Problem viewing this email? See it here »
CAFNR Research Digest
CAFNR Office of Research Newsletter // Aug. 24, 2023 // 5(17)
Missouri Agricultural Experiment Station
Employers (click to read)
Employers »
Tomato Festival is Back! »

Make plans to attend the Tomato Festival Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Jefferson Farm and Garden Extension and Education Center in Columbia. The event is being held in collaboration with the Central Missouri Research, Extension and Education Center, and will run from 4-7 p.m. Free and open to the public, the festival will include presentations by tomato experts and tastings of more than a hundred varieties of tomatoes, peppers and tomatillos.

Digital Ag Research and Education Center Webinar Offered Next Week

Jianfeng Zhou, Ken Sudduth and Tim Reinbott will present a webinar titled “Establishing a Digital Agriculture Research and Extension Center (DAREC) in CAFNR” on Monday, Aug. 28 at 3:30 p.m.

Digital agriculture based on emerging digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the conventional agriculture to a highly efficient and sustainable system. Although MU and CAFNR faculty are conducting cutting-edge research and extension activities through multidisciplinary collaborations, we need a central home to converge research efforts and amplify the impacts. Meanwhile, we also need a central home where we can demonstrate and showcase newly developed digital agriculture technologies to stakeholders through field demonstration and knowledge dissemination. Therefore, it is time to establish a Digital Agriculture Research and Extension Center (DAREC) to boost the collaboration and amplify the impacts. Several researchers from CAFNR and USDA-ARS have started initial efforts. This webinar will explain the rationale, goal, objectives, potential activities, benefits to join the DAREC, and some of efforts currently underway. The DAREC is seeking broad collaborations among faculty, researchers, extension specialists of MU, external institutions, industries, and other stakeholders (e.g., commodity groups, government agencies).

Watch at https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/99414506031

Research Roars

SNR Faculty Elected as Fellow for the American Fisheries Society

Jodi Whittier, assistant research professor of fisheries and wildlife, was elected as a Fellow for the American Fisheries Society. Fellows are “members who have made outstanding or meritorious contributions to the diversity of fields that are included in the American Fisheries Society. Contributions can include, but are not restricted to, efforts in leadership, research, teaching and mentoring, resource management and/or conservation, and outreach/interaction with the public.”

CAFNR faculty members have received the following recent grants (listed by Principal Investigator):

Kiho Lee, Optimization of High Frequency Irreversible Electroporation (H-FIRE) for tumor ablation and immune system activation in pancreatic cancer applications, Virginia Tech/National Institute of Health, 5/1/23-3/31/24, $86,100

Rebecca North, Collaborative Research: MRA: On thin ice- implications of shorter winters for the future of freshwater phytoplankton phenology and function, National Science Foundation, 10/1/23-9/30/28, $265,295

Robert Myers, Farmers for Soil Health Initiative, Osborn Barr Agency, 3/27/23-9/30/23, $125,020

Felix Fritschi, Acquisition of Goods and Services – FY 23-24 PGRU Krishnan.Fritschi, Agricultural Research Service, 8/1/23-7/31/24, $24,750

Deborah Finke, Insect and Pollinator Research Project, Missouri Department of Conservation, 7/1/23-6/30/24, $25,000

Chung Ho Lin, Phytotechnologies for rural and urban communities, US Forest Service, 7/24/23-6/30/26, $69,000

Michael Byrne, Evaluating prairie restoration with active bison grazing on Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, US Forest Service, 9/15/22-9/3/25, $169,999.90

Kelly Nelson, STTR: Field Testing a Natural Source of Rubber from Sunflower, Edison Agroscience, Inc., 4/1/23-12/31/24, $186,324

Theodoros Skevas, The monetary and greenhouse gas value of the United States crop distribution network, Ag Marketing Service, 7/15/23-12/31/24, $210,000
In the News

This MU climatologist foresees a rainy August (Listen)
Missourinet

Summer forages under stress as drought conditions persist
Farms.com

Farmers realize significant benefits from cover crop usage
Brownfield Ag News

Prepare against ‘ASF fatigue’ during showing season
Missouri Farmer Today

Cover Crop Decision Tool Provides Choices for Grazing
Morning Ag Clips

Let's Get Social!

Keep up with the latest in research news from CAFNR by following us on Twitter and LinkedIn!

Twitter: @CAFNRResearch

LinkedIn: Mizzou College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources