USDA
Table of Contents
- Agricultural Research Service News and Events
- Animal Welfare Information Center News
- Avian Influenza (Bird Flu)
- West Nile Virus and Horses
- Economic Research Service News from the U.S. Department of Agriculture
- National Agricultural Statistics Service News
- National Agricultural Statistics Service's Daily Reports
- Top Stories from Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD) at USDA
- Top Stories from Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD) at USDA 2005
- World Agricultural Production News Feed from USDA, FAS-PECAD
USDA Agricultural Research Service
The United States Department of Agriculture- Techniques for Managing Cover Crops
Read the magazine story to find out more.
Rolling machines designed by ARS researchers may be the fastest way for farmers to prepare fields with cover crops for planting. Click the image for more information about it.
Managing Cover Crops with Rolling and Crimping Techniques
By Laura McGinnis
September 3, 2008Rolling hay, rye and other cover crops could be the fastest way for some farmers to prepare their fields for planting. That's thanks to rolling machines--developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists--that can quickly flatten mature, high-biomass cover crops such as rye.
Each roller consists of a long cylinder adorned with a series of thick, blunt, steel crimping bars, each about one-quarter-inch thick. As a standard tractor pulls the roller over the field, pressure from the bars flattens and damages the cover crop without cutting or uprooting it. Within three weeks, the rolled cover crop dries out, forming a mat of dead biomass into which farmers can plant cash crops.
Since 2001, ARS has been conducting research to find the best crimping roller design for conditions in the southeastern United States, and the benefits from this research are gaining recognition.
ARS scientists Ted Kornecki and Randy Raper and their colleagues at the agency's National Soil Dynamics Laboratory (NSDL) in Auburn, Ala., compared three different roller designs. The first roller has a traditional design with long, straight, horizontal bars. The second has diagonal bars that curve around the roller. The third has a smooth drum attached to a crimping bar that mashes the rye as the machine moves forward.
NSDL scientists, who developed the curved-bar and crimping roller designs, found that all three models killed enough rye--90 percent or more--to enable farmers to begin planting cash crops in the field within three weeks. The crimping-bar roller yielded the best results.
The scientists also found that the curved-bar and the crimping rollers provided smoother rides than the traditional straight-bar roller. Future studies will help scientists maximize the efficiency and comfort of these machines.
The one-pass process saves money, reduces soil erosion and runoff, helps control weeds, conserves water in the soil and decreases or eliminates the need for herbicides.
Read more about the research in the September 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- ARS Researchers Search for Casuarina Biological Control Agents
Read the magazine story to find out more.
Invasive Australian Pine, Casuarina equisetifolia. Photo courtesy of Forest & Kim Starr, U.S. Geological Survey, Bugwood.org.
ARS Researchers Search for Casuarina Biological Control Agents
By Alfredo Flores
September 2 , 2008Australia's Outback and remote coastlines are home to insects that could be key biocontrols for a highly invasive weed threatening coastal areas of the United States, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators.
ARS entomologist Greg Wheeler and his ARS and university colleagues are touring the Outback and Australia's coastal areas in search of biological control agents for the highly invasive Casuarina species commonly called Australian pine.
This weed is infiltrating U.S. coastal areas, especially in south Florida, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. Known for its rapid growth and dense coverage, Australian pine inhibits the growth of native plants.
The Australian pine problem includes three Casuarina species--C. equisetifolia (referred to in Australia as “coastal she-oak”), C. glauca (“swamp she-oak,” and arguably as big or a bigger problem than C. equisetifolia) and C. cunninghamiana (“river she-oak”).
In the past few years, the Australian members of the team--Matthew Purcell and Bradley Brown, researchers at the ARS Australian Biological Control Laboratory in Indooroopilly, Queensland, and Gary Taylor from the University of Adelaide, Australia--conducted five separate trips throughout Australia. Purcell, Brown, Taylor and John Gaskin, research leader of the ARS Pest Management Research Unit in Sidney, Mont., collectively comprise a Casuarina research team.
Wheeler served as the lead scientist for the project, coordinating the funding, surveys and plant-DNA testing. From a bounty of some 300 wasps, weevils, stem-borers, sap-suckers, seed-eaters and more, the scientists have narrowed the field of potential control agents to about 12 candidates.
