Soil & Crop Sciences Honored at Annual ASA Meetings

Nora L. Lapitan-American Society of Agronomy Fellow

Nora L. Lapitan is a professor and geneticist in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, and the Cell and Molecular Biology Program at Colorado State University. She received a B.S. from University of the Philippines and M.S. and Ph.D. from Kansas State University. Her program focuses on the application of genomics to improvement of cereal crops. She is a CSSA Fellow, has served as associate editor for Crop Science and has been active in CSSA, Entomological Society of America, and Plant and Animal Genome Conferences.

Eugene F. Kelly-Soil Science Society of America Fellow

Eugene F. (Gene) Kelly is a professor of Pedology in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and associate director for research in the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University. Dr. Kelly received a B.S. and M.S. from Colorado State University and a Ph.D. from University of California-Berkeley. His program focuses mainly on Pedology and biogeochemistry. He serves as an associate editor for Geoderma, and is active in the Ecological and Geological Societies of America.

Austin Case-CSSA Golden Opportunity Scholar

Austin Case is an undergraduate at Colorado State University majoring in soil and crop sciences, with a concentration in plant biotechnology, genetics, and breeding. Case has been an active member of the Agronomy Club and is currently serving as the organization’s treasurer. He plans to attend graduate school for plant breeding and genetics and hopes to research crop improvement methods.

 

Kendall DeJonge-Division S-6 Graduate Student Award
(Soil and Water Management and Conservation)

The S-6 Graduate Student Award is presented each year to a graduate student whose thesis research and graduate responsibilities utilize creative approaches to gain understanding and develop solutions for soil and water conservation and management problems. This year, Kendall DeJonge, was selected from a group of eight other excellent candidates.

CSU Department of Soil and Crop Sciences Celebrates its Centennial Year

The Colorado State University Soil and Crop Sciences Department celebrated its 100th anniversary Sept. 11 & 12, 2009. The commemorative weekend included events honoring the past, celebrating the present, and envisioning the future of the Soil and Crop Sciences Department.

In 1879, the Colorado Agricultural College was founded with a four-member faculty. With federal monetary assistance, the “Aggies” continued to grow and the Department of Agronomy, currently known as the Department of Soil and Crops Sciences, was founded in 1909. Alvin Keyser became the first department head in 1909 and served in this capacity for 36 years. Since then, the Department has been managed by seven heads and is currently headed by Gary A. Peterson. Today the Department has 24 research, teaching and extension faculty on campus and at four branch Experiment Stations plus 28 research associates and 40 graduate students.

CSU Sign an International MoU with PAU, India

Colorado State University, College of Agricultural Sciences took another giant step towards globalization of the CSU campus by signing an International Memorandum of Understanding with Punjab Agricultural University, (PAU) India. PAU is one the leading agricultural university in India and is similar to land-grant universities in the US.

“The state of Punjab that occupy only 1.5% of the nation’s geographical area accounts for 22% of wheat production, 11% of rice production and 10% of the total cotton production in India, that is where the green revolution was started in India by Noble Laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug” said Dr. Manjit S. Kang, Vice-Chancellor of PAU during the IMoU signing ceremony at the Provost Office in CSU on September 29, 2009.

USDA Grant Expands CSU Graduate Assistantships for Alternative Energy

CSU has just received a four-year USDA-AFRI training grant to fund four Master’s student assistantships in biofuels development. The grant period is from November 1, 2009-October 31, 2013.

Principle Investigator Dr. Catherine Keske (pictured), assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, states that this grant reinforces CSU’s national reputation as a leader in training students for careers in alternative energy. The training program will emphasize four areas: agronomy, crop genetics, engineering, and policy/economics. The training program will focus on training students to solve problems related to delivering oilseed-based biofuels to market, and students will be exposed to several experiential learning activities outside of the laboratory.

New Wheat Variety Released by CSU named after Colorado ‘14er’

A new high-yielding variety of hard white winter wheat developed by the Colorado State University Agricultural Experiment Station has been released to the Colorado Wheat Research Foundation, or CWRF. Named “Snowmass” in honor of one of Colorado’s 54 ‘14ers’ (mountains more than 14,000 feet in elevation), the new variety has shown high yields in Colorado and overall disease resistance.

Superior mixing and baking characteristics
Snowmass also demonstrated such superior mixing and baking quality characteristics that it was accepted into the CWRF Ultragrain Premium Program with ConAgra Mills. This program will pay producers a premium of 30 cents per bushel over the market price for the 2010 crop, plus a protein premium of up to 40 cents based on the protein content of the wheat. Snowmass is the second CSU-developed wheat to be accepted into the program. Thunder CL, released in 2009, was the first.

Soil and Water Conservation Society Awards

Several members of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences were recipients of the Fellow Award from the Soil and Water Conservation Society’s 2009 Awards Program. The designation of Fellow is conferred on society members who have performed exceptional service in advocating the conservation of soil, water, and related natural resources. This award is given first and foremost for professional excellence. Professional achievement may be in practicing, investigating, administering, or teaching soil and water conservation or closely related fields. Only society members with at least 10 years of membership are eligible.

The recipients are:

Jessica G. Davis – Jessica Davis has spent much of her career helping livestock producers manage manure as a resource to improve soil quality while protecting water quality. Her research and extension efforts have been targeted toward solving real-world resource problems in practical ways. Dr. Davis has been very active and effective in service and leadership within Colorado State University, the state of Colorado, much of the Great Plains and the Latin American countries of Argentina, Uruguay and Guatemala. Dr. Davis has been active within the Soil and Water Conservation Society by serving as a Director of the Board of Directors of the Colorado Chapter, as well as making presentations at SWCS functions in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and SWCS International annual meetings.

News from the Agricultural Experiment Station

Dr. Abdel Berrada, Research Scientist and manager of the Southwestern Colorado Research Center, recently completed a Fulbright research grant to assess drip irrigation in Morocco. Faced with chronic water shortages, the government of Morocco put forth an ambitious plan to equip 700,000 ha or 50 percent of the total irrigated land in Morocco with drip irrigation by the year 2022. Most of this acreage would be achieved by converting from inefficient flood irrigation methods to drip irrigation. The main tool used to encourage growers to adopt drip irrigation is a government subsidy that covers 60 percent of the total initial investment cost. Approximately 163,000 ha were equipped with drip irrigation at the end of 2008. Most of this acreage belonged to medium or large land owners and most of it was in horticultural crops, particularly fruit trees.

Governor Brian Schweitzer receives the College of Agricultural Sciences Honor Alumnus Award

Montana’s Governor Brian Schweitzer will receive the College of Agricultural Sciences Honor Alumnus award. Schweitzer was elected as Montana’s 23rd governor in 2004. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in International Agronomy from Colorado State University and later earned a Master of Science degree in Soil Science from Montana State University. Schweitzer’s business and agricultural experience is broad and deep, including extensive farming and ranching experience in Montana, and successful agricultural business projects on five continents. He began a career of irrigation development that took him to Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. In 1993, Schweitzer was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to serve on the Montana State USDA Farm Service Agency committee. He served for seven years with the FSA, and his three-person committee was responsible for the operation of 46 county offices, 300 employees and a budget of more than $300 million.

Dr. Mary Stromberger in Ireland as Fulbright Scholar

Dr. Mary Stromberger, Associate Professor of Soil Microbiology, is spending six months in Dublin, Ireland, as a Fulbright Scholar, from January – June. Mary studies soil microbial community structure and activity in managed ecosystems, including working lands. At CSU, she recently studied the response of soil microbial communities to limited irrigation or biosolids land application, the effects of forest fuel thinning and chipping on soil carbon and microbial communities, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal diversity in rangelands populated with native or invasive plant species. Mary also teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in soil ecology, soil microbiology, and environmental soil science.

Borlaug Fellows visit from West Africa

CSU received its first two Borlaug Fellows from West Africa on September 28, 2008. Kayode Ezekiel Ogunsola (Ezekiel) arrived from Nigeria and Sanagnon Claude Gervais Assogba (Claude) arrived from Benin. Through coordination between the Dean of Academic Affairs (Dr. Nancy Irlbeck) for the College of Agricultural Sciences and the Program Coordinator (Addy Elliott) for the Interdisciplinary Program in Organic Agriculture, a timeline of activities and lectures was developed for each of the Fellows. More specifically, the CSU program focused on organic certification guidelines and regulations at both the state and federal level. Both Fellows participated in many activities together while opportunities to learn about their personal research interests were also provided individually.