Brazilian Sugarcane Ethanol Makers Plan A Splashy Pitstop At Indy

Brazil’s sugarcane ethanol industry wants to make inroads in the U.S. fuel market, which means taking potential gallonage from corn-based ethanol.

In what has to be the ultimate in-your-face push yet, Brazilians will promote their product during the telecast of the 2010 Indianapolis 500 race this Sunday. This isn't just the premier racing event in the U.S. (sorry, NASCAR fans) but also an event held solidly in the Corn Belt.

Ironically, this reminds me of that old quip, “Indiana is a big corn field with a race track in the middle of it.” But plenty of cars on the Brickyard this weekend will be powered by sugar, not corn.

The ads, produced for the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA), feature sequences of short phrases with facts about sugarcane ethanol delivered by Indy drivers, including Ryan Hunter-Reay, Ana Beatriz, Takuma Sato, Davey Hamilton and E.J. Viso.

Comments also come from the pole sitter for Sunday's race, Helio Castroneves, a 3-time Indy 500 winner.

Since last year, UNICA has provided 100% fuel-grade ethanol for the IndyCar Series.

"For the first time ever, we are taking our message about sugarcane ethanol to national network television during one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world," said Joel Velasco, UNICA's Chief Representative in North America. "These commercials seek to educate American consumers about sugarcane ethanol and how it can benefit their pockets, the environment and the market, by promoting competition on and off the track."

The ads were produced especially for this year's 99th edition of the Indy 500, the main event in the IndyCar season. The two 30-second spots will appear during the race telecast on Sunday, May 30, on the ABC television network. UNICA plans to continue running television ads throughout the season.

 - Owen Taylor

Mississippi Soybean Infestation Turns Out To Be Caused By Something Other Than Hard-To-Control Soybean Loopers

Mississippi Extension workers breathed a sigh of relief today when it was determined that loopers causing economic damage in some Delta soybean fields are not hard-to-control soybean loopers but, instead, a more obscure pest, the gray moth looper.

The identification means that the loopers can be controlled with pyrethroids, which are less expensive than insecticides typically needed to knock down soybean loopers, said Angus Catchot, Mississippi Extension Entomologist.

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Loopers started turning up in fields last week and initially were thought to be cabbage loopers, which are easy to control with pyrethroids. But consultants and others in the field pointed out that the worms had black legs, which tend to indicate soybean loopers.

Catchot and other entomologists were perplexed because soybean loopers tend to show up later in the season.

Since last week, the number of reports grew, Catchot said late Tuesday afternoon.

“I’ll bet I’ve had 30 calls about this over the weekend and into Monday,” he said.

Catchot met with Drew consultant Tucker Miller and collected specimens from an infested field. He also conferred with Gus Lorenz, Arkansas Extension Entomologist, and Roger Leonard, Louisiana State University Entomologist.

Both naturally thought that these were cabbage loopers until Catchot said the worms consistely had black legs.

“Both of them realized that these weren’t cabbage loopers and said that it might, in fact, be the larval form of the gray looper moth, which is in the genus Rachiplusia.” said Catchot. “It’s a worm that’s around in small numbers and can be easily mistaken for a soybean looper.”

With that information, Catchot took the samples to Richard Brown, a Mississippi State University taxonomist and curator of the university’s well regarded insect museum. Brown confirmed that Catchot had, in fact, collected gray looper moth worms.

“We can tell folks now that they can go with a pyrethroid and don’t have to use an insecticde that's more expensive,” said Catchot. “Some fields already have hit the 35% defoliation threshold, and treatments have gone out. Before we made the identification, some growers probably did treat with something other than a pyrethroid, just to be on the safe side. But now we know that a pyrethroid will be appropriate.”

A few gray looper moth worms are being found scattered around the south Delta, he added, but the bigger numbers appear to be north of U.S. 82. Even then, they’re not solidly spread.

“You might have a 40- or 100-acre field that’s eaten up, but it will be surrounded by 1,000 acres that they’re not touching,” he noted.  “Everybody is finding them but not always at economic levels. Quite a few yellow stripe armyworms are out there, too.”

The worms likely are turning up in Arkansas, said Lorenz.

This is turning into a particularly "wormy" year in young soybeans in parts of the Delta. Our contacts this week report mixes of cotton bollworm (corn earworm) and yellow stripe armyworms in some fields, along with gray moth loopers.

Georgia: New Virtual Farming Software Can Help Growers Save Money and Resources

From the University of Georgia, an article by Sharon Dowdy

Farmville and Farmtown computer programs let people pretend to be farmers. A program developed by university scientists lets researchers grow virtual crops, too, but in a real effort to advise farmers on how to save money and resources.

The program is called Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer, or DSSAT. It was created by a team of agricultural scientists from the universities of Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Guelph in Ontario, Canada, Iowa State University and the International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development.

Helps save resources
Researchers use the system to make crucial decisions based on sound science. In Georgia, for example, the Georgia Environmental Protection Division used it to estimate water requirements for irrigation, said Gerrit Hoogenboom, a UGA agricultural meteorologist who helped develop the software.

The DSSAT program works for soybean, peanut, tomato, green bean, pepper, sweet corn, cabbage, rice, wheat, barley, cotton, potato, pasture grasses and numerous other crops. It simulates crop growth, yield and water and nutrient requirements for the crops.

Planning for weather phases
Working with county Extension agents, researchers use it to help farmers respond to and prepare for the probability of particular weather phases, Hoogenboom said.

The program can even help countries prepare for climate change, said Cheryl Porter, a UFL researcher who keeps the software up to date.

"DSSAT can help answer these kinds of questions: How will a country have to adapt to rising temperatures or reduced rainfall? Should they plant earlier? Fertilizer more? Grow a different crop or variety of crop?" she said.

Making research-based decisions
The software can predict the affects of environmental impacts like fertilizer runoff in waterways or economic impacts like how altering irrigation or fertilizer schedules will affect farmer profits.

"Crop models can help answer 'what if' scenarios that may be too expensive or complicated to answer with field experiments alone," Porter said. "And many different scenarios can be simulated in a short amount of time, allowing a researcher to see the effects of a wide range of environmental conditions."

In West Africa, crop models show the practice of increasing fertilizer and leaving crop residues in fields gradually increases the amount of carbon in the soil there, she said.

UGA hosts software training session
Top agricultural scientists from across the United States and the world met on the UGA campus in Griffin, Ga., this month to receive hands-on training from the system's developers.

Researcher Kai Sonder of CIMMYT plans to use the software to simulate maize and wheat production in Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa. CIMMYT is a non-profit research and training center.

"I hope to use (the software) to add value to a large amount of maize and wheat research data CIMMYT has collected over the past 40 years," he said.

An Auburn University graduate student who attended the training will use it to predict the effects of climate change on wheat crops in Alabama. A graduate student from Michigan State University will use it to simulate future crop yields in the Great Lakes region. A Princeton University researcher plans to use the program to model the impacts of climate change on crops in South Africa and to create potential land use scenarios.

For more information on crop modeling, go to the website www.ICASA.net .

For more information or to view multimedia associated with this story, click here: http://georgiafaces.caes.uga.edu/?public=viewStory&pk_id=3822

Rice Researchers In Africa Trying To Get Ahead Of Birds

In parts of Africa, rice farmers say that the 2 biggest yield robbers they face are weeds through the season and birds that feed on maturing grain. As researchers with AfricaRice find, the 2 go hand in hand.

More weeds, more birds, more loss.

This is a different kind of bird problem than we face in the American South, of course. Bird problems here – usually related to blackbirds – occur in the spring when flocks descend on newly emerged rice and consumed seedlings.

Yet, some of us are old enough to remember the extreme measures farmers once employed to clear away birds on maturing rice. Carbide cannons, for example, were one ploy for a while. As a teenager growing up in Bolivar County, I can remember a farmer giving me a block of .22 shells so that I could shoot at blackbirds over this rice. Looking back, I doubt it I had much effect, partly because I wasn't a good shot and partly because the birds knew to move away from me.

African rice tends to be grown in such a way that even a small amount of bird feeding can cause significant yield loss. Much of the crop is rain fed, with minimal fertilizer inputs. With low yields predetermined, it wouldn’t take a lot of feeding to cut noticeably into production.

Based on surveys conducted with farmers in the Senegal River Valley, estimated average bird damage at 11.2% of the potential rice yield in 2003-2007.

Researchers with AfricaRice, a research center that works across several African countries, picked up on the connection between weeds and birds by surveying farmers. The growers said that weedier fields tended to have the most bird damage.

To understand the relationship, the research team set up a series of plots that included:

• No control of either weeds or birds.
• Only bird control (plots were covered with nets).
• Only weed control (hand weeded every ten days).
• Full control of birds and weeds.

Researchers set up the experiment with early and late maturing rice varieties, according to an article posted on the AfricaRice web site.

Results, the article noted, were fairly straightforward: “The weed-free fields discouraged birds. Weedy fields, on the other hand, attracted birds. The birds fed on weed seeds, found shelter in the weeds, and perched on the weeds to eat the rice. Weed-free, early maturing varieties suffered little from bird attacks. If the rice matures late, it is ripe when the weeds seeds are all gone, and the birds then turn to the rice grains.”

At least in Africa, little research has been conducted on bird-damage prevention.

“Pest management scientists tend to ignore birds, and ornithologists tend not to think of birds as pests,” the article pointed out. “Therefore, far too little research is done on birds as pests. This (AfricaRice) research, although in an early stage, suggests that farmers have several options to manage birds.”

Here’s a link to the full article.

- Owen Taylor

A Bad Economy May Be Good News For U.S. Rice Exports To The U.K.

The current economic downturn could benefit U.S. rice exports to the United Kingdom, according to a report today by Betsy Ward with the USA Rice Federation.

During the U.K. Rice Association Symposium this week in London, a consumer analyst noted that the weak economy is promoting more eating at home in the U.K., just  as it is here.

"Rice is benefiting because it is quick and easy to prepare, and fits as a healthy ingredient in many different dishes," Ward reported. "The average U.K. family purchases a rice product about eight times per year, which offers the potential for future growth in rice consumption."

- Owen Taylor

Precision Ag Conference Marks 10th Year, Expects 275-Plus Papers

Precision ag - with all the GPS guidance, yield monitors and variable-rate application methods - was still considered a fairly novel idea 10 years ago when promoters launched the first International Conference On Precision Agriculture (ICPA).

This year, the conference hits that decade mark, and it has grown into a full-blown scientific and commercial event. More than 275 research papers will be delivered during the 4-day event, which starts July 18 in Denver Colorado.

Among the sponsors are two entities with common interests from completely different parts of the world – the Alabama Precision Agriculture Extension group, and the Precision Agriculture Research Chair at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia.

"The Alabama group wishes to support precision agriculture education and research, and the Saudi research center is trying to gather as much information as possible to help them get a center started, and begin supporting work on precision agriculture in Saudi Arabia,” says Raj Khosla, conference coordinator.

Khosla has traveled thousands of miles this year, in large part to garner international support for the event, according to an ICPA press release. In particular, there are two issues he sees great interest in from his contacts. The first is food security.

“People are talking about food security, and there is the desire to understand what role precision agriculture plays in this,” says Khosla. “Recently, the journal Science dedicated an entire issue on food security, and in that issue they had a six-page article on precision ag. Precision is here to stay and is part of the solution.

As for specific technology, there is worldwide interest in active sensing. “In other parts of the world, active sensing as a tool to manage nitrogen becoming a big issue, with emphasis on nitrogen efficiency,” says Khosla. Nitrogen use efficiency is seen as a way to influence climate change in a positive way.

Aflatoxin-Resistant Corn A Step Closer, Maybe

Six new corn inbred lines with resistance to aflatoxin contamination have been found to be free of seed-borne diseases foreign to the United States, and seeds of these lines are now available in the United States for further development toward commercialization.

For Southern farmers, that’s significant.

Aflatoxins are cancer-causing toxins produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus after it infects corn. A. flavus fungi are found in soil, on crops and in air. Contamination of corn with aflatoxins is a potential health hazard to animals and humans, and causes financial losses for growers because loads of corn testing positive for sufficient levels aflatoxin are rejected at the elevator. That means the grower is left with corn he can’t sell.

Aflatoxin tends to be worse in dry years with heavy summer stress, which aren’t uncommon in the South.

Crop resistance has become a widely explored strategy to eliminate aflatoxins in corn because of the large amount of genetic diversity in this crop, notes Rosalie Marion Bliss, a writer with USDA who filed a report this week about the new potential breeding lines

Researchers at USDA's Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans have been testing foreign lines for aflatoxin resistance since 1991.

