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Louisiana Agriculture Magazine Winter 2005
The Mexican rice borer was first detected in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in 1980. The insect caused yield reductions in sugarcane of up to 50 percent before the end of that year and now represents more than 95 percent of the sugarcane stalk borer population in the valley.
Most greenhouse tomato operations in the southern United States are small. These growers have to hold down production costs to compete well in a market dominated by more efficient, larger operations. One way they do this is to reuse the root medium (perlite) for growing the greenhouse tomato plants.
Listeria monocytogenes is a bacterium that can cause illness when consumers eat refrigerated, ready-to-eat foods contaminated with this micro-organism. Eating foods contaminated with L. monocytogenes normally causes flu-like symptoms in healthy adults.
The flower structure of most commercial tomato cultivars assures self-pollination and virtually eliminates the opportunity for outcrossing.
Research has found a consistent sorghum yield response to row widths narrower than 40 inches, particularly on alluvial soils. On Macon Ridge soils, narrow rows tend to yield better than wider rows in years with adequate rainfall, while wider rows are superior to narrow row widths in rain-deficient years.
Research has found a consistent sorghum yield response to row widths narrower than 40 inches, particularly on alluvial soils. On Macon Ridge soils, narrow rows tend to yield better than wider rows in years with adequate rainfall, while wider rows are superior to narrow row widths in rain-deficient years.
Bedding plants are widely used in landscaping or in containers. Two-thirds of the value of U.S. floriculture production in 2002 consisted of bedding plants. Salvias have been one of the most common bedding plants used in landscaping and as a pot plant.
Southern yellow pine (SYP) has for many years provided the homebuilding industry with abundant, cost-competitive wood products. Recent research indicates that softwood lumber, including SYP, continues to lose market share in the U.S. residential construction industry to substitute products such as concrete, steel and plastic and that builders remain concerned about softwood lumber quality and price.
The following news articles appeared in the winter 2005 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.
The top research awards presented during the 2004 LSU AgCenter Annual Conference.
The Mexican rice borer has been the major economic pest in Texas sugarcane since it became established in 1980, quickly surpassing that same year the sugarcane borer in economic importance. Even though the insect has not yet been found in Louisiana, scientists from both states and from the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working together to conduct research on the areawide population dynamics of the Mexican rice borer and to develop cultural and production practices to reduce its spread.
Boris Castro, LSU AgCenter entomologist, has discovered a new pest of rice – a tiny fly.
Current technologies for the prevention and treatment of cancer are far from being effective at safe, non-toxic doses. Standard chemotherapeutic drugs are all designed to be toxic, harming cancerous and healthy tissues to varying degrees. Targeted therapies such as angiogenic inhibitors directed toward specific receptors or growth-factor pathways offer hope in managing cancer.
Plant pathology researcher, Ray Schneider, discovered the presence of a soybean disease new to this country at the perfect time, so the agricultural industry could gear up to prevent potentially catastrophic losses.
LSU AgCenter researchers are assisting a humanitarian group with a genetically engineered product known as“golden” rice that could help reduce malnutrition.
LSU AgCenter scientists are launching a series of research projects in 2005 to learn what they can about Asian soybean rust and how this potentially devastating disease will develop in Louisiana.
Because of the significant impact of Hurricane Mitch in October 1998 on the entire agricultural sector in Honduras,representatives of the LSU AgCenter contacted Honduran President Carlos Flores to offer assistance to and collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
During the winter of 1999, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry (LDAF) entered into a compliance agreement with the Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) concerning a pheromone trapping protocol that would allow sugarcane produced in Southeast Texas to be transported to mills in Louisiana for processing.
Charles R. Looney, president andfounder of OvaGenix of Bryan, Texas, has established a graduate assistantship in theDepartment of Animal Sciences. The first recipient is Casey Ballard from Atlanta,Texas, who began his program of study fall semester 2004.
The LSU AgCenter will have a $1 million endowed chair in cotton production as the result of industry donations honoring a man who was a driving force in Louisiana cotton production.
How the Asian soybean rust discovery in Louisiana will affect the agricultural outlook for the state in 2005 is difficult to predict.
