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Meetings and Talks 2008
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January 16, 2008:The Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) hosted the LSU Cooperative Extension Service-sponsored Extension/Research Winter Meeting at Houma.  The purpose of the meeting is have researchers with the SRU and the LSU Ag Center present information from studies conducted in the various areas of sugarcane production, as well as to here from the County Extension Service personnel the various problems that their growers are facing.  Making presentations from the SRU were Drs. Ed Richard and Caleb Dalley on weed control research, Dr. Rich Johnson on sugarcane fertility and variable rate lime application, and Dr. Ryan Viator on conservation/reduced tillage and post-harvest residue management practices.   The County Agents used the information presented to to develop spring grower meeting topics for their respective parishes.

 

January 22 - 24, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit Scientists, Drs. Rich Johnson and Ryan Viator, were asked to discuss their research as well as sugarcane production recommendations in the areas of soil fertility and variable rate lime application (Rich Johnson) and  conservation/reduced tillage and the management of residues generated during green cane harvesting (Ryan Viator) at Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service-sponsored winter grower meetings in the parishes of Iberia, Vermillion, St. Martin/St. Landry/Lafayette (three meetings on January 22nd), and Lafourche (January 23rd).  These parishes are the largest cane-growing parishes in Louisiana containing approximately 60% of the industry's farms and farmers.

 

January 28, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit Scientists, Drs. Ed Richard and Rich Johnson were invited to take part in the 18th Annual Farm Forum and Rep Day that was held in New Roads, LA.  The event is sponsored by the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and the chemical and seed companies in the area.  The forum is designed to transfer information to farmers, workers, and interested parties in the areas of:  cotton, sugarcane, soybeans, corn and beef cattle production primarily in the parishes of Pointe Coupee, Iberville, and West Baton Rouge.  Dr. Richard discussed winter and spring weed control recommendations and Dr. Johnson soil fertility recommendations that they helped develop and update yearly during the sugarcane section of the forum.  

 

January 30, 2008:Dr. Rich Johnson of the Sugarcane Research Unit was invited to discuss sugarcane fertility requirements at the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service (LCES) sponsored Iberville Parish Spring Sugarcane Grower's meeting at St. Gabriel, LA.  The meeting is designed to provide to growers and consultants an update on soil fertility recommendations.  The information is also published in the LCES's Sugarcane Production Handbook which is updated yearly and contains much of the research information developed by Dr. Johnson. 

 

February 7 - 8, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) Scientists, Drs. Michael Grisham, William White, Ryan Viator, Rich Johnson, and Ed Richard were invited to make presentations at the Louisiana Agricultural Technology and Management Conference in Alexandria, LA.  The meeting is designed to present new research information to the Agricultural Community with attendance required for certification of all Agricultural Consultants in Louisiana.   During the Sugarcane Session, SRU scientists made presentations titled:  "Smut and Yellow Leaf Disease" (Dr. Grisham), "Ripener Update" (Dr. Richard), "Cultural Practices to Mitigate Sugarcane Stress" (Dr. Viator), "Optimizing Sugarcane Production Efficiency Through Fertility Management" (Dr. Johnson), and "Sugarcane Borer Susceptibility of Commercial Varieties" (Dr. White).

 

February 12 - 13, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) Scientists, Drs. William White and Rich Johnson were invited to make presentations at the annual meeting of the Louisiana Division of the American Society of Sugar Cane Technologists in Baton Rouge, LA.  The meeting is designed to address manufacturing and agricultural problems experienced by the Louisiana sugarcane industry in 2007 as it looks to 2008.  During the meeting, Dr. Johnson made a presentation titled:  "Remote Sensing Applications for the Louisiana Sugarcane Industry" and Dr. White made a presentation titled:  "Sugarcane Borer in Early Planted Cane - A Need for Concern?  The meeting was attended by over 200 growers, processors and researchers.

 

February 20, 2008:Dr. Rich Johnson of the Sugarcane Research Unit was invited to discuss sugarcane fertility requirements at the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service (LCES) -sponsored St. Charles/St. James/St. John/Ascension Parish combined Spring Sugarcane Grower's meeting at Vacherie, LA.  The meeting is designed to provide growers and consultants an update on production recommendations for 2008.  Dr. Johnson's presentation centered around soil fertility recommendations that are based in a large part on information he developed to include a refinement of fertilizer rates in an attempt to reduce production costs while maintaining sustainable yields. 

 

February 20, 2008: Dr. Ed Richard of the Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) was invited to make a presentation at the annual meeting of the Louisiana Council of Farmer Cooperatives at Marksville, LA.  The theme of the meeting was "Capitalizing on Bioenergy Opportunities".  Dr. Richard was asked to discuss the research of the SRU in developing various high yielding energy feedstocks for the biofuels industry.  The nearly 50 participants included members of agricultural commodity cooperatives and rural utility cooperatives from throughout the state of Louisiana.