Not only do these top candidates attack C. equisetifolia, but many also attack C. glauca and C. cunninghamiana. Among the top finds were the seed-feeding wasp Bootanelleus orientalis, which is host-specific to Australian pine, and the defoliator moth Zauclophora pelodes.
These insects are still undergoing testing by Purcell and colleagues in Australia to determine their suitability for use as biological control agents in the United States. Insects that decrease Casuarina reproduction and spread are being given the most attention.
Read more about the research in the September 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Diptera Database Developed
Mexican fruit flies are just one of the species in the order Diptera, one of the four largest groups of living organisms on Earth. Click the image for more information about it.
Database Documents Names for More Than 150,000 Diptera Species
By Ann Perry
August 29, 2008Distinguishing between insect pests and partners starts with an ironclad identification. So Agricultural Research Service (ARS) entomologist Chris Thompson headed up efforts to accurately identify and name almost 157,000 flies, gnats, maggots, midges, mosquitoes and related species in the order Diptera.
Diptera is one of the four largest groups of living organisms on Earth, and its members are critical components in virtually all non-marine ecosystems. Carl Linnaeus, who devised the scientific classification system still in use today, compiled the first index of Diptera species names in 1758. But even though an average of 800 new Diptera names are proposed every year, the nomenclature has not been comprehensively updated since 1805.
Thompson works at the ARS Systematic Entomology Laboratory in Washington, D.C. For this research, he partnered with Neal Evenhuis, an entomologist at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii; Thomas Pape, an entomologist at the Natural History Museum of Denmark; and Adrian Pont, an entomologist at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History in Oxford, England.
The group assembled the tenth edition of the Biosystematic Database of World Diptera (BDWD). This massive index contains nomenclature data for 156,599 living and extinct Diptera species in 154 families and 11,671 genera—around 10 percent of the known biodiversity in the world today.
The BDWD, which is available at www.diptera.org, has two components. The Nomenclator allows users to check names, confirm species status, and obtain information about type, family classification and sources for all names in the collection. The Species database is being designed to answer queries about different species, including their distribution, biological associates and economic importance.
The BDWD provides a framework for organizing and integrating current and future data that is accessible by researchers around the globe. Scientists can obtain a wealth of information that will help them fine-tune Diptera’s evolutionary tree and track the migration, increase and decline of economically-important Diptera species worldwide.
The team presented their research at the 20th International Congress of Zoology in Paris, France, in August.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Grain Moisture Measurements May Divert Mold, Insect Infestation
Monitoring carbon dioxide—along with the standard humidity and temperature—may help detect insect and mold problems more effectively. Photo courtesy of Microsoft Clipart.
Grain Moisture Measurements May Divert Mold, Insect Infestation
By Sharon Durham
August 28, 2008Grain storage bins are routinely monitored for temperature to control insect and mold problems. Now an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist and his colleagues at Kansas State University (KSU) have preliminary research findings showing that monitoring carbon dioxide--along with humidity and temperature--also may help detect problems more effectively.
Grain moisture content and temperature are the primary factors affecting grain deterioration in storage. If these factors are not properly monitored and controlled, grain quality can deteriorate quickly due to mold growth and insect infestation.
ARS engineer Paul Armstrong at the agency's Grain and Marketing and Production Research Center in Manhattan, Kan., and Haidee Gonzales and Ronaldo Maghirang at KSU monitored a simulated grain storage bin during aeration to determine if high-moisture grain, or adverse storage conditions, in the bin top could be detected using sensors to measure relative humidity, temperature and carbon dioxide levels.
Relative humidity and temperature can be used to estimate grain moisture, while carbon dioxide levels indicate the amount of respiration due, primarily, to molds. Current technology allows relative humidity and temperature sensors to be placed at multiple points within the grain mass. Carbon dioxide sensing is more feasible at an aeration duct.
In the study, sensors were placed at different depths in the bin. High-moisture grain-- comprising about 11 percent of the volume--was placed at the top of the bin and produced high amounts of carbon dioxide, which in most cases was easily detectable during aeration.
Lowering grain temperature with aeration diminished the amount of carbon dioxide produced, making it more difficult to detect unless the carbon dioxide sensor was located very close to the wet grain.
Relative humidity and temperature sensing gave good estimates of grain moisture for all conditions, but under some grain conditions, high carbon dioxide levels persisted for grain considered to be at safe moisture and temperature conditions. Combining relative humidity, temperature and carbon dioxide measurements gave reasonably accurate measurements of grain moisture content as well as overall storage conditions.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's scientific research agency.
