staff.matters
the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences staff newsletter
July 14, 2011
The Ian N. Morrison Research Farm Crop Tour and Open House will be held Wednesday, July 20. Come and enjoy a morning on the research farm and learn what is new in field crop and plant research. Among the projects featured this year: cover cropping, perennial grain crops and mulch-based organic systems, and a special demonstration on seeder performance with Scott Day, MAFRI. Cost is free. The Ian N. Morrison Research Farm is located at the Carman Research Station on Highway 245, 1.8 km west of the lights in Carman, MB. For more information, contact Alvin Iverson at alvin_iverson@umanitoba.ca or (204) 745-3944; or Gary Martens at gary_martens@umanitoba.ca or (204) 474-6097.
On Thursday, July 21, the Ian N. Morrison Research Farm will host the Organic and Ecologically Integrated Farming Systems Field Tour, featuring the work of Martin Entz and his team of researchers. This tour will focus on ecological crop production techniques that will be of interest to organic and conventional farmers alike. For more information, contact Martin Entz at (204) 474-6077 or m_entz@umanitoba.ca.
The annual Faculty slow pitch tournament and BBQ is scheduled for the afternoon of Thursday, July 21. See your department office for sign-up sheets! First games and BBQ start at 12 noon at Waverley Heights Community Centre.
The Southwestern Manitoba Pasture Tour will be held August 3 and 4. The theme is "Business and the Environment - Making it Work on Your Farm". The tour will showcase heifer development, management intensive grazing, stockyards, using stock dogs, poly cropping, swath grazing, bale grazing, corn grazing, burning for tree and ground juniper control, and more. Cost is $100 for producers and $175 for industry. You will be provided with accommodation (double occupancy), meals, the tour, and evening workshops. To register, call Souris MAFRI at (204) 483-2153.
A Soil and Manure Management Clinic will be held Friday, August 5 at the Portage la Prairie Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre. A variety of topics ranging from fertility and excess water management to equipment choices will be covered during this interactive in-field learning session. Delivery partners: MAFRI, AAFC, PAMI and NCLE. Featuring CCA Continuing Education Units in Soil and Water Management and in Nutrient Management. For more details contact Mitchell Timmerman, Nutrient Management Specialist with MAFRI at 793-8288 or Mitchell.Timmerman@gov.mb.ca.
The 2011 Canada-China Science and Innovation Platform Meeting in Agriculture and Agri-Food will be held August 8-10 at the EITC Atrium, University of Manitoba. Coordinators and representatives of the China-Canada S&I Centres, universities and industry, and government managers and scientists from both countries are invited to participate. The meeting will create opportunities to strengthen science and innovation activities, and provide and exchange information to help access each country's markets or technologies. To receive an attendance form, contact Crystal Jorgenson at (204) 474-9435 or c_jorgenson@umanitoba.ca.
The Manitoba Soil Science Society Summer Tour will be held on August 18. They will be heading to southwest Manitoba this year to feature the Newdale provincial soil. More details will follow shortly so stay tuned!
The University of Manitoba is launching a new speakers series entitled “Visionary Conversations” this fall, hosted by President and Vice-Chancellor Dr. David T. Barnard. The kickoff seminar is entitled “Apocalypse or Utopia?” on Wednesday, September 14, where the university’s leading minds will share their insight on issues affecting our world and how decisions we make today will shape our future. Rick Holley, Food Science, is one of six presenters at the first event. Find out more at http://www.umanitoba.ca/about/354.html.
Biosystems Engineering faculty and students recently took part in the 2011 CSBE/SCGAB Annual Conference at the Inn at the Forks. The theme of this year's conference was "Growing Renewable Energy." David Levin was one of the keynote speakers to open the conference on Monday, June 10. At the awards banquet, Danny Mann received the Glenn Downing Award for outstanding work in industry, teaching, research, or extension in the area of "power and machinery." R. Sri Ranjan received the Jim Beamish Award for outstanding work in industry, teaching, research, or extension in the area of soil and water. Several students received awards in the student categories: Stephanie Brown, John Grogan, Leno Guzman, Arshdeep Juneja, Grant Rayner, and Patrick Sheldon received the CSBE Undergraduate Design Project Award; Annette Kroeker received the CSBE Undergraduate Thesis Award; and Jinke Xu received the CSBE Graduate Thesis Award in the M.Sc. category. Qiang Zhang was introduced as the President-Elect of the Canadian Society for Bioengineering.
Martin Entz, Plant Science, participated in the Third International Conference on Farming Systems for the Loess Plains of China in mid-June. His paper was entitled "Building resilience into Canadian dryland farming systems: Applying lessons from China". After the conference, Martin, along with Neil MacLeod of CSIRO Australia and Yuying Shen, Professor at Lanzhou University, took a 2500 km driving tour of Northwest China.
Tee Boon Goh, Soil Science, was at two European conferences recently and presented “Effect of phosphorus form on short-term solubility and ‘availability’ in soils” at the 12th ISSPA Conference, Chain, Greece and “Bacterial action as an alteration agent of recent pyroclastic materials from Mt. Talang and Mt. Merapi, Indonesia” at ISMOM 2011, Montpellier, France.
Trust Beta and Gary Fulcher, Food Science, met with Dr. Yamada from Kaneka Corporation, Japan on June 20 to discuss potential research collaboration on grain fractions as food ingredients.
Trust Beta was a volunteer at the MAFRI interactive display at the Red River Exhibition. The theme this year was “Live Healthy. Eat Well. Enjoy Locally Produced Foods”. Among the games was the Grocery Store Race (as seen on TV). Players raced through the grocery aisle choosing the 10 healthiest options with only 20 seconds and 20 options to choose from.
Trust Beta’s application for program assistance through Manitoba Career Focus was recently approved with Jiansheng Wang, Faculty of Science, commencing his undergraduate summer research assistantship on May 30 in the Department of Food Science.
Five Manitoba high school students have been awarded 2011 Agricultural and Food Sciences Centennial Entrance Scholarships. Andrew Poole (Sanford), Macey Ostberg (Dominion City), Davis Wright (MacGregor), Louise Berard (Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes) and Kiah Helgason-Stoyanowski each received the scholarship, valued at $2000, to help with tuition expenses. All five students plan on entering the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. They were selected based on academic achievement and community involvement, and submitted essays in which they outlined their vision for the future of rural Manitoba, and how their education and career goals would help accomplish this. The scholarship was funded by alumni, faculty, agricultural industry, friends of the Faculty, and MAFRI.
Merv Pritchard, Dean's Office, is part of a project team that has received an International Recognition Award from the Agricultural Institute of Canada. Merv is a project coordinator for the Canadian Society for Horticultural Science, which teamed up with the Ghana Institute of Horticulturists in 2001 to strengthen and expand the GIH, and provide training, education and logistical support to Ghana's impoverished Upper West Region. According to the AIC, "The project has made an outstanding contribution to the improvement of agriculture in the developing world."
Fabio Mattos, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, will be attending the Agricultural and Applied Economics Association annual meeting in Pittsburgh July 24-26. He is presenting a paper “Do Farmers Exhibit Disposition Effect? Evidence From Grain Marketing”, and a poster “Are Canadian Farmers Overconfident?”, both co-authored with Stefanie Fryza, M.Sc. student in Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics. During the meetings, Fabio is also serving as advisor for the Faculty’s AgriBusiness Students Association team contesting the Academic Bowl (Quizbowl), and he will also be a judge in the Undergraduate Paper Competition.
Two visiting students from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, have arrived to undertake six-month periods of research supervised by Fabio Mattos in Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics. Elisson de Andrade is a Ph.D. student in Agricultural Economics and his research is based on transaction costs in futures markets. Douglas Bottrel is an undergraduate student majoring in agronomy and his research is on price transmission in fuel markets. We welcome these students.
The Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre is now open! The Centre features exciting interactive exhibits, public programs and events that explore modern farming and food production, and the science and technology that provide healthy, sustainable food for Manitoba and the world. The Centre's hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00am - 4:00pm. For a limited time, the Centre is offering visitors special discount rates. It's the perfect place for meetings, lectures and special events. Call (204) 883-2524 or 883-2532, or visit www.farmandfooddiscoverycentre.ca for more information.
Rob Currie, Entomology, was quoted in the article “Canadian researchers look to build a better honey bee” in the National Post. Researchers at the universities of Guelph and Manitoba are working with queen bee producers in Ontario to find bees that are resistant to the disease and pests that have decimated their numbers, and to then breed them. Read the article at http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/07/canadian-researchers-look-to-build-a-better-honey-bee/.
The new University of Manitoba/Agriculture and AgriFood Canada "Farmer participatory wheat breeding initiative" has been getting a lot of attention from the farm media. Stories have appeared on University News and will soon appear in Top Crop Manager. The initiative will expand in 2012 to include oats. For more information, contact Iris Vaisman or Gary Martens, Plant Science.
The University of Manitoba’s publication ResearchLIFE featured the research programs of the National Centre for Livestock and the Environment in the article “Bringing Agricultural Research Full Circle” in its Summer 2011 issue. Check it out at http://issuu.com/researchlife/docs/researchlifesummer2011. Among those interviewed were associate dean (research) Karin Wittenberg, NCLE chair Don Flaten and Kim Ominski.
Yvonne Lawley and Martin Entz, Plant Science, were quoted in the article “Cover crop an option for late season seeding” in the Western Producer (July 7). They encourage Manitoba producers to consider cover crops in a year like this to add nitrogen, suppress weeds and build soil structure.
Gary Martens, Plant Science, wrote the editorial “Emerald Green or Muddy?” in the Manitoba Co-operator (June 30). He highlights how countries like Ireland, with much greater rainfall amounts, have much of their land in managed forage crops. Gary suggests we need to think more about natural systems agriculture, particularly the development of perennial crops.
Used Battery Disposal - Do you have used batteries lying around and you're not sure how to get rid of them? Feel free to bring your used batteries (rechargeable or nonrechargeable) to Val Broadhurst, Room 160 Agriculture, to have them disposed of properly. She'll be collecting them regularly and taking them to a city-approved disposal site.
Recent amendments to the Pension Benefits Act require that The University of Manitoba Pension Plan be administered by a newly constituted pension committee. The committee must be established by September 25, 2011. The Human Resources Web site has a Nomination Form which can be completed by active pension plan members. Active pension plan members can also obtain a hard copy of the nomination form from Human Resources at either the Fort Garry or Bannatyne campus. The form must be received by Human Resources on or before August 19, 2011. An election process will follow after the close of nominations.
Donate blood this summer and help support the Winnipeg Goldeyes in the Fishing for Donors blood drive. Bring your Goldeyes ticket to any blood donor clinic in Manitoba to be entered to win one of two Goldeyes packages, including autographed team jerseys.
staff.matters is e-mailed bi-weekly on Wednesday afternoon to members and friends of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba. The bi-weekly news deadline is Tuesdays at 4:00 pm. Email Crystal Jorgenson with your news or get in touch with your department staff.matters rep:
- Agribusiness: Judy Powell 9259
- Animal Science and Entomology: Mei Ding 6125
- Biosystems Engineering: Debby Watson 6033
- Food Science: Allison Cranmer 9621
- Plant Science: Bev Godard 8563
- Soil Science: Lynda Closson 8153