 

February 28, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) Scientist, Dr. Anna Hale, was invited to present a seminar at TexasA&MUniversity's Department of Horticultural Sciences at College Station, Texas.  Her seminar was entitled "Sugarcane Breeding in Louisiana" and was presented to students in the department's plant breeding class, as well as others who were interested in the subject.

 

April 7-8, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) Scientist, Dr. Ed Richard, Jr., made an  invitational presentation titled:  "Sugar Crops as Feedstocks for the Biofuels Industry" during the Engineering the Transition to the Bioeconomy Session of the 235th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana. 

 

April 11-12, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientist, Dr. Sarah Lingle, attended the 15th New Orleans Carbohydrate Symposium and presented the poster:  "Composition of Cell Wall Residue from Stalks of Sugarcane and its Relatives". Invited speakers from all over the world presented research on carbohydrate chemistry at the Symposium.

 

May 9 - 17, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) Scientist, Dr. Ed Richard, Jr., was invited to participate and make a presentation at a symposium titled:  "Sugarcane Ecophysiology and Ripening" that was sponsored by S?o PauloStateUniversity's College of Agricultural Sciences' Department of Crop Science in Botucato, S?o Paulo, Brazil.  Dr. Richard gave a lecture on the effects of herbicides on sugarcane.  The symposium was attended by over 400 participants from the university, private, and industrial sectors.

 

May 29 - June 6, 2008:Sugarcane Research Unit (SRU) Scientist, Dr. Ed Richard, Jr., was selected to be part of a U.S. delegation to the state of S?o Paulo, Brazil.  The trip was part of scientific exchange with Brazil to advance the development of biofuels by seeking and identifying opportunities for cooperative ventures in research and development.    While in Brazil, the delegation met with university and industry researchers conducting research in the conversion of both sugar and cellulose to ethanol as well as touring a commercial sugarcane farm and a mill which produces sugar, ethanol and electricity from sugarcane.

 

June 6, 2008: The Sugarcane Research Unit hosted the annual Terrebonne Parish and Area Sugarcane Field Day at its Ardoyne Research Farm.  SRU scientists discussed and demonstrated research in the areas of:  the development of new varieties with high early sugar contents (Dr. Tom Tew and Mr. Edwis Dufrene); the building of parental lines to meet the future challenges for sugar and energy using wild germplasm (Dr. Anna Hale); research to reduce the cost of insect resistance (Dr. Bill White); growing sweet sorghum as a complimentary sugar crop for the production of ethanol (Mr. Robert Cobill); utilization of tillage or herbicides to control bermudagrass in fallowed fields (Dr. Dalley); impact of early harvest, late-season ripener application, and trash blankets on stubble yields (Dr. Ryan Viator); optimizing production efficiency with precision agriculture technology (Dr. Richard Johnson); threats form brown and orange rust and distinguishing between the two (Dr. Mike Grisham); and the utilization of plant physiology (Dr. Sarah Lingle) and DNA fingerprinting (Dr. Yong-Bao Pan) in support of the sugarcane breeding program.

 

June 25, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientist, Dr. Ryan Viator, was an invited presenter at the American Sugar Cane League of the U.S.A's annual Contact Committee Meeting in Thibodaux, LA.  Dr. Viator's presentation addressed three industry issues:  maximizing yields and profit, problems with L 99-226, and early harvest losses.  The meeting was attended by growers and millers, university, ARS, and industry researchers, and crop consultants from throughout the sugarcane industry of Louisiana.

 

June 23 - 27, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientists, Drs. Michael Grisham and Yong-Bao Pan participated in the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists -sponsored Plant Pathology and Molecular Biology Workshops, in Cali, Colombia.  Dr. Grisham presented a paper titled: "Techniques for determining disease variability and yield loss in commercial sugarcane" and chaired one of the oral presentation sessions during the pathology portion of the workshop.  Dr. Pan presented a paper titled:  "Developing a Sugarcane Molecular Identity Database for Use in Breeding", prepared a poster titled: "High Throughput Molecular Genotyping of Sugarcane Clones Using Microsatellite (SSR) DNA Markers", and chaired one of the oral presentation sessions during the molecular biology portion of the workshop.  The combined workshop had a total of 44 delegates from 16 sugarcane producing countries.


 

July 16, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientists, Dr. Richard Johnson and Mr. Edwis Dufrene were invited to discuss sugarcane fertility (Johnson) and varietal selection recommendations at the Area Wide Sugarcane Field Day sponsored by the LSU Ag Center and held at its Sugarcane Experiment Station at St. Gabriel, LA.  The field day is a combined effort of the Parishes of Ascension, St. James, St. John, Iberville, and West Baton Rouge and draws growers, researchers, and industry representatives from these parishes.

 

July 17, 2008:Sugarcane Research Unit scientists, Drs. William White, Richard Johnson, and Ed Richard, and Mr. Edwis Dufrene discussed research results at the annual Lafourche Parish Sugarcane Field Day in Raceland, LA.  The discussions included:  "Sugarcane Borer Economics - When to Treat and Not Treat" (Dr. White), "New Technology for Determining Soil pH and Texture" (Dr. Johnson), "Growing Energy Cane as a Source of Income on Less Productive Sugarcane Land" (Dr. Richard), and "Sugarcane Varieties Available for Planting in 2008" (Mr. Dufrene).  The field day sponsored by the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service had nearly 80 participants from Lafourche and surrounding parishes.

 

July 22, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientists, Drs. Richard Johnson and Ryan Viator and Mr. Edwis Dufrene discussed research results at the annual Assumption Parish Sugarcane Field Day in Napoleonville, LA.  The discussions included:  "Revised Fertilizer Recommendations for Sugarcane and New Technology for Determining Soil pH and Texture" (Dr. Johnson), "Cultural Practices to Reduce Input Costs and Improve Profitability" (Dr. Viator), and "Sugarcane Varieties Available for Planting in 2008" (Mr. Dufrene).  The field day, sponsored by the Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, had nearly 100 participants from Assumption and surrounding parishes.

 

August 7, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientist, Dr. Ryan Viator discussed harvesting practices that can be used to insure optimum cane and sugar yields in the year of harvest as well as in the subsequent ratoon crops harvested from that field at the annual St. James Grower Meeting.  The meeting, sponsored by the LSU AgCenter's Cooperative Extension Service, is designed to provide growers with new research information that can be applied to the 2008 planting and harvesting seasons.

 

August 19 - 21, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientist, Robert Cobill, attended the International Sorghum for Biofuels Conference in Houston, TX.  Topics included feedstock development, the potential role of GMO's in sorghum grown for biofuels production, agronomic issues of production, economics of sorghum production and current conversion technologies and the need for advanced technologies for improved conversion efficiency.  Attendees included international representation from China, Brazil, England, and Australia.

 

August 19 - 21, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientist, Dr. Ed Richard, was invited to make a presentation at the Short Rotation Crop's International Conference in Bloomington, MN.   The focus of the conference, attended by over 175 participants from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia, was on biofuels, bioenergy, and bioproducts from sustainable agricultural and forest crops.  Dr. Richard presented a paper titled:  "Sugar/Energy Canes as Feedstocks for the Biofuels Industry" during a session titled:  Herbaceous Biomass:  State of the Art".

 

October 5 - 9, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit scientist, Dr. Tom Tew, attended the Joint meeting of the Agronomy Society of America, Crop Science Society of America, and the Soil Science Society of America in Houston, Texas.   Dr. Tew was invited to make a presentation titled:  "Improving Sugarcane as a Bioenergy Crop in the U.S." during a symposium titled:  "Challenges to Transforming Forage Germplasm into Bioenergy Crops". 

 

October 7 - 9, 2008:Sugarcane Research Unit scientist, Dr. Ed Richard, was invited to make a presentation at a Rutgers's University-sponsored workshop on the Molecular Improvement of Sugarcane for Biofuel Production.  The focus of the workshop, attended by 30 participants from the University, as well as sugarcane researchers from Brazil, Illinois, Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, was to exchange ideas regarding the research needed to increase the efficiency and productivity of sugarcane, as well as to identify areas of possible collaboration.  Dr. Richard presented a paper titled:  "Sugar/Energy Canes as Feedstocks for the Biofuels Industry - the Louisiana Perspective".

 

November 8 - 13, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit Research Entomologist, Dr. William White, traveled to Veracruz, Mexico to attend the planning meeting for the International Society of Sugar Technologists' (ISSCT) Congress to be held in Veracruz in 2010. Dr. White is the ISSCT Biology Commissioner and is responsible for organizing technical presentations and editing manuscripts of these presentations for the Congress from the disciplines of Entomology, Plant Pathology, Plant Breeding, and Molecular Biology.

 

November 17 - 19, 2008: Sugarcane Research Unit Research Entomologist, Dr. William H. White attended the 56th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America that was held in Reno, Nevado. Dr. White was invited to participate in a symposium titled: "Stalk Boring Lepidopteran Pests in Multi-Crop Ecosystems of the United States: Current Status, Challenges, and Prospects".  Dr. White's paper for the session was titled: "Breeding Resistant Sugarcane for Managing Stalk Borers: Progress and Prospects".