Grapes, blackberries, poultry immune system enhancement methods among patents recognized at annual Ag Awards

By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — New fruit varieties and a means to enhance poultry immune systems developed by University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture scientists were among 10 patents recognized Friday during the annual Agriculture Awards.

PATENTS — Jason Norsworthy, Distinguished Professor and Elms Farming Chair of Weed Science in the crop, soil and environmental sciences department, center, accepts a patent award from Parker Cole, left, associate director of technology commercialization, and Jean-François Meullenet, director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and senior associate vice president for agriculture-research for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Mary Hightower)

All of the patents arose from discoveries made by scientists within the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Cooperative Extension Service and some with the help of graduate students within the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

“I’m always excited about what our innovative researchers are doing,” said Lisa Childs, assistant vice president for technology commercialization for the Division of Agriculture. She is also a patent attorney.

“Once again this year, we have patents that reflect some of the broad range of commercially interesting research in the division,” she said. “We’ve had patents issue from horticulture, the rice research and extension center, entomology and plant pathology, poultry science, and crop soil and environmental science, and they all have in common the desire to make our world a better place to live in.”

Recognized this year were:

• Burkholderia Cenocepacia and Pseudomonas Fluorescens Compositions and Methods of Using the Same: Alejandro Rojas – department of entomology and plant pathology; and Ruben Morawicki – department of food science

• Table Grape Named A-1400 ‘Southern Sensation’: John Clark – department of horticulture

• Herbicide-Resistant Grain Sorghum: Jason Norsworthy and Muthukumar Bagavathiannan – department of crop, soil, and environmental sciences

• Robust Water Trading and Irrigation Performance Meter Measurement System: Christopher Henry – Rice Research and Extension Center

• Pseudomonas Protegens and Products Thereof to Control Bacterial Panicle Blight of Rice: Alejandro Rojas – department of entomology and plant pathology

• Blackberry Plant Named ‘APF-404T’: John Clark – department of horticulture

• Blackberry Plant Named APF-409T: John Clark – department of horticulture

• Table Grape Named ‘Compassion’: John Clark – department of horticulture

• Novel Mucosal Adjuvants and Delivery Systems: Amanda Wolfenden-Bray, Billy Hargis, Guillermo Tellez-Isaias, Marion Morgan, Neil Pumford, and Srichaitanya Shivaramaiah – department of poultry science

• Compositions and Methods of Enhancing Immune Responses to Eimeria or Limiting Eimeria: Billy Hargis, Lisa Bielke, Olivia Faulkner, and Srichaitanya Shivaramaiah – department of poultry science

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. 

Plant-based protein extraction study to look at ultrasound, fermentation methods

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Food science researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station are tapping into the power of soundwaves and fermentation to improve the quality of plant-based proteins.

FOOD SCIENCE — Mahfuzur Rahman is a food scientist and grain processing engineer who conducts research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. (U of A System photo)

Ultrasound, the same soundwave technology that creates images of babies in the womb, and microbes that break starches down into sugar are behind a new protein extraction method being investigated with the support of a nearly $300,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Propelling the study is an increased demand in the plant-based dairy and alternative meat markets. Mahfuzur Rahman, an assistant professor in the food science department, said the market was estimated to be worth $29 billion in 2023 and growing by about 8 percent annually. Health and environmental concerns are behind the increase in demand, he noted.

Rahman is the lead research on the two-year study that began in August to develop an eco-friendly method of plant-protein extraction to enhance consumer acceptance by improving product development performance, taste and nutritional value. Plant-based proteins are used to make alternatives to animal proteins found in meats and dairy.

“Traditional protein extraction methods require chemicals such as sodium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and often result in lower yields and reduced protein quality,” Rahman said. “The traditional method affects the functionality, taste and nutrition of the extracted proteins.”

Rahman is a food scientist and grain processing engineer who conducts research through the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. He teaches courses through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food, and Life Sciences. He received a Tanner Award for Comprehensive Reviews this year for being one of the most cited authors for scientific papers published by the Institute of Food Technologists.

LAB TEAM —Nazrul Islam, left, Ruslan Galib, Sukanya Poddar, Nikitha Modupalli, Mahfuzur Rahman, Kavith Lakshmipathy and Saydul Safwa are the Novel Ingredient Processing and Utilization Laboratory team in the food science department for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. (U of A System photo)

Rahman said this research will focus on optimizing ultrasound-assisted extraction to release proteins from flour efficiently, followed by adjusting fermentation-assisted removal of off-flavors and anti-nutritional factors.

“The effectiveness of the new method will be compared with traditional extraction methods in terms of protein yield, removal of off-notes, and reduction of anti-nutritional compounds,” Rahman explained.

Collaborators on the study include Scott Lafontaine, assistant professor of flavor chemistry for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, and Girish Ganjyal, professor and extension food processing specialist at Washington State University’s School of Food Science. The grant is part of the Agricultural and Food Research Initiative from USDA-NIFA. The project award number is 2024-67018-42814.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Multi-state study offers recommendations for keeping bermudagrass greener all season

By Nick Kordsmeier (U of A System Division of Agriculture)
With contributions from Marya Barlow (Virginia Tech) and Tobie Blanchard (LSU AgCenter)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Whether it’s a football field, a golf course, or a home lawn, a new multi-state study offers recommendations for keeping some varieties of turfgrass greener, longer.

GREENER GRASS — Wendell Hutchens, assistant professor of turfgrass science, participated in a study that identified key turfgrass management recommendations to help keep hybrid bermudagrass greener all season. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Researchers currently based in six states collaborated to identify three simple management tips to extend green color and reduce cold-weather injury in hybrid bermudagrass. Those recommendations include raising the mowing height, applying nitrogen fertilizer in the fall, and most importantly, maintaining adequate soil moisture in the lead-up to a short-term freeze event, such as a spring-time cold snap.

The study, “Improving winter survival of interspecific hybrid bermudagrass in the Mid-Atlantic region through cultural practices,” was published in the Crop, Forage & Turfgrass Management journal in August.

Wendell Hutchens, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of turfgrass science with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, noted that although the work focused on golf courses, the recommendations could apply equally in other situations.

“The practices can be used universally,” Hutchens said. “Sod growers can use the same practices, as can sports field managers and homeowners for their lawns.”

Sports field managers, Hutchens added, may benefit the most from this study. Much of the work for golf courses was done on fairway-height bermudagrass, which he said is “usually comparable to sports fields.”

“Many of our turfgrass professionals manage hybrid bermudagrasses throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Winter injury is one of their biggest concerns,” said David McCall, co-author of the study and associate professor of turfgrass pathology and precision management in Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “This multi-state project was designed to answer some practical questions that would benefit our industry stakeholders.”

According to the study, hybrid bermudagrass is susceptible to cold-weather damage in the transition zone, an area that includes a band from Maryland and Virginia on the East Coast to Arkansas, parts of Missouri and Oklahoma, all the way to California on the West Coast. While the study highlights the Mid-Atlantic region, the work is relevant for anywhere in the transition zone, Hutchens added.