According to the report from Bliss:

• Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant pathologist Robert Brown, working in collaboration with Abebe Menkir at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture in Ibadan, Nigeria, developed the lines.
• Brown works at the Food and Feed Safety Research Unit in the ARS Southern Regional Research Center in New Orleans, La. The six inbred lines have been dubbed TZAR101, 102, 103, 104, 105, and 106.
• ARS plant geneticist Mark Millard in Ames, Iowa, arranged a quarantined growout of the seeds at the ARS station on the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. After quarantined seed was imported into St. Croix and planted, resulting plants and ears were inspected to ensure they were free of any foreign seed-borne diseases. This "certified" seed then was shipped to Ames, Iowa, processed, and stored in the ARS collection.
• The seed can be obtained and planted in the United States for further evaluation for resistance to aflatoxin. Seed samples of these and other lines can be obtained from the ARS North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames.
• Data from further evaluations will provide insight as to the value of these lines in breeding for resistance to aflatoxin. ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). This research supports the USDA priority of ensuring food safety.

Ag Chemical Output Set To Double, Projects Market Research Firm

Markets and Markets, a research firm based in Dallas, Texas, projects that the market for ag chemicals will double by 2014, according to a press release the company issued this morning.

"Increasing population and reducing availability of arable land has boosted the use of agrochemicals to improve productivity, crop protection and storage," the released stated. "The global agrochemicals market, comprising of fertilizers and pesticides, is expected to witness exponential growth as the major producers of agro-products such as the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Australia, India and China are increasing their production and storage capacities for internal use and exports."

Because of environmental concerns, the release added, "the market players are increasingly investing in the research and development for producing new and safer fertilizers and pesticides. Our analysis suggests that the agrochemicals market is set to more than double in the next few years."

A report covering the research is available for $4,650 is you feel compelled to read more.

Bad Atlantic Hurricane Season Ahead?

June 1 is the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and indications are that this could be an active, even destructive, hurricane season, according to Bob Rose, chief meteorologist for the Lower Colorado River
Authority (LCRA).

To clear up a frequent point of confusion, this is the Colorado River in Texas, not the one that forms the Grand Canyon. The Colorado River in Texas supplies water to Austin and also feeds irrigation districts in the lower coastal plains, including a large portion of the state’s rice belt west of Houston.

We closely follow Rose’s forecasts because they overlap so closely with Texas rice country, which we cover with our newsletter, RiceFax: Midsouth/Texas.

Rose noted in a video podcast today that record sea-surface temperatures throughout the spring in the main development region of the Atlantic point to a volatile hurricane season ahead.

Here’s his full podcast:

Bt Cotton - Chinese Dealing With Secondary Pest Issues, Too

Mirid bugs -- which in Asian cotton occupy a niche similar to the one filled by thrips in the U.S. -- have become an economic cotton pest in parts of China with the adoption of Bt cotton there.

Here's a report from today's L.A.Times.

- Owen Taylor

I've Given Up On The Weather Channel

Twice today I've sat in front of my television with the idea that The Weather Channel (TWC) would show me a national map with current radar imaging. I wanted to know where it was raining, where it wasn't and which way any thunderstorms were heading.

At one time, that was TWC's stock in trade. Not any more. TWC has increasingly blended "entertainment" programming into its schedule, moving away from the format that once drew me to it glowing presence several times a day.

I've watched this progression and simmered a bit while waiting for information of substance. Today, though, I finally had enough.

In the morning while having my first cup of coffee I was subjected to 10 minutes of blabber.

Most of that time - the 10-minute space between Local On The Eights (LOTE) - was filled with an aging rocker plugging his environmental web site and the re-release of a new album. The meteorologists gushed. TWC also managed to plug in a short feature of some kind. Maybe it was on the oil spill or the space shuttle. All I could think was, "Where's the map?".

Today while having an early sandwich, I again turned on TWC just as a LOTE started. I sat there, thinking that surely when it finished that the U.S. radar map would be presented. It's didn't. What I got, instead, was a mini-feature on tornado hunters and the upcoming business travel forecasts, basically wide guesses about rain and temps over the next week. Then a commercial, followed by the next LOTE segment.

Remember that the there's 10 minutes between each LOTE segment, so I've essentially blown 20 minutes today without ever once seeing a national radar map, not even a hint of it.

It can be argued that all I have to do to see the map is go to the channel's web site and pull up the video there. But, pardon my 21st Century outlook, I wanna see something live.

I've had it with TWC. I want my 20 minutes back.

- Owen Taylor

Is Texas Set For Another Hot Summer?

Bob Rose is chief meteorologist with the Lower Colorado River Authority LCRA). This is the Colorado River in Texas, and LCRA operates reservoirs that supply urban water and also feed irrigation systems in areas west of Houston, including much of the state's rice belt.

Here's his take on how the heat will run this summer...