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| Weekly News 2001 |
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October 22-26, 2001. Rick Lentz, Bob Sojka, Jim Entry, Gary Lehrsch, Dale Westermann, Jim Wright and Hank Mayland will attend and participate by presenting oral or poster presentations at the annual American Society of Agronomy meetings in Charlotte, NC. (KIM2001.1011N1)
October 29-30, 2001. Rick Lentz and Bob Sojka will attend a meeting at Chemtall, Inc., the only major polyacrylamide manufacturer in the U.S. Lentz and Sojka will present brief seminars on recent work using polyacrylamide for erosion control, runoff water quality protection, and water management in irrigated agriculture. Scientists from the ARS research unit in Florence, SC, are also expected to attend the two-day informal meeting. Chemtall representatives will provide an update on state-of-the-art polymer production, safety, environmental and applications technology as well as a tour of the Chemtall manufacturing facility. The meeting will provide opportunities for the ARS scientists to explore possible new polymer applications in their work and develop dialogues with Chemtall scientists which could lead to future cooperative research ventures. Chemtall is a wholly owned subsidiary of SNF Floerger, the world's largest polyacrylamide manufacturer. (KIM2001.1011N2)
November 1, 2001. Dale Westermann, Bob Sojka, Dave Bjorneberg, and Rick Lentz will attend a meeting with the Idaho Department of Agriculture on Best Management Practices (BMP) Technical Committee, where the discussion will focus on phosphorus effluent trading. In this program, municipal and industrial groups will be able to pay farmers to reduce their agricultural P contributions to U.S. waterways instead of incurring the greater expense of having to reduce municipal and industrial effluent contributions. The committee must quantify P-effluent reductions resulting from the use of various BMPs. (KIM2001.1011N3)
September 24, 2001. Hank Mayland met with collaborator, Dr. Hussein Hussein, College of Veterinary Science, University of Nevada Reno. Hank was shown the newly equipped laboratory and discussed current and extended research opportunities on PM- vs AM-cut alfalfa hay. (KIM2001.0927N1)
August 28-September 5, 2001. Ben Turner attended two meetings during a trip to the United Kingdom. Ben presented an invited review paper at the International Phosphorus Transfer Workshop, held in Plymouth, entitled •Alchemy within Agriculture: Current perspectives on phosphorus solubilisation,' co-authored by Dr. Richard McDowell, AgResearch Invermay, New Zealand. The workshop was the third such meeting on the problem of agricultural phosphorus pollution and was attended by over 150 delegates from around the world, reflecting the current global interest in this problem. Dr. Turner also co-authored a paper with Drs. Dale Westermann, Dave Bjorneberg and Kris Aase, entitled •Phosphorus release kinetics as affected by aqueous solutions,' and was a Reporter for the workshop theme of •Phosphorus sources and release mechanisms,' which involved synthesizing the conclusions and questions raised on this topic during the workshop and presenting these on the final workshop day. Dr. Turner will be co-editing the book arising from the workshop. Dr. Turner also attended the annual meeting of the British Soil Science Society, held in the cathedral city of Durham, northern England. He presented a paper entitled •Phosphorus limitation in the northern Pennines, UK,' co-authored with Professor Brian Whitton and Dr. Robert Baxter, both from the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Durham. (KIM2001.0920N1)
September 18, 2001. April Leytem, ARS Soil Chemist, and Dale Westermann visited the Jerome County NRCS office and toured the dairy lagoon poplar projects with Maureen Boling, Soil Conservationist. The plantings were installed to screen the dairy facilities from public viewing and to aid in the disposal of their lagoon waters. Information is needed to adequately irrigate these plants with water containing dissolved salts, nutrients and carbon compounds without environmental consequences. (KIM2001.0920N2)
September 19, 2001. Dale Westermann met with Gary Wagner, President of Natural Aeration, a company from Spokane, WA, who makes and sells aerators for ponds receiving waste products. Natural Aeration's approach is to manage waste products as resource products. This approach will largely eliminate environmental problems with nutrient imbalances, odors, and biological components associated with these products. (KIM2001.0920N3)