“The transition zone is where cool and warm climates meet,” Hutchens said. “That’s where we can grow every species of turfgrass — warm season and cool season — but they all struggle to some degree. And that provides ample research opportunities.”

In addition to Hutchens and McCall, other co-authors of the study include Joseph Doherty, former graduate student at the University of Maryland; Joseph Roberts, associate professor with Clemson University’s College of Agriculture, Forestry and Life Sciences; Eric DeBoer, assistant professor with the LSU AgCenter in Louisiana; Jordan Booth, senior director of the U.S. Golf Association’s course consulting service; and Michael Battaglia, graduate student at the University of Arkansas’ Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station is the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Results and recommendations from field trials

Hutchens said the research team set out to evaluate the effects of soil fertility, mowing height and moisture to avoid cold-weather injury, also known as winterkill.

“Those are three primary management practices for turfgrass, but particularly with winterkill, they play a major role,” he said. “We found some pretty interesting data during the first couple of years of our study.”

Roberts noted that historically, avoiding late-summer applications of nitrogen on bermudagrass was the standard.

“Healthy roots are vital to winter survival, and it was thought that fall fertilization could favor lush foliar growth in lieu of root growth, therefore increasing chances of winter injury,” Roberts said. “However, our research showed that slow-release nitrogen applications through mid-September had either no impact or in some cases, positive impacts on turfgrass quality and color.

UP CLOSE — A multi-state team of turfgrass researchers collaborated on a recent study that identified recommendations for keeping turfgrass greener longer. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

“More importantly, no negative impacts were observed as a result of late-season nitrogen applications,” he said.

The work with mowing height also yielded an interesting insight, Hutchens said.

“Mowing height didn’t have a substantial effect on winterkill, but it did reduce winter weed populations when we mowed at higher heights, which is a really useful finding and a serendipitous takeaway from the study,” Hutchens said.

“The general rule of thumb is to increase mowing heights slightly as bermudagrass approaches winter dormancy,” McCall said. “How much depends on the starting point while actively growing in-season.

“In our study, 0.75 inches seemed to be the sweet spot, though we did not see consistent impacts of mowing height on winter injury. We did, however, notice that mowing lower at 0.5 inches opened the canopy enough for weeds to germinate much more frequently, and mowing at 1 inch sometimes slowed spring green up a little,” he said.

McCall noted that these mowing heights are considerably lower than how a home lawn should be maintained.

Moisture is critical

Due to mild and wet winter conditions at the field trial locations in Maryland and Virginia, the researchers performed several experiments using freeze chambers to mimic winter weather conditions. When Hutchens started his job in Arkansas, he worked with Battaglia and DeBoer to evaluate the relationship between soil water content and level of cold-weather injury.

DeBoer, who mainly participated in the study as a Ph.D. student at the University of Arkansas before taking up his post with the LSU AgCenter, said the research found a strong association between soil moisture and winterkill symptoms.

“There is definitely a positive correlation with increased soil moisture prior to short-term freezing events, resulting in better turf survival,” DeBoer said.

One possible explanation according to DeBoer may be a temporary heating effect from the irrigation water buffering the roots from cold temperatures. DeBoer cautioned there is a high degree of variability from year to year and site to site.

“It’s not cut and dry, say, to irrigate your soil to 25 percent volumetric water content before a freeze, and you’ll be fine,” DeBoer said. “The idea is to avoid having droughty soil before a freezing event.”

Volumetric water content is a measurement of how much water a given volume of soil contains. The amount of water that a field can hold depends on the type of soil, Hutchens noted.

“Adequate soil moisture is certainly one of the most crucial management practices to reduce winterkill,” Hutchens said.

Reaping rewards from collaboration

Hutchens noted that the multi-state collaboration was a key part of the success of this study.

“You get a lot of different ideas and perspectives,” he said. “This project demonstrates that these collaborative efforts across multiple universities can be really successful. It takes a lot of legwork to organize it all, and the initial work is challenging, but the rewards that you reap from it are totally worth it.”

Hutchens said the team began the work in 2019 while he was a graduate student at Virginia Tech, working under McCall as his adviser. Booth was working as a research associate at Virginia Tech at the time before joining USGA. Doherty was a graduate student at the University of Maryland working under Roberts, who later took a job at Clemson University. DeBoer and Battaglia got involved when Hutchens moved to Arkansas in 2022.

“This project exemplifies the benefits of collaboration, as the primary study was performed at three geographically unique locations in the Mid-Atlantic,” McCall said. “By bringing in additional resources from northwest Arkansas, we were truly able to use broad strokes for practical recommendations to turfgrass professionals throughout the transition zone with confidence that our results apply across the board.”

In addition to the value of the research team’s collective experience, Roberts also noted the added value of testing recommendations across multiple geographical areas.

“Collaborative efforts not only helped push this research forward, but performing field research across multiple field sites in different states enhanced the recommendations offered to growers across the transition zone,” Roberts said.

This study was supported in part by grants from the Old Dominion Golf Course Superintendents Association; the Virginia Golf Course Superintendents Association; the Eastern Shore Association of Golf Course Superintendents; the Mid-Atlantic Sports Turf Managers Association; the Virginia Turfgrass Foundation; the Mid-Atlantic Association of Golf Course Superintendents; and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s Environmental Institute for Golf.

The Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Virginia Tech, Clemson University and the LSU AgCenter are part of a system of agricultural research centers at land-grant universities in the southern United States where scientists collaborate to conduct research and outreach focused on conserving the region’s natural resources and sustainably feeding a growing global population.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on X at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.

Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center hosts inaugural Rice Field Day

By Sarah Cato
U of A System Division of Agriculture

HARRISBURG, Ark. — The new Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center in Harrisburg welcomed more than 250 attendees to its inaugural rice field day to hear region-specific updates from researchers and extension specialists.

SITTIN' PRETTY — The new Northeast Rice Research and Extension Center was freshly manicured and ready to welcome guests to the inaugural NERREC Rice Field Day on August 8. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo.) 

Arkansas is the nation’s top rice producer, with the top four rice producing counties in the state located in the northeast corner. With two-thirds of Arkansas rice planted each year in the northern half of the state, the new Arkansas Agriculture Experiment Station location has given researchers with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture an opportunity to generate data specific to a large portion of Arkansas growers.

“This farm is unique,” said Rich Hillman, chairman of the Riceland Foods Board of Directors. “Studying this soil, studying the dirt in this part of the state that so many farmers raise their crops in, this farm and the work on it will definitely pay dividends for generations to come. This is something to be very proud of for the folks that are in this area.”

Hillman added that the educational facilities at NERREC, created for school-aged children to learn about rice and agriculture production in Arkansas, will impact thousands of students who are surrounded by agriculture but may not know much about what’s grown around them.

“What’s inside this building is just as important as the research plots outside,” Hillman said. “The educational component of this facility is unlike anything else in the state.”

NERREC Director Tim Burcham emphasized the effort required to get the research and extension center off the ground and thanked the many contributors, saying the station is for producers.

“Everything you saw today got started with one truck, a pair of boots and a shovel,” Burcham said. “I think it’s miraculous how far we’ve come and I’m thankful for our leadership team, our industry collaborators and the Rice Research and Promotion Board for all the hard work and long hours it took to get here. And this isn’t our station – it’s yours.”

During field tours, attendees saw firsthand how research conducted on the station is planned with Northeast Arkansas growers in mind.

“This has been a long time coming and we’re excited to be here and show off our plot work at this location,” said Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for the Division of Agriculture. “We’ve been able to add a planting date study here in the heart of Northeast Arkansas to give us planting date information, where we’ve historically relied on the Stuttgart location.”

In response to poor milling yields that many Arkansas growers faced last year, Hardke said he is using some of his plots at NERREC to look at causes and potential solutions.

“Given the issues with milling last year, we are trying to look at things we can throw at the wall to improve our milling,” Hardke said. “We don’t know if they’ll be cost effective, but the question is can we get any response from late fertilizer applications to hold on to that milling yield? Hopefully this will give us some direction on what we can tease out to help improve milling yields in years, like this one, where everything is planted quickly and early but harvest drags out.”

Breeding updates

Division of Agriculture rice breeders Xueyan Sha and Christian De Guzman showcased varieties that are currently available with tolerance to Provisia and Clearfield, herbicides that are popular in Arkansas rice production.

“We are latecomers to Provisia rice breeding, but we’re catching up,” Sha said. “We started this program in 2019 and fast tracked – really fast tracked – the PVL04 which, from crossing to commercial production, only took four years. I don’t know anyone who can beat that.”

Sha said the PVL04 matures about three days later than PVL03, but with good yield potential in Northeastern Arkansas. More exciting varieties could be on the market soon.

“In the pipeline we have a number of very exciting Provisia lines,” Sha said, highlighting two potential varieties with increased yield potential and Provisia herbicide tolerance. “So we’ll probably see some changes in our Provisia line up coming soon.”

Rice season recap

Hardke’s biggest surprise this rice growing season was how quickly growers were able to get started.

“I got an incredible number of calls from this area of the state around April 7, April 10 saying ‘Hey, we’re done,’” Hardke said. “Following that tremendous start, we had a lot of rain and the wind would not quit blowing. So, weed control was an interesting effort. I’m flat out amazed at the job growers were able to do to keep fields clean.”

Although wet conditions delayed herbicide applications and some nitrogen applications, Hardke said the overall crop looks really good. However, he warns that early and quick planting can cause headaches at harvest.

“Just remember that all of this is getting ready faster than you think it is,” he said. “These first fields coming out are at 17 to 19 percent moisture and normally they’re 19 to 22 percent, so they’re starting to run away. I guess that’s my way of saying get out there and get on a combine.”

Hardke noted that current cooler conditions should help milling quality post-harvest.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Best meat quality, most economical cattle ‘finishing’ diet has more byproduct

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A high-energy diet that includes higher amounts of dry soybean hulls was the most economical choice for Arkansas beef producers who want to “finish,” or bring their weaned cattle up to market weight, on the farm.

FINISHING ON THE FARM — Feeder steers at the Southwest Research and Extension Center were raised on varying diets as part of a cattle finishing study. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

An Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station study conducted at the Southwest Research and Extension Center in Hope showed that a high-byproducts diet, which uses a material that may otherwise be wasted, also provided the best meat quality among three diets tested.

“Cattle producers are looking for alternative methods to finish their cattle and successfully diversify their operations through direct marketing of their products to consumers,” said Daniel Rivera, associate professor of animal science and director of the Southwest Research and Extension Center for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. The experiment station is the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.

Rivera said the research team wanted to know the feasibility of keeping “feeder” cattle on the pasture with a high-energy supplement to achieve results comparable to those at feedlots. In the process, they would calculate the cost and measure the impact of different diets. Feeder cattle are weaned calves that have reached a weight between 600 to 800 pounds.

The study stems from supply chain setbacks for meat supply during the COVID-19 pandemic and passage of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security or CARES Act, which opened alternative markets for cattle producers. The research was funded in part by a grant from the Arkansas Beef Council.

“Arkansas is not typically a cattle finishing state,” Rivera said. “We don't have that infrastructure here like they do out West and in the Midwest. A lot of local producers had an interest in finishing cattle, but they didn't have the background or the knowledge base to do it correctly.”

Rivera said the study showed that cattle can be fed on pasture and finished in a similar amount of time as cattle fed at a feedlot, with no negative effect on quality.

The study took place in 2023 and evaluated the effects of three diets on weight-gain performance, carcass quality and meat characteristics of 63 locally sourced crossbred feeder steers, which are young males that have been castrated.

The feeder steers weighed on average 796 pounds at the start of the study. They were divided by body weight, fed assigned diets for 161 days and weighed every 28 days before being shipped to a commercial slaughter facility in Arkansas City, Kansas. Rivera said the facility was used to accommodate the higher number of cows than could be processed at a local facility in a timely manner. The cost of transportation to the facility in Kansas was not accounted for in the study because it was irrelevant to the scenario.

Diets tested

The three diets tested included:

• Conventional feedlot finishing diet with roughage: 10.9 percent bermudagrass hay, 56.2 percent cracked corn, 30 percent corn gluten feed and 2.9 percent mineral mix.

• High-starch supplement fed at 2 to 2.25 percent of body weight, with free access to bermudagrass pasture: 50 percent cracked corn, about 21.6 percent corn gluten feed, 24.5 percent dried distiller’s grains with solubles, 2.9 percent mineral mix and 1 percent limestone for calcium.

• High-byproduct supplement fed at 2 to 2.25 percent of body weight with free access to bermudagrass pasture: 14.8 percent cracked corn, 21.9 percent corn gluten food, 21.9 percent dried distiller’s grains with solubles, 38 percent dry soybean hulls, 2.9 percent mineral mix, and 0.5 percent limestone.

The hull of a dry mature soybean contains about 85 percent carbohydrates and 9 percent protein.

“The reason we chose to test the byproduct diet is because it is more user-friendly,” Rivera said. “Most producers wouldn't run the risk of acidosis or some of the problems that you might see with a high-starch diet that is found in a lot of feedlot type diets.”

Acidosis is when the cow’s digestive system pH is lower than normal and can lead to a lack of appetite, increased breathing and sometimes death.

More ‘Choice’ quality with high-byproduct diet

Rivera said the results of all three diets were statistically similar, with the average weight increasing from about 800 pounds to 1,200 pounds throughout the study. However, the high- byproduct diet offered the best economic return whether the calf was purchased outright or born on the farm.

The percentage of beef that was “USDA Choice” quality grade or higher was 80 percent with the high-byproduct diet, 66 percent with the conventional feedlot diet, and 62 percent on the high-starch supplement diet. “Choice” is second to “Prime” in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s beef quality grading system, which is a measure of palatability of beef, or eating quality. Quality grades are a combination of marbling, which is the fine, small flecks of fat in the steak and maturity, which is how old cattle are at the point of harvest.

“Preliminary performance data shows that we were able to indeed produce a high-quality product,” Rivera said. “They were pretty similar in terms of their body weight and quality.”

The high-starch diet offered the lowest carcass value per head at about $1,958. The conventional feedlot diet provided the second-highest value at $2,021.85 per head, and the high-byproduct diet offered the highest carcass value per head at $2,065.89.

Cost to finish on the farm

Rivera said the cost of increasing the weight of a weaned calf from about 750-800 pounds to a finished weight of about 1,200 pounds was approximately $550 per head for all three treatments.

“If you’re a producer and you’re wanting to start this endeavor, this gives you a blueprint that shows it’s going to cost roughly $500 to $600 per head to get from point A to point B,” Rivera said.

CATTLE STUDY — Michelle Johnson, animal science graduate research assistant at the University of Arkansas, led a study at the Southwest Research and Extension Center testing varying diets on finishing cattle. (Courtesy photo)

Consumer preferences

Michelle Johnson, animal science graduate research assistant at the University of Arkansas, was the lead author of the study. She defended her master’s thesis in July with results from the study, offering evaluations from trained taste panelists who noted there were no sensory characteristic differences in the beef from the three different diets.

Kelly Vierck, assistant professor of animal science, explained that despite being fed a high-byproduct diet or starch supplementation, the cattle fed those treatments met or exceeded the standards set by conventionally fed cattle with no detriment to important beef quality traits, such as tenderness, juiciness, or flavor.

Johnson said beef from the pastured groups, which included the high by-product and high starch diets, had better color stability. Research has shown that while color doesn’t correlate with flavor, consumers prefer bright red color, and color stability indicates longer shelf life, Johnson noted.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Slow-growth diet before breeding offered better long-range health in pigs

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Borrowing a page from the dairy industry, researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station found that a slow-growth diet meant more piglets and healthier and longer-lived momma pigs.

SOW HEALTH — An Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station study showed female pigs had better reproductive health when placed on a slow-growth diet before being bred. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Slowing weight gain for female pigs before breeding showed improvements in performance throughout four breeding cycles, according to Charles Maxwell, professor of animal science for the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

“Scientists have done a wonderful job of increasing litter size and milk production so that our sow lines are essentially like Holstein cows and produce a huge amount of milk,” Maxwell said. “But the difficulty you get into is, producing that amount of milk for that three-week period of time, we cannot get enough nutrients into the sows to keep them from losing weight.”

A common practice in the industry has been feeding female breeding pigs the same as “terminal line” pigs before breeding. It leads to them being overweight at breeding age. Once they are bred and start lactating to feed their piglets, they lose weight because they eat less. That exacerbates the problem, Maxwell said.

Maxwell said that about half of the United States' swine industry sows are replaced after lactation. The reasons for replacement include being overweight before breeding, poor fertility and lameness. Optimally, he said, a sow should be able to raise, or farrow, at least four litters of piglets to be profitable.

“They simply don’t recycle and get bred back so they’re replaced with another animal,” Maxwell said. “The cost of this is the cost of the replacement animal. You could generate or breed more to make sure you’re farrowing enough animals. However, you’re still losing all the productivity you should be getting out of those animals.”

Maxwell and TsungCheng Tsai, a swine nutrition researcher in the animal science department, joined three industry partners in developing a two-year study that mimics a practice done with dairy cows since the 1980s — slowing the growth rate of the female animals before breeding. A female pig is called a gilt before breeding, and a sow after it has produced a litter of piglets.

The study

Two diets were offered to young female breeding pigs to evaluate the dietary nutrient level. Low nutrient diets were formulated to reduce the gilt’s lysine amino acid intake for a certain period. The diet included fiber with wheat “middlings” and dried corn distiller’s grain with solubles to lower the energy density of the diets. A control group was provided a normal diet that exceeded industry standards.

The gilts on the low-nutrient diet were allowed to eat as much of their food as they wanted. At the end of their 26-week development period, the gilts fed the low-nutrient diet were about 15 pounds lighter than the normal-diet group. At the time of breeding, however, once placed on common diets, the average body weight of both groups was the same.

Although they started a little lighter, the group fed a low-nutrient diet during their development lost less body weight during lactation than the normal-diet group. When their piglets were weaned, the low-nutrient group also had a greater 10th-rib backfat thickness than sows fed a normal diet. Maxwell said that the greater 10th-rib thickness suggests that those sows used the nutrients they were getting better than those fed the normal diet as gilts.

“The measure of backfat is a relatively easy way to monitor the changes in body fat composition since much of the fat in swine is stored there,” Maxwell said. “Pigs consuming more dietary energy than is needed to meet their energy requirements store the excess as fat and this gain and loss of backfat can be monitored to reflect these changes. The procedure was standardized to sample the backfat at a specific location, the 10th rib, because of the variability of backfat thickness in different locations of the back.”

Maxwell said the sows fed a low-nutrient diet as gilts did not reduce feed intake once they were bred and lactating like the other group. He added that slow growth also did not appear to impact their conception rate.

For each gilt in the study, the low-nutrient diets produced an average of 4.5 additional pigs at birth, 4.6 more pigs born alive, and 4.2 more pigs weaned. When measured over the four reproductive cycles, sows from the low-nutrient diet group farrowed 30 more litters, produced 380 more pigs born alive, and weaned 204 more pigs. A reproductive cycle is about 114 days.

“Feeding low-energy and reduced protein diets during gilt development can promote their ability to restore body condition during lactation, which boosted survivability throughout the four parity cycles and thus extended their longevity,” Maxwell noted.

While Maxwell and Tsai think they are on the right track to mitigating the loss of sows, they are still looking for more ways to improve sow longevity.

“We’re not there yet,” Maxwell said. “Even with that treatment, we didn’t have 100 percent survival. So, we still have a lot of questions to minimize the loss.”

Sow farm concept

A rapidly growing component of swine production in Arkansas and across the South has been sow farms producing “feeder pigs” for shipment to the Midwest to continue raising or finishing. Arkansas has refined the “sow farm concept,” Maxwell explained, to have much of the state’s sow farm production involved with developing replacement gilts to supply the swine industry with high-health replacement females. Maxwell noted that this concept has evolved because Arkansas is relatively free of significant swine diseases found in the Midwest.

One of the partners in the experiment station study was JBS, a major pork producer in Arkansas. JBS provided 192 gilts for the study with a starting weight of about 50 pounds. Other partners included PIC, DSM, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture through the Multi-State Project S-1081 “Nutritional Systems for Swine to Increase Reproductive Efficiency,” accession number 1003592.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Two UADA staffers earn seven writing awards from APW

By the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Two University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture staffers, one retired and one current, earned seven awards at the 2024 Arkansas Press Women communications contest.