- ARS Scientists Test MRI Device to Measure Body Fat in Piglets
A new device can more accurately and precisely measure total body fat, lean tissue mass, free water mass and total body water in piglets and may have future applications for human pediatric use. Click the image for more information about it.
ARS Scientists Test MRI Device to Measure Body Fat in Piglets
By Sharon Durham
August 27, 2008A new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based device--more advanced than the technology used today for body composition tests--can accurately and precisely measure total body fat in piglets using the principles of quantitative magnetic resonance (QMR), according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists who evaluated the new technology.
The new device, called EchoMRI, was tested by ARS researchers to measure not only total body fat, but lean tissue mass, free water mass and total body water in piglets. The research was done under a grant from the National Institutes of Health, which wants to know if the new technology could have future applications for human pediatric use.
Standard MRI systems are commonly used to scan and visualize tissue in humans. However, when used for body composition analysis, imaging systems are subject to substantial error rates caused by the interpretation of visual images using software that relies on population averages.
EchoMRI uses a new type of QMR methodology to obtain body composition results. Its measurement principle depends on the density of hydrogen nuclei and the physical state of the tissue.
ARS animal scientist Alva Mitchell at the Animal Biosciences and Biotechnology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., tested the device, developed by Echo Medical Systems, to determine EchoMRI's precision and accuracy in piglets as compared to dual x-ray (DXA) technology and chemical analysis.
Twenty-five piglets, each weighing between 3.5 pounds and 8 pounds, were screened live, anesthetized, and post-mortem, using a prototype EchoMRI device for infants. The piglets were also scanned using DXA and then subjected to chemical analysis.
After DXA scans, EchoMRI screenings, and chemical analyses were completed, EchoMRI was found to be a precise and accurate method suitable for measuring piglet whole body composition, total body fat, lean tissue mass, free water mass, and total body water. While these studies were conducted on piglets, EchoMRI may be transferable to market-weight pigs.
EchoMRI allows for measurements to be conducted in only a few minutes without anesthesia or sedation, is radiation-free, and does not require the subject to remain completely motionless. This facilitates convenient, low-stress repeated tracking of small changes in body composition and can be advantageous to researchers to optimize feed utilization. It could also help researchers identify high-value hogs for breeding.
ARS is a scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
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AWIC
- New AWIC Publication -- Information Resources on Reptiles
Animal Welfare Information Center announces a new publication -- Information Resources on Reptiles. http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/Reptiles/reptiles.shtml - New AWIC Publication -- Information Resources on Amphibians
Animal Welfare Information Center announces a new publication -- Information Resources on Amphibians. http://www.nal.usda.gov/awic/pubs/Amphibians/amphibians.shtml - PETA Video of Pig Abuse Triggers Investigation
CNN.com reports undercover PETA volunteers take video at farm http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/16/abused.pigs.ap/index.html - Why Iditarod Sled Dogs are Super Dogs
MSNBC.com reports -- Study: Athleticism of Alaskan huskies is superior to most other mammals. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26889282/ - Naked Mole-rats Deepen our Understanding of Pain
CORDIS.europa.eu reports naked mole-rats make contributions to science. http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&DOC=3&CAT=NEWS&QUERY=011ce36a34ff:0267:0382d49e&RCN=29169
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Avian Influenza
- FDA Clears New CDC Test to Detect Human Influenza
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today cleared a new test developed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to diagnose human influenza infections and the highly pathogenic influenza A (H5N1) viruses. http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2008pres/09/20080930a.html
- Climate Change Seen Aiding Spread of Deadly Diseases
Reuters reports - diseases ranging from avian flu to yellow fever are likely to spread more because of climate change, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society . http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081007/sc_nm/us_climate_health
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West Nile
- Bird Diversity Lessens Human Exposure to West Nile Virus
