staff.matters
the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences staff newsletter
February 11, 2004
Plant Science Seminar Series - Dave McAndrew, Morden Research Centre Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, will present "Crop management challenges for southern Manitoba" on Thursday, February 12 at 3:30 pm in Room 130 Agriculture Building. Coffee and donuts will be served at 3:00 pm. Everyone is welcome to attend!
Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals Research Update - Anyone with an interest in functional foods and nutraceuticals is invited to attend "Natural Health Products and Functional Foods Research Opportunities" hosted by the Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals on Monday, February 16 from 8 am - 5 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, Room 130 Agriculture Building. This workshop will highlight research activities in the area if functional foods and nutraceuticals to be given by 18 University of Manitoba scientists.
Next week, February 16-20, is Reading Week, the University's spring break. University students may be scarce but there will be lots of young people on campus! On Tuesday, February 17 and Wednesday, February 18, high school students from around Manitoba will attend Information Days. The Faculty's student ambassadors will staff a booth in the Manitoba Room in University Centre and will give presentations and tours in the Agriculture Building on both days. If you see a student looking lost, be sure to help them out with directions!
Aggie Blood Bath - Roll up your sleeve and sign up for the Aggie Blood Bath on Monday, February 23 and Tuesday, February 24 from 11:30 -3:30 both days in University Centre. Call 1-800-2-DONATE, sign the sign-up sheet in atrium or talk to Sharlene or Scott in FASO at 474-6763. Canadian Blood Services will contact you to make an appointment. Everyone should be signed up by February 16.
GrainWorld 2004, the 13th annual conference hosted by the Canadian Wheat Board, will be held February 22 - 24 at the Fairmont Hotel, Winnipeg. The conference will highlight the latest in market developments and in-depth outlooks for grains, oilseeds, special crops and red meats. Panel discussions will look at the topics of world hunger and also the current state and future prospects of the Chinese agricultural economy and rural development. Ed Tyrchniewicz, adjunct prof in Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, will be moderating the panel "China: The once and future market". More detailed information about the conference can be found online.
Diploma seminars open to all - The second year diploma class will be hosting the following guest speakers as part of their Management Planning Project II course. All are welcome to sit in. The sessions are held Wednesdays at 2:30 pm in JRI Auditorium, Room 172 in the Agriculture Building.
- February 25: Mike Lesiuk, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives, will be speaking about the Agricultural Policy Framework.
- March 3: Jon Thiessen, MCC, will be speaking about his work with
The Mennonite Central Committee. Then at 3:30 pm, Dan Wiens, CFGB, will give a presentation on the Canadian Food Grains Bank.
On Wednesday February 25 in the Carolyn Sifton lecture theatre at 3:30 pm (coffee and donuts at 3 pm), Funing Zhong, a PhD and MSc graduate in Ag Economics from the University of Manitoba, will present a seminar titled "Food Security and Rural Development: Past experience in Chinese agriculture and future perspectives". Dr Zhong is Dean of Economics and Trade at Nanjing Agricultural University in China. He is in Winnipeg to speak at the CWB Grain World conference, to participate in a meeting of the Task Force on options for rural development in China, and to discuss possible linkage programs between the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and Nanjing Agricultural University.
Faculty Seminar Series - The fifth Faculty seminar will be presented by Denis Krause, Animal Science, on Wednesday, March 3 at 3:30 pm in Room 130 Agriculture Building. His topic will be "Food borne pathogens in beef production; a systems approach in tropical Australia". Coffee and doughnuts will be served in the Atrium just outside Room 130 at 3:00 pm. All are welcome and encouraged to attend.
MIA honours "our" Member of the Order of Canada - At its 54th annual meeting in Brandon Tuesday, February 10, the Manitoba Institute of Agrologists presented Walter Bushuk, professor emeritus in Food Science, with the 2004 Distinguished Agrologist award. In characteristic fashion, Walter thanked the Institute and then deferred the honour to his many graduate students who are making a difference in their professions. Congratulations to all!
Anita Brûlé-Babel, Plant Science, spoke at the MIA annual in Brandon re "GMO vs non-GMO - can they co-exist". Diane Wreford, Dean's Office, participated in a panel regarding recruiting prospective agrologists.
James Rude, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, will be presenting a paper at the Southern Agricultural Economics Association 36th Annual Meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, February 14 - 18. Title of his presentation is "Conceptual Issues for Developing Policy Relevant Commodity Models".
Plant Science's Rene Van Acker and Lyle Friesen, along with grad students Tony Szumigalski, Kristi De Corby, John Bullied, Anastasie Kabanyana, and Jody Dexter are in Kansas City, Missouri at the 2004 Weed Science Society of America annual meeting this week.
David Lobb, and Mario Tenuta, Soil Science, along with Tim Papakyriakou of U of M's Centre for Earth Observation Science and David Burton (on leave from Soil Science and currently Research Chair in Climate Change at Nova Scotia Agricultural College) received grants from the University of Saskatchewan for the project "Landscape-scale measurements and upscaling of process-level nitrous oxide measurements".
Karin Wittenberg, Animal Science, received a grant of $100,000 from Manitoba Rural Adaptation Council in support of "Development of Educational Exhibits, Signage and Take-home information for the Proposed Interpretive Centre at CALPS".
Kelley Fitzpatrick, Richardson Centre for Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, has been in Chicago this week participating in a meeting of the American Oil Chemists Society Governing Board. She will also be the keynote presenter on Friday, February 14 at the Direct Farm Marketing conference in Brandon, speaking on "Functional foods and nutraceuticals: Opportunities for Manitoba".
Students had a chance to learn more about the Faculty's cooperative education program on Wednesday, February 11. "Co-op, through the eyes of students" featured speakers Kristen Williamson, Tyler Kneeshaw, and Celeste Maguet, who shared their experiences in the program. If you would like more information about the Co-op Program, please contact program coordinator Gord Mushey at 474-6943.
AGGIE Clothing "Second Chance" - Some time in the near future AGGIE clothing will be on sale in the Atrium. Stay tuned!
Farmers Independent Weekly - This week's article by Neil Holliday, Entomology, is titled "Getting the bugs out of alfalfa". Neil has been examining the economic significance of plant bug populations in seed alfalfa in late summer. Research focused on whether an August insecticide application provides economic benefits to the alfalfa seed growers. The preliminary evidence suggests that late season populations of plant bugs have little significance for seed yield. This research will continue in 2004.
Library and Archives Canada has launched the Theses Canada Portal. Search the online catalogue for all the Canadian theses and dissertations in the collection and access for free the full-text electronic theses covering the period from 1998 to 2002. Visit the Theses Canada Portal at www.nlc-bnc.ca/thesescanada/index-e.html
Books of the Week - Encyclopaedia of rose science, 2004. William R. Newman Reference SB 410.95 E53. Purchased with funds from the F.L. Skinner Fund. Volumes one and two consist of monographs by an international array of scientists on all aspects of rose science and includes a number of four-colour photographs and a subject index. The third volume lists rose names. Each brief entry includes a description, awards, chromosome count, patent number and so on. For example, Murphy's Law, developed in 1982 is a bushy hybrid tea medium pink rose with dark foliage.
Roses are difficult here by W.O. Mitchell (1990) is a novel of small-town life in the Alberta foothills where the aforementioned encyclopaedia may have come in handy. This title is available on the fiction shelf above the photocopier.
2004 Faculty Endowment Fund Competition - The Endowment Fund Committee of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences is once again soliciting proposals for funding from academic and support staff, students, and alumni of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. The deadline for applications is 4:30 P.M., March 15, 2004. Funding is available for a wide variety of worthy projects and programs consistent with the academic goals of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. The Endowment Fund has over $1.3 million donated to date from students, academic and support staff, alumni and the private sector, from which interest of approximately $95,000 is available this year to fund proposals. Visit the Endowment Fund site to read about projects which may qualify, past projects funded and to download an application form. If you have any questions, please contact Bernie Dronzek at 474-8229
MAC 2003 Proceedings Online - The proceedings of the 2003 Manitoba Agronomists Conference are now available online. A hard copy of the proceedings will also be mailed to all participants. This incredibly popular event was the 4th annual and drew a record 228 participants to the campus in December.
The Melita Marketing Group, a small group of producers, visited the Faculty this week as part of their Winnipeg tour. They were treated to a presentation by Martin Entz, Plant Science, on innovative agronomic practices and by Dean Harold Bjarnason on the Faculty's future opportunities and challenges.
staff.matters is e-mailed weekly on Wednesday afternoon to members and friends of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the University of Manitoba. The weekly news deadline is Tuesday 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: Claire Hutchinson 6125
- Biosystems Engineering: Connie Wenzoski 6033
- Food Science: Yvonne Halden 9621
- Plant Science: Bev Godard 8225
- Soil Science: Terry Ramm 8153