August 29-30, 2001. Dale Westermann, Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory, and Jim Wood and Ralph Fisher, Idaho NRCS personnel, visited Ken Beckman, NRCS District Conservationist for the Yellowstone Soil Conservation District (SCD) concerning ground water quality issues around St. Anthony and Ashton in eastern Idaho. The Yellowstone SCD is conducting a 319 study project to evaluate agricultural factors potentially responsible for increasing nitrate concentrations in the region's wells. Both irrigated and dryland farms are present that produce seed and commercial potatoes, malting barley, spring cereals and forages. Animal densities are low. (KIM2001.0906N1)
August 22, 2001. Martha Steinbock, ARS-Pacific West Area Technology Transfer Specialist from Albany, CA, visited the Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory. While at the laboratory, she gave a short informal seminar on the services that her office provides to help get scientist's research results adopted by the public. In addition, each scientist discussed their current research and technology transfer activities with her. (KIM2001.0906N2)
August 22, 2001. Rick Lentz met with staff from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation in Grand Junction, CO, to help prepare a research plan for a project that will examine the impact of polyacrylamide (PAM) irrigation canal sealant on irrigation and return flow water quality. PAM can potentially be used to inexpensively seal canal perimeters, which conserves water and decreases salt contamination of natural surface streams. Selenium contamination is a particular concern for many western states. (KIM2001.0823N1)
July 29-August 1, 2001. Dave Bjorneberg attended the 2001 ASAE Annual International Meeting in Sacramento, CA, where he presented papers entitled " Phosphorus transport during furrow irrigation," coauthored by Dale Westermann and Kris Aase, and "Furrow irrigation data needs for simulating erosion and evaluating erosion models," coauthored by Theodor Strelkoff, ARS Water Conservation Laboratory, Phoenix, AZ. After the meeting, Dr. Bjorneberg traveled with Tom Trout, ARS Water Management Research Lab at Parlier, CA, to tour the San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center southeast of Fresno and agricultural areas in the southern San Joaquin Valley. (KIM2001.0816N1)
August 5, 2001. Dave Bjorneberg attended the 2001 Annual Conference of the Soil and Water Conservation Society in Myrtle Beach, SC. Dr. Bjorneberg participated in a facilitated poster discussion for a nutrient management training symposium that was attended by about 35 people. The poster title was "Nutrient losses in surface irrigation runoff" which was coathored by Dale Westermann and Kris Aase. (KIM2001.0816N2)
Dr. H. Don Scott visited the Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory (NWISRL) on July 30, 2000, and presented a seminar on soil and water research being conducted in Arkansas. Dr. Scott is University Professor of Soil Physics in the Crop, Soils and Environmental Sciences Department of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, AR. Dr. Scott spent the week with Bob Sojka of the NWISRL gaining an overview of Pacific Northwestern conditions, agriculture and environmental issues, as well as gathering background information for Dr. Scott's soils courses and books in progress. They also discussed possible future collaborations on water quality-related research for the Mississippi Delta region of Arkansas. (KIM2001.0809N1)
In 2000 the Kimberly, Idaho, Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory (NWISRL) of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service surpassed the 1000 publication mark for literature reporting the laboratory's nearly forty years of research findings and accomplishments. In June of 2001, the laboratory revised its website to make nearly the entire body of published work available directly from the website as pdf files. The project was the accomplishment of computer specialist John Stevens, Bioscience Technician James Foerster, and summer science student apprentices Riqui Heinemann and Steve Koehtz who completed the project with the encouragement of soil scientist Bob Sojka. Customers arriving at the NWISRL homepage click on the topic box "Publications List/Reprints." This accesses the station publication list via a search engine which responds to queries. Queries can be aimed at titles, keywords or author names. Queries are answered from the NWISRL publication list with the set of publications (titles, authors, journal citation and station publication number) matching the queries. Clicking on a publication number accesses a pdf file, displaying the selected publication for browsing on screen. Title listings or pdf files can be downloaded and/or printed by visitors to the homepage. The new service is expected to greatly help with technology transfer to the 20,000 annual visitors to the NWISRL's website. (KIM2001.0719N1)