ScienceDaily.com reports biologists at Washington University in St. Louis conducted a study that shows the more diverse a bird population is in an area, the less chance humans have of exposure to West Nile virus. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081006180811.htm
- Third Kentucky Horse has West Nile Virus
TheHorse.com reports athird horse in Kentucky has been confirmed positive for West Nile virus. http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=12819
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USDA Economic Research Service - What's New
The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America- Latest U.S. Agricultural Trade Data
The latest U.S. agricultural trade data are now available from ERS. This new data product announces USDA's monthly release of calendar year, fiscal year, year-to-date, and monthly value of U.S. agricultural exports, imports, and trade balance. - RIDGE Project Summaries Database
The Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Innovation and Development Grants in Economics Program (RIDGE) summarizes research findings of projects that were awarded grants in a given year. This database allows users to obtain a customized list of RIDGE projects and summaries, and to search by keywords, project, research center, investigator, or year. The database has been updated to include the 2007 project summaries. - World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates
Issued monthly, WASDE provides the most current USDA forecasts of U.S. and world supply-use balances for major grains, soybeans and products, and cotton, and U.S. supply and use data for sugar and livestock products. - Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Understanding Food Deserts
Poor diets are associated with increases in obesity and chronic diseases, raising public concern that some areas, particularly low-income and rural communities, have become food deserts—areas with limited access to affordable and nutritious foods. This led Congress, in the 2008 Farm Bill, to request that the Department of Agriculture conduct a study of these areas. ERS will kick off this study by hosting a workshop on October 9, 2008 in Washington, DC. The Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Understanding Food Deserts workshop will bring together key stakeholders from program, policy, research, and advocacy communities to discuss how to conceptualize and measure food deserts, implications of food deserts for public health and food assistance programs, and programs and policies to help mitigate the impact of food deserts. A preliminary agenda is available. Attendance is free but registration is required due to limited space, so please register early. - Commodity Costs and Returns Data
USDA has estimated annual production costs and returns and published accounts for major field crop and livestock enterprises since 1975. Cost and return estimates are reported for the U.S. and major production regions for corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, peanuts, oats, barley, sugarbeets, tobacco, milk, hogs, and cow-calf. These cost and return accounts are historical accounts based on the actual costs incurred by producers during each year.
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USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service
National Agricultural Statistics Service provides timely, accurate, and useful statistics in service to U. S. agriculture.- USDA Forecasts Robust Corn and Soybean Crops, Despite Flooding
Despite June's severe flooding in the Midwest, U.S. farmers are on pace to produce the second largest corn crop and fourth largest soybean crop in history, according to the Crop Production report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). - Farm Production Expenditures Hit Record High in 2007, USDA Reports
The rising cost of fuel and other products helped drive U.S. farm production expenditures to a record $260 billion in 2007, according to the Farm Production Expenditures 2007 summary released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Total U.S. farm production expenditures rose 9.3 percent from 2006 and nearly 30 percent from 5 years ago. - USDA Report Assesses 2008 Corn and Soybean Acreage
Despite the recent flooding in the Midwest, U.S. farmers expect to harvest nearly 79 million acres of corn and more than 72 million acres of soybeans in 2008, according to the Acreage report released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). - Schafer Announces Clark as NASS Administrator
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced the selection of Cynthia Clark as administrator of the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
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USDA - National Agricultural Statistics Service Reports
National Agricultural Statistics Service provides timely, accurate, and useful statistics in service to U. S. agriculture.- Peanut Prices
Peanut prices received by farmers for all farmer stock peanuts averaged 20.1 cents per pound for the week ending October 4....
