A groundbreaking ceremony will take place April 5.

The University of Missouri Board of Curators has voted to approve the naming of the Roy Blunt Soil Testing and Research Laboratory planned at the Fisher Delta Research, Extension and Education Center (FD-REEC) in Portageville, Missouri, to honor the former U.S. senator. The official groundbreaking event will be held April 5.

“As a longtime Delta Day attendee and Delta Center advocate, I’m pleased to have been part of spearheading a new facility that will support existing university programs while inspiring research among future generations of students,” said former Sen. Blunt. “It is an honor to have my name connected with this world-class facility right in the heart of the region that will benefit from the research the most.”

Supported by $4.6 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development, the state of Missouri and the Fisher Delta FD-REEC, this state-of-the-art laboratory will help advance research and innovation in all the agricultural research programs currently housed at the center.

The University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute’s latest baseline report reflects downward shifts in commodity prices and farm income.

Held on April 3, the Womack Conference will be hosted by the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute.

Show Me Research Week will feature one of the world’s leading forest ecologists, Suzanne Simard, who will discuss her New York Times bestseller, “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest.” Based on her years of research, Simard posits that trees are not simply the source of timber, but are a complex, interdependent circle of life. Trees are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks.

Simard will give the William A. Albrecht Lecture at 6 p.m., April 9, at the Monsanto Auditorium in Bond Life Sciences Center. The event is sponsored by the School of Natural Resources.

Immediately following this Show Me Research discussion, Simard will sign copies of her book outside Monsanto Auditorium. Yellow Dog Bookshop also will be on hand for book purchases.

Simard is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia and has published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles. Her current research investigates how these complex relationships of trees contribute to forest resiliency, adaptability and recovery and has far-reaching implications for how to manage and heal forests from human impacts, including climate change.

Register to attend

Seats still available for CAFNR Grants Office NSF workshop

Don’t forget to register for the CAFNR Grants Office in-person NSF workshop Wednesday, April 3, 1-4 p.m. There are still a few seats available, so be sure to register to save a seat.

NSF is an underutilized federal funding agency in CAFNR in both proposal submissions and funds awarded. This in-person workshop will be limited to 15 faculty attendees and aims to assist them in becoming more competitive for NSF funding. Space is limited.

The Grants Office will discuss navigating NSF funding announcements, required proposal documents and opportunities to secure additional funding for current NSF projects. Hear from a recent CAREER awardee and from a faculty panel experienced with NSF proposals, as well as from two program directors at NSF. This workshop will also discuss the importance of well-defined broader impacts, and there will be a bonus session on establishing SciENcv accounts for those that need it.

The Grants Office looks forward to hosting this event and providing this service for CAFNR. Please reach out to dlankitus@missouri.edu if you have any questions about this workshop.

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

Bradley Wilson, RBTN Samples on a Large Scale, Cotton, Inc., 1/1/24-12/31/24, $4,500

Bradley Wilson, Microbial and N-Refinement Beltwide Project, Cotton, Inc., 1/1/24-12/31/24, $5,000

Felix Fritschi, Interdisciplinary Process-based Approach to Identify Nitrogen Limitations and Increase Soybean Yield and Meal Protein, University of Kentucky Research Foundation, 10/1/23-9/30/24, $51,655

David Braun, Heirlooms of the United States, Midwest Evaluation, Agricultural Research Service, 9/15/23-8/14/26, $250,020

Feng Lin, Climate resiliency for farm to market development: Economically viable low-carbon and climate-smart practices for soybean farming, University of Texas Arlington (USDA), 9/26/23-9/25/27, $966,943

Feng Lin, Breeding and Screening Soybeans for Resistance to Mature Seed Damage, Mississippi State University (USB), 10/1/23-9/30/24, $60,129

Kerry Clark, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Small-Scale Irrigation and Mechanization, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (USAID), 1/19/24-9/30/24, $146,530

Chase Floyd, Insect Management in Mid-South Cotton, Cotton, Inc., 1/1/24-12/31/24, $20,000

Andrew Scaboo, National USDA Uniform Soybean Tests/ Soybean Cyst Nematode Screening with University of Missouri, Agricultural Research Service, 10/1/23-8/31/24, $6,374

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