Fred Miller, who retired as science editor for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station in July 2023, won four awards, including a first place for his final project, a three-story series on bee research. The experiment station is the research arm of the Division of Agriculture.

Fred Miller, left, and Mary Hightower, right, were among the winners in this year's APW Communications Contest. (U of A System Division of Agriculture file photos)

“Having just retired, I wanted to go out on a high note so I entered the bee series because bees are a reliably popular topic,” . “People like bees as long as they’re not ‘bee-ing’ stung.”

Mary Hightower, chief communications officer, won three awards, including a first place for feature writing for a retirement tribute to Miller.

“It’s tough to write profiles about people you know, but it was a great joy to win for a story about a highly talented and respected friend and colleague, Fred Miller,” Hightower said.

Arkansas Press Women announced the winners of its annual Professional Communications Contest at an awards luncheon May 18 at The Villa Marre in Little Rock. Work produced in a variety of communications fields during 2023 was eligible to compete.

There were 310 entries from around the state including communicators from newspaper, radio and academia sectors.

There were 66 first-place winners in the Arkansas contest. They are eligible to advance to the National Federation of Press Women competition. Winners will be announced at the group’s annual conference, June 20-22, in St. Louis.

For the third consecutive year in the Arkansas contest, Dwain Hebda of Little Rock, president of Ya!Mule Wordsmiths, Inc., won the Sweepstakes Award. The award is based on a point system that factors in entry ranking and the degree of competition in a category.

Award details

Fred Miller, science editor, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, won:

• Honorable Mention in Writing > Specialty Articles > Science or Technology for “Research uses nanotechnology to boost dietary value of 3D printed foods.”

• Honorable Mention in Photography > Single Photograph > News or feature photo for “Environmental Portrait – Scott Lafontaine.”

• Second Place in Writing > Specialty Articles > Science or Technology for “Arkansas to Lead $5 Million Grant-established Center to Advance Robotics in Poultry Processing.”

• First Place in Information for the Media > News or Feature Releases – Multiple Releases for the series on bee research.

The stories in the series included “Researchers trace ancestry of Arkansas honeybees to original ‘colonists’,” “Molecular survey of parasite threats helps Arkansas beekeepers protect their colonies,” and “Entomologists study how colors attract wild bees to improve surveys, other research.”

Mary Hightower, chief communications officer, University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture:

• Honorable Mention in Writing > Specialty Articles > Agriculture for “Bald Knob restaurant shortcakes herald start of strawberry season.”

• Second Place in Writing > Specialty Articles > Agriculture for “Picture is brighter for off-the-track thoroughbreds.”

• First Place in Writing > Feature Story > Online publication for “After 25 years of letting the ‘geeky side come out,’ science editor Fred Miller retires.”

Arkansas Press Women, APW, is an association of professional communicators in journalism, public information, business, education and government. To learn more about APW, visit https://arkansaspresswomen.org/.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on TX at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Researchers uncover what makes some chickens more water efficient than others

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — In the first scientific report of its kind, researchers in Arkansas showed that chickens bred for water conservation continued to put on weight despite heat stress that would normally slow growth.

STUDY RESULTS — Sara Orlowski, an associate professor of poultry science, compared water intake and food conversion ratios in chickens bred for high, low and normal levels of water efficiency. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Research by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station indicates the specially bred line of chickens developed by Sara Orlowski could save growers thousands of gallons of water and thousands of pounds of food each month without sacrificing poultry health. Orlowski is an associate professor of poultry science with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

As global population increases and usable water diminishes due to climate change patterns, scientists with the Division of Agriculture are looking for ways to raise the world’s most popular meat protein using fewer resources.

The study, which was part of a five-year project funded by a $9.95 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, showed a broiler chicken’s physiology could be significantly improved to convert food and water to body weight even with three weeks of heat stress.

Results from the study were published in Physiological Reports, the American Physiological Society’s scientific journal, as an article titled “Effect of heat stress on the hypothalamic expression profile of water homeostasis-associated genes in low- and high-water efficient chicken lines.” The grant was awarded through NIFA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.

Sami Dridi, professor of poultry science specializing in avian endocrinology and molecular genetics, was responsible for conducting the experiment and the driving force in writing the paper.

Walter Bottje, professor of poultry science for the experiment station, is the project director for the USDA Sustainable Agriculture Systems multi-institutional grant led by the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science.

Now in its fifth generation of selection, the high water-efficient line has been measured to consume significantly less water than standard broiler lines in use today. From the time they were hatched to one month old, the high water-efficient line drank 1.3 pounds less water, and about 5.7 ounces less feed, which calculates to a 32-point improvement in water conversion and six-point improvement in feed conversion when compared to a random-bred control line.

While it may not seem like a huge difference, modern chicken houses hold on average 20,000 to as many as 50,000 birds. Although chickens consume more as they grow, the difference for that month of growing equates to 7,800 fewer gallons of water and 17,800 pounds less feed to grow 50,000 water-efficient chickens.

In some conditions, the high water-efficient chicken had food conversion ratios that were just as good or better, and their water conversion ratio was about 55 to 65 percent better, according to Dridi.

Bottje said these recent results from the ongoing research are promising, but the group aims to investigate other physiological characteristics of the high water-efficient line, such as meat quality and gut integrity.

Thirst control

POULTRY SCIENCE — Sami Dridi is professor of poultry science specializing in avian endocrinology and molecular genetics. (U of A System Division of Agriculture)

The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that controls thirst. One of the study’s findings was that the hypothalamus of water-efficient chickens differed from the other chickens when exposed to heat stress. The investigation revealed potential molecular signatures for water efficiency and heat tolerance in chickens.

The researchers devised a study that induced heat stress for groups of chickens by increasing the ambient temperature to mimic a summer season in Arkansas. The heat-stress cycle began when the birds were 29 days old. The environment was also kept between 30 and 40 percent relative humidity.

Dridi ran a parallel study comparing data on the divergent lines of chickens.

What they found was surprising.

“What the most interesting thing from that study, when it comes to live performance, is that the heat-stressed birds from the high water-efficient line consumed less water than the non-heat stressed birds from the low water-efficient line,” Orlowski said.

Water is critical to raising chickens. They can go several days without food, but only a few hours without water at high temperatures, Dridi said.

Dridi said high humidity, which would be over 70 percent for chickens, also induces similar heat stress because the chickens cool themselves by breathing. Dridi’s studies on poultry house sprinkler systems kept the humidity lower than the industry standard method and used significantly less water than evaporative cooling cells.

“With water sprinkling systems that can save up to 66 percent water usage in a poultry house, the water conservation of poultry could be improved by a magnitude of three- to four-fold by having chickens that consume less water and still retain growth,” Dridi said.

Project development

Dridi said the idea for water-efficient chickens came from looking at the differences in chicken lines bred as far back as the 1950s. Dridi and other researchers wanted to see how much genetic differences there were between jungle fowl and modern breeds.

Before they could breed water-efficient chickens, though, they had to reliably measure the amount of water chickens drank.

Orlowski was a Ph.D. student when her graduate research team developed a novel low-flow water monitoring system in collaboration with Siloam Springs-based companies Alternative Design and Cobb-Vantress Inc., a primary broiler breeder company. The tool was essential to accurately measure water intake for individual birds in real time.

“When we first started this project in 2018, we evaluated one of our broiler lines, a non-selected control population, and we characterized them for water intake,” Orlowski said. “And within that population there was a variability for water intake. From there, we were able to take our most water-efficient families and our least water-efficient families, establish our research populations and continue to select from there.”

A base population of chickens that were not selected for high or low water-efficiency was kept as a control group to compare changes in each generation, Orlowski noted.

Bottje and Dridi said the work done by Orlowski in selecting the divergent lines of chickens was the most important factor of this experiment. Orlowski said water efficiency in the high water-efficient line is continuing to improve with each succeeding generation. She ranks the water efficiency trait as “moderately heritable.”

“There’s no reason that it will not work for all poultry operations, including turkeys, quail and ducks,” Dridi said.

About the researchers

The lead author on the research article was Loujain Aloui of the Higher School of Agriculture of Mograne at the University of Carthage in Zaghouan, Tunisia, while on an internship with the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and the Division of Agriculture.

Co-authors included Elizabeth S. Green, Travis Tabler, Kentu Lassiter, Bottje, Dridi and Orlowski with the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the Division of Agriculture and Kevin Thompson with the Center for Agricultural Data Analytics with the Division of Agriculture.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

New parasite affecting Canadian partridges named for Arkansas poultry scientist

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — With a newly discovered poultry pathogen named in his honor, Billy Hargis has a permanent place in the annals of science. And now, the pathogen has a permanent place on Hargis.

NAMESAKE — Billy Hargis, Distinguished Professor of poultry science for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, is the namesake of a newly discovered pathogen. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Eimeria hargisi is a parasite discovered by the Ontario Veterinary College at the University of Guelph following studies of a recurring disease at a commercial chukar partridge farm in Ontario, Canada.

Hargis, Distinguished Professor of poultry science and director of the John Kirkpatrick Skeeles Poultry Health Laboratory, considers having the parasite named after him an honor when coming from his longtime colleague and friend John Barta, professor of parasitology at the Ontario Veterinary College. Hargis took an image of the newly named microbe to a tattoo artist for it to be linked in ink.

“John Barta is big in the world of parasitology, so this means a lot coming from him,” Hargis said. “I wanted to commemorate it a little differently.”

The oval-shaped tattoo is on the side of his right calf, shaded in areas with pink and blue.

The Skeeles lab is part of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. Hargis teaches courses in the poultry science department through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences.

MEMENTO— An image of Eimeria hargisi tattoed on the leg of its namesake, Billy Hargis, Distinguished Professor of poultry science for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Paden Johnson)

Barta noted that his team of student researchers led by Ph.D. student Jessica Rotolo at the Ontario Veterinary College discovered the new species of Eimeria. The Eimeria parasite family causes a deadly disease called coccidiosis that can infect a wide range of animals, from poultry, cattle and sheep to rabbits, bats, fish and seals. The discovery of the newly named species was published in the December 2023 edition of the Journal of Parasitology.

“The parasite is named to honor Dr. Billy Hargis for his exemplary research record in support of poultry gut health and his past and ongoing advancement of coccidiosis research through the training and mentorship of future scientists,” the research team states in the study.

The last time an Arkansas poultry researcher had a parasite named after them was 2021. Barta said that previous research on the same coccidiosis infections in the Ontario-based commercial chukar partridge farm resulted in the naming of Eimeria chapmani for retired experiment station researcher David H. Chapman.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

USDA-grant supported FRST Project releases new fertilizer prediction tool

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — A new fertilizer recommendation tool, developed nationally in collaboration with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, could save farmers millions of dollars annually while reducing excess nutrient losses to the environment.

DECISION AID — Farmers have a new fertilizer decision aid available called FRST (Fertilizer Recommendation Support Tool) following years of development by a national coalition of soil scientists. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

Funding for the FRST Project has been provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through its Natural Resources Conservation Service, including Conservation Innovation Grants. Additional support comes from the USDA-Agricultural Research Service, USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture and OCP North America, a phosphate-based fertilizer company.

FRST (Fertilizer Recommendation Support Tool) is a decision aid that provides an unbiased, science-based interpretation of soil test phosphorus and potassium values for crop fertilization, according to Nathan Slaton, a leader on the FRST Project and associate vice president for agriculture and assistant director of the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

The tool also augments the interpretation of different fertilizer recommendations across state lines, which was one of the issues that prompted the project. Slaton said phosphorus and potassium are the primary nutrients from routine soil testing that are used to predict the need for crop fertilization.

A team of over 100 soil science and agronomic professionals from nearly 50 universities, four USDA divisions, several nonprofit organizations and one private-sector partner worked for six years to develop the free, web-based tool. Division of Agriculture scientists participating in the project include Slaton, Gerson Drescher, assistant professor of soil fertility, and Bronc Finch, assistant professor and state extension specialist for soil fertility.

“We are extremely excited about the launch of the decision support tool,” Drescher said. “FRST was developed in response to the pressing need to harmonize soil testing across state boundaries. It represents an improvement in our ability to evaluate soil test correlation.”

Deanna Osmond, soil science researcher at North Carolina State University, is also one of the FRST Project leaders.

“Until now, soil fertility faculty in each state worked independently,” Osmond said. “But for farmers who work across state lines, it’s difficult to compare or assimilate multi-state guidelines. Our goal is to improve the accuracy of nutrient recommendations through independent, scientifically developed nutrient management best practices that farmers can believe in and adopt.”

Slaton explained that the FRST Project has accomplished two important objectives to advance phosphorus and potassium management for crop production. The first was developing a national database to archive soil test correlation and calibration research, ensuring the preservation of research information that supports crop fertilization recommendations as scientists retire. The second objective was to provide a tool that anyone can use to review the research results relevant to their crop, soils and geographic area to check their soil-test-based fertilizer recommendations.

The FRST Project was hosted in a neutral space (USDA) with common access, Drescher noted, “to foster collaboration and innovation in soil fertility research and pave the way for future advancements in nutrient management.”

Greg Buol of North Carolina State University provided database and programming support.

“The design of FRST has always been focused on the end user being able to easily use the tool and understand the results,” Buol said.

Current capabilities and plans

Currently, the FRST provides critical phosphorus and potassium soil test values, which indicate where there is no expected yield increase from phosphorus or potassium fertilizer application. In the next phase, the FRST will provide research-based phosphorus and potassium rate response information to assist farmers in selecting the minimum fertilizer rate expected to produce maximal crop yield.

