Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station

Governor Lauds New Michigan State-Michigan Tech Biofuels Partnership

trees First they went to Sweden together with the governor. Now Michigan State University and Michigan Technological University are teaming up to further support the developing renewable fuels industry in the state.

"Finding alternative sources of energy and fuel is going to be critical for our nation and can mean thousands of jobs for Michigan citizens," said Gov. Jennifer Granholm. "Our state has the assets to be a leader in this sector, and we are looking to our universities to provide the knowledge to get us there. I'm delighted Michigan State and Michigan Tech are going to be working together on research to refine fuel from forest products."

Both universities have strong biofuel programs. That expertise will be combined to create new collaborative research, outreach and economic development programs centered on fuels and energy made from forest biomass. The programs will be overseen by an eight-member Renewable Fuels Working Group made up of four scientists from each university.

"Michigan State is delighted to collaborate with our colleagues at Michigan Tech to help create a bioeconomy that is based on the state’s vast forest resources," said Steve Pueppke, director of the MSU Office of Biobased Technologies and director of the MAES. "This is the logical way to move forward, and Michigan Tech is our logical partner. We are looking forward to creating much deeper working relationships with Michigan Tech and providing services to alternative energy companies."

"We're very excited about this agreement," said David Reed, Michigan Tech vice president for research. "It's particularly significant that two of Michigan's leading research universities are cooperating with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation on a project supporting the economic development of this emerging industry within the state."

Members of the Renewable Fuels Working Group from Michigan Tech are: Margaret Gale, dean of the School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science; Jeffrey Naber, associate professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics; David Shonnard, professor of chemical engineering; and Barry Solomon, professor of social sciences. From Michigan State: Kyung-Hwan Han, associate professor of forestry; Daniel Keathley, chairperson of the Forestry Department; Ray Miller, research forester and Upper Peninsula forest properties manager based at the U.P. Tree Improvement Center; and Chris Saffron, assistant professor of biosystems and agricultural engineering. Miller and Shonnard will serve as co-chairs of the group.

Pueppke, Reed, Miller and Shonnard also were among the contingent that traveled to Sweden with Gov. Jennifer Granholm and members of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation in August. During the visit, Chemrec AB, a Swedish company, and the NewPage Corporation, which operates a paper mill in Escanaba, signed a memorandum of understanding to explore developing a plant to produce fuels from woody biomass at the Escanaba plant. At the signing ceremony, Granholm emphasized the importance of university support for the success of the project.

"This is a superb opportunity for us to come together and determine what Michigan needs in terms of university research, workforce education and outreach to jump-start the state's emerging forest bioeconomy," Shonnard said.

"Michigan State and Michigan Tech are natural partners in this arena," said Ian Gray, MSU vice president for research and graduate studies. "The working group will identify areas where we need more knowledge and then conduct the research to create the knowledge that will lead to renewable fuel industry development in Michigan."

For more information on the Sweden trip, visit the Special Report

CSI Pulls Graveyard Shift on Campus with Forensic Entomologist

Rich Merritt When a film crew from a major TV series comes to campus, it’s easy to envision glitz and glamour.

Unless it’s “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – Las Vegas.” Then glitz and glamour give way to stench and rotting flesh – in the name of science.

Department of Entomology chairperson Rich Merritt is a real CSI guy. As part of the MSU forensic science program, he is one of a handful of board-certified forensic pathologists who use their knowledge of insects at crime scenes to provide evidence.

On Nov. 5, a film crew developing a feature on real-life forensic entomology for the DVD of the CSI series’ eighth season came to film and interview Merritt and his students in the classroom and in the field.

The field for Merritt’s lab is also lyrically called the pig graveyard. Pig carcasses scattered outdoors become laboratories for students learning to understand the life cycles of insects that can help pinpoint time of death.

Merritt’s creed: "Bugs don’t lie."

The season compilation will be available in about a year.

MSU Agricultural, Forestry and Wildlife Faculty Members Rated Among Most Productive in Nation

MSU agronomy and crop sciences faculty members were ranked No. 1 in the country in scholarly productivity during 2006-07, according to a report in the Nov. 16 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Soil science faculty members were ranked third, horticulture faculty members fourth and agricultural economics faculty members sixth. Forestry/forestry science faculty members were ranked third and wildlife science faculty members ranked fifth. The report evaluated faculty members at 372 research universities that grant doctoral degrees.

"It's gratifying to see MSU agricultural faculty members ranked so highly," said Steve Pueppke, MAES director. "Publication and citation analysis is accepted as an objective measure of scientific quality. This ranking gives us some numbers to support what we on campus know to be true -- MSU has outstanding agricultural programs."

The rankings take into account the number of faculty members in each discipline and are based on the number of books and journal articles published and the number of times the books and articles were cited by other scientists, as well as the awards, honors and grant funding the faculty members received. The scholarly productivity index is compiled by Academic Analytics, a for-profit company partially owned by the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

To see Michigan State's rankings, visit the Chronicle of Higher Education's index site.

Eighty-five percent of the 34 MSU faculty members in agronomy and crop science were published in scientific journals in 2006-07, according to the index. The average was more than five publications per faculty member. Almost 75 percent of the faculty members who had journal publications were cited by other scholarly articles at a rate of more than 42 citations per faculty member and almost seven citations per paper.

In soil science, MSU ranked third behind the University of California-Davis, which was ranked No. 1 and 2. (Institutions could be listed twice if the discipline is affiliated with more than one department.) MSU ranked third in forestry/forest resources behind Michigan Tech and Yale. MSU ranked fourth in horticulture behind the University of Florida, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of California-Davis. MSU ranked fifth in wildlife science behind Oregon State, Texas A&M, the University of Minnesota and the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. MSU ranked sixth in agricultural economics behind Iowa State, the University of California-Davis, the University of California-Berkeley, Texas A&M and Ohio State.

