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BOZEMAN - The Montana State University Department of Agricultural Economics and Economics and MSU Extension will host the 12th annual agricultural economics conference, “Agriculture and Political Uncertainty” on Friday, Nov. 9, beginning at 8:45 a.m. in MSU’s Procrastinator Theater. The conference, part of the annual Celebrate Agriculture event in the College of Agriculture, will host several MSU agricultural economics and Extension faculty speakers on topics of interest to Montana’s agricultural industry, including grain markets, farm labor,...
A Montana State University faculty member dedicated to researching cereal genetics and genomics for Montana farmers is part of an international research team that published an article detailing the entire sequence of the wheat genome of bread wheat. The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium published the article in the prestigious journal Science this week. It is the result of 13 years of collaborative international research. The article will pave the way for the production of wheat...
BOZEMAN – Montana State University Extension has updated its publication on noxious weed identification, "Montana's Noxious Weeds," making the information available for the first time as an electronic flipbook accessible on mobile devices. Mobile device users can download the flipbook for free from the MSU Extension store at store.msuextension.org/ by searching the publication number (#EB0159). The new flipbook includes key characteristics of 35 noxious weeds and five regulated plants, c...
Montana State University scientists are seeing increased soil acidity, meaning low pH, in parts of the state and are urging farmers to keep an eye on their plants and soils to avoid lower crop yields and even crop failure. Clain Jones, a soil fertility specialist with MSU Extension and a professor in the MSU College of Agriculture’s Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, said fields in 20 Montana counties have been found to have pH levels that could harm crop growth. “This is an emerging issue in the state, where low soil pH...
Like a farmer scanning the horizon for coming changes in weather, in 2014 Mary Burrows looked to the future of Montana agriculture, and what she saw prompted her to start the Regional Pulse Crop Diagnostic Laboratory at Montana State University. It was a prescient decision. That year, farmers planted about 702,000 acres of pulses - dried leguminous crops that include peas, chickpeas and lentils. Just three years later, they planted more than double that acreage. Burrows, a professor in MSU's...
A Montana State University-licensed technology is being used in an agricultural product that industry leaders are touting as one of the best on the market. LifeGard, a biological pesticide from Certis USA, was named the 2017 Best New Biological Product at the Agrow Awards in London on Oct. 30. A week earlier, LifeGard won second place for the 2017 Bernard Blum Award for Biocontrol Product of the Year in Basel, Switzerland, at the Annual Biocontrol Industry Meeting organized by the International...
Some things are synonymous with Montana State University: the bobcat, blue and gold and Montana Hall. In the MSU College of Agriculture and for many Montana ranchers, James Berardinelli may be on that list, too. For the last 37 years, Berardinelli, professor of animal science in MSU's Department of Animal and Range Sciences, has taught students how to be familiar with the rear end of a cow. In more than three decades of teaching and researching animal reproductive science at MSU, about 2,500...
The Montana State University College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station will host its 18th annual Celebrate Agriculture event, set for Nov. 3-4 on the MSU campus. The event is held in honor of the state and university’s joint agricultural legacy and in celebration of current students, agriculture alumni, and MSU’s extended agricultural community across Montana. MSU Vice President of Agriculture Charles Boyer said the event is a longstanding tradition at the university. “Each year, we look forward to the weekend in Novem...
Montana State University's Steer-A-Year program is seeking steer donations for the 2017-18 academic year. The donated steers will allow agriculture students to gain hands-on learning experience in all aspects of the beef industry, from anatomy to production. Throughout the academic year, students in the Steer-A-Year program provide daily care for steers that Montana ranchers have donated to the university. The steers are then sold in the spring, and profits from the sales fund student...
Calling anyone who needs an engineer: Montana State University engineering students are here to help. Each year, groups of seniors from MSU's College of Engineering work to design, analyze, fabricate and troubleshoot creations that they then display during the college's biannual Engineering Design Fair, which will be held this year in December in the Strand Union Building. The Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering are...
A global team of researchers including Hikmet Budak, Montana State University's Winifred Asbjornson Plant Sciences Chair, in the Department of Plant Sciences and Plant Pathology, has decoded for the first time the complete genome sequence of wild emmer wheat. Wild emmer wheat is the original form of nearly all the domesticated wheat in the world, including durum (pasta) and bread wheat. The 48-member team announced July 7 in the journal Science that it successfully sequenced and mapped the...
Farmers in Montana, and other parts of the Northern Great Plains, are shifting from cereal-only cropping to a cereal-dry pea cropping system. This transition is not without its share of unknowns, however. Scientists say yield and performance of pea crops depend on both their genetics and the environment. Environmental factors such as temperature and rainfall can vary greatly. Farmers in different parts of the Plains need to know which varieties of pea will do well in the area they are farming....
Clain Jones, Montana State University soil fertility Extension specialist, suggests Montana irrigated wheat famers consider providing additional nitrogen to their crop, calling it the most important management factor to produce high protein levels this year. In an effort to maximize the amount of nitrogen absorbed by the crop and increase protein for the 2017 harvest, Jones recommends several nitrogen application methods for Montana farmers. In general, Jones said, protein is more likely to increase with late-season nitrogen. He said the decisi...
BOZEMAN – Montana State University Assistant Professor of Rangeland Ecology Craig Carr has received the Range Science Education Council's 2017 Early Career Undergraduate Teaching award. Carr, who is also the MSU College of Agriculture's undergraduate range management team faculty adviser, received the award at the Society for Range Management's annual meeting, held in St. George, Utah, in February. "We're very proud of Dr. Carr and applaud his dedication and passion for teaching range m...
The public is invited to attend free annual field days across Montana to tour and learn about the people, places and projects involved with agricultural research at Montana State University’s College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station or MAES. Five research stations across the state and a local Bozeman campus farm will each host a field day this summer. “Statewide field days are a longstanding tradition where we invite the public to tour our facilities, meet our faculty and staff and learn about trends and progress in...
Montana State University’s Montana Agricultural Experiment Station, or MAES, developed the wheat varieties that Montana farmers planted more than any other variety for the 2016 crop year, according to the United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service Montana Field Office. The statistics show that 5.28 million acres of wheat were planted in Montana last year, making it the third-highest state for planted wheat acres in the country. MAES-developed spring and winter wheat varieties accounted for 2.3 million of th...
Montana State University Extension economists George Haynes, Kate Fuller and Eric Belasco will offer free farm management workshops in four Montana communities in February and March. The two-and-a-half day workshops will cover: risk management, focusing on crop and livestock insurance; grain and cattle marketing, focusing on hedging, forward contracting and other marketing alternatives; finance and accounting, focusing on recordkeeping and financial analysis; and agricultural policy, focusing on farm programs and changes in farm policy. Video...
Montana State University Extension economists George Haynes, Kate Fuller and Eric Belasco will offer free farm management workshops in four Montana communities in February and March. The two-and-a-half day workshops will cover: risk management, focusing on crop and livestock insurance; grain and cattle marketing, focusing on hedging, forward contracting and other marketing alternatives; finance and accounting, focusing on record keeping and financial analysis; and agricultural policy, focusing on farm programs and changes in farm policy. Video...
Montana State University Extension agents, staff and supporters from across Montana recently received awards during Extension’s annual conference at MSU in Bozeman. Laurie Lautt, MSU Extension agent in Big Horn County, received the 2016 Silver Buffalo Award in recognition of 37 years of exceptional service. The award, given by Montana’s Joint Council of Extension Professionals, is MSU Extension’s highest honor. Lautt has directly reached more than 800 participants through food preservation education. The Big Horn County commissioners, in their...
Montana State University, in conjunction with the University of Wyoming, will host a malt barley and sugarbeet symposium Jan. 10-11 at the Big Horn Resort in Billings. The first day of the event will focus on barley production, precision agriculture techniques, reducing tilling practices and farming business issues. The keynote speaker will be Wade Malchow, sourcing manager for barley, malt and elevator operations with MillerCoors. The second day will focus on sugarbeet production, with Luther...
A naturally occurring bacterium discovered by Montana State University has been registered for commercial use and sale by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its impressive plant-disease fighting capabilities. This is the first time MSU has had a technology registered by the EPA for commercial use, a significant milestone in the university’s research and technology transfer history. Canada has published an intent to register the bacterium for use and other countries are expected to follow suit. The disease-fighting bacterium, BmJ W...
A naturally occurring bacterium discovered by Montana State University has been registered for commercial use and sale by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for its impressive plant-disease fighting capabilities. This is the first time MSU has had a technology registered by the EPA for commercial use, a significant milestone in the university's research and technology transfer history. Canada has published an intent to register the bacterium for use and other countries are expected to foll...
Selecting fertilizer rates for yield and quality will depend in part on this past summer’s rains and the amount of this year’s residue, according to Clain Jones, MSU Extension soil fertility specialist in the MSU College of Agriculture Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences. According to the National Weather Service, some parts of Montana received well-above average rainfall this year, leading to high yields with higher than average plant residue and good soil water for the coming growing season. However, other regions had lowe...
Montana State University’s College of Agriculture and Montana Agricultural Experiment Station will honor the state and university’s agricultural legacy during the annual Celebrate Agriculture weekend, set for Nov. 10-12 on the MSU campus. The annual event is open to the public. MSU Vice President of Agriculture Charles Boyer said the event has a meaningful history that mirrors the state’s cornerstone agricultural industry. “As Montana’s flagship land-grant university, with its roots in agriculture, our successes today wouldn’t be what they a...
A new Montana State University Extension bulletin, Soil Nutrient Management for Canola, offers suggested soil nutrient management practices based on regional research. The key to nutrient management for optimal canola yield is to select the right fertilizer source, the right rate, the right placement and the right timing for an operation, known as the “4R” concept, according to Clain Jones, co-author and Extension soil fertility specialist in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences at Montana State University. “These are u...