The current version (FRST v1.0) includes data from nearly 2,500 phosphorus and potassium trials for 21 major agricultural crops, with the majority being corn and soybean.

The FRST includes a map of the United States that shows the location of phosphorus and potassium trials represented in the database and can be used to identify where the need for additional research data is greatest.

The database was constructed from current and historical research data, including trials from 40 states and Puerto Rico. The team has plans to expand the tool to other crops, cropping systems and nutrients such as sulfur.

Key features of FRST

Data-driven by utilizing a dynamic database of soil test correlation data constantly updated to improve testing confidence.

• Crop-specific information with a database that currently covers 21 major commodity crops.

• Geographically diverse with published and unpublished trial data from 40 states and Puerto Rico.

• Unbiased information with blended data that removes political and institutional bias in soil test interpretation.

• Scientifically sound data that represents a minimum dataset to provide reliable outcomes.

"We believe that FRST will not only benefit farmers by improving farm economics and conservation practices but also contribute to global sustainability," Finch said.

For more information about FRST, visit https://soiltestfrst.org and click “Tool” at the top of the screen.

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Animal science recognizes alum; team supporters

By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. —  Three individuals and one family are being honored by the animal science department at the University of Arkansas for their support of department efforts or achievements as alumni.

Tom Edrington, Jim Turner and Don Hubbell, former director of the Livestock and Forestry Research Station near Batesville, are each being honored as Graduates of Distinction.

HONOREES — Tom Edrington, Don Hubbell and Jim Turner are being honored as Graduates of Distinction by the animal science department.

The Walker Family of Prairie Grove is also being recognized as a Friend of Animal Science for its support of the ranch horse and livestock judging teams.

“Looking at their careers and their industry involvement, we believe Tom, Don and Jim really represent the highest qualities we want to see in graduates from the animal science program,” said Mike Looper head of the animal science department for the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. “It’s an honor to recognize them as our Graduates of Distinction.

“The Walkers have been an incredible example and inspiration for their dedication and support of our competitive teams, which do so much to teach our students much-needed skills,” Looper said.

This year’s class will be honored April 25 during the department’s annual awards and scholarship banquet. The honorees receive a crystal award and their images and biographies will be included on a plaque that hangs in the department.  

Don Hubbell

Hubbell received his bachelor of science degree in animal science from the University of Arkansas. He accepted a position and worked as a research assistant with Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station’s Livestock and Forestry Research Station near Batesville. From September 1982 to May of 2004. Hubbell held various positions at the station, managing the research for the dairy, stocker and beef cow units. Hubbell was named resident director in charge of the station in May 2004, a position he held before retiring in 2022.

Hubbell worked on many forage, health and nutrition projects with beef and dairy cattle, collaborating with principal investigators in both Bumpers College and the Division of Agriculture. Hubbell collaborated with many principal investigators, or PIs, - faculty, extension and industry, in and out of state. His name appears on more than 100 refereed articles, abstracts and publications as principal investigator or co-PI. Hubbell was a member of the Research Center Administrator’s Society for 17 years, serving as Awards Committee chairman for 10 years. He was appointed to the National Cattleman’s Beef Promotion Board in 2023, serves on the Executive Board for Arkansas Cattleman’s Association and as an ex-officio member of the Arkansas Beef Council.

Tom Edrington

Edrington earned a master of science in animal science from the University of Arkansas under Jack Perkins. He is currently in his seventh year with Diamond V, where he serves as director of beef research and tech services. Before his time at Diamond V, Tom spent 16 years with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. There, he developed an internationally recognized research program in pre-harvest food safety research, focused on but not limited to, Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 in beef and dairy cattle. 

Edrington’s research has been funded through numerous grants and has more than 50 senior-authored and 100 junior-authored publications in refereed journals. He received his bachelor of science in animal science and Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition and toxicology from New Mexico State University.

Jim Turner

Turner earned his Ph.D. in ruminant nutrition in 2003 from the University of Arkansas after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Kansas State University. In 2004 he became an extension livestock specialist for North Carolina State University.  During his time at NCSU, Turner oversaw the State Beef Quality Assurance program which has had an impact on him throughout his career, striving to improve beef sustainability. In August of 2011 he began his career at Hubbard Feeds as a beef nutritionist serving the eastern United States. In January 2016 Turner accepted a position as technical service manager with Chr. Hansen, a Danish bioscience company where he worked extensively with research, product development and conveying the use of probiotics throughout the cattle feeding industry. Turner was instrumental in the launch of new products targeted at the non-fed cattle market. In January 2021 he began as director of SulutionsN working with a full portfolio of nutraceuticals. 

He is responsible for the research, development, and sales management of SulutionsN. Throughout his career, Turner has delivered numerous presentations at producer and professional meetings. 

The Walker Family

Members of the Walker family are strong advocates of agriculture and construction. In 1974, Larry and Be-Ann started Walker Masonry and Sons, Inc. and grew the company into a thriving commercial masonry business. Larry and Be-Ann started Willow Springs Ranch in 1980, where they began with dairy and beef cattle as well. In 1985 they changed to beef cattle exclusively. Now, Larry and Be-Ann continue their beef cattle operation and have included quarter horses into their operation. Larry and Be-Ann are proud supporters of the University of Arkansas Ranch Horse Team.

The Walker Family has been recognized as Friend of the Department for Ranch Horse and Livestock Judging teams. (Image courtesy the Walker Family).

Larry and B-Ann’s son Eric and his wife Linsay, now own and operate Walker Masonry and Sons, as well as the Willow Springs Cattle Company and The Grand at Willow Springs. Eric and Linsay continually support the livestock judging team and work with the University on their non-profit organization, the Arkansas Youth Expo. Eric’s passion for education and agriculture have only grown since his service as the Arkansas FFA state president in 1992-93.

Eric and Linsay’s three children are eager to follow in their parents and grandparents’ footsteps of construction and agriculture and continue the legacy of the Walker family. Mason owns Supreme Show Goats and works for Walker Masonry. Whitney and her husband Kamden own Urban Livestock, their sheep operation, and Whitney works for The Grand at Willow Springs and helps organize the Arkansas Youth Expo. Catelyn is heavily involved in the reining cow horse industry.

Mention of product or company names does not imply endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.

Poultry nutritionist joins Arkansas poultry science faculty

By Jessica Wesson
U of A System Division of Agriculture

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Poultry science nutritionist Benjamin Parsons plans to bring his passion to the poultry science department and Center of Excellence for Poultry Science through research.

NUTRITION — Poultry nutrition researcher Benjamin Parsons joined the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science in January. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo by Jessica Wesson)

Parsons joined the University of Arkansas System’s Center of Excellence for Poultry Science and the poultry science department as an assistant professor in January. In his new role, Parsons carries out research through the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Parsons will also teach through the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas. The Division of Agriculture, with the Bumpers College, provides the traditional land-grant triad of teaching, outreach and research.

