April 2015 (PDF)

PLANT SCIENCE SAYS Volume 17, No. 3 The Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology April, 2015 The Curse of the Colonel that they had raised in past years have been By Luther Talbert addressed through the selection efforts of the I recently spent several days in Korea and breeding programs. Other issues remain and Japan with a team of US wheat workers new ones have arisen, thus Deanna, Jackie, discussing issues associated with hard red and Harvey in the Cereal Quality Lab still have spring wheat. Asian countries are primary plenty of work to do. importers of spring and winter wheat produced in Montana. A farmer-funded Business meetings with the Japanese and group called US Wheat Associates is devoted Koreans are very formal. Social events at the to marketing US wheat to overseas close of the day are more relaxed. The high customers. The marketing effort includes alcohol content of soju in Korea and sake in visits to importing countries, where technical Japan had the welcome effect of steering the staff, managers, and executives of grain conversation away from topics such as ‘water importers, mills and bakeries meet with US absorption of hard red spring flour’ (boring!) wheat workers. The goal of the meetings is to topics such as ‘baseball in Asia versus the to insure that grain exported from the US US ‘(interesting!). We discussed over dinner meets the needs of these important the ‘curse of the Colonel’ that befell a local customers. professional baseball team. A team celebration many years ago involved an It is always quickly apparent that the Asian abusive act directed at the Kentucky Fried participants in our meetings are not there to Chicken icon. The motivation for this dispense platitudes and congratulate the U.S. regrettable incident was not clear, though group for their efforts. US wheat is there was general agreement that sake was extremely important to them, and they have somehow involved. The team has issues that they would like the US group to subsequently suffered losing season after address. The genetic attributes of Montana losing season, a similar story to the ‘curse of varieties have a major impact on their bread the Bambino’ that befell the Boston Red Sox industry. For instance, a significant for many years. percentage of the flour in a slice of bread from Korea or Japan is the MSU variety It is humbling and inspiring, as well as a bit ‘Vida’. Setting quality goals is quite difficult, exhausting, to visit Asian end-users of the as every country has different expectations, wheat varieties developed here at MSU. and even within a country, a desirable trait Montana is one of many potential sources for for the milling industry is often undesirable buyers of wheat, and these visits help insure for the baking industry. Thus, it is safe to that we make the right choices as we seek to say that it is not possible to please everyone. develop a competitive product. My impression is that displeasure is expressed differently than is typical in the 2015 Beekeeping Workshop U.S. For instance, a memorable Japanese By Ruth O’Neill executive is able to combine politeness with Colony collapse disorder has generated sarcasm in a uniquely effective manner. significant public interest in beekeeping and (“Dr. Talbert, I sincerely congratulate you on bee conservation producing a demand for your ability to recognize the serious defect extension education provided to beginning we have identified in your new wheat beekeepers. To continue to meet this need variety.”). However, all in all, the impression Kevin Wanner’s lab again hosted the annual of our group was that most of the Koreans “Beekeeping Workshop for Beginners” held on and Japanese were relatively pleased with campus Saturday, February 21st, at the Burns the quality of the hard red spring wheat crop Technology Center. Enrollment in past over the past few years. Some of the issues workshops was capped at 40 students, but a growing waiting list (some people had been honey bees by Kevin waiting for three years to enroll!) convinced us Wanner, followed by to increase the size of the class to 100 Ruth O’Neill, students. One hundred new and prospective presenting on hive beekeepers enrolled two weeks before the date establishment and of the workshop! We were surprised to see maintenance over such a broad audience with more than 20 the course of a year. counties across Montana represented. Rick Molenda gave a hands-on demonstration of The workshop includes information on how to hive components and purchase bees and equipment, how to beekeeping introduce a new package of bees to a hive, equipment like yearly hive maintenance, and honey harvest. smokers and bee Rick Molenda, from Western Bee Supply, set up veils. After the lunch Kiawe honey is nat- a very nice trade booth in the hallway, where break, Ruth gave a people could ask practical beekeeping urally white, with a summary of minty undertaste questions, and look over beekeeping management equipment and reference books during breaks. practices for the control of diseases and pest Many people ordered their equipment ahead of of honey bees, including Varroa mite, a time to save