Dr. Clinton Williams, a visiting assistant professor at Utah State University and Dr. Shad Nelson, a postdoctoral research associate at the Fresno, California ARS lab presented seminars in Kimberly, ID, on July 10 and 12. Drs. Williams and Nelson are candidates for the soil chemist position at the Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory. The two candidates worked together at UC-Riverside during their graduate studies on a joint research project involving investigation of organic-matter-facilitated transport of the herbicide napropamine. That topic was the primary focus of both seminars. Dr. Williams also discussed current ongoing involvement with composting research in Utah and Dr. Nelson also presented findings from research looking for alternatives to methyl bromide for fumigation of soils and stored produce. This brings to three the total number of candidates interviewed for the soil chemist opening; Dr. April Leytem was interviewed the previous week. (KIM2001.0719N2)
Dr. Aravind Surapaneni, soil scientist from the Institute of Sustainable Irrigated Agriculture (ISIA) in Tatura, Victoria, Australia, visited the ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory (NWISRL) in Kimberly, Idaho, from 9 to 13 July. Dr. Surapaneni seeks closer ties and collaborations between ISIA and NWISRL scientists in areas of sustainable irrigation research, particularly in areas of salinity and sodicity management and in control of irrigation-induced erosion and management of irrigation return flow water quality. Dr. Surapaneni hosted NWISRL scientist Bob Sojka in February and March 2000 for a survey of Australian erosion and water quality problems, with an interest in investigating and applying polyacrylamide (PAM) and other erosion control technologies developed at the NWISRL under Australian conditions. (KIM2001.0712N1)
July 2-3, 2001. Dr. April Leytem, candidate for the •soil chemist' position visited with project leaders, toured the facilities, and presented a discussion of her current work on interacting with farmers, agencies, academics and regulators in developing •Phosphorus' guidelines for the DelMarva Peninsula. (KIM2001.0712N2)
June 27, 2001. Bob Sojka addressed 25 teachers for the Magic Valley Water Camp 2001 at the Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory's (NWISRL) South-Farm research site near Kimberly, ID. Teachers represented a cross section of southern Idaho Kindergarten through Grade 12 teachers that present environmental units to their students. Sojka's presentation included a brief introduction to the NWISRL and explanation of its role in federal agricultural and environmental research. He then focused on development of the use of polyacrylamide (PAM) as a tool for prevention of irrigation-induced erosion and protection of runoff water quality. The presentation was done outdoors at an experimental field with ongoing sampling activity. Sojka's presentation provided hands-on demonstrations for the teachers to participate in. Teachers were directed to the NWISRL's website for further information on a variety of topics. Teacher response was enthusiastic, with many technical questions and requests for advice on how to perform similar demonstrations to their students in the classroom. (KIM2001.0705N1)
June 26-28, 2001. Bert Clemmens, Fedja Strelkoff and Hadi Tabbara from the U.S. Water Conservation Lab in Phoenix, AZ, visited the Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory (NWISRL) to work with Dale Westermann and Dave Bjorneberg on predicting sediment and phosphorus transport in furrow irrigation. The purpose of the visit was for the Phoenix group to observe furrow irrigation and the procedures used when collecting sediment and phosphorus data. Field data collected at Kimberly is being used by the Phoenix group to add a sediment and phosphorus transport component to their surface irrigation simulation model (SRFR). This collaborative project is partially funded by an NRI grant. (KIM2001.0705N2)
June 15, 2001. Maureen Boling and Tom Burnham, NRCS personnel from Magic Valley, met with scientists to discuss using poplar trees to process dairy lagoon waste. Jerome County has plantings at two local dairies that are to be used for monitoring by NRCS and others. Overall objectives include demonstrating the potential of using lagoon water to irrigate the poplar trees and to determine if deep leaching of nutrients are occurring. (KIM2001.0621N1)
