MN CropCast: Kelsey Andersen Onofre: Kansas Wheat, Fusarium Head Blight, and the US Scab Initiative

Nov 06, 2023

In today’s CropCast, Seth Naeve welcomes Kelsey Andersen Onofre, an Assistant Professor and Wheat and Forage Extension Specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology at Kansas State University. Kelsey is joining us through a collaboration with the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative, a national multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional research consortium whose goal is to develop effective control measures that minimize the threat of Fusarium Head Blight (scab) for producers, processors and consumers of wheat and barley. USWBSI funds over 150 research projects in 30 American states. You can learn more at scabusa.org.

Kelsey discusses the 2023 wheat crop in Kansas and highlights the drought impacts on production. Seth and Kelsey chat about the impact of wheat scab and its presence in years like the current one. They discuss the impact of Fusarium Head Blight and the economic impacts. Management through variety selection and fungicide application is possible, but it can be especially challenging for producers in areas with either infrequent challenges from scab or low-yielding environments where intensive management can be economically infeasible.

Source : umn.edu

Video: Season 6, Episode 7: Takeaways from the Second International Conference on Pig Livability

This year’s conference fostered open, engaging conversations around current research in the swine industry, bringing together hundreds of attendees from 31 states and six countries. Two leaders who helped organize the event joined today’s episode: Dr. Joel DeRouchey, professor and swine extension specialist in the Department of Animal Sciences and Industry at Kansas State University, and Dr. Edison Magalhaes, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Iowa State University. They share key takeaways from the conference, including the importance of integrating data when evaluating whole-herd livability, building a culture of care among employees and adopting new technologies. Above all, the discussion reinforces that this industry remains, at its core, a people business.