Ag and Life Sciences ONLINE

COLLEGE NEWS



- June orientation programs underway



- 100 attend groundbreaking at Seed Science Center



- Crop management career event draws 26 FFA teams



- Horticulture faculty hit the highway



- Waste management consortium funds projects



- Milk the State Fair for all its worth: Sign up now



- Deadlines & Reminders



COMMUNICATIONS KIOSK



- Check your e-mail for Ag Online survey



INFOGRAZING



- Horticulture flowering in Iowa economy



- The case of the disappearing soil association



EXTERNAL VOICES



- The responsibility of university workers



MARGINALIA



- Heartening news for hammock potatoes







C O L L E G E N E W S







JUNE ORIENTATION PROGRAMS UNDERWAY



College of Agriculture summer orientation programs have begun.

Orientation dates in June are the 11th & 12th, 18th &

19th, 20th & 21st and 25th & 26th. The 475 prospective

students expected to attend will spend time in the departments,

meet their advisers and register for classes. New this year: Incoming

students will get e-mail addresses in the Brenton Center and their

ISU Cards. For more information, contact Ag Student Services,

4-2766.



100 ATTEND GROUNDBREAKING AT SEED SCIENCE CENTER



This morning (Friday) about 100 people attended the groundbreaking

ceremony for an addition to the Seed Science Center. The addition

will include a new seed training, demonstration and conference

facility and a remodeled classroom and seed health testing lab.

Thirty-eight seed companies, associations and individuals are

providing more than $550,000 for the $660,000 project, and the

College of Agriculture is contributing $100,000. Projected completion

date: Early 1997.



CROP MANAGEMENT CAREER EVENT DRAWS 26 FFA TEAMS



The Hampton FFA team won the third annual Ag Ed/FFA Crop Management

Career Development Event held June 7 at ISU. Agronomy professor

Ken Larson organized the event and department faculty and staff

helped with the 96 students from 26 FFA teams who judged hay,

silage, oats and soybeans for seed; corn and soybeans for marketing;

and identified crop and weed seeds, plants and insect pests. The

students also took a test covering crop management and production

practices. Maquoketa Valley FFA, Washington FFA and St. Ansgar

FFA finished second through fourth. The top four teams were all

coached by ISU ag alumni: Dean Dodd, Bret Iverson, Duane Van Winkle

and Dale Gruis, respectively.



HORTICULTURE FACULTY HIT THE HIGHWAY



Six horticulture faculty members started the summer with their

own Road Scholar Tour, traveling to southwest Iowa to visit the

Earl May headquarters and nursery at Shenandoah, the McClaren

Nursery near Shenandoah and the Sjulin Nursery at Hamburg. This

was the second such tour, giving faculty members a chance to get

acquainted with Iowa horticulturists and their enterprises. A

third is planned for the fall. (See "Infograzing" for

facts on Iowa horticulture.)



WASTE MANAGEMENT CONSORTIUM FUNDS PROJECTS



The Waste Management Research Consortium, formed earlier this

year by ISU and North Carolina State University, has funded its

first six projects to address swine industry problems. The projects

will involve ag engineers, economists, agronomists and soil scientists

at each university. For more information: Colin Scanes, 4-1823.





MILK THE STATE FAIR FOR ALL ITS WORTH: VOLUNTEER NOW



College of Agriculture faculty and staff volunteers are needed

to staff the college's exhibit at the Iowa State Fair, Aug. 8-18.

This year's display has a dairy theme, with past and present ISU

dairy activities and information on how milk is made. Two volunteers

work each four-hour shift, starting at 9 a.m. Volunteers get free

admission and parking tickets. To sign up, contact Jennifer Bensen,

4-3538 (bensen@iastate.edu) or Marty Behrens, 4-5616 (behrens@iastate.edu).





DEADLINES & REMINDERS



July 1 --Leopold Center Conference and Workshop Support Program

deadline, 4-1854







C O M M U N I C A T I O N S K I O S K









CHECK YOUR E-MAIL FOR AG ONLINE SURVEY



On the heels of this issue you'll find an Ag Online survey in

your e-mail box. Please take a few minutes right away to answer

the 14 questions and return it -- we're hoping for a high response

rate. And from those subscribers who return the survey, five will

be picked at random to receive a book on improving communications.

We want your comments to help improve the newsletter, so please

respond today. For more information: Brian Meyer, 4-0706, bmeyer@iastate.edu.









I N F O G R A Z I N G







HORTICULTURE FLOWERING IN IOWA ECONOMY



The horticulture industry, the fastest-growing sector of agriculture

in Iowa, contributes $475 million in gross income each year to

the state's economy, according to the Iowa State Horticultural

Society. The society provides these statistics:



Number of businesses in Iowa's horticulture industry: 2,400



Percentage of industry's annual gross income that comes from

golf courses or sod and turf businesses: 19



From vegetable, fruit and nut production: 19



From floriculture: 12



From nurseries: 12



From professional services: 10



From Christmas trees: 5



Honey and beeswax, in millions of pounds, produced annually:

5



Apples, in millions of pounds, harvested in 1993: 9.5



Growing area, in millions of square feet, used for floriculture:

4.6



Iowa-grown Christmas trees, in millions, sold each year:

1



THE CASE OF THE DISAPPEARING SOIL ASSOCIATION



In last issue's "Infograzing" we ran statistics on ISU's

Research and Demonstration Farms, including that Iowa has 20 major

soil associations and the farms covered 12 of them. A subsequent

e-mail from the agronomy department read: "Who stole one

of Iowa's soil associations?" Iowa has 21 major soil associations

-- the standard number that's been used by soil experts for 40-some

years. We stand corrected.







E X T E R N A L V O I C E S







THE RESPONSIBILITY OF UNIVERSITY WORKERS



"Universities are monuments to the hope that through education

and deeper understanding we can create better lives for ourselves

and our children . . . Those of us who work in these national

treasures have a responsibility to understand the requirements

of a changing environment and to act so as to keep universities

alive and well." William H. Danforth, chairman of the board,

Washington University, St. Louis. (Science, September 1995)











M A R G I N A L I A







HEARTENING NEWS FOR HAMMOCK POTATOES



Poulan/Weed Eater is test-marketing robotic, solar-powered lawn

mowers. The self-propelled, turtle-shaped mower is powered by

34 solar cells along its back, and can cut about a third of an

acre on a sunny or hazy day. Underground wiring along a property's

perimeter keeps the unit within bounds. It retreats when it encounters

obstacles and stops if it turns over or hits wayward toes or tennis

balls. Punch in a security code and the 12-pound unit screeches

and becomes inoperable should a thief or curious child try to

make off with it. (Wall Street Journal, May 31)