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"We have the staff and know-how to provide leadership in bioscience and value-added crops. Meanwhile, we don't want to ignore classical breeding programs that have served Idaho so well."
Introduction
"Agriculture IS the foundation of Idaho," says Pat Takasugi, director of the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. "We're not as glamorous as tourism or as shiny as a microchip, but we're here. We're not moving offshore. And because of that, ag will always be the trump card in the hands of Idaho."
Takasugi challenges the UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) to be ready for major changes as Idaho's agriculture makes what he sees as "a rapid transition from a production-based agriculture to a value-added agriculture."
We are ready, says Bohach
Greg Bohach, associate CALS dean and director of the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station, believes the college is ready. "We have the staff and the know-how to provide leadership in bioscience, biotechnology, and in value-added crops.
"We lead the nation in biodiesel research. We have excellent research facilities. We have already proved we can produce pharmaceuticals in foods in the laboratory. As the public becomes open to these new sciences, we are prepared.
"Meanwhile, we don't want to ignore classical breeding programs that for years have served Idaho so well," he adds. Recently, college researchers helped in the release of 15 plant varieties (4 potatoes, 9 wheat, 2 rape/mustard), each bringing improved agronomic or end use quality and cost-savings.
Artisan cheeses: new option for Idaho
dairies
By Marlene Fritz
On the one hand, 61 Idaho dairies with 1,001 to 2,000 cows account for 83.5 percent of the state's milk production. On the other hand, 418 Idaho dairies with fewer than 200 cows produce 6.5 percent of the Gem State's milk.
Jeff Kronenberg, UI Extension food processing specialist, sees value-particularly added value-in those small dairies. He is leading a targeted effort to help them design, process, and sell high-profit products such as artisan cheeses and specialty ice creams, yogurts, and milks.
"The trend right now is the loss of small dairies," says Kronenberg. "There's pressure to either get big or get out of the game. But there's another alternative: they can figure out how to add value to their milk. If you can sell an artisan cheese for $20 a pound, you can see what your margin would be."
Through a grant from the United Dairymen of Idaho and assistance from Washington State University, the team will conduct a needs survey, provide on-site technical assistance for up to three small dairies, and deliver industry short courses on food safety, hazard analysis, developing food product ideas, and an overview of artisan dairy products and cheesemaking. "Anyone can make cheese, but it's another thing to make a really high-quality artisan cheese that will be in demand," says Kronenberg.
In 2004, the dairy industry led Idaho agriculture in cash receipts, contributing $1.34 billion in milk checks. Just over a half-dozen small dairies are manufacturing such products as cheese curds, cheddar cheese, goat cheese, blue cheese, ice cream, and flavored milks. But Kronenberg says national sales of gourmet and specialty cheeses are projected to grow at the rate of 4 percent annually to nearly $2.9 billion this year. That should increase dairy revenues, enhance employment in Idaho, and improve agricultural sustainability.
Even the state's large cheese manufacturers should benefit, Kronenberg says. "If more award-winning cheeses are associated with Idaho, that presents a better image for all state dairy processors."
Contact Kronenberg at jkron@uidaho.edu.
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Phosphorous acid keeps Idaho potatoes
healthy in storage
Capable of spreading briskly through storages, the potato diseases late blight and pink rot can rob Idaho potato growers of significant amounts of yields and dollars. Challenged to find a remedy, UI Extension potato scientists Nora Olsen and Jeff Miller turned to phosphorous acid, a biopesticide they describe as a "cross between a fertilizer and a fungicide."
Encouraged by their early studies, Olsen and Miller tested phosphorous acid's disease-fighting ability in 1-ton lots of Russet Burbank potatoes this past winter. They artificially exposed bagfuls of unwashed tubers to pink rot or late blight fungi, then treated the infected tubers with phosphorous acid, an alternative treatment (hydrogen peroxide/peroxyacetic acid mixture), or no treatment at all. Then, they surrounded the mesh bags with 1,500 pounds of potatoes harvested straight from the same fields.
No pink rot vs. 70 percent infection
The results: no pink rot at either 77 days or 158 days in lots treated with 12.8 fluid ounces per ton of phosphorous acid, compared with more than 70 percent infection in the alternatively treated lots and more than 60 percent in the untreated lots. And, no late blight-compared with 84 and 90 percent, respectively-by the 77-day point at which the late blight study was discontinued.
"The phosphorous acid did the job and it stayed that way," says Olsen. "Study after study after study, it shows consistently exceptional performance." Other good news: it didn't compromise the potatoes' processing quality.
Olsen's and Miller's findings have been so persuasive that the manufacturer of one phosphorous acid product, Phostrol, has already labeled it as a postharvest spray. About 450,000 tons of North American potatoes were treated with Phostrol after the 2004 potato harvest, Miller says. "The exciting thing is that this is an idea that originated right at the University of Idaho."