on nasty external parasite of bee brood. After shipping costs, so the final talk, David Baumbauer (PGC the hallway was Manager) gave a demonstration explaining jam-packed with how to harvest wax and make beeswax boxes ready for candles, which included a lot of candle pick-up. Many giveaways. At the end of the day, people thanks to Rick for gathered in the lobby area to sample offering over a varietal honeys with crackers and butter. dozen door prizes Varietal honeys are unique-tasting including two $75 monofloral honeys, each type made with gift certificates, nectar collected from a single plant species. and one complete This year we offered tupelo honey from hobby hive kit. Florida, rapeseed honey from Germany, Thanks also to leatherwood honey from Tasmania, kiawe Laurie Kerzicnik, honey from Hawaii, and a few other Amy Dolan, and varieties. Ed Sanders for staying all day to It Takes a Pest to Control a Pest, and help out. More: The 2015 IPM Conference Report By Bright Agindotan The morning The 8th International Integrated session started Management Symposium themed: “IPM: off with an Solutions for a Changing World” was held in Rick Molenda gives a hands-on introductory talk Salt Lake City, Utah, from March 23 – 26, equipment demonstration on the biology of 2015. The symposium provided opportunities to network and discuss recent trends, challenges, and opportunities in the area of integrated pest management (IPM) . The program included plenary speakers, concurrent sessions, poster sessions, professional development workshops, and roundtable discussions. As the manager of the recently established Regional Pulse Crop Diagnostic Laboratory at MSU, I advertised our services through a poster I presented. Below are the highlights of the sessions I attended. The first plenary session presentation, “Integrated Pest Management on a Hotter, Flatter, More Crowded Earth”, was Participants of the 2015 Beekeeping Workshop Poaceae and the Astracea are leading in weed resistance. He restated a known fact that the spread of weed resistance is a consequence of repeated use of herbicides with the same mechanism of action. He lamented that although weed management professionals understand the cause of resistance and many of the management practices that can prevent it, herbicide resistance is still on the rise. Surmising that herbicide resistance evolution is a biology, technology and human problem that needs to be tackled holistically, he urged all stakeholders to collaborate with each other and take ownership for finding innovative solutions to the problems. Finally, he emphasized the need for innovative solutions by quoting Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity, “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different Bright Agindotan presenting his poster at the 2015 Inter- results”. national Integrated Pest Management Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. There were many interesting presentations during the concurrent sessions as well. In the presented on behalf of Dr. Sonny Ramaswamy, presentation titled: “Pest management the Director of USDA’s National Institute for Partnerships for Food Safety Success”, James Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA), by Dr. Sargent , Copesan Services, Menomonee Parag Chitnis, the deputy director USDA- Falls, Wisconsin, warned that pest NIFA. He spoke on the challenges associated management companies that food companies with the projected global population of nine contract to provide pest management billion by 2050, which included feeding, services cannot do it alone and that pest clothing and sheltering that population in an management requires commitment and environmentally friendly manner. One of the participation by the client as well. He stated ways he suggested for tackling these that the client has major responsibilities for challenges is to reduce pre-harvest and post- structural integrity and exclusion, harvest losses, each accounting for 50% of maintenance, cleaning and sanitation, the losses in developing and developed drainage, lighting, landscaping, employee world’s harvest, respectively. He also behavior, and other important components of suggested integrated pest management a successful IPM program to keep pests away approaches that include new technologies, and food safe. He emphasized the importance such as robotics, sensors, and synthetic of partnership. biology, to detect, control and prevent pathogens and pests. As part of integrated Another presentation entitled “Integrated pest management, he stressed the role of management of Asian citrus psyllid” was monitoring and surveillance. He concluded presented by Jawwad Qureshi, University of that tried and tested practices, combined with Florida-IFAS”. Dr. Qureshi warned that the new technologies, should be creatively Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) is a threat to citrus applied to agriculture to help provide safe, production throughout Asia and the Americas, healthy and abundant food supply and meet and it is a vector of huanglongbing (HLB) or the challenges of a rising global population.

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