Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seed near Philomath, Ore., picks apart an ear of corn during a recent field day organized by the Northern Organic Vegetable Improvement Collaborative.
Organic crops, unlike their conventional counterparts, can't depend on synthetic chemicals for protection.
For that reason, some organic growers suspect that seeds produced by conventional breeders may be ill-equipped for the challenge of thriving on their farms.
"When they breed, they con ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:48 AM
Washington farmers and ranchers fear the giant Palouse earthworm could become the next spotted owl if it is eventually protected as an endangered species, but a spokesman for the agency studying the elusive annelid advised them not to overreact.
Doug Zimmer, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wi ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:47 AM
Stripe rust hurt the performance of many wheat varieties during this year's Northwest university wheat trials.
In the spring wheat trials in which May and June rains ended suddenly, some trials dried out, researchers found.
"In many of those locations, there was a lot of stripe rust," Wash ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:59 AM
WENATCHEE, Wash. -- One retailer basically said the new Glory cherry lived up to its name. Another and a wholesaler said it was good but not overwhelming.
That's the feedback Steve Castleman, salesman for Columbia Marketing International of Wenatchee, said he received on the first commercial ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 10:45 AM
MOSCOW, Idaho -- Researchers at the University of Idaho are testing a 15-inch worm from the Chelan, Wash., area to determine whether it is a giant Palouse earthworm.
A homeowner found the worm on former farm ground and sent it to the laboratory, said Jodi Johnson-Maynard, an associate professor o ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:48 AM
Growers are being advised this fall to plant wheat varieties that are not susceptible to stripe and stem rust.
Stem rust was more significant in the Palouse region this year compared to last, particularly in Washington's Whitman County, said USDA Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:49 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Scientists from universities in Montana, Colorado and Idaho announced Wednesday the start of a 5-year, $3.85 million research project into how a changing climate will influence wildfires.
The project is being pursued in partnership with the U.S. Forest Servic ...
Thursday, September 02, 2010 9:29 AM
BROOKINGS, S.D. (AP) -- By next year, South Dakota's farmers might first click a mouse before starting their tractors.
The state's farmers and ranchers soon will have easy access to everything from expert-based blogs to market reports, libraries of information and weather forecasts in one ...
Wednesday, September 01, 2010 10:29 AM
LONDON (AP) -- British scientists have decoded the genetic sequence of wheat -- one of the world's oldest and most important crops -- a development they hope could help the global staple meet the challenges of climate change, disease and population growth.
Wheat is grown across more of ...
Sunday, August 29, 2010 8:49 AM
WATERVILLE, Wash. -- Feeling their 1,012 petition signatures to stop genetically modified wheat have been ignored, three Waterville wheat growers may start a new petition drive this winter seeking labeling of any foods containing such products sold in the U.S.
"At a minimum, we'd like to see ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
PAVLOVSK, Russia -- The world's first seed bank survived World War II thanks to 12 Russian scientists who chose to starve to death rather than eat the grain they were saving for future generations.
Now the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry's seed bank is in danger again, this time because o ...
Thursday, August 26, 2010 10:21 AM
Feeding a high-nutrition diet before harvest is the most effective way to improve the carcass red meat and fat yields in cull cows, a researcher has found.
Other ways to enhance the quality of the cattle include using growth-promoting implants or postmortem aging and calcium chloride injectio ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 10:09 AM
Mice may help your whole-grain muffins taste better.
Researchers are using the rodents to help identify flavor genes in wheat. Western Wheat Quality Laboratory director Craig Morris and Washington State University animal science associate professor Derek McLean recently concluded an initial s ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:08 AM
As California's drought dragged out over the past three years, the San Joaquin Valley town of Mendota became a household name, its ranks of idled workers swelling while thousands of acres sat fallow.
On the southern outskirts of town, behind the empty Spreckels sugar plant -- abandoned by a s ...
Saturday, August 21, 2010 10:09 AM
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Wildlife officials are dropping their proposal for a "research hunt" for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies.
Instead, they are considering proposing a possible "conservation hunt" to trim the predators' population in the name of reducing livestock attacks. ...
Sunday, August 15, 2010 4:18 PM
A survey of 14 producers showed significant improvements to their pastures as a result of ultra-high-density livestock grazing.
The survey was conducted by Terry Gompert, of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension.
Ultra-high-density, or mob grazing, is defined by Allan Savory as 300,0 ...
Sunday, August 15, 2010 12:18 AM
Ranchers and University of California researchers are grappling with an invasive weed that takes over grazing lands -- and that the animals won't eat.
A tropical grass called smutgrass has been cropping up in irrigated pastures in the Sacramento Valley, and no livestock, including goats, will eat ...
Saturday, August 14, 2010 9:19 AM
Call her Jane.
She's considered the typical European food buyer, and she's the result of the first-ever in-depth consumer assessment in that region by the Almond Board of California.
The ABC came up with Jane -- a prototypical almond customer -- after doing focus groups in London and five ...
Saturday, August 14, 2010 9:19 AM
BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) -- Montana State University is one of 15 universities receiving funding from the U.S. Department of Energy to research better ways for storing carbon dioxide underground.
Montana State will receive $1.6 million of the $21.3 million DOE is spending over three year ...
Saturday, August 14, 2010 9:19 AM
HOMER, La. (AP) -- The LSU AgCenter is raising nearly 43,000 chickens to see how much energy is used by different types of heating equipment -- and whether birds grow better in either.
Bill Owens, resident coordinator of Hill Farm Research Station in Homer, says one 21,400-bird broiler house ...
Friday, August 13, 2010 7:58 AM
DAVIS, Calif. -- Eric Mussen's fascination with honeybees began decades before recognition as the nation's foremost authority on bee diseases, pollination and beekeeping.
"I think my interest in insects started when I was just a kid and saw them scurrying around," he said. "I took a high scho ...
Saturday, August 07, 2010 10:18 AM
$1.2 billion allocated to improve Internet access outside cities
Staff and wire reports
Telecommunication companies across the West will receive millions in federal grants and loans to expand broadband Internet service.
The money from the U.S. Department of Agriculture is part of a $1.2 bil ...
Saturday, August 07, 2010 10:18 AM
For Jim Voelz, forest management is all about balance.
"You balance the dollar, the economy of it, with what it takes to keep your forest healthy and what it takes to keep your wildlife happy. And if you have a healthy forest you will also have a fire-resistant forest," Voelz said.
Voelz, ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:28 AM
HOOD RIVER, Ore. -- Fruit growers everywhere have run into a big problem in the form of the spotted wing drosophila.
The tiny fruit fly has prompted a multi-state, multi-agency and multi-discipline research project, according to Peter Shearer, the Mid Columbia Agricultural Research and Extens ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 9:28 AM
New agricultural statistics show a top wheat variety has been toppled, and a new variety is on the rise in the Northwest.
The state offices of the National Agricultural Statistics Service recently released reports on the 2010 wheat crop, indicating the varieties most planted by farmers in the ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 10:29 AM
Work has begun at Washington State University in hopes of finding a new way to produce dwarf wheat. The work is funded by a $1.6 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation .
WSU researcher Kulvinder Gill in May received the grant from the foundation and the National Science Foun ...
Saturday, August 28, 2010 10:29 AM
