The Alfalfa factory: a remarkable perennial legume finds many uses Don Comis Alfalfa, the preferred feed for thoroughbred horses, dairy cows, and other livestock, has always been a pioneer plant. Armed with the ability to produce its own nitrogen fertilizer, alfalfa can establish a front line on poor soils. It enriches the soil so much […]
Category: Agricultural Research
Scientists target glassy-winged sharpshooter Marcia Wood Just as your home has pipes that move water into it, plants, too, have their own plumbing systems. In plant tissue called xylem, water and nutrients flow from roots to stems, branches, leaves, buds, blooms, and fruit. But just as household water pipes calf clog, so can plants’ plumbing. […]
Getting to the Heart of Chicken Ailments Tara Weaver-Missick Humans aren’t the only ones who are susceptible to congestive heart failure–the heart’s inability to maintain adequate blood flow to tissues. Chickens, particularly broilers, fall prey to a similar condition called ascites. In chickens, the right ventricle of the heart enlarges and can’t pump blood efficiently […]
High-Performance Insect Diets – Brief Article Ben Hardin Relying on insects that prey on crop pests can have a serious drawback: By the time predator numbers become large enough to do a top-rate control job, the pests have already started taking an economic toll on the crop. But it’s been prohibitively expensive to rear massive […]
INTERBULL – shows how U.S. bulls stack up – US representative to the International Bull Evaluation Service and Agricultural Research Service geneticist Rex L. Powell Hank Becker The secret is out: America’s most productive dairy cows can now be bred to the world’s best bulls, thanks to an international dating service for dairy cattle. “INTERBULL […]
A Storybook Future for Lesquerella – mustard family plant Marcia Wood Like Cinderella, a hardy native plant called lesquerella may soon fit into the glass slipper of success. Agricultural Research Service scientists who are studying this wild, yellow-flowered member of the mustard family want to turn lesquerella into the “Princess of New Crops.” In Phoenix, […]
A new way for chicken to come clean Sharon Durham Former Agricultural Research Service (ARS) agricultural engineer Andra Dickens and microbiologist Arthur Hinton, Jr., tested a new chemical solution that reduces enteric pathogen counts in poultry. The scientists, from the Richard B. Russell Agricultural Research Center in Athens, Georgia, tested the chemical, known as [Safe.sub.2]O […]
Elevating Grain Storage Practices Linda McGraw Word-of-mouth advertising is important to spreading good news and good practices among people. ARS entomologist David W. Hagstrum hopes that in a few years grain elevator operators will pass on information being gathered now that could save the wheat industry millions of dollars. Stored-grain insects account for multimillion-dollar losses […]
A Need for More and Better Nutrients From Plants Leon V. Kochian The typical American diet today contains more plant-based foods and less meat and dairy products. But red meat and dairy products are the principal dietary sources of the essential minerals iron, zinc, and calcium. We must find ways to increase the amount and […]
Why scientists cotton to Egyptian cotton – research tries to mix Egyptian cotton’s resistance to verticillium wilt with American cotton’s yields Sandy Miller Hays Why Scientists Cotton to Egyptian Cotton A trio of U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists has solved a natural mystery from the land of the pharaohs: What makes Egyptian cotton so tough? […]