Organic Apple Orchards May Be Hog Heaven

pig eating apple Casting pearls before swine may be a waste of time, but dropping apples in front of pigs may be beneficial for organic apple orchards.

Jim Koan, owner of AlMar Orchards in Flushing, has been working with MSU researchers to see if allowing hogs to graze on dropped apples can help control plum curculio, an orchard pest. The first year of the project has revealed that hogs may offer a variety of advantages to an organic orchard.

"Plum curculio comes into an orchard in the spring and lays eggs in the fruit, and the resulting worms, or larvae, develop in the apples, causing many to drop off the tree in mid-June or July," said David Epstein, tree fruit specialist with the MSU Integrated Pest Management Program. "The larvae exit the apple and tunnel into the soil before emerging as adults to start a summer generation.

"What the hogs do is interrupt that cycle," he continued. "If timed properly, they eat those dropped apples before the larvae have a chance to go into the soil and develop into adults."

Koan brought three 150-pound Berkshire hogs (two sows, one boar) into the orchard. Of 30 piglets farrowed, 27 survived.

For three weeks in June, scientists counted the apples that fell to the orchard floor. Then the pigs were kept in part of the orchard to feed for two to three days. The apples then were counted again to see how many the pigs left behind. The hogs were very thorough -- the researchers found very few apples.

"Eighty to 90 percent of their food was apples, supplemented with organic corn," Koan said. "They loved the June drops -- the piglets liked them best. The hogs would lie around while the piglets would scurry from tree to tree as one group to feed."

The area of the orchard that wasn't part of the hogs' buffet had five times the curculio damage as the grazed areas. The hogs' rooting around the apple trees also saved Koan from having to rototill around each tree to suppress weeds in the grazed organic orchard. The pigs will be grazed through the orchard once again this winter.

Dale Rozeboom, associate professor of animal science, monitored the hogs' reproduction, health and nutrition for the project. One of the major challenges with an apple diet is making sure the animals get enough protein.

"The pigs born last spring are not up to market weight yet, likely a result of plenty of exercise. Otherwise they seem to be very healthy," Rozeboom said. "We’ve only observed light numbers of parasites in collected fecal samples."

In a controlled experiment conducted at MSU, Rozeboom fed plum curculio larvae to 3-month-old pigs and collected and washed all feces to confirm that ingestion by pigs was lethal to the larvae. Of more than 250 larvae fed over a six-day period, no live plum curculio and only the remains of one dead larva were found.

"This was an encouraging first year for the project," Epstein said. "One of the issues we want to look at further is the optimal number of pigs needed per acre to control plum curculio."

As the project continues, Rozeboom will be looking at pork production-related factors, such as the types of supplements necessary for adequate weight gain and pork quality.

The research is funded through a grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Integrated Organic Program.

Hanson Named FSLI Fellow

Steve Hanson, chairperson of the Department of Agricultural Economics, was named one of 23 Food Systems Leadership Institute (FSLI) fellows in November.

The 2-year program is designed for experienced leaders in the food system and offers leadership development experiences that focus on personal leadership skills, leadership for organizational change and broadening food systems perspectives.

"The notion of a food system is a break from an overly simplified model of agricultural production-processing-distribution," said Ken Swartzel, director of the FSLI program. "The food system includes a wide array of stakeholders, from producers to consumers, and taking a 'systems' approach acknowledges the need to broaden our thinking on the relationships of food and food production to health and nutrition, environmental quality, natural resources, rural communities, globalization, and a host of emerging issues surrounding these and other topics."

The FSLI was formed through a partnership between the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. North Carolina State University operates the FSLI, along with partners at Ohio State University and the University of Vermont. Each of the three universities will host residential sessions for the fellows.

Research May Help Sugar Beet Growers Reap Sweeter Future

The percentage of genetically modified crops grown in Michigan is on the rise, and that includes sugar beets. Michigan growers will begin planting Roundup Ready sugar beets, which can be sprayed with a non-selective herbicide without injury, in 2008.

Christy Sprague, MAES crop and soil scientist, is researching growing sugar beets in narrow rows as a way to manage weeds and increase yield. Her findings will give Roundup Ready sugar beet growers recommendations for timing herbicide applications, effective weed control and maximum yield.

Weed control in sugar beets is critical, Sprague pointed out. In MSU trials, lack of weed control reduced sugar beet yields by 30 to 100 percent.

"Using herbicide in combination with the Roundup Ready crops will provide good control over weeds," Sprague said. "We want to come up with effective weed management options that all sugar beet growers can use."

Sprague's research goal is to reduce the number of weeds that grow in sugar beet fields by growing the beets in narrower rows, which will make them more competitive with weeds. The narrower rows allow sugar beet leaves to be closer together, preventing sunlight from reaching the ground and so reducing weed seed germination, Sprague explained.

Sprague also wants to increase yield by growing more sugar beets per acre while maintaining crop quality. She plans to study the effects on sugar beet yield and quality of various planting rates.

"We want to see if adding a few more plants can maximize yield in the field," Sprague said. "We also want to make sure that we would be producing more sugar in the beets. Even if the beets are heavy, their sugar content may still be low."

Most Michigan growers plant sugar beets in 30-inch rows to allow space for cultivation between the rows throughout the season. Roundup Ready sugar beets need less cultivation, so narrower row spacing may be possible. Sprague is studying the differences between row widths of 30, 20 and 15 inches.

Growers will be able to learn more about Sprague’s research findings and how they can implement the resulting recommendations in the 2008 crop at Extension grower meetings this winter. Sprague also plans to incorporate the information into future MSU weed control guides.