Mentoring Graduate Students for Academic Careers in Grassland Science

Effective mentorship enhances student productivity and career achievements, yet faculty generally do not receive mentorship training, nor does mentorship receive focused attention, evaluation, and recognition. The objectives of this paper are to 1) define mentorship and identify roles of a mentor, 2) highlight qualities and outcomes of effective mentoring, and 3) elaborate best mentoring practices, metrics for assessing mentoring, and challenges for mentoring the next generation of grassland scientists. Mentoring is a professional alliance where individuals work together to support the personal and professional growth, development, and success of the relational partners. Mentors should be altruistic discipline experts, have substantial mentorship training or experience, be accessible and giving of their time, and capable of identifying mentee strengths and weaknesses. Metrics of effective mentoring include being sought after by prospective mentees, providing mentor-mentee interaction leading to successful educational outcomes, mentees receiving awards and recognition while mastering critical career skills, developing a track record of mentee success in the job market and sustained mentee enthusiasm for their career, and finally, sustaining long-term personal and professional mentor-mentee engagement. Specific to training the next generation of academics in grassland science, there is need to maintain, or regain, a critical mass of grassland faculty who are trained mentors and capable of developing novel, creative, and impactful research questions. These combined skills attract funding and create exciting opportunities for mentees. By addressing important research questions, mentor-mentee teams advance grassland science, but importantly, they also serve end-users. When value is perceived by consumers of our science, it sets in motion a chain of events required to maintain a critical mass of grassland scientists and confirms the value and relevance of our discipline

Selection of morphological traits to improve forage characteristics of Setaria sphacelata grown in Florida.

A genetically diverse population of Setaria sphacelata was developed at Gainesville, Florida by intercrossing the cultivars ?Narok?, ?Kazungula? and ?Solander? and a local persistent population. To determine heritability of traits that may improve setaria as a forage plant in Florida, progeny of the intercrossed population underwent two cycles of selection for inflorescence number and one cycle for leaf width. The selected populations, together with cultivars and introductions, were evaluated for morphological characters, yield and forage quality in field experiments with close- and wide-spaced plants. Increase of inflorescence number was not obtained by selection but resulted in decreased plant height, inflorescence length, yield, leaf width, and leafiness. Leaf width was increased by selection and was associated with increased leafiness and whole-plant crude protein content. The results suggest good prospects for selection of setaria cultivars suited to Florida with improved yield and quality providing they tolerate winter cold and reliably produce seed

Is There a Need for Tailored Graduate Programs for International Students?

International studies often present opportunities for capacity development and mentorship for students to equip them with the knowledge and skills to address the challenges in their home countries. Typically, international graduate students are drawn from diverse educational and cultural backgrounds different from those in their host countries. Adjusting to these changes might be challenging and time-consuming, thus influencing their academic journey. Understanding these challenges might provide international students the opportunity to address them in time and, where possible, seek help. In this paper, we discuss some graduate program-related challenges international students face and provide potential recommendations that might result in tailored programs. It is anticipated that such programs will effectively prepare international graduate students to adapt quickly to new conditions in their host countries and optimize the learning process while acquiring the appropriate tools for their future careers. We conducted a literature search that focused mainly on articles related to international graduate students in the US. Five challenges were explored: Cultural and language barriers, technological literacy and competency, mentorship, career development, and course structure and research priority areas. Graduate programs need to help students identify these challenges while helping them create an ideal environment for excellence. Such programs need to provide adequate support structures, making them known to students at the beginning of their programs. Although it is not feasible to change an entire educational program to accommodate all the needs of international graduate students, pressing concerns need to be identified for action

Herbage Accumulation, Nutritive Value and Persistence of Mulato II in Florida

Grasses in the Brachiaria genus are the most widely grown forages in tropical America, occupying over 80 Mha (Boddey et al. 2004). Mulato II is apomictic and a vigorous, semi-erect cultivar resulting from 3 generations of crosses including original crosses between ruzigrass and signal-grass (cv. Basilisk, apomictic tetrapliod). According to Peters et al. (2003), Mulato produced 25% more herbage mass than palisadegrass (Brachiaria brizantha) and koroni-viagrass (Brachiaria humidicola) under similar management practices. Although Mulato II shows promise as a forage in tropical regions, herbage accumulation and persistence in subtropical areas is unknown. This publication summarises results of the research with Mulato II conducted in Florida in the last 5 years

Diurnal Variation in Forage Nutrient Composition and Metabolic Parameters of Horses Grazing Warm-Season, Perennial Grass-Legume Mixed Pastures

Although warm-season, grass-legume mixed pastures have improved nutritive value and may reduce negative environmental impacts relative to nitrogen-fertilized grass monocultures, no study has been done to evaluate their effect on diurnal variation of non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) and other nutrients, and on the metabolic responses observed in horses’ blood and fecal samples. This 2-yr study aimed to investigate the circadian variation in nutrient composition and the fecal and blood metabolic responses in horses grazing these pastures. Forage, fecal, and blood samples were collected every 28 days at 0600, 1200, 1800, and 0000 h, in two years, for measurement of diurnal variation in forage nutrient composition and fecal and blood metabolites. Forage nutrient composition was affected by time of the day, with digestible energy (DE) and NSC increasing at 1800 h, crude protein decreasing after 1200 h and the fiber components increasing at 1200 h. Fecal lactate and blood insulin were also affected by time of the day. Fecal lactate increased from 0600 to 1200 h. Insulin levels were greater at 1800 than at 0600 h. The increased insulin level followed the increased concentration of NSC in the forage. In conclusion, warm-season, grass-legume mixed pastures show a diurnal pattern in forage nutrient composition, with increased NSC later in the afternoon. However, the metabolic responses observed in this study were not sufficient to predispose horses to metabolic dysregulation. The results also indicate that restricting grazing to the morning may reduce the forage nutritive value, with decreased concentration of DE and increased concentrations of the fiber components, which may decrease diet digestibility

Herbage Responses and Performance of Mature Horses Grazing Warm-Season Perennial Grass-Legume Mixed Pastures

Legume-grass mixtures may be a useful alternative to nitrogen-fertilized grass monocultures, but pasture and animal responses have not been assessed for pastures grazed by horses in Florida. This 2-yr study compared pasture and horse responses of continuously stocked, mixed pastures of rhizoma peanut (RP, Arachis glabrata Benth) and bahiagrass (BG, Paspalum notatum Flüggé) receiving 30 kg nitrogen (N)/ha (RP-BG) compared with BG pastures fertilized with 120 kg/N ha (BG-N) or with no N (BG-No N). Herbage mass was similar among treatments in 2020 and for most evaluation days in 2019. In 2019, stocking rate (AU/ha) was greater in BG-N (3.9) than in RP-BG (3.7) and BG-No N (3.1). In 2020, BG-No N (2.6) had the lesser stocking rate compared with BG-N (2.9) and RP-BG (2.9), with RP-BG not differing from BG-N. Herbage crude protein (CP) and digestible energy were similar across treatments in 2020, but they were greater for BG-N and RP-BG than BG-No N at some evaluation days in 2019. Except for CP, treatment did not affect nutrient digestibility by horses. Digestibility of CP was greatest for RP-BG in the late season. In the RP-BG treatment, proportion of RP in the pasture (~29%) was not affected by sampling date, and RP comprised 18.4% of the diet. Nonetheless, no differences were observed among treatments for body weight and condition score. The results indicate that intercropping legumes into warm-season perennial pastures can improve some measures of nutritive value and maintain horses’ body condition with similar stocking rate as N-fertilized bahiagrass pastures, while contributing to development of sustainable grazing systems for horses with reduced off-farm nitrogen inputs

Approaches toward Sustainable Forage-Livestock Systems: Strip-Planting a Legume into a Warm-Season Perennial Grass Pasture

Despite the demonstrated potential of rhizoma peanut (Arachis glabrata Benth.; RP) for grazing in the southeastern USA (Ortega-S. et al. 1992), high establishment cost and removal of land from production during establishment have limited its use to primarily hay production systems. The premise of this experiment is that strip-planting RP in existing bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flügge) pastures offers the opportunity to use grass forage during the legume establishment phase so that land need not be totally removed from grazing, while allowing successful establishment of the legume

Herbage Accumulation and Nutritive Value of Limpograss Breeding Lines Under Stockpiling Management.

Supplements or conserved forage are often used to overcome forage quantity deficits for beef cattle, but stockpiled forage can be more economical. Limpograss [Hemarthria altissima (Poir.) Stapf & C.E. Hubb.] is the best available species for stockpiling in Florida because it is productive in autumn and maintains greater digestibility than other grasses at advanced stages of maturity. New limpograss hybrid breeding lines have been developed, but they have not been tested under stockpiling. Three limpograss breeding lines (1, 4F, and 10) and the most-used cultivar, Floralta, received 50 or 100 kg N ha?1 at initiation of stockpiling and herbage accumulated for 8, 12, or 16 wk. Entry 4F had greater herbage accumulation (7.3 Mg ha?1) than Entries 10, 1, and Floralta (6.1, 6.0, and 5.4 Mg ha?1, respectively). Entry 4F also had greater in vitro digestible organic matter (IVDOM) concentration (530?594 g kg?1) than Entries 1 and Floralta, but 4F was not different from Entry 10 (519?531 g kg?1) after 12 and 16 wk of accumulation. As stockpiling period increased from 8 to 16 wk, herbage accumulation increased from 5.3 to 7.4 Mg ha?1, dead material proportion increased from 1 to 10%, and herbage crude protein (CP) decreased from 44 to 32 g kg?1. Limpograss hybrids 4F and 10 are superior to Floralta for stockpiling, stockpiling period should not be longer than 12 wk, and protein supplement will be required to achieve satisfactory animal performance on stockpiled limpograss

Surveillance and maintenance report on decontamination and decommissioning and remedial action activities at the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant, Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Fiscal year 1996

The Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) and Remedial Action (RA) programs are part of the Environmental Restoration (ER) Division and are funded by the Office of Environmental Management (EM-40). Building 9201-4 (known as Alpha-4), three sites located within Building 9201-3 (the Oil Storage Tank, the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment Fuel Handling Facility, and the Coolant Salt Technology Facility), and Building 9419-1 (the Decontamination Facility) are currently the facilities at the Y-12 Plant included in the D&D program. The RA program provides surveillance and maintenance (S&M) and program management of ER sites at the Y-12 Plant, including selected sites listed in Appendix C of the Federal Facilities Agreement (FFA), sites listed in the Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendment (HSWA) permit Solid Waste Management Unit (SWM-U) list, and sites currently closed or undergoing post-closure activities under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) or the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). This report communicates the status of the program plans and specific S&M activities for the D&D and RA programs

Short-Term Soil Organic Matter and Carbon Responses to Contrasting Grazing Intensities in Integrated Crop-Livestock Systems

Combining integrated crop-livestock systems under no-till management may improve soil organic matter (SOM) build up and improve soil C sequestration. Grazing cover crops appears as a possibility to combine crops and livestock in a farm system. Further SOM and soil C increase can be achieved by adding perennial grasses into crop rotations. However, the effect of grazing intensity in such systems are not fully understood. This 2-yr study investigated short-term effects of cropping system [winter cover crops-summer cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and winter cover crops-summer bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flüggé) rotations], grazing intensity (no grazing, heavy, moderate, and light grazing), and N fertilization (34 and 90 kg N ha-1 ), on OM and soil C of the soil-surface (0-15 cm) and deep-soil (0-90 cm) under no-till. Preliminary results indicate that treatments containing bahiagrass improved SOM in 1.5 g kg-1 compared to winter grazing on cover crops-cotton systems (P = 0.017). There were no differences among treatments for soil total C stock (15.4 Mg ha-1) and particulate OM-C (4.8 Mg ha-1) at the 15-cm depth (P \u3e 0.1). Carbon concentration increased from 8.0 to 12.6 g kg-1 as aggregate fraction decreased from 250 – 2000 to \u3c 53 µm (P \u3c 0.001). Nonetheless, C stock was not affected by aggregate fraction, with each fraction containing 3.8 Mg C ha-1, on average. Carbon stocks from 0-15, 15-30, 30-60, and 60-90-cm depths did not differ among treatments (P = 0.743), totalizing 30.4 Mg C ha-1 in the soil profile. Long-term studies are necessary to better understand the role of cropping system and grazing intensities on soil OM and C responses on surface and deep soil