K-State teams with Canadian university to apply gene editing technology for improving wheat

Kansas State University and the University of Saskatchewan in Canada will be working together to improve the productivity and nutrition of wheat. (File photo) Groups will cooperate on $650K grant from National Institute of Food and Agriculture MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State University officials say a $650,000 grant from the USDA”s National Institute of Food and Agriculture has spurred a partnership with a Canadian university to improve wheat using genome editing technology. Eduard Akhunov, a…

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K-State unveils Wheat Variety Disease and Insect Ratings 2020

Kansas State University has just unveiled its new Wheat Variety Disease and Insect Ratings 2020 publication Ratings are a tool to help with wheat variety selection MANHATTAN, Kan. — One of the most important decisions wheat growers make each year is deciding what varieties to plant. Some have greater resistance to certain diseases than others. Some yield well despite pressure from some pests and diseases. So gathering information about how different varieties have performed…

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11 Forage Cultivars That Grow Well on the Great Plains

By Malay Saha, Ph.D., Professorand Mike Trammell, Senior Plant Breeder A cultivar, also known as a crop variety, is a collection of plants with specific desirable characteristics that are maintained throughout generations. The goal of any breeding program is to develop improved cultivars for the growers. Noble Research Institute has been involved in developing superior cultivars of different forage species for grazing in the Great Plains. Noble established its forage breeding program in the early…

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Fall garden planning should start now

By Trisha Gedon STILLWATER, Okla. – With triple digit heat across the state, many Oklahomans are looking forward to fall and cooler weather. Although there will be several more weeks of intense heat, gardening enthusiasts can get a jumpstart on fall by planning their fall gardens now. July through September is the optimal time to begin planting several vegetable varieties in order to have a bountiful fall harvest, said David Hillock, Oklahoma State University…

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Double-crop weed management made easy

By Donald Stotts STILLWATER, Okla. – Size matters when it comes to many postemergence herbicides and effective weed control in double-cropping systems, Oklahoma State University experts said. “Once weeds become too large or crops reach particular growth stages, many weed control options are no longer viable as they may injure the crop or will not completely control target weeds,” said Misha Manuchehri, OSU Extension small grains and canola weed specialist. For example, when using a…

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Taking the heat: K-State leads effort to develop heat stress-resilient soybeans

New USDA-NIFA award provides funding to 2023 MANHATTAN, Kan. – On a recent summer morning, a team of students and scientists worked quietly, row by row in a research field, thinning soybean seedling plants by hand and saving the strongest to establish a uniform plant population for varieties to be grown in a new research project. The team, led by Kansas State University agronomy professor and soybean breeder Bill Schapaugh, is just starting…

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K-State chosen as hub for improving U.S. winter wheat

University will lead $1M project to improve winter wheat varieties MANHATTAN, Kan. – The USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture has selected Kansas State University to serve as a center for efforts to improve U.S. winter wheat varieties. The university received $1 million to establish the International Wheat Yield Partnership’s (IWYP) Winter Wheat Breeding Innovation Hub. K-State will lead the effort to evaluate research findings from several IWYP projects that contribute to…

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Oats as a late summer forage crop

Jason Hartschuh and Al Gahler, OSU Extension AgNR Educators (originallypublished in The Ohio Farmer) Fungicide application significantly reduced the presence of rust. Oats is traditionally planted as the first crop in early April as a grain crop or an early season forage. One of the beauties of oats is its versatility in planting date. Oats can also be planted in the summer as an early fall forage for harvest or grazing. Summer oats…

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Researchers seeking input about weed challenges for Kansas farmers

‘Help us to help you’ by completing survey, scientist says HAYS, Kan. – Every year Kansas farmers wage a silent but persistent battle with weeds that rob their crops of valuable moisture and nutrients in the soil and reduce crop yields. Compounding the problem is the fact that even as herbicides are developed to combat them, some weeds develop resistance to the herbicide, which then becomes less effective over time. At stake are…

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Hays research center to release new hard red wheat

Variety improves disease resistance of previous western Kansas lines HAYS, Kan. – A researcher at the Agricultural Research Center in Hays has taken a good thing and made it even better. Wheat scientist Guorong Zhang announced in early June that he is ready to release a hard red winter wheat variety that is suited for the drier, western Kansas climate. The new variety does not yet have a name, but it builds off…

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