Tractors gain focus on bigger units 

Combine harvester sales grew in September for both the U.S. and Canadian markets, while total tractors fell in both countries, according to the latest data from the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM).

Total U.S. ag equipment unit sales stayed above the five-year average for the second month since April 2022. U.S. total farm tractor sales fell 12.8% for the month of September compared to 2021, while U.S. self-propelled combine sales for the month grew 6.6%, slowing the previous month’s gains. The 100-plus horsepower two-wheel-drive tractor segment was again the only positive segment in the U.S., up 9.6%, while midrange tractors between 40 and 100 horsepower were down 10.2%, and the sub-40 hp segment fell 16.3%. Total farm tractor sales are down 14.3% year-to-date, a slight improvement from the previous month, while combine harvester unit sales growth streak, now at four months, have the segment up 3.4% year-to-date.

“The ag equipment market, as with most markets for manufactured goods, is turbulent,” said Curt Blades, senior vice president, industry sectors and product leadership at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. “Farmers want to take advantage of the efficiency gains and technology that new equipment brings to their operations, especially with commodity markets being as positive as they are. However, supply chain difficulties continue to weigh on our member manufacturers’ deliveries.”

—Excerpted from AEM press release

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Potatoes are exposed to forced-air smoke, replicating wildfire effects. Photo courtesy of University of Idaho.

 


Wildfire smoke’s influence on potato crops under study

A two-year study by Boise State University (BSU) and University of Idaho (UI) probes how wildfire smoke affects potato crops and seeks to identify smoke-resilient potato varieties. 

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Farmers know potato crops grown during seasons of heavy, extended wildfire smoke generally have smaller yields and worse quality. Past studies have identified some smoke components, such as ozone, that could impair potato growth, but limited research has largely left the underlying chemical relationships unexplained. This work tests industry’s smoke-harm theory in controlled environments, allowing researchers to investigate the effects individual smoke compounds impart on Idaho’s flagship crop. 

“Observations from industry started all of this. When we have had bad, smoky years, yields are down and processing quality is down. Our hypothesis is smoke exposure causes that,” said Mike Thornton, a professor in UI’s Department of Plant Sciences. 

Thornton and BSU Chemistry Department Chair Owen McDougal are analyzing smoke’s chemical effects on potatoes. The study also evaluates if certain potato varieties are more immune to smoke’s damage. Researchers will present preliminary findings this winter at potato industry meetings. Full results are expected for release after the 2023 harvest. 

The existing understanding of smoke’s influence on potatoes points to a mixed bag. Several smoke components are suspected to affect potato crops, such as brown and black carbon, volatile organic compounds and even disease spores. Smoke reduces available light and raises nighttime humidity, worsening environmental conditions for potato growth. But other parts of smoke, such as carbon dioxide, may be advantageous for plants.

The new research involves subjecting three potato varieties – Clearwater, Alturas and Russet Burbank – to smoke emitted from pine needles, sagebrush and wood. Burnt in a commercial smoker attached to a mixing drum, the blend attempts to emulate wildfire smoke. The smoke is piped to potato plots, where plastic covers trap smoke in with plants, while other control potato plants grow in a smoke-free environment to let researchers compare outcomes. Daily potato smoke treatment at the UI Parma Research and Extension Center began July 11 and ended Aug. 18. 

The two-year project is funded by $125,000 from the federal Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, authorized by the Idaho State Department of Agriculture. 

McDougal will oversee chemical analysis into possible changes potatoes experience from smoke exposure. Analysis occurs immediately after harvest, after six months in storage and after the potatoes are turned into frozen fries. 

“It will tell us what differences there are between a control and a treatment potato so we can pinpoint which metabolites – chemicals within a potato – change due to exposure to smoke,” McDougal said. 

Fries analyzed for the experiment will be processed at the UI Food Technology Center in Caldwell. Noticing potatoes don’t seem to store well after intense wildfire years, McCain Foods lent expertise toward the project. Representatives from UI, McCain Foods and BSU serve on an advisory committee that oversee the research project. 

Thornton anticipates applying similar research methods in future seasons to replicate the smoke study with other crops, including onions.

—Excerpted from UI press release

Nematode-resistant spuds

UI researchers are introducing genes from a plant in the nightshade family into potatoes, seeking to develop spuds that resist harmful nematodes.

The plant, called litchi tomato, has natural resistance to several species of cyst and root-knot nematodes.

“That’s an unusual trait to have such broad resistance,” said Allan Caplan, associate professor in UI’s Department of Plant Sciences who is involved in the project. 

Nematode cysts can remain viable in fields for more than a decade, and they can be found down to 3 feet deep in soil.

UI researchers (led by nematologist and plant pathologist Louise-Marie Dandurand) have worked for several years studying a range of possibilities for using litchi tomato as a tool to avert nematode-related yield losses in potatoes. Litchi tomato has been planted as a “trap crop” in the program to eradicate pale cyst nematode (PCN), which is quarantined in a small area of eastern Idaho. When planted in fields infested with PCN, litchi tomato stimulates cysts to hatch in the absence of a viable host, causing them to starve.

Dandurand also has a post-doctoral researcher seeking to identify chemicals in litchi tomato that harm or kill nematodes. The chemicals that prove effective could be refined and applied directly to fields as a pesticide. 

Caplan and Fangming Xiao, professor in the UI Department of Plant Sciences, have been working to identify the genes in litchi tomato that are specifically expressed when nematodes attack the plant.

“We found at least 277 genes that got turned on,” Caplan said. “We think not all of them are necessary. We have to make educated guesses of which to try first, and it’s really a matter of trial and error. We’re pretty certain some of these are going to have a big effect, but we can’t say with certainty which ones they’re going to be.”

They turned over some of the genes they suspect may be directly involved in killing nematodes to Joseph Kuhl, associate professor in the UI Department of Plant Sciences, who used biotechnology to introduce them into a red-skinned potato variety, Desiree, last summer. Desiree was chosen because it’s relatively easy to transform through genetic modification.

By first using genetic engineering to find the pathway through which litchi tomato protects itself, Caplan believes researchers may later be able to change gene expression to protect potatoes from nematodes through laboratory methods that aren’t considered to be genetic modifications.

Their work has been funded by several sources including the Idaho Potato Commission, the Northwest Potato Consortium and the federal Plant Protection Act.

Published in Catching Up with CALS

Largest grant in UI history to incentivize food producers 

University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences is set to receive up to $55 million – the largest award in the university’s history – to help Idaho farmers and ranchers combat climate change through agricultural practices. 

The award, from the USDA, is twice as large as any prior UI grant. In addition to supporting research on building cropping systems that are more resilient to climate change, the five-year grant stimulates the state’s economy by paying more than half of the funds directly to Idaho agricultural producers.

UI’s grant will directly benefit more than 100 Idaho farmers and ranchers. Research will focus on the state’s staple commodities, such as potatoes, beef, sugar, wheat, barley, hops and chickpeas. The grant will drive climate-smart practices on about 10% of Idaho’s active cropland, preventing the emission of up to 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year into the atmosphere. 

Food producers will be eligible for payments to try a host of climate-smart practices, such as raising crops primarily for soil health benefits, known as cover cropping, or reducing reliance on tillage, which helps soil hold carbon that would otherwise be released as carbon dioxide. 

—Excerpted from University of Idaho press release

Need pesticide credits?

Join the UI Extension Pesticide Safety Education Program for the 2022 Fall Recertification Webinar Series via Zoom (no account/camera needed). Each webinar is $10 per applicator. Completed webinars receive 1 Idaho Department of Agriculture pesticide credit.

Mark your calendar for the following webinar topics and their corresponding dates/times. All times are Mountain time:

Nov. 1 from 10-11 a.m.: Control of Commensal Rodents on Farms and Ranches in Idaho

Nov. 8 from 10-11 a.m.: Pesticide Labels: What to know for successful pesticide applications

Nov. 15 from 10-11 a.m.: Russian Olive Management

Nov. 29 from 10-11 a.m.: Using UI Extension Tools for Pest Management

Dec. 6 from 10-11 a.m.: Herbicide Resistant Weeds in Idaho

Dec. 13 from 10-11 a.m.: Recent Invasive Insects in Idaho 

Click here to register.

For more information, contact UI extension instructor Kimberly Tate at (208) 364-4581 or by email.

—Excerpted from University of Idaho Extension press release