At Aberdeen this year, Miller's graduate student Shane Clayson is studying just how phosphorous acid works. Besides acting as a fungicide, Olsen says it may be inducing a plant-defense mechanism in potato tubers.
Contact Olsen at norao@uidaho.edu or Miller at jsmiller@uidaho.edu.
- story by Marlene Fritz
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$2 million investment results in $82 million
wheat bounty in '04
When the world's largest noodlemaker, Korea's Nong Shim, decided to build its first U.S. factory in California, it sourced its wheats very carefully. For a three-way blend with two hard wheats from Kansas and California, it selected Alturas-a high-yielding, soft white spring wheat developed by UI Wheat Breeder Ed Souza of Aberdeen.
"They like the waxy texture," says Blaine Jacobson, executive director of the Idaho Wheat Commission (IWC). "When they blend it with the other two hard whites, they get the exact consistency they're looking for in an Asian noodle."
With a different customer, Pendleton Flour Mills in Blackfoot, quality assurance manager Reuben McLean says Souza's high-yielding, high-protein Moreland "seems to be the variety" that will finally fill another market niche: an irrigated hard red wheat with the gluten strength to interest breadmakers. Another year's evaluation should tell.
"We would rather source our wheat locally than from Montana or the Midwest," McLean says. "That's a win-win situation, because the flour mill gets the wheat it needs, and the growers win because they can sell their wheat locally."
UI varieties = 24 percent of Idaho's wheat acreage
In Moscow, UI wheat breeder Bob Zemetra estimates that 24 percent of Idaho's 2004 wheat acreage was planted to UI varieties. Dominated by Brundage, Jefferson, Lambert, Boundary, and Brundage 96, these 280,000 acres had a value of about $82 million in 2004. Zemetra says that compares with IWC's $2 million investment in the UI wheat breeding effort between 1985 and 2004.
According to Jacobson, Idaho's wheats lead the nation in bushels per acre. "That's the result of the wheat breeding program over the last 30 years," he says.
Idaho's successful wheats needn't have huge target markets. "What's different and unique about public varieties is that they are intentionally bred not just for the largest customers but for all of the others," says Souza.
"Each and every farmer should be able to grow a wheat out of the UI program that helps him in his specific farming situation. If we don't do that, no one else will."
Contact Souza at esouza@uidaho.edu and Zemetra at rzemetra@uidaho.edu.
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Cow pregnancy test could save dairy industry
$4 million
Humans aren't the only ones with difficulties getting pregnant. "Reproductive efficiency is very low for top producing dairy cows," says UI Animal and Veterinary Scientist Troy Ott. "As we've increased herd size and milk production per cow, reproduction has suffered."
The average pregnancy rate is 30 percent during the first breeding and can be much lower. Today's dairy cow requires an average of three breedings before getting pregnant. This delay in rebreeding these "bovine athletes" makes them less productive and puts them at risk of being culled from the herd.
Ott's test is expected to dramatically reduce that non-productive time by detecting failed pregnancies much earlier. Instead of waiting 40 days after each breeding to tell if the cow is pregnant, the $5 to $7 test works at day 18. Which is why dairy owners are eager to know when Ott's patent-pending test will be available.
Market delays; how test works
Originally expected to be on the market by now, this test, called Surbred 15, is still being refined at AspenBio Inc., a Colorado biotech company that licensed Ott's technology from UI. "Our accuracy levels aren't where we need them to be" says Richard Donnelly, AspenBio president and CEO. Merial Pharmaceuticals, one of the world's leading animal healthcare companies, has agreed to market and distribute the test globally once it is ready. New estimates are for a rollout by early 2006.
The test uses a few drops of blood from the potential mother cow and is conducted right on the farm. The blood encounters two antibodies. Within minutes, one antibody produces a colored line, assuring you the test is functioning. If a second line shows, the cow is pregnant; if not, the cow is open and she can be re-bred.
Savings to dairy owners
"This test is all about helping dairy owners manage their cows better," said Ott. "The better the management, the happier and more productive the cows, and the more sustainable the farm." The economic benefits of this test will vary depending on milk and feed prices and the quality of reproductive management on the farm.
"Worst case scenario is a return of $2 for every $1 spent." Ott estimates a 1,000-cow dairy will "save $3,300 for each insemination." Estimates are 435,000 dairy cows in Idaho. That's about a $4 million a year savings for the dairy industry. Take that out to 9 million cows in the nation, and "the number goes way up." And that doesn't count beef producers who also could use the test.
Contact Ott at tott@uidaho.edu.
- story by Mary Ann Reese
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