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Save the date! E-rase your E-waste organizers in Sidney have announced the dates for their annual fall collection event: Friday and Saturday, Sept. 7-8. MonDak area residents are invited to bring their damaged and outdated electronic equipment to the event for free recycling. Now in its 14th year, E-rase your E-waste has recycled more than 435,000 pounds (217 TONS!) of electronic waste through 2017! In announcing the collection date, organizers noted that restrictions on recycling of certain items from last year remain in place for the Sidney...
Area producers have two opportunities in June to learn more about dryland agricultural research being done in this region including work on intercropping, renovating CRP monocultures, new cereal livestock forages, soil acidification and remediation, as well as training in vertebrate pest control, grazing cover crop mixes, and more. The first opportunity is Tuesday, June 19th when the joint field day hosted by Montana State University's Eastern Agricultural Research Center (EARC) and the...
Too often conflict can occur on environmental issues primarily because proposed solutions not only impact the biology and ecology of an area but also the economic and social health of surrounding communities. Scientists and technical experts need to account for how their attempts to manage environmental threats affect all of these, according to Political Scientist Megan Ruxton. Ruxton will be presenting a special summer Brownbagger on this topic at the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab in Sidney this Friday, June 8, from noon...
We don’t normally think of trees as invasive plants, but even MonDak prairie dwellers have experience with at least one “weedy” tree example. Just think of the acres of saltcedar (Tamarix) now clogging significant portions of our Yellowstone and Missouri riverbanks! Non-native tree invasions are a growing problem across the globe and Dr. John Gaskin, a molecular botanist with the Agricultural Research Service in Sidney, MT, and his fellow collaborators from around the world want to find out why. Dr. Gaskin and his team recently completed a glo...
In the second of three Sidney Agricultural Research Service BrownBagger talks planned on biological control of invasive plant species, the emphasis is on the use of molecular tools to aid management of whitetop and saltcedar, two invasive species (a weed and a shrub/tree) plaguing the western U.S. The BrownBagger is hosted by the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) in Sidney. The next presentation features Amanda Stahlke, a PhD Candidate in the Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program at the University of...
A North Dakota State University researcher at the Langdon Research Extension Center is harnessing bumble bees, and soon honeybees, to help curb Sclerotinia head rot, a crippling fungal disease in sunflowers, that also affects soybean, dry beans, canola and several other crops. He’s using the bees as mini “crop dusters” to spread a “good” fungus in his sunflower test plots to counter the fungus responsible for Sclerotinia. Now completing his second year of research into this new approach to disease management, Dr. Venkat Chapara, a plant pat...
“E-rase your E-waste” organizers are pleased to announce that the group will hold its annual spring collection on Friday and Saturday, May 5-6, but this year there will be some added restrictions on what items participants can bring. Also different this year, there will be no collection in Fairview due to construction of a new fire hall. However, Fairview residents, along with residents throughout the MonDak region, are encouraged to participate in the Sidney collection in May. “Unfortunately, we are once again seeing limitations on old CRT (...
We’ve all heard of seed banks, but bud banks? Bud banks and their pivotal role in biomass production for three key grassland forage species are the focus of the final BrownBagger presentation of 2017 at the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney this coming Friday, April 21. Jacqueline Ott, a research ecologist studying grasslands with the US Forest Service in South Dakota, is the speaker. Her presentation is entitled “Grass bud bank and tiller dynamics in mixed-grass prairie” and will run from Noon to 1 pm, Frida...
Bees in your backyard and bees as a business are the focus of the next BrownBagger presentation at the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney this coming Friday, April 7. Ring in spring with this timely talk by Beth Eiring of the Montana Department of Agriculture. Eiring’s presentation is entitled “Beekeeping From a Regulatory Perspective,” and will include a look at beekeeping in Montana (numbers, sites, and the various types of beekeeping), the regulations and what they look like when applied on the ground. She w...
Grazing cattle in the winter months is not typically considered an option in the northern plains, nor as a means to build soil health, but that attitude is changing with new tools and techniques now available. One of those tools, bale grazing, has been shown to help repair degraded pastures by adding nutrients from both cows (manure) and leftover hay to the soil. Bale grazing and its benefits are the focus of the latest BrownBagger presentation at the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory in Sidney this coming Friday, March...
Fusarium head blight (FHB) has proved a very costly disease since its emergence as a major threat in the 1990s. Altogether, U.S. wheat and barley farmers have lost over $3 billion due to FHB epidemics. To address the problem, a research program looking at new ways to manage Fusarium diseases using soil microbes is underway at Montana State University’s Eastern Agricultural Research Center in Sidney under the direction of Plant Pathologist Frankie Crutcher. Dr. Crutcher will be sharing the underpinnings of that program in a special B...
Part travelogue and part research talk, the latest presentation in the 2017 BrownBagger Series at the USDA Agricultural Research Service's Sidney lab will take participants to "the bottom of the earth" to study nematodes in rare isolation. On Friday, Feb. 17, Dr. Zachary Sylvain, currently a Research Associate at the Sidney ARS lab, will discuss his prior research in Antarctica under the auspices of the U.S. National Science Foundation. His presentation is entitled "Science at the bottom of the...
More than two-thirds of the land area in the United States is privately owned, with 914 million acres in farms or ranches. These working lands include much of the country’s remaining open space and habitat, making them vitally important to the conservation of soil, water, and fish and wildlife resources. But, while private lands provide society with valuable benefits and aid in conservation of natural resources, maintaining these private working lands is not easy, particularly in this part of the country, according to Michelle Downey, a ...
The USDA-Agricultural Research Service facility in Sidney is pleased to partner with the Richland County Extension Office to host an interactive forage analysis workshop to open the lab’s 15th annual winter BrownBagger series on Friday, Jan. 20th. This special kickoff presentation features Montana State University Extension Beef Specialist Rachel Endecott and will be held from noon to 1 pm in the Tech Transfer Room at the Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab (NPARL) in Sidney, MT. The lab is located at 1500 N. Central Avenue. Dr. E...
E-rase your E-waste organizers invite you to bring your damaged and outdated electronic equipment to the group’s spring recycling event May 13-14 in Sidney and Fairview. Now in its 12th year, E-rase your E-waste has recycled more than 380,000 pounds (190 Tons!) of electronic waste and is hoping to add substantially to that total in 2016, organizers said. This spring’s collection will once again be held Friday and Saturday, May 13-14, in Sidney, while Fairview will hold its own mini collection event on Saturday morning, May 14, as part of tha...
Organizers for the annual “E-rase your E-waste” collections are happy to announce the return of their spring e-waste collection event this year. Jackie Couture, chair of the E-rase your E-waste Committee, reported this week that the group is planning a spring collection on Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14th in both Sidney (Fri and Sat) and Fairview (Sat morning only) and a fall collection on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 9-10 in Sidney. “We’re pleased to be able to offer another springtime collection and to once again be working with the Fai...
Organizers for the annual “E-rase your E-waste” collections are happy to announce the return of their spring e-waste collection event this year. Jackie Couture, chair of the E-rase your E-waste Committee, reported this week that the group is planning a spring collection on Friday and Saturday, May 13 and 14th in both Sidney (Fri and Sat) and Fairview (Sat morning only) and a fall collection on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 9-10 in Sidney. “We’re pleased to be able to offer another springtime collection and to once again be working with the Fai...
ARS talk moves to Thursday; features soil health discussion “We do not inherit the earth from our ancesters, we borrow it from our children.” ARS Soil Scientist Maysson Mikha takes this Native American Proverb to heart in her research focusing on building soil health and sustainability in the Great Plains region through improved management practices. Soil health reflects the soil’s ability to function as a dynamic living system that can support plant growth, promote animal production and health, sustain human needs, and preserve and/or impro...
While use of “Roundup Ready” sugarbeets has provided producers with many benefits for weed management in that crop, the technology can also compound weed problems without proper management by building weed resistance to the popular herbicide. New strategies for slowing the spread of resistance are the focus of the next BrownBagger presentation at the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Plains Agricultural Research Lab in Sidney this coming Friday, March 11. Dr. Tom Peters, Extension Sugar Beet Agronomist at North Dakota State Unive...
Annual grass invasions into productive perennial grasslands are creating headaches for livestock producers and land managers. As the annual grasses move in, their litter provides fuel for fires, which in turn aid germination of the annual invader, eventually crowding out the more nutritious, native perennial species. It’s a vicious cycle requiring substantial inputs by producers to reestablish perennial species in the face of these self-sustaining invaders. However, in recent studies Agricultural Research Service scientists have successfully i...
Welders and other heavy duty tools have been the instruments of choice for farmers and ranchers needing to repair or adapt their equipment for specific jobs. But as GPS, drones and other new technologies continue to expand in agriculture, producers may find themselves reaching for a new tool in their toolbox: a 3D printer. Brian McGinnis of Exdivio Solutions, Inc. in Sidney, MT will provide producers and others an insight into this new technology as the third speaker in the USDA-ARS Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory’s 2016 B...
Invasive weeds, droughts, fires, energy development and other disturbances are all impacting the quality of one our most important natural resources in the Northern Great Plains.... our grasslands. ARS scientists are looking at ways to address those impacts, including a recent project enabling scientists to study methods for restoring our grasslands over a large scale in order to determine which techniques are the most effective. The latter is the subject of the second presentation in the USDA-Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Plains A...
Building soil quality isn’t an easy task on the semi-arid prairies of Montana and North Dakota or neighboring Saskatchewan, Canada. But that hasn’t stopped Jered Axten, an enterprising dryland farmer at Minton, Saskatchewan, from working with “Mother Nature to improve soil health” on his farm. Axten will be in Sidney Fri. to discuss the techniques he uses to improve profitability on his dryland operation “by caring for our soil and reducing our dependence on synthetic inputs.” He is the opening speaker in the USDA-Agricultural Research Se...
Wondering just what kind of bug that is? Or that funny looking plant? Concerned that you may have unwanted weeds or insect pests encroaching on your garden or field? Bring your samples to the Richland County Fair and get them identified. Insect and plant specialists with the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) in Sidney MT, will be on hand Friday evening of the fair to help identify plant or insect samples brought in by interested fairgoers. The plant and insect identification station w...
Wondering just what kind of bug that is? Or that funny looking plant? Concerned that you may have unwanted weeds or insect pests encroaching on your garden or field? Bring your samples to the Richland County Fair and get them identified. Insect and plant specialists with the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Northern Plains Agricultural Research Laboratory (NPARL) in Sidney MT, will be on hand Friday evening of the fair to help identify plant or insect samples brought in by interested fairgoers. The plant and insect identification station w...