June 4-7, 2001. Dr. Rick Allen, University of Idaho, and Dr. Jim Wright, Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory, were visited by Dr. Nick Austin, New South Wales, Australia. Dr. Austin is an agricultural engineer who leads the Water Use Efficiency Advisory Unit of New South Wales. He visited Kimberly to explore the potential for improving irrigation efficiency and managing growth in irrigation water use using estimates of crop water requirements based on meteorological data. Dr. Austin shared much of their experience in converting irrigation licenses from a land area to a water volume basis and also some research of phosphorus losses from irrigated pastures. (KIM2001.0621N2)
April 24, 2001. Hank Mayland presented a seminar to dairy students from McMillan College. This small school serves rural industries in the Gippsland region near Warragul in eastern Victoria, Australia. Hank discussed benefits of afternoon cutting to increase forage quality and this was followed by a lively interaction with the students. (KIM2001.0613N1)
Dr. David L. Bjorneberg, senior author, along with Drs. J. Kristian Aase and Dale T. Westermann, co-authors, were awarded a 2001 ASAE Superior Paper Award for their paper titled "Controlling Sprinkler Irrigation Runoff, Erosion and Phosphorus Loss with Straw and Polyacrylamide," which was published in Transactions of the ASAE 43:1545-1551. The paper described a laboratory study that was conducted to determine if surface residue would improve the effectiveness of polyacrylamide (PAM) applied with sprinkler irrigation. Study results showed that applying straw at a rate similar to non-tilled conditions (about 70% surface cover) more effectively controlled runoff and soil erosion than applying PAM at 2 or 4 lb/a. Applying straw at a rate similar to minimum tillage (about 30% surface cover) was about as effective as either PAM rate. Applying PAM to straw-covered soil further reduced runoff and soil erosion. Producers should consider reduced tillage systems that leave crop residue on the soil surface in conjunction with PAM application to control runoff and soil erosion from sprinkler irrigated land. The annual Paper Awards are selected from one of four ASAE publications: Applied Engineering in Agriculture, Transactions of the ASAE, Resource, or Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health. 2.5% of papers published receive Superior Paper Awards. Award winners will be recognized during the Awards Luncheon and Recognition Program by ASAE President, Harmon Towne, held in conjunction with the ASAE International Meeting to be held in Sacramento, California, on Wednesday, August 1, 2001, at the Sacramento Convention Center. (KIM2001.0613N2)
Jim Entry traveled to Florida International University to give two invited presentations titled "Source Tracking of Escherichia Coli in Surface and Ground Water" on May 4, 2001, and "The Efficacy of Polyacrylamide and Related Compounds to Remove Microorganisms and Nutrients from Animal Wastewater" on May 10, 2001. He discussed future projects with Dr. Krish Jayachandran who is a member of the Department of Environmental Studies at Florida International University. He also visited Dr. Reza Savabi at the USDA- ARS Everglades Agricultural Hydrology Research Unit in Miami, Florida, on May 7, 2001. He also attended the American Society of Microbiology Meeting in Orlando, Florida, from May 19 to May 24, 2001, and presented a poster "Microbial Source Tracking of Escherichia Coli in Rock Creek, Idaho." (KIM2001.0531N1)
May 24, 2001. Rick Lentz was invited to meet with staff from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, EPA, Fish and Wildlife Service, Geologic Survey, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, and Colorado Water Users Associations to discuss environmental concerns and research needs related to the application of polyacrylamide (PAM) in irrigation canals. Lentz presented a general overview of PAM, related environmental information, and summarized Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory research on PAM fate. PAM can potentially be used as an inexpensive canal sealant to conserve water and decrease salt contamination of natural surface streams. (KIM2001.0531N2)
May 27, 2001. Hank Mayland provided some mentoring to Linda Mackay who was given a special award for a science fair report on 'Diurnal Changes in Forage Quality.' Linda, a sophomore at Franklin High School, El Paso, Texas, measured increases in soluble sugars in alfalfa during the day. During the past year, Linda's report progressed through local and regional science fairs and was judged tops in the junior division in west Texas and south central New Mexico. She plans to test actual animal preference for afternoon vs morning cut alfalfa and to report results in another science fair. (KIM2001.0531N3)
April 5-30, 2001. Hank Mayland, was an invited guest of Agriculture Victoria, in Australia. Hank's sponsor was Dr. Kevin Smith of the Pastoral and Veterinary Institute located at Hamilton, Victoria. Hank visited with researchers, graduate students, and producers at both Hamilton and Ellenbank (Dairy Research Institute) and critiqued plans for their initiation of extensive research on forage soluble carbohydrates. He, Tony Ciavarella, and Kevin Smith conducted two studies on sheep behavior when offered PM- vs. AM-cut oaten or lucerne forage. Results are being prepared for technical publication and for presentation at the American Society Agronomy meetings in Charlotte, NC, October 21-25, 2001. Much of the new forage breeding and harvest management research across Australia now includes components to evaluate the role of soluble sugars on animal ingestion and performance. These results will be of great value in interpreting research conducted by ARS and in developing management strategies for U.S. producers. (KIM2001.0521N1)
April 26, 2001. Hank Mayland was interviewed by 'On The Land' editor Terry Sim of the Western District 'Victoria Standard' from Warrnambool (circulation 21,000) and Pat Cameron, 'Features Writer' for the Hamilton 'Spectator' (circulation 24,000). Photos of Mayland and Ciavarella with the sheep appeared in both newspapers and accompanying articles discussed advantages of afternoon cutting of forage. (KIM2001.0521N2)
May 1-4, 2001. Hank Mayland visited Plant Science Division of CSIRO at Canberra, ACT, Australia, as guest of Dr. Hugh Dove. This group has been active in modeling the soil-plant-sheep (or cattle) enterprise. This includes intensive studies of soluble sugar in forages. Both Ciavarella and Smith, now at Hamilton, were graduate students of Dove. The CSIRO studies showed sheep could identify clover-grass mixtures that contained higher soluble sugars because of recently fixed photosynthate. On May 3, Hank presented a seminar on 'Cues utilized by grazing- and hay fed-animals' to the Plant Division and visitors at Canberra. (KIM2001.0521N3)
Bob Sojka presented a talk on April 25, 2001, to the Yakima Nation Soil and Water Conservation Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in Toppenish, Washington. The program represented the first annual meeting of the Yakima Nation's Soil and Water Conservation Committee to present information and issues vital to land, water and wildlife management at impacting tribal members and lessors and lessees managing land on the Yakima Reservation. The meeting was designed to give farmers an update on current farm related issues affecting farming in 2001 and in the future, with an emphasis on how the farm community must adapt to meet requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The meeting was held at the Eagle Seelatsee Auditorium of the BIA Yakima Agency Office and was attended by about 60 farmers and conservationists. Sojka's talk was entitled "Polyacrylamide (PAM) in irrigation water: erosion, infiltration, use, environment." The soil and water conservation group was invited to explore further ties with the entire Kimberly Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory staff in development of their natural resource management efforts. (KIM20010503N1)
March 30 - April 2, 2001. Gary Lehrsch, Soil Scientist, Kimberly, ID, attended the International Symposium on Snowmelt Erosion and Related Problems held in Oslo, Norway. He presented an invited keynote lecture on "Aggregate Stability Analysis for Freezing Environments." The symposium was attended by more than 75 researchers representing 23 countries in North America, Scandinavia, Europe, and Russia. Gary also presented two other invited lectures to faculty and graduate students at the Agricultural University of Norway, located in As. Gary's lectures were on erosion research in ARS laboratories and on the soil and water research programs at the ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory, Kimberly, ID. Opportunities for collaborative studies were discussed with researchers from JORDFORSK, the Centre for Soil and Environmental Research, also located at As. (KIM2001.0412N1)
March 24-25, 2001. Drs. Rick Allen, University of Idaho, and Hank Mayland, USDA-ARS-NWISRL, hosted 5 members of the Tashkent Institute of Irrigation and Agricultural Mechanization Engineering faculty in their homes and provided them a guided tour of NWISRL and discussion of the research program here and in the western USA. (KIM2001.0412N2)
April 9, 2001. Ben L. Turner started working as a post-doc in the phosphorus runoff program at NWISRL. His studies will be coordinated with the National Phosphorus Research Program, primarily using a rainfall simulator to determine phosphorus runoff concentrations for different soils in the western U.S. Ben received his PhD in May 2000 from the Department of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of Longdon, Egham, England, working under Philip M. Haygarth at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, North Wyke, UK. (KIM2001.0412N3)
