From turning today’s tuna salad into tomorrow’s tomatoes, and improving water quality and conservation through advanced irrigation and drainage techniques, CAFNR’s 17 research centers are improving production efficiency, reducing costs and inputs and working to conserve natural resources. Sometimes the solutions involve working with what nature provides, such as capturing ground source air to maintain consistent temperatures for heating and…
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Tools to Communicate Science
SCAPE challenges the science community
Science Communication and Public Engagement is an organization for graduate students in the science community. The purpose of SCAPE is to provide members with the “tools they need to more effectively communicate their research to each other, their professional community and public,” according to their constitution.
What Are Trees Worth?
Establishing a timber tax basis can save money
Timber is usually taxed as a long-term capital gain, so landowners can subtract their cost basis when figuring tax liability. But if landowners don’t have this basis, they have to pay tax on the full amount of the sale.
La Nina Redux
More drought for the Southern Plains?
It looks like another La Niña year, which means the devastating drought in the Southern Plains is likely to continue this summer, says Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science at the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, University of Missouri.
Pure Missouri Maple Syrup
Tapping nature's sweetness in an unexpected place
Grade A, Missouri maple syrup can be had right here in Boone County. Rich Guyette, professor of forestry at MU, has been harvesting, boiling and bottling the sweet stuff for the last 36 years on his property near the Baskett Wildlife Research and Education Center.
Ahead of the Storm
MU-trained meteorologists issued the most critical warnings of 2011
On April 27, 2011, a massive tornado outbreak, considered the worst natural disaster since Hurricane Katrina, saw more than 100 tornadoes rip destruction from Louisiana through Pennsylvania, killing 346 people. Less than a month later, on May 22, what is considered the seventh worst tornado in American history, and the 27th most violent twister in world history, tore into the…
Scientific Honors
Five CAFNR faculty members elected Fellows in AAAS
Five faculty members in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources have been elected to the rank of Fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; seven were selected University-wide in 2011.
Exploring a Tradition
Ozarks families go fishing at night. In December. With spears.
Most fishermen call it a day when the sun goes down, but on this December evening Landon Howell and his friends are just getting started. Howell and Michael Stoops pilot a pair of flat-bottomed aluminum boats at speeds that would spell almost certain disaster for boaters unfamiliar with this stretch of the Current River. They deftly navigate upstream, dodging rocks,…
A Drought Five Feet Under
A short but significant dry spell has left Missouri soil nearly desiccated
Missouri has not escaped the historic drought that has devastated Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona. A short but critically-timed dry spell has left much of the state’s soil bone dry down to five feet. Unless there is long and heavy rain and snowfall this winter, Missouri’s most important crops will suffer.
Closing the loop
From food waste to compost to fresh vegetables, an innovative recycling program launches at Bradford Research Center
Tim Reinbott, superintendent of Bradford Research Center, is creating a closed-loop system that doesn’t require a single ounce of fossil fuel—once all the components are operational. Reinbott’s “Zero Carbon Footprint Vegetable and Compost Production System” can become a model for other universities, school districts, prisons and even small communities who aspire to turn their waste stream into a productive resource.