01/08/2013: New manager at Norel; fungus as animal feed; US Grains Council new chairman

Norel has announced the appointment of Ms Irene Margüenda in its technical department. Margüenda studied agronomy engineering and achieved a diploma of advanced studies. 

She has experience in animal nutrition, animal husbandry, farm management and critical analysis of experimental performances.

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Hans van Leeuwen, researcher at Iowa State University has developed a process that can turn the waste product from ethanol production into a high-protein fungus that is currently being tested for use as animal feed.

It is hoped that the fungus, which contains essential amino acids, will eventually help the millions of starvation-related deaths in developing countries each year.

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During its 53rd annual board of delegates meeting in Ottawa, Canada, the US Grains Council elected a new chairman to its board of directors.

Julius Schaaf, a farmer from Randolph, Iowa, has more than 33 years of experience in production agriculture.
 

"The world is always changing. Markets are always changing. Today competition is growing, and so are the opportunities. Our job is to figure out how to stay ahead of the changes,” Schaaf told attendees of the conference.

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chemical structure (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Formidable fungal force counters biofuel plant pathogens

Fungi play significant ecological and economic roles. They can break down organic matter, cause devastating agricultural blights, enter into symbiotic relationships to protect and nourish plants, or offer a tasty repast. For industrial applications, fungi provide a source of enzymes to catalyze such processes as generating biofuels from plant biomass.

One large fungal group with such enzymes are the rust plant pathogens which cannot survive on their own so they use crops as hosts, leading to reduced yields and potentially hindering efforts to grow biomass for fuel. Factors that could reduce the growth of plant biomass, thus reducing biofuel production, are a target for investigation of the Department of Energy (DOE) Joint Genome Institute (JGI). Read more ...
 
This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine and International Milling Directory from Perendale Publishers

Infrared spectroscopy can help crop rotation

Infrared spectroscopy can quickly spot beneficial fungi on roots in soil, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) soil scientist Francisco Calderon. The ability to quickly analyze field soils for these beneficial fungi, called mycorrhizae, would allow scientists to judge which crop rotations or other farming practices increase mycorrhizal fungi. This is important nationwide to improve crop yields, and especially critical in semi-arid areas like the Central Great Plains.

The scientists measured the reflectance of infrared light from dried, powdered carrot root samples. They found that the cell wall chitin and fatty acids in mychorrhizal fungi have distinct spectral signatures, absorbing infrared at wavelengths different than standard chitin and fatty acid samples and different than non-mychorrhizal root samples. Read more...

This research was published in the Journal of Applied Spectroscopy.


This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.