State Board of Agricultural Research & Education Corn Granting Committee

State Board of Agricultural Research & Education Corn Granting Committee

February 4, 2011 Conference Call

Meeting Minutes

The conference call was called to order at 8 a.m. CST. Voting members present were Kevin Skunes, Jeff Enger, Larry Hoffmann and Wallie Hardie. Non-voting members present were Dr. Ken Grafton and Dr. Joel Ransom. Also present was Cindy McDonald and Lori Capouch.

Kevin Skunes was appointed as chair of the committee by consensus.

The following proposals were considered:

Applied corn breeding in North Dakota: NDSU unique program to develop corn products for North Dakota environments

Researcher: Marcelo Carena

Amount requested: $26,635

North Dakota is one of the U.S. states leading the expansion of corn acres nationally. Therefore, the continuity of a strong short-season breeding research program is essential for expanded acres in North Dakota. However, still many US northern commercial hybrids are not locally bred as they are provided by retailer companies without local breeding programs. Besides, early maturing industry testers are scarce. Therefore, these hybrids are often late-maturing products with below average yield, grain quality, drought tolerance, and rat of dry down reducing their utilization (e.g. ethanol). In addition, most of these hybrids track back to the same industry lines increasing their genetic vulnerability to pests and significantly reducing their available genetic diversity. In fact, the earliest maturing commercial product available is a 79 relative maturity product that normally behaves as 85 relative maturity. NDSU leads the largest and most northern corn-breeding program in North America moving corn north to cooler seasons and west to dry areas. The project targets to:

1. increase the genetic diversity of North Dakota short-season corn hybrids.

2. identify the best possible reliable product for North Dakota industry and farmers.

This product expands the connection between US northern public research in corn breeding and product development and commercialization and utilization of NDSU corn products. NDSU has demonstrated extensive research and development of elite drought tolerance, high starch, and early maturing corn hybrids at no expense to grain yield potential for both ethanol producer areas where the seed industry is not actively present as well as desirable areas of corn production. The project will also enhance the value of North Dakota short-season hybrids by developing products not available in the US northern market, working toward healthier and safer products, and by capacity building through the training of the next generation of applied corn breeders.

Equipment for sample processing at NDSU beef cattle research complex and development of in vitro approaches to examine feed starch quality in corn

Researcher: Kendall Swanson

Amount requested: $6,016.50

For this project, a centrifuge will be acquired for sample preparation at th newly constructed NDSU beef cattle research complex. The acquisition of a centrifuge to be housed at the beef cattle research complex will allow for more efficient sample preparation of biological samples collected for various research trials. Overall, the research at the facility will aim to improve the efficiency of beef cattle production through the use of alternative and improved feedstuffs, through an improved understanding of physiological factors affecting feed efficiency, and through improving reproductive performance of cattle. Additionally, in vitro digestive systems will be developed to assess hybrids for starch digestive quality in ruminant and non-ruminant production systems and for human food.

Funding decisions

It was moved by Enger and seconded by Hoffmann to grant negotiated funding of up to $26,635 to the project titled “Applied corn breeding in North Dakota: NDSU unique program to develop corn products for North Dakota environments”. The motion carried.

It was moved by Hoffmann and seconded by Hardie to grant negotiated funding of up to $6,356 to the project titled “Equipment for sample processing at NDSU beef cattle research complex and development of in vitro approaches to examine feed starch quality in corn”. The motion carried.

It was moved by Enger and seconded by Hardie to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried.