The College of Agriculture Newsletter
Iowa State University
September 15, 1995 No. 27

COLLEGE NEWS
- Agronomy Day crowds
- Yunus on TV tonight
- Fall enrollment
- Student exchange programs
- Ag Alumni Forum
- Reiman Gardens dedication
- Ag Council steak fry
- Tent-A-Gate
- Ag Online, Year One
- Deadlines & Reminders
COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK
- The media: A business relationship
INFOGRAZING
- Plows and PCs
EXTERNAL VOICES
- State fair review
MARGINALIA
- An answer to odor?

AGRONOMY DAY CROWDS
More than 1,500 people attended Agronomy Day '95 on Thursday at the Agronomy and Agricultural Engineering Research Center. More than 400 were students, including 13 busloads from high schools. The Agronomy Club served more than 800 people for lunch. Plans are underway to make Agronomy Day an annual event.

YUNUS ON TV TONIGHT
1994 World Food Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus will be featured as the "Person of the Week" on today's (Friday) ABC World News Tonight, which airs at 5:30 p.m. Yunus has been hailed as one of the "stars" of the U.N. women's conference in Beijing for his innovative loan programs that have helped poor people, especially women, go into business for themselves. (The College of Agriculture is the secretariat of the World Food Prize. This year's World Food Prize recipient will be announced on Oct. 16.)

FALL ENROLLMENT
University fall enrollment reports put the number of undergraduates in the College of Agriculture at 2,654 -- an increase of 60 from last fall. The number of graduate students dropped 36 from last fall to 591.

STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAMS
International Agriculture Programs has opportunities for five students to study at the University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia, and five undergrads and two grad students to travel to Uzbekistan. Deadline to apply is Oct. 2. For more information: Joe Dale, 294-5509 or 294-3972.

AG ALUMNI FORUM
A limited number of copies of the just-published Ag Alumni Forum, the college's annual alumni publication, are available from Ag Information. Contact Ed Adcock, edadcock@iastate.edu or 294-2314. The issue includes an essay by retired farm broadcaster Lee Kline and articles highlighting faculty, students and alumni accomplishments.

REIMAN GARDENS DEDICATION
The Reiman Gardens dedication program -- 10 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 16 -- will include donors Roy and Bobbi Reiman, horticulture department head Mike Chaplin, Dean Topel, President Jischke, Patty Jischke and a performance on the gardens' carillon by ISU carillonneur Tin-Shi Tam.

AG COUNCIL STEAK FRY
The Agriculture Student Council's annual steak fry will be 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 27 at the Reiman Gardens. The event is for invited college and department administrators, club advisers and officials, and other selected faculty and staff, in appreciation of contributions to Ag Council activities over the past year.

TENT-A-GATE
The annual Tent-A-Gate for College of Agriculture alumni is Oct. 7 before the ISU-Oklahoma game. The event, located in tents east of the Olsen Building, begins at 10:30 a.m. with coffee and doughnuts and continues until game time at 1 p.m. A short program will feature awards to outstanding alumni. Advance reservations for a meal served by the Iowa Pork Producers are available for $5 by calling 294-4725.

AG ONLINE, YEAR TWO
This issue of Ag Online marks the start of the newsletter's second year. Thanks to those who've sent comments and suggestions over the past year. We welcome your thoughts. Ag Online now has almost 400 subscribers. Most are college faculty and staff, plus subscribers in other ISU offices. Two other places to catch Ag Online: hard-copy is posted in each department and other college offices, and current and past issues can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.ag.iastate.edu/agonline/AgOnline.html

DEADLINES & REMINDERS
Sept. 16 -- Reiman Gardens dedication
Sept. 27 -- Ag Council Steak Fry
Sept. 28 -- Research Exchange Visits grant applications due, 126 Curtiss
Oct. 7 -- College of Agriculture reception, Parent and Family Weekend
Oct. 7 -- Ag Alumni Tent-A-Gate
Oct. 12 -- Promotion & tenure committee nominations due, 479 Heady

THE MEDIA: A BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP
When you work with news reporters, consider it a business relationship, according to Ian Pearson, who facilitated last month's college retreat on communications. We are the providers of information; reporters are the consumers. Like any business relationship, the provider should pay attention to the customer's needs. And remember that reporters wear two hats: they are consumers of our information and providers of information to the public. Using the press as a bridge to a public that is wary of institutions adds credibility to our information.

PLOWS AND PCs
Within five years, it's anticipated that about 50 percent of the 150,000 major grain farmers in the Midwest will use precision farming techniques. "The one thing that makes site-specific farming work is the computer processing power that is available today," says a marketing manager at a firm that makes precision fertilizer applicators. The farmer uses information gleaned through a combination of high-tech yield monitors, crop moisture sensors and a satellite receiver, which is then filtered through special software, to apply just the right amount of costly fertilizer to each part of a field to maximize production. (Investor's Business Daily, Aug. 31)

STATE FAIR CRITIQUE
Richard Christiansen, the Chicago Tribune's chief critic and self-described "city boy to the marrow," visited the Iowa State Fair for the first time and on Aug. 27 wrote: ". . . A few days after I had left the fair and returned home to Chicago, when I was absorbing the absurd convolutions of the O.J. Simpson trial, the disgraceful sham of the Mike Tyson non-event and the weird creepiness of the Calvin Klein ads, I was ready to chuck all the urban niceties for a return to the values of sincere craft and careful workmanship that were still being hailed, with conviction, at the state fair."

AN ANSWER TO ODOR?
From a letter to the editor by Wayne Frauenholtz of West Branch that appeared in Iowa Farmer Today, Sept. 2: "I believe I have a slurry or solution that may help to clear the air [of swine odor problems]. They could begin at the root cause of all this by banning beans in the diet of all the stock . . . ! Beans in any diet can lead to explosive circumstances. Frankly I'm amazed some land-grant grad hasn't arrived at this odor answer."

Ag Online is a biweekly newsletter for ISU College of Agriculture faculty and staff. To subscribe, send your name, e-mail address and the message "Ag Online subscribe" to bmeyer@iastate.edu. To unsubscribe: Send "Ag Online unsubscribe" to same address. Comments? Contact editors Brian Meyer (bmeyer@iastate.edu) and Ed Adcock (edadcock@iastate.edu), Agriculture Information Services, 304 Curtiss Hall, Ames, IA 50011. Phone: 515-294-5616. Fax: 515-294-8662.

Next issue: Sept. 29. Deadline: Sept. 25.