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K-State Crops Team wins Australian Universities Crops Competition

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K-State Collegiate Crops Team at the Australian Universities Crops Competition (l to r): Ben Coomes, Katrina Sudbeck, Tyler Herrs, Jeri Sigle, Nathan Larson, Dr. Kevin Donnelly (Coach), Sam Knauss.
K-State Collegiate Crops Team at the Australian Universities Crops Competition (l to r): Ben Coomes, Katrina Sudbeck, Tyler Herrs, Jeri Sigle, Nathan Larson, Dr. Kevin Donnelly (Coach), Sam Knauss.

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Six members of the Kansas State University Crops Team recently returned from a study trip to Australia where they also took first place in the Australian Universities Crops Competition. The event was hosted by the Australian Grain Growers organization in Temora, New South Wales. The K-State team traveled with an Iowa State University Crops Team, which also participated in the competition.

 

K-State Crops Team members making the trip included Katrina Sudbeck, Seneca; Ben Coomes, Girard; Nathan Larson, Kensington; Sam Knauss, Paola; Tyler Herrs, Linn; and Jeri Sigle, Council Grove. The team is coached by Kevin Donnelly, professor of agronomy.

 

The K-State team was led by Katrina Sudbeck, who took the top individual overall award, and Ben Coomes, who placed second. As top individual, Sudbeck will also have the opportunity to travel to Asia with Grain Growers on a grain marketing trip in February, 2015. Iowa State University placed second in the contest, followed by Sydney University. Five other agricultural universities across southern and western Australia competed.

 

Australia Grain Growers is a national organization of grain producers.

 

This was the second time the K-State team was invited to participate in the Australian crops competition.

 

The competition was held over two days at the Temora Agricultural Innovation Centre, managed by FarmLink. The contest included a seed identification component, tests over Australian cereal, pulse, and oilseed production and quality, commercial grading of wheat, a business management problem, field yield estimates and management recommendations, and a live crop, weed and disease evaluation component.

 

Before and after the competition, contestants also toured research projects being conducted on site and at farms in the local area. Learning about Australian white wheat and canola production, ryegrass herbicide resistance problems, and the use of pulse crops such as lupins in crop rotations were highlights for the U.S. teams.

 

The students also learned about Australia through visits to popular sites in Sydney, followed by a trip to the Great Barrier Reef at Cairns. On the trip to Temora, the group visited the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney, followed by a farm tour hosted by Grain Growers board member Richard Rice in Parkes, NSW. The farm featured integration of sheep production with wheat and canola cropping systems.

 

After the competition, they visited Charles Sturt University and the EH Graham Centre for Agricultural Innovation Field Station at Wagga Wagga, NSW. The final day was spent at the family farm of board member Gerry Lane near Lockhart, NSW, which featured extensive barley and faba bean production under flood irrigation.

 

The trip was made possible by a generous grant from the CHS Foundation to both K-State and ISU. In addition, the Kansas Wheat Commission and the K-State Department of Agronomy supported team travel expenses. The College of Agriculture provided international travel scholarships to the Kansas State students.

Story by: Steve Watson,

Harvey County fair champion bread recipe

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K-State
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It is not possible to compare the aroma of bread baking to another food cooking.   It is the best, and a comfort food for me.

My mother had homemade bread on our family meal table the majority of the time.  She had great pride in the bread she made.

We always enjoyed coming from school to a snack of homemade bread fresh from the oven.

Making homemade bread is challenging and satisfying. Yeast is a critical ingredient to yeast bread success or failure. Here are some tips from “Fine Cooking” Magazine, February/March,
2014.

* Expiration date:  Yeast is a single-celled microorganism that is alive. Over time it can die. Always use it before the expiration date. It should smell earthy or “yeasty.”
* Liquid temperature:  The optimum temperature range is between 70 to138°F. Below 70°F
is too cold to activate yeast.  Above 138°F will kill yeast.  Optimum temperature depends on type of yeast.
* Salt:  While important to regulate dough proofing, adding salt before yeast activates and
multiplies can restrict moisture to yeast and starve it to death.
* Not punching down dough:  During proofing, the dough creates alcohol. Without punching down, too much trapped alcohol will poison the yeast.

Here is the recipe for the champion bread at this year’s county fair.  Brooke Marshall, from the Halstead 4-H Club, made a Cherry Braid Dessert and won champion in the bread division.
Be sure to store it in the refrigerator as the cream cheese makes it perishable.
Cherry Braid Dessert
Bread ingredients:
7 ounces. milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter
1 egg, beaten
3 cups bread flour
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons active dry yeast

Cream cheese filling
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 sugar

1 can cherry pie filling

Add the above ingredients in the order listed being careful not to touch the dry yeast to the liquid ingredients.  Place container into bread machine and select Dough Setting.

Split dough into two separate pieces.  