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Top Stories from Office of Global Analysis (OGA) at USDA
Global commodity production, area and yield estimates <br> for Grains, Oilseeds and Cotton.- MIDDLE EAST and CENTRAL ASIA: Continued Drought in 2009/10
The Middle East and Central Asia regions are currently in the grip of one of the worst droughts in recent history. Widespread failure of rain-fed grain crops occurred in 2008/09, as well as sizable declines in irrigated crop area and yield. Food grain production dropped to some of the lowest levels in decades, spurring governments to enact grain export bans and resulting in abnormally large region-wide grain imports. Should drought continue into the 2009/10 growing season which begins in October, even greater declines in grain production will occur as planted area for both rain-fed and irrigated crops will be severely restricted. A second year of severely reduced grain harvests would imply significantly increased regional grain import requirements as well as posing substantial threats to internal security in countries like Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Afghanistan is the most vulnerable, owing to its lack of financial resources for large-scale grain imports and lack of institutional expertise to plan and execute such imports. - Kenya: Below-Average Corn Output Expected
USDA's August forecast for Kenya's 2008/09 corn production is 2.55 million tons, down 0.4 million tons from last year and below the 5-year average of 2.7 million tons. Area is estimated at 1.6 million hectares, down 0.1 million hectares from last year due to insecurity caused by Post-Election Violence (PEV) from January-April this year. - July Crop Travel in Poland Revealed Good Conditions for Autumn Sown Crops
During early July members of USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) traveled through Poland meeting with various agriculture industry professionals, and toured farms, and assessed crop conditions. This report is a summary of the trip, including observations and photographs, and estimates from USDA's August World Agriculture Supply and Demand release. - Russia: Grain Production Prospects and Siberia Trip Report
Analysts from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) in Washington, with the U.S. agricultural attache in Moscow, conducted July crop-assessment travel in the Siberian District of Russia to assess 2008/09 wheat production prospects and other crop-production issues. - AFGHANISTAN: Severe Drought Causes Major Decline in 2008/09 Wheat Productio
Well-below normal rainfall and winter snowfall across the majority of Afghanistan during late 2007 and early 2008 have led to the worst drought conditions in the past 10 years. Widespread losses of rainfed wheat crops have been observed by international non-governmental organization (NGO) officials across the country's important northern and western growing regions, while the government of Afghanistan has also reported that irrigated crop yields have fallen significantly this year. Owing to the severity of current conditions and the breadth of areas impacted, wheat production in 2008/09 is forecast by USDA at 1.5 million tons, down 2.3 million or 60 percent from last year.
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Top Stories from Production Estimates and Crop Assessment Division (PECAD) at USDA
Global commodity production, area and yield estimates <br> for Grains, Oilseeds and Cotton.- Record 2005/06 Cotton Yields Expected for West African Franc Zone
The USDA December estimate of 2005/06 cotton production in West Africa's "Franc Zone" is 4.76 million bales, down 120,000 bales or 2 percent from last year's record harvest of 4.89 million bales. Area is estimated at 2.44 million hectares, down slightly from last year' s 2.61 million. Farmers planted less cotton than last year due largely to low world prices, but above-average rainfall this year is forecast to boost yields to a record of 425 kilograms of lint per hectare. - Europe: 2005/06 Corn Production Down in the EU, Up in the Balkans
USDA's December estimate for 2005/06 corn production in the European Union (EU) totals 46.9 million tons, down 6.4 million from last year. Although area was down 450,000 hectares from last season, the major factor affecting this year's crop was a severe but rather localized drought. The drought drastically lowered yields in two of the largest corn producing countries - France (the EU's largest) and Spain (typically ranked fourth). Meanwhile, abundant summer rain fell in Hungary, helping the EU's third largest corn producer to harvest another bumper crop, and slightly counteracting the large yield declines recorded in the Iberian Peninsula area. - Russia: Unfavorable Establishment Conditions for Winter Grains
Persistent fall dryness in Russia's key winter-grain production regions resulted in unfavorable establishment conditions for 2006/07 winter crops and likely contributed to a reduction in planted area. - Malaysia : Near Normal Rainfall Supports Palm Oil Output
Malaysia's national average rainfall in the third quarter of 2005 was slightly above normal. From July to September it was 214 millimeters per month compared to a normal of 200 millimeters. This level of rainfall is favorable for production that will occur in the second quarter of 2006. During the last 10 quarters, 6 quarters had below normal rainfall and 4 quarters above normal rainfall. Overall, this is expected to be moderately detrimental to palm oil yields for the next six quarters. The delayed effect of rainfall will be slightly positive from October 2005 to June 2006, and slightly negative from July 2006 to March 2007. - North Korea Grain Situation for 2005/06
The USDA estimates North Korea total grain production (including corn, milled rice, wheat, and barley) at 3.64 million tons, up 150,000 tons or 4 percent from last year and the largest crop since 1994/95. The total output is comprised chiefly of nearly equal parts corn and rice, although the proportion of corn has dropped over the past 15 years due to a decline in area.
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World Agricultural Production News Feed from USDA, FAS-OGA
World Agricultural Production (WAP) reports are prepared by the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), Office of Global Analysis (OGA).<br> The reports are based on information compiled from the FAS global network of agricultural attachés and counselors,<br> official statistics of foreign governments, other foreign data sources,<br> satellite imagery, and economic analyses.<br>- World Agricultural Production - September 2008
Circular Series<br>WAP 09-08<br>September 2008 - World Agricultural Production - Archive
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