March 7, 2001. Dale Westermann attended the WCC-103, Nutrient Management and Water Quality Committee, meeting, in Salt Lake City, UT. Members of this committee come from western universities and industry and consulting businesses. The committee coordinates nutritional research in the western U.S. and sponsors a biannual conference. (KIM2001.0315N1)
March 8-9, 2001. Rick Lentz and Dale Westermann attended the 2001 Western Nutrient Management Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. Rick presented a paper entitled "Percolation phosphorus losses in calcareous furrow-irrigated soils" and Dale presented a poster paper that compared phosphorus runoff from surface irrigation with sprinkler irrigation. Dave Bjorneberg and Kris Aase were contributing authors. All papers are published in a conference proceedings. Dale Westermann was recognized for his activities and contributions towards solving western nutrient management and water quality issues. Seventy-eight scientists from university and experiment stations throughout the western U.S. attended. (KIM2001.0315N2)
February 16, 2001. Representatives from Jerome Cheese Plant and Millenium Environmental Engineering presented a seminar discussing plans for for handling and treating wash water from their 5- 8 million gallon milk per day plant. They fielded questions and discussed technical issues about land application, and primary through tertiary treatment. They are constructing a "state of the art facility". The seminar was attended by 30 individuals in industry, extension, research, and news press. (KIM2001.0301N1)
February 20-22, 2001. Dave Bjorneberg and Dale Westermann visited the U.S. Water Conservation Laboratory at Phoenix, AZ. While there they discussed cooperative research plans with Bert Clemmens and Fedja Strelkoff to fulfill the requirements of the NRI grant `Simulation and Validation of Phosphorus Loading in Furrow Irrigation Tailwater'. Field data will be obtained at Kimberly this coming irrigation season to help develop the phosphorus subroutines to put in the irrigation sediment transport model, developed at Phoenix. (KIM2001.0301N2)
February 26, 2001. Dale Westermann was contacted by Mike Griffel, Assistant Editor for the Potato Grower magazine to help develop and edit an article on phosphorus management in irrigated potato production. This article will be based on the optimum fertilization practices developed by the ARS research program at Kimberly in cooperation with University of Idaho scientists. (KIM2001.0301N3)
February 28, 2001. Gary Lehrsch, at the invitation of Susan Jesser, Guidance Counselor at O'Leary Junior High School, Twin Falls, ID, presented information on careers in environmental science at the school's Career Day. About 15 students attended to learn the major duties of soil scientists, agricultural engineers, and other related environmental scientists. Gary recommended courses to be scheduled in both high school and college, distributed career literature, and discussed opportunities for summer employment in the area with the students. (KIM2001.0301N4)
February 21, 2001. Dr. H. F. Mayland was awarded a "Citation for Excellence in Manuscript Review, 2000" by Agronomy Journal Editors. Mayland regularly serves as reviewer for technical manuscripts across soil, plant, and animal disciplines. He has served in editorial capacities for Journal of Range Management, Journal of Animal Science, and the discontinued Journal of Production Agriculture. (KIM2001.0221N1)
Kimberly ARS Soil Scientist Bob Sojka traveled to Portugal from February 1-10 as a guest of the University of Evora to present information and conduct workshops on controlling irrigation induced erosion through conventional agricultural management and with the use of polyacrylamide-treated irrigation water. Seminars were presented to the Portugese National Institute for Agricultural Reseach (INIA)in Oeiras, to the Agricultural Faculty and students at the University of Evora in Evora, and to the newly established Irrigation district technical center for the joint 300,000 acre Spanish/Portugese Alqueva Irrigation Project, located near Beja. About 120 Portugese scientists, students, and irrigation district technical personnel attended the three formal presentations. The two workshops provided direct technical advice regarding ongoing Portugese irrigation-induced erosion research to a dozen University of Evora students and technical personnel conducting research. Dr. Francisco Santos, Agricultural Engineer leading the irrigation program at Evora, discussed several projects for which he was seeking to establish ties to the Kimberly ARS lab because of similar regional conditions and research opportunities. (KIM2001.0215N1)
January 19, 2001. Bob Sojka was the guest of The National Alliance of Independent Crop Consultant's annual meeting in Orlando, FL. He presented a talk entitled "The use of PAM, a linear polyacrylamide polymer for use with irrigation water." About 250 consultants attended the talk which gave a brief overview of the PAM technology developed by ARS at Kimberly, ID, and which focused particularly on recent developments in use of PAM for infiltration management in sprinklers, and reduction of microorganisms and weed seed from irrigation runoff. The reduction of the latter two pollution components are relatively new findings beyond the established work showing PAM's ability to greatly reduce runoff sediment, nutrients, pesticides and BOD (biological oxygen demand). This has the potential application for disease and weed epidemiology control and for on-field and downstream reductions in herbicide and pesticide use. (KIM2001.0125N1)
January 22-24, 2001. Dale Westermann attended an Intermountain Range Restoration and Conservation Workshop in Boise, ID. The workshop was attended by 16 lead scientists or research leaders from 13 western ARS locations, and one ARS National Program Leader. The purpose of this meeting was to identify and develop researchable regional programs that will enable public and private land managers to implement ecosystem restoration and preservation strategies on 170 million acres of sagebrush rangelands in the Intermountain West, particularly land recently burned. Main deliverables identified were improved plant materials, monitoring tools, decision support systems, and an improved understanding of the natural resource system. (KIM2001.0125N2)
January 24, 2001. Dale Westermann attended a workshop in Boise, ID, to develop a Northwest initiative to develop site-specific integrated agricultural systems that enhance Pacific Northwest ground and surface water quality. The thrust of this initiative is to provide agriculture practices and production systems to improve the habitat for salmonid fish listed under the Endangered Species Act. Eight ARS locations are presented in the initiative. (KIM2001.0125N3)
January 3-5, 2001. Rick Lentz, Dennis Kincaid, and Dave Bjorneberg attended and gave presentations at the International ASAE Symposium on Soil Erosion Research for the 21st Century in Honolulu, HI. (KIM2001.0118N1)
January 3-5, 2001. Rick Lentz, Gary Lehrsch, and Jim Entry attended and gave presentations at the 2nd International ASAE Symposium on Preferential Flow: Water Movement and Chemical Transport in the Environment in Honolulu, HI. (KIM2001.0118N2)
January 10, 2001. Lentz attended the annual Four-States Irrigation Council Conference in Fort Collins, CO, where he was invited to conduct a workshop on the use of soil amendments to control seepage in soil-lined irrigation canals and channels. The meeting was attended by over 200 managers, board members, and producers from Irrigation and Water Conservancy Districts and Water-User Associations in six states; irrigation consultants; as well as USBR resource officers. (KIM2001.0118N3)
January 11-12, 2001. Dale Westermann participated in Idaho's annual sugarbeet conference in Twin Falls,ID, as a panel member in a workshop discussing nutrient management issues and practices in sugarbeet production. This conference is the only state-wide extension activity held for sugarbeet growers in Idaho and was attended by nearly 600 growers. (KIM2001.0118N4)
January 15, 2001. Hank Mayland shared results of PM-cut vs AM-cut with growers and livestock feeders in central Wyoming. Details and guidelines were also shared with a high school student at Upland, Nebraska using e-mail, internet, FAX, and postal services. (KIM2001.0118N5)
January 17, 2001. Dale Westermann attended Idaho's annual potato conference in Pocatello, ID. He was a panel member in two nutritional fertilization workshops, one discussing phosphorus and micronutrients, and the other on nitrogen management. This annual conference is attended by nearly 1,200 individuals from almost all major potato growing areas in the U.S. and even some from foreign countries. (KIM2001.0118N6)
January 3-4, 2001. Dale Westermann attended the annual Idaho Crop Production Association meetings in Jackpot, NV. This meeting was attended by nearly 600 certified crop advisors (CCA), private crop consultants, crop protection specialists, and fertilizer and chemical dealers and fieldmen. Westermann was a panel member in a half-day workshop on cultural practices for early potato growth and development, and gave an oral talk on factors affecting specific gravity of potato tubers. (KIM2001.0111N1)
