Category: Strategic Intent
This year, AgSci researchers released two new high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties, “Rosalyn” and “Bobtail,” that show resistance to drought, important to growers in the face of a changing climate.
http://www.capitalpress.com/content/mw-Bobtail-Rosalyn-052113-mug
OSU researcher Shawn Mehlenbacher continues to breed new varieties of hazelnuts that are resistant to disease. Oregon grows 99% of the nation’s hazelnut output—a $129 million industry. New plantings are increasing at a rate of 10%, or 300 new acres a year of OSU-bred varieties. OSU plans to license Wepster, the newest hazelnut variety, for a royalty of 50 cents per tree.
http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2012/07/oregon_hazelnut_industry_sides.html
The OSU Extension Service’s Small Farms program has played a key role in building Oregon’s small farms since the late 1990s and has an eclectic staff whose backgrounds include anthropology, soil science, economics, and entrepreneurial small farming.
Small farms program offers workshops and online instruction
Small farms have sprouted across Oregon like the seeds they plant. The growth comes as interest in local foods increases, retirees buy small acreages, and ambitious Generation Xers and Yers look for back-to-the-land vocations. But it’s not as easy as picking up a hoe and planting a few tomatoes.
That’s where the OSU Extension Service’s small farms program comes in. Through a series of classroom and hands-on courses, it helps agricultural greenhorns decide if the farming life is for them, what they should do with their land, how to grow fruits and vegetables, and how to market them.
Offerings include an evening class called What can I do With my Small Farm? That’s followed by a four-week class called Exploring the Small Farm Dream that helps people identify their goals and resources. In southern Oregon alone, about 80 people have graduated from it in the past five years. Graduates are then eligible for the six-week Growing Farms business class, which is also offered online. About 150 people have completed that course since 2007 in southern Oregon.
Graduates can sign up for the seven-month, hands-on Growing Agripreneurs training program. With the help of mentors, participants spend about three hours a week farming an acre of land at OSU’s Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center in Central Point. They also take classes and tour farms. About 20 people have graduated from the program in southern Oregon. Extension also hosts three farming support networks for women around the state.
Watch this video to see how Extension has helped one small farmer in Medford.
Source: Maud Powell, coordinator for Extension’s small farms program in Jackson and Josephine counties
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/programs/ag/small-farms
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/bridges/extension-plants-seed-new-farmers
The OSU Branch Experiment Stations hold over 30 field days per year, in which they open their doors to both industry and the general public. The stations offer practical information to growers and share information gained from OSU research. They network new possible projects based on the needs of industry and local citizens’ concerns.
A five-year, $5 million grant, funded by the EPA, has enabled OSU’s National Pesticide Information Center to expand its online services. Last year the website had 1.8 million visitors, with 32 million overall hits, and the hotline handled 17,000 phone calls, offering information in over 170 languages.
http://portlandtribune.com/fgnt/36-news/221635-82155-osu-expands-pesticide-info-program
Paul Jepson, in the Dept. of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology, is the Director of the IPPC (Integrated Plant Protection Center). The IPPC built free online tools that link nearly 16,000 weather stations across the country to the biological schedule of over 100 pests and plant diseases. Farmers can use the software to schedule precise times to spray, making pesticide usage more efficient and less taxing on the environment. Furthermore, Dr. Jepson is active in IPM (Integrated Pest Management) education and outreach and has provided instruction and workshops in the UK, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey, Kenya, Malaysia, and Peru.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2014/pest-counterpunch
http://www.ipmnet.org/Staff-Paul.htm
The ER Jackman Foundation is a $2 million endowment that provides $99,000 per year for student clubs, research, and internships. In 2015, Khiem Lam, a Vietnamese-American student, received funding to study the relationship between the human microbiome and cervical cancer. Juliana Masseloux, in Fisheries and Wildlife, received funding to pursue research of her own design concerning the conflict of wildlife and urban development in East Africa.
Research, Student success, international
Chris Langdon, a shellfish biologist at the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station, continues his research to help protect Oregon’s $70 million oyster industry by genetically improving oysters, making them larger, tastier, and more resistant to increasingly acidic oceans. Since 1996, his work has led to growths in commercial yields of up to 35%, injecting an estimated additional $4.5 million per year into the Northwest’s seafood economy.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/build-better-oyster
Michael Behrenfeld will lead a NASA-funded research project investigating phytoplankton blooms—the foundation of the marine food web. He will test the idea that warming oceans will have previously-unforeseen impacts on marine ecosystems.
A new study, led by Taal Levi (Fisheries and Wildlife), suggests that changing climate patterns may be altering the transmission of certain pathogens, including the bacterium that causes Lyme disease.