“We are very excited to have Ben join the department as a tenure-track assistant professor working in the research focus area of poultry nutrition,” said David Caldwell, poultry science department head and director of the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science. “Our department has made very impactful advances in this field, and we are thrilled to have Ben join us and develop a program that I am certain will be of tremendous value to our industry stakeholders.”

Parsons’ research program will focus on the evaluation of nutrient availability in feedstuffs by determining its digestibility, retention and bioavailability. Bioavailability is the amount of a nutrient that is absorbed in the intestine, transported and used for metabolic functions within the body. He also plans to investigate the ability of feed additives to improve nutrient digestibility and study the effect of dietary components on intestinal secretions and nutrient losses. Parsons said that poultry nutrition research is vital for producers to be able to address industry challenges.

“This research is important for improving the precision by which we feed poultry, to ensure that their nutrient requirements are met and that optimal performance is achieved, while also minimizing the amount of inputs needed per unit of product produced,” Parsons said. “I also want to identify ways in which we can improve the quality of feedstuffs that we need for poultry and increase the availability of nutrients within the diet, while also minimizing wastage of nutrients.”

Parsons received a Ph.D. in poultry science from the University of Arkansas. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in animal science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“I’m excited and honored to join the department as a faculty member and do my part to ensure the success of our students and the poultry industry as a whole,” Parsons said. “We have a truly great group of faculty, staff and students, as well as a rich history.”

Caldwell noted that Parsons will also assume responsibility for teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in poultry nutrition that are fundamental to the department’s academic program.

“Ben’s background and training make him a perfect fit for this position, and we couldn’t be happier about having him join our faculty,” Caldwell said.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.

Going solar on your farm? There’s a web tool for that and funding deadlines are looming

By John Lovett
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Agricultural producers looking to invest in solar energy for their farms are facing several key deadlines this year.

SOLAR POWER — Solar panels provide power to a poultry house. The Poultry Solar Analysis tool has been updated with information to help agricultural producers make timely decisions about using solar power on the farm. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

First, rural small businesses and agricultural producers who are interested in going solar have until Sept. 30 — with two other deadlines before then — to apply for federal grants to help offset costs. And in Arkansas, Sept. 30 is the deadline to file for “legacy net metering” status to receive one-to-one energy credits for energy supplied to the electrical grid.

According to Professor of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Michael Popp with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, meeting both deadlines can have impacts on an agricultural producer’s return on investment for a solar project.

To help producers evaluate their options, Popp and his colleagues with the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture updated the Poultry Solar Analysis tool. This tool models the economic implications of solar energy with user input about their farm-specifics. Entered are the last 12 months of electricity cost and use to estimate equipment and installation costs, electricity rates, and financing options.

The updated decision aid tool also allows the user to specify a Rural Energy for America Program, or REAP, grant. Further, it offers a model showing how using two loans to finance a solar project can minimize the after-tax cashflow requirements of investing in solar, Popp explained.

 “If you have a REAP grant and income tax credits paying for 55 percent of your project costs, you can break even at 3 cents per kilowatt hour even at the higher interest rates” Popp said.

That’s about 7 cents a kilowatt hour of risk wiggle room. Across 35 farms analyzed, Dr. Popp’s tool estimated average variable electricity rates of 10 cents per kilowatt hour in 2022. If a solar investor can lock in net-metering, cashflows are more attractive than future, avoided cost rates, Popp said.

‘Legacy net metering’

Last year, the Arkansas state legislature passed the Cost-Shifting Prevention Act of 2023. It overhauled the net metering policy in Arkansas and set a deadline of Sept. 30 to apply for “legacy net metering” status and to be “grandfathered” into the rate structure in effect before Dec. 31, 2022. If the customer qualifies, their rates would be grandfathered through June 1, 2040.

Legacy net metering allows a utility customer with an electricity generating system to receive credit from their utility provider if the customer produces excess energy. Any net excess generation credits older than 24 months can be sold back to the electric utility at the utility’s “avoided cost,” if it is at least $100, according to the Arkansas Public Service Commission’s latest Net-Metering Rules.

All costs need to be paid for constructing facilities necessary to connect a net metering facility by Sept. 30, the new rules state. The facilities could also include those that produce energy from wind, water and geothermal.

Those who do not apply for legacy net metering will fall under the next compensation policy called “net energy billing,” which will allow sale of power to the utility grid, but the utilities will no longer be mandated to reimburse at the rates they charge.

Another critical component of solar investment analysis is application for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s REAP program, said Yi Liang, Associate Professor with the Cooperative Extension Service. The REAP program offers loans and grants for rural small businesses and agricultural producers. The application deadlines for the REAP programs are March 31, June 30 and Sept. 30. However, Liang noted that it takes between three and six months to score and rank the REAP applications.

“For anyone to meet the state’s Sept. 30 deadline for legacy net metering, the March 31 REAP grant deadline would be the one to shoot for,” Liang said.

Two loans better than one

Popp revisited the analysis tool with Liang and other colleagues to assess the finance and risk management considerations of investing in solar panels for agricultural uses.

A portion of their report, currently under review with the USDA Economic Research Service, explains how economic modeling suggests that two loans were superior to a single 10- or 20-year loan.

Using the updated Poultry Solar Analysis tool, Popp noted the break-even cost of electricity is lower with two loans than one because “better cashflow matching leads to more timely loan repayment, which saves on interest expenses.”

Running the same model for 35 farms with different electricity rate structures, Popp and his team found that choosing 10-year or 20-year equipment loans — with or without a secondary income tax credit loan repaid upon income tax realization — revealed a best-case scenario with two loans. The 10-year equipment loans optimally sized in conjunction with either a one-year or five-year income tax credit loan led to the highest “net present value” of 30-year, after-tax cashflows.

TIMELY UPDATE — Michael Popp, professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness, explains the Poultry Solar Analysis tool. (U of A System Division of Agriculture photo)

“That financing arrangement also led to the lowest break-even cost of electricity for solar investors,” Popp said. “At the same time, that financing solution led to much fewer incidences of having larger annual cash outflows with solar investment than not investing in solar.”

To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu.

Researchers test nanotechnology concept against herbicide ‘drift’

by George Jared (gjared@talkbusiness.net)

One of the most controversial issues in Arkansas agriculture is the use of the herbicide dicamba. It is one of the few herbicides that is still effective against pigweed, a pervasive weed that impacts many row crop fields in the Delta.

The problem with dicamba is that it is prone to drift onto adjacent fields and can cause serious damage to crops that haven’t been genetically modified to use the herbicide. Scientists in the Natural State are researching a new solution to this generations-long problem.

The startup CelluDot will receive a nearly $1 million National Science Foundation grant to optimize a nanotechnology product developed by the scientists of the company when they were doctoral students. The goal is to mitigate herbicide drift, and the ongoing research will be done in partnership with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station.

https://talkbusiness.net/2023/09/researchers-test-nanotechnology-concept-against-herbicide-drift/