Agriculture

Using a simple and powerful genetic method to tweak genes native to two popular varieties of tomato plants, a team at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has devised a rapid method to make them flower and produce ripe fruit more than 2 weeks faster than commercial breeders are currently able to do. This means more plantings per growing season and thus higher yield. In this case, it also means that the plant can be grown in latitudes more northerly than currently possible - an important attribute as the earth's climate warms. [node:read-more:link]

 Monsanto is introducing a new feature for its geneticall modified corn seeds that it says will not only boost yileds but cut down on fertilizer use and carbon dioxide emissions.  They have developed a coating for seeds made from a friendly fungus that helps corn plants in their earliest growth stages.  Corn crops treated with the new Monsanto-Novozymes microbial -- officially known as Acceleron B-300 SAT -- had better yields than those without the treatment, the companies said in a statement Monday. [node:read-more:link]

It is interesting to be an observer of agricultural price movements. However, for many producers of agricultural commodities, prices are a key driver of their financial wellbeing. Wide ranging price movements over time can vastly alter their financial conditions. It is clear that the financial impacts of price movements affect many agricultural input businesses as well. What can happen to prices of agricultural commodities in a decade, and why look at the last decade? [node:read-more:link]

In its latest poultry industry report, the Rabobank International Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory’s Q4 Poultry Quarterly report signalled challenges to an otherwise positive global poultry outlook in the year, due to global reports of avian influenza (AI) outbreaks reminiscent of  similar incidents in 2015. Trade of meat and breeding stock are at risk during a period when tailwinds for poultry were resulting in  positive momentum at a time when seasonal vulnerability for AI outbreaks are more likely given the onset of the winter season.                 [node:read-more:link]

The Indiana Board of Animal Health has issued an advisory after one bull on a southern Indiana beef cattle farm was infected with anthrax. A veterinarian collected tissue samples for laboratory testing after the animal died unexpectedly. Only a single, mixed-breed bull died; other animals in the herd have not shown signs of infection, Fox59 reported.The infected animal was incinerated on-site, and the farm was placed under a 30-day quarantine and observation order by the Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) [node:read-more:link]

The Michigan State University Upper Peninsula Research and Extension Center (UPREC) is home to an exciting program designed for those interested in starting a small farm business. The North Farm, located on the state’s oldest operating research station, was reopened in 2014 as an education and research facility focused on northern climate organic vegetable and fruit production. The flagship program for this facility is the Apprentice Farmer Program (AFP), which serves as a business incubator for farming entrepreneurs. [node:read-more:link]

Hampshire’s struggling dairy farmers may soon get some help from a relief program in the works at the Statehouse.  Backed by the majority leaders in both the New Hampshire House and Senate, the Joint Dairy Farmers Task Force moved Monday to aid farmers affected by this year’s drought.The program is aimed at dairy farmers who have suffered financial losses from “unreasonably low” milk prices, and meager feed crops.Nineteen of New Hampshire’s 120 dairy farms stopped producing milk this year.This isn’t the first time the state has helped out the dairy industry. [node:read-more:link]

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is aiming to improve the infrastructure and boost industry in some of the state’s more isolated communities.  The DOA is offering grants for projects that would promote sustainability and expand industries that use a lot of land, such as farming, mining, oil production, tourism, and rural industry projects.  The department has $1.5 million available, and projects will be awarded portions of that through a competitive process, where the applicants will have to explain how their proposal will improve rural areas. [node:read-more:link]

The scientists found 37 different viruses they believe have the potential to spread across the globe. All of them have shown the ability to spread between people, but have not so far caused a major epidemic. The Mers coronavirus, relatives of the Ebola virus, and several mosquito-borne viruses are singled out by the study. Researchers said these viruses had all caused disease outbreaks in the past and were the cause of "greatest concern". [node:read-more:link]

Twenty days after a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus was first detected in South Korea, the epidemic shows no sign of abating. Nearly 3.4 million poultry had been culled as of Monday morning.  According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, some 2.5 million chickens, 790,000 ducks and 71,000 quails have been slaughtered nationwide as part of the quarantine, after nearly 70 farms were confirmed or suspected of having avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreaks. [node:read-more:link]