Bulletin No. 293 - Velvon: A New Smooth-Awned Barley

Velvon, a new barley variety with smooth awns, with relatively stiff straw, and with a high degree of resistance to covered smut was developed at the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station through the cooperative efforts of the Station and the Division of Cereal Crops and Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of Agriculture. This new variety resulted as a hybrid strain from a cross made in 1930 for the purpose of improving straw strength and the texture of awns

Bulletin No. 263 - Relative Produciton of Feed Grain from Spring-Grown Cereals in Utah

Nearly one-third of the cropped acreage of Utah is devoted to cereals. Except for wheat, most of these crops are fed locally. In addition to this, an average of over a million bushels of corn, barley, and oats is shipped into the state each year to be used in various livestock and poultry industries. The purpose of this publication is to show the comparative amount of feed produced by the different crops--wheat, oats, barley, and corn--under similar conditions as determined for the specified four years by acre-yields obtained in various agricultural regions of the state. One should bear clearly in mind that its purpose is not to encourage all farmers to grow crops giving the highest feed value to the acre or to shift from one cereal to another, although this might be done to advantage if increased feed production is desired

Bulletin No. 262 - Comparative Yields of Spring Wheat Varieties in Utah

Wheat was one of the first crops grown by early Utah settlers. It has since occupied an important place in the agriculture of the state. While wheat is almost the only crop grown successfully on dry-lands, it is also important under irrigation. Thirty per cent of the wheat acreage of Utah in 1929 was spring-sown, which produced 44 per cent of the state\u27s production. Eighty-seven per cent of the spring wheat acreage was grown under irrigation, this acreage producing 92.3 per cent of the total spring wheat crop. Thirty-eight per cent of Utah farmers were growing spring wheat in 1929; this wheat was grown in all ,counties of the state except one, the percentage of farmers growing this crop at that time ranging from less than 1 per cent in Washington and San Juan Counties to 64 per cent in Emery County; yet Emery County ranks about sixth in acreage and eighth in production

Bulletin No. 287 - Tests of Corn Varieties and Hybrids in Utah

The corn acreage in Utah is only about half that planted in barley and approximately one-fourth that sown to spring wheat. During the period 1910-30 this acreage was about equally divided into corn for grain, corn for silage, and corn fed to livestock in the field (table 1) . Since 1930 there has been a gradual increase in the acreage of corn grown for silage with the exception of the years 1936 and 1937

Bulletin No. 281 - Sorghums Varietal Tests in Utah

Sorghums are not grown to any appreciable extent in Utah except in the Virgin River valley in the southwestern portion of the State. No experimental work on sorghum culture had been done prior to 1931 except on the dry land of Juab County near Nephi. Those early tests, discontinued after 1917, indicated that sorghums were poorly adapted to such conditions. Numerous improved varieties have been produced since that time, some of which are adapted to relatively short growing seasons. This bulletin will discuss the practicability of growing some of these varieties of sorghum in Utah and their economic value compared to leading crops now grown

Bulletin No. 371 - Fifty Years of Dry Land Research at the Nephi Field Station

The Nephi Field Station is the oldest dry-Iand experimental farm in America still in operation. It was established in 1903 by action of the Utah legislature and has been in continuous operation since. Five other arid experimental farms were established in Utah at the same time (Widtsoe and Merrill 1905) but they were all discontinued prior to 1920 (Harris et al. 1920). The Nephi Field Station has had a most interesting history, and it is worthy of note that many of the men who were closely associated with it during its early history subsequently distinguished themselves as outstanding leaders. The station came into being largely as a result of the efforts of Dr. John A. Widtsoe, noted irrigation and dry farm authority of the west until his death in 1952. Under his leadership a systematic investigation was undertaken in 1901 to determine the possibilities of farming without irrigation in Utah. The experimental farm at Nephi was established largely as a result of that study

Defects in Friction Stir Welding of Steel

Defects associated with friction stir welding of two steel grades including DH36 and EH46 were investigated. Different welding parameters including tool rotational and tool traverse (linear) speeds were applied to understand their effect on weld seam defects including microcracks and voids formation. SEM images and infinite focus microscopy were employed to identify the defects types. Two new defects associated with the friction stir welding process are introduced in this work. The first defect identified in this work is a microcrack found between the plunge and the steady state region and attributed to the traverse moving of the tool with unsuitable speed from the plunge-dwell to the steady state stage. The tool traverse speed has recommended to travel 20 mm more with accelerated velocity range of 0.1 from the maximum traverse speed until reaching the steady state. The maximum recommended traverse speed in the steady state was also suggested to be less than 400 mm/min in order to avoid the lack in material flow. The second type of defect observed in this work was microcracks inside the stirred zone caused by elemental precipitations of TiN. The precipitates of TiN were attributed to the high tool rotational speed which caused the peak temperature to exceed 1200 °C at the top of the stirred zone and based on previous work. The limit of tool rotational speed was recommended to be maintained in the range of 200-500 RPM based on the mechanical experiments on the FSW samples

Medicago truncatula contains a second gene encoding a plastid located glutamine synthetase exclusively expressed in developing seeds

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Nitrogen is a crucial nutrient that is both essential and rate limiting for plant growth and seed production. Glutamine synthetase (GS), occupies a central position in nitrogen assimilation and recycling, justifying the extensive number of studies that have been dedicated to this enzyme from several plant sources. All plants species studied to date have been reported as containing a single, nuclear gene encoding a plastid located GS isoenzyme per haploid genome. This study reports the existence of a second nuclear gene encoding a plastid located GS in <it>Medicago truncatula</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study characterizes a new, second gene encoding a plastid located glutamine synthetase (GS2) in <it>M. truncatula</it>. The gene encodes a functional GS isoenzyme with unique kinetic properties, which is exclusively expressed in developing seeds. Based on molecular data and the assumption of a molecular clock, it is estimated that the gene arose from a duplication event that occurred about 10 My ago, after legume speciation and that duplicated sequences are also present in closely related species of the Vicioide subclade. Expression analysis by RT-PCR and western blot indicate that the gene is exclusively expressed in developing seeds and its expression is related to seed filling, suggesting a specific function of the enzyme associated to legume seed metabolism. Interestingly, the gene was found to be subjected to alternative splicing over the first intron, leading to the formation of two transcripts with similar open reading frames but varying 5' UTR lengths, due to retention of the first intron. To our knowledge, this is the first report of alternative splicing on a plant GS gene.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study shows that <it>Medicago truncatula </it>contains an additional GS gene encoding a plastid located isoenzyme, which is functional and exclusively expressed during seed development. Legumes produce protein-rich seeds requiring high amounts of nitrogen, we postulate that this gene duplication represents a functional innovation of plastid located GS related to storage protein accumulation exclusive to legume seed metabolism.</p

Volatile diterpene emission by two Mediterranean Cistaceae shrubs

Mediterranean vegetation emits a wide range of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) among which isoprenoids present quantitatively the most important compound class. Here, we investigated the isoprenoid emission from two Mediterranean Cistaceae shrubs, Halimium halimifolium and Cistus ladanifer, under controlled and natural conditions, respectively. For the first time, diurnal emission patterns of the diterpene kaurene were detected in real-time by Proton-Transfer-Reaction-Timeof- Flight-Mass-Spectrometer. Kaurene emissions were strongly variable among H. halimifolium plants, ranging from 0.01 ± 0.003 to 0.06 ± 0.01 nmol m−2 s−1 in low and high emitting individuals, respectively. They were in the same order of magnitude as monoterpene (0.01 ± 0.01 to 0.11 ± 0.04 nmol m−2 s−1) and sesquiterpene (0.01 ± 0.01 to 0.52 nmol m−2 s−1) emission rates. Comparable range and variability was found for C. ladanifer under natural conditions. Labelling with 13C-pyruvate suggested that emitted kaurene was not derived from de novo biosynthesis. The high kaurene content in leaves, the weak relationship with ecophysiological parameters and the tendency of higher emissions with increasing temperatures in the field indicate an emission from storage pools. This study highlights significant emissions of kaurene from two Mediterranean shrub species, indicating that the release of diterpenes into the atmosphere should probably deserve more attention in the futureinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio