth in the heavy soils of the Red River Valley. This research will also look at different strategies for reducing the loss of nitrogen fertilizer that is applied to the heavy, wet soils of the Red River Valley.
Developing new and
diverse early-maturing products to increase the long-term adaptation
Researchers: Marcelo
Carena
Amount requested: $34,270
The goal of this research is to develop new and diverse early maturing yellow dent inbred lines for ND hybrids. Early maturing lines will be identified by extensive testing of thousands of experimental hybrids including 50 percent NDSU and 50 percent industry genetic backgrounds including biotechnology events. Industry has already committed extensive labor and resources as matching collaboration.
The hypothesis is that certain early maturing hybrids are better performing than late maturing hybrids when correctly identified. Only extensive testing across locations within a full-capacity project can accurately identify those early maturing hybrids with best grain yield performance.
The objectives of this project include the identification of elite germplasm for local adaptation, the maximization of the genetic improvement and adapted germplasm, the development of improved lines for early maturing ND hybrids, and the education of next generation of corn breeders. Specifically, researchers will focus on:
1. Increasing the genetic diversity of North Dakota corn hybrids.
2. Maximizing genetic improvement for drought and cold tolerance, grain quality and fast dry drown.
3. Extensive evaluation of early maturing hybrids and release of unique inbred lines.
Funding decisions
It was moved by Hardie and seconded by Hoffman to grant negotiated funding of up to $10,000 to the project titled “Mitigating the impact of excess soil moisture early in the season on corn growth and nitrogen use efficiency” and up to $23,453 to the project titled “Development of new and diverse early-maturing products to increase the long-term adaptation and profitability of North Dakota corn”. The motion carried.
There being no further business, it was moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried.