Analysis and Comparison of the Technical and Business Planning Needs of Iowa Farmers Marketing Directly to Consumers and Iowa Farmers Marketing through Supply Chains

This report from the Regional Food Systems Working Group summarizes the marketing and business planning needs of Iowa farmers who either market directly to the end consumer or market through a supply group.https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/extension_pubs/1059/thumbnail.jp

Crop Quality Issues from the Drought of 2012

As we approach harvest, the impact of the drought on grain quality is becoming clearer. Corn in many areas to the west and east of Iowa reached maturity earlier. Most of Iowa\u27s corn will be past black layer by Labor Day weekend. Soybeans have stopped and started with late rains, but expect pod count and seed size to be pretty well set by Labor Day as well. Regardless of crop and quality issue, please talk to your crop insurance company before harvest. Some quality issues are covered; others are not. Quality issues are resolved in crop insurance by deducting an additional percentage of actual production before calculating the settlement

Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) Calibrations for Moisture in High Moisture Corn Co-Products

Corn co-products from the ethanol industry have become a common feed ingredient in Midwest feedlot diets. However, nutrient composition, especially moisture, can vary by as much as 15% from load to load even from the same ethanol plant. Knowing the exact moisture content of the co-product is advantageous for proper ration formulation and cattle efficiency. This study demonstrates that near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology shows promise for rapid, accurate assessment of moisture in wet corn co-products

Calibration of NIRS Whole Grain Analyzers for Amino Acid Measurement in Corn

In food and feed products, near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is used to measure an increasing number of chemical parameters that have traditionally been measured by analytical chemistry. The use of NIRS is driven by its speed and relative low cost, thereby allowing users to accurately measure nutrient components and other factors of interest in a matter of seconds versus several hours or days for traditional lab results. Calibration of NIRS analyzers relies on good representative sample sets and consistent reference chemistry; calibration is, in itself, a painstaking process but, once done, accurate calibrations provide rapid, reliable measurements in daily operations

Impact of Six Genetic Modifications of Corn on Feed Cost and the Consumption of Traditional Feed Ingredients

There is excitement about the potential profit and economic development opportunities from genetic modifications of grain. This excitement is manifested in huge industry consolidations through buyouts, joint ventures, and mergers of chemical, seed and agribusiness companies. State and federal government agencies and private organizations have developed programs to encourage and facilitate the production, handling, processing, and marketing of genetically modified grains. Huge investments are being allocated to research and development of new commodities and specialty grains. A large share of these research and development funds are being invested in modifying com because of the large amount of com produced in the United States and its diversity of uses. About 80 percent of the U.S. corn crop is used in animal feeds domestically and abroad; therefore, genetic modifications of com for animal feed are believed to have major profit and development potential

Update on Local Processing in Iowa: Ethanol and Soybean Processing

Local processing of corn and soybeans in Iowa continues to expand production of food, feed, and fuel products. Opportunities for farmers to sell crops locally to processing plants as well as grain handling facilities are expanding. Iowa farmers are expected to produce in 2007 2,511,000 bu of corn and 443,000 bu of soybeans. With the rapid expansion ofbiofuels production, Iowa has become the national leader in both ethanol and biodiesel production. These two products alone offer markets for 43% of Iowa\u27s corn production and the oil from 42% of Iowa\u27s soybeans. Biodiesel differs from ethanol in that biodiesel uses one of two primary soybean crush products rather than raw grain

High-Resolution Functional Mapping of the Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus Genome by Insertional Mutagenesis and Massively Parallel Sequencing

We have developed a high-resolution genomic mapping technique that combines transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis with either capillary electrophoresis or massively parallel sequencing to identify functionally important regions of the Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) genome. We initially used a capillary electrophoresis method to gain insight into the role of the VEEV nonstructural protein 3 (nsP3) in viral replication. We identified several regions in nsP3 that are intolerant to small (15 bp) insertions, and thus are presumably functionally important. We also identified nine separate regions in nsP3 that will tolerate small insertions at low temperatures (30°C), but not at higher temperatures (37°C, and 40°C). Because we found this method to be extremely effective at identifying temperature sensitive (ts) mutations, but limited by capillary electrophoresis capacity, we replaced the capillary electrophoresis with massively parallel sequencing and used the improved method to generate a functional map of the entire VEEV genome. We identified several hundred potential ts mutations throughout the genome and we validated several of the mutations in nsP2, nsP3, E3, E2, E1 and capsid using single-cycle growth curve experiments with virus generated through reverse genetics. We further demonstrated that two of the nsP3 ts mutants were attenuated for virulence in mice but could elicit protective immunity against challenge with wild-type VEEV. The recombinant ts mutants will be valuable tools for further studies of VEEV replication and virulence. Moreover, the method that we developed is applicable for generating such tools for any virus with a robust reverse genetics system

<em>MAPT </em>expression and splicing is differentially regulated by brain region: relation to genotype and implication for tauopathies

The MAPT (microtubule-associated protein tau) locus is one of the most remarkable in neurogenetics due not only to its involvement in multiple neurodegenerative disorders, including progressive supranuclear palsy, corticobasal degeneration, Parksinson's disease and possibly Alzheimer's disease, but also due its genetic evolution and complex alternative splicing features which are, to some extent, linked and so all the more intriguing. Therefore, obtaining robust information regarding the expression, splicing and genetic regulation of this gene within the human brain is of immense importance. In this study, we used 2011 brain samples originating from 439 individuals to provide the most reliable and coherent information on the regional expression, splicing and regulation of MAPT available to date. We found significant regional variation in mRNA expression and splicing of MAPT within the human brain. Furthermore, at the gene level, the regional distribution of mRNA expression and total tau protein expression levels were largely in agreement, appearing to be highly correlated. Finally and most importantly, we show that while the reported H1/H2 association with gene level expression is likely to be due to a technical artefact, this polymorphism is associated with the expression of exon 3-containing isoforms in human brain. These findings would suggest that contrary to the prevailing view, genetic risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases at the MAPT locus are likely to operate by changing mRNA splicing in different brain regions, as opposed to the overall expression of the MAPT gene