Stories
Aug. 12, 2025
Get to Know Lindley Bennett
Q&A with the senior manager of donor relations in CAFNR Advancement.
Aug. 12, 2025
Catch Up with CAFNR – August 2025
Catch up with CAFNR, August 2025: A photo gallery of CAFNR happenings.
Aug. 12, 2025
Biochar improves soil health for cotton production, study confirms
A team of researchers led by the University of Missouri is giving new purpose to an established material — biochar, a charcoal-like substance made from leftover plant waste — and showing how it can address challenges facing today’s cotton growers.
Aug. 12, 2025
Drones can more efficiently measure the health of corn plants, study finds
Researchers at the University of Missouri have found a mix of drones and AI can help farmers measure the health of their corn more efficiently.
Aug. 11, 2025
Message from Heike Bücking
Dear Alumni and Friends, Welcome to the Fall semester. I am delighted to share with you some of the remarkable achievements in 2024 from the Division of Plant Science and Technology (DPST). Our faculty and staff continue to provide learning and leadership opportunities for our students in classrooms, research laboratories, field, and international settings. Our mission is to keep students on track towards graduation, and to provide them with high quality education and the foundation for life-long career success. Recent investments into a new teaching space enabled us to equip a new digital teaching lab with computers and software packages…
July 30, 2025
Researchers identify key survival strategy for soybeans during heat and drought
María Ángeles Peláez-Vico, Ron Mittler and Ranjita Sinha It’s a hot, dry summer afternoon, and the skies offer no relief for a field of soybeans. But within those green leaves, these plants are quietly fighting back. Researchers at the University of Missouri recently discovered that soybeans have a natural defense strategy — called differential transpiration — that helps protect the plant’s reproductive tissues (flowers and seed pods) during extreme weather conditions. Think of it as nature’s version of targeted air conditioning. Ron Mittler “Soybeans keep their stomata — tiny pores used for plant breathing and cooling by evaporation — open…
July 29, 2025
Q&A with Summer Welcome Leader Nigel Turner Jr.
Nigel Turner Jr., a sophomore from Raytown, Missouri, majoring in biochemistry, served as a Summer Welcome Leader.
July 29, 2025
Q&A with Summer Welcome Leader Kiersten Rogers
Kiersten Rogers, a sophomore from Fairview Heights, Illinois, majoring in animal sciences, served as a Summer Welcome Leader.
July 29, 2025
Q&A with Chris Daubert
Chris Daubert is proud to be referred to as “the land-grant dean” in Missouri.
July 28, 2025
From the livestock barn to the pageant stage, the Missouri State Fair offers young agriculturalists unique leadership roles
Student leaders from CAFNR will gather in Sedalia, Missouri, August 7-17, to ensure the state’s largest agricultural expo runs smoothly.