Washington State University professor Diter von Wettstein holds up barley during the Spillman Farm Field Day in Pullman, Wash., in July 2009 while talking about his efforts to develop products for celiac patients.
Scientists are developing wheat for people who can't digest gluten -- and in the process they hope to make wheat that's more healthful for everyone.
Arcadia Biosciences LLC, of Davis, Calif., recently received a two-year, $885,500 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop wh ...
Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:29 AM
Dryland farmers are optimistic about the University of Idaho's release of two new hard white winter wheat varieties.
The Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station recently announced the varieties, UICF Grace and UI Silver, will be available for planting this fall. Both are intended for drylan ...
Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:28 AM
Tom Besser is looking for ways to protect livestock -- and people -- from Escherichia coli O157:H7.
The Washington State University professor of veterinary microbiology recently received a $1 million grant to study the food-borne pathogen and educate science writers and public health off ...
Thursday, March 11, 2010 10:54 AM
RICHLAND, Wash. -- A team of scientists at Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory wants to make white paper more green.
Working under Pete McGrail, they're solving the environmental problem of paper mill emissions of carbon dioxide. The Boise mill at Wallula, for example, exhales ...
Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:28 AM
Who will pick up the eventual cost remains unsettled
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) -- Meat packer Cargill is testing a new vaccine aimed at ridding E. coli 0157:H7 from the beef supply.
Cargill is trying out the vaccine on 100,000 animals that will start heading to slaughter in May. For now, the c ...
Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:23 AM
Despite its sinister sound, a "germplasm collection" spells good things for farmers.
Think beyond the flu season and the word "germ" takes on a broader meaning: a small mass of living substance that can give rise to a whole organism or one of its parts. Think of wheat germ, that nutritiou ...
Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:21 AM
Pest temporarily paralyzed by ornamental plant
ARS News Service
Geraniums may hold the key to controlling the devastating Japanese beetle, which feeds on nearly 300 plant species and costs the ornamental plant industry $450 million in damage each year, according to scientists with the Agr ...
Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:28 AM
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- A Wooodruff County Circuit Court jury has ordered Bayer CropScience LP to pay a rice farmer more than $1 million in a lawsuit over experimental rice variety.
The decision Monday awards $532,643 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages to Lenny Joe Ky ...
Friday, March 12, 2010 8:09 AM
RITZVILLE, Wash. -- Jake Harder can't remember a year when he didn't have at least one calf afflicted with crooked calf disease.
"Severe ones, the mother will bring them into the farm ground this time of year," the Ritzville, Wash., rancher said. "Two days later, they aren't around anymor ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 10:08 AM
PLAIN CITY, Ohio -- Every dairy farmer's dream is playing out at the Gruenbaum family farm.
The cows milk themselves.
The farm in this community outside Columbus is the first in Ohio to install robotic milking machines that allow cows to be milked whenever they want without a human h ...
Thursday, March 04, 2010 10:35 AM
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A marriage between agriculture research and software development is putting critical weather information at a farmer's fingertips.
A Yakima software firm, in cooperation with Washington State University's extensive weather monitoring network, is tes ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 10:49 AM
Chances are good they'll be ordering more cream cheese at the Wheat Marketing Center.
The Portland center recently added a bagel production machine to its test facilities. The machine, which cost about $18,000, is capable of producing 3,000 bagels per hour, said technical manager Gary Hou ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 11:09 AM
Researchers develop gene promoters to fight the fungus
ARS News Service
Recent studies involving the fungus that causes the disease known as scab in barley have helped Agricultural Research Service scientists identify the specific tissues the fungus infects.
The fungus Fusarium gramin ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
Nuts, corn can be sprayed before or after harvest
ARS News Service
Pistachios, almonds and other popular tree nuts might someday be routinely sprayed with a yeast called Pichia anomala.
Laboratory and field studies by Agricultural Research Service plant physiologist Sui-Sheng "Sylvi ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
Beekeepers whose colonies are under nourished during over-wintering could get stung in the wallet come California almond pollinations, says one expert in the field.
Protein- and fat-rich pollen is as important as carbohydrates in producing healthy, top-earning hives, said USDA-ARS researc ...
Saturday, March 06, 2010 9:08 AM
Bark beetles live in a dark and smelly environment, so entomology professor Rich Hofstetter figured they must communicate by sound.
If he could disrupt how they communicate, he could disrupt their lives. Barely a quarter-of-an-inch long, bark beetles mass by the thousands to tunnel throug ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:09 PM
Wherever Warren Seely goes with his farm equipment, he draws a crowd.
The 16-year-old from Clatskanie, Ore., makes Lego models that do everything their life-size counterparts can do.
"They say, 'Oh, hey, I've run one of these,'" he said of the farmers he's met at farm shows around th ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:09 PM
Lupine seeds can pose a threat to some calves, researchers have found.
A common native legume, lupine in some parts of the Northwest can develop toxins that temporarily paralyze fetuses when consumed by cows during pregnancy, said Tom Platt, Washington State University Lincoln-Adams-Spoka ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 11:09 AM
Science and grain processing have no borders, says Gary Hou.
That is one reason Li Wang, associate professor of food science and technology from Jiangnan University in the People's Republic of China, will spend a year at the Wheat Marketing Center in Portland.
Wang will assist in the ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:09 PM
Researchers in the Pacific Northwest are working on cutting-edge projects that will benefit agriculture both regionally and nationally.
But there's just not enough money for all of them.
The Washington Grain Commission and Washington Association of Wheat Growers had their annual rese ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 12:09 PM
Government certified insect-resistant rice as safe in November
BEIJING (AP) -- Chinese strains of genetically modified corn and rice that were given safety approvals last year could be ready for sale in China in about three years, a biotechnology researcher said Feb. 24.
Genetically modifi ...
Saturday, February 27, 2010 10:09 AM
CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A crowd of about 100 waited, cameras poised, around the pen at Oregon State University's Sheep Center. But nothing was happening yet.
Ewe 187 had stage fright.
She wasn't the only one. Earlier, another ewe felt so nervous her contractions stopped, a lambing helper ...
Thursday, February 25, 2010 11:30 AM
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) -- Dairy farmers and agriculture students may soon be able to learn another way to make money with the milk their herds produce.
Jack Rudolph of Western Kentucky University's Department of Agriculture says the school is on its way to starting a cheese-making progra ...
Thursday, February 25, 2010 7:29 AM
One Idaho farmer will be watching with particular interest when the U.S. Supreme Court looks at genetically engineered alfalfa later this year.
Phil Geertson of Greenleaf is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in 2006 by the Center for Food Safety on behalf of Geertson and others who op ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:09 AM
Burt Hamner has a simple idea: Tap the nearest running water -- say, an irrigation canal or a river -- to generate electricity.
That electricity, he figures, could be used on-site to operate irrigation pumps or tools. Excess electricity could be sold onto the commercial grid.
Hamner, ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 10:09 AM
Farmers may want to check their fields for stripe rust a little earlier this year.
Washington State University plant pathologist Xianming Chen recently released his stripe rust forecast for Washington's Palouse region for 2010.
Higher than normal temperatures in January may indicate ...
Saturday, February 20, 2010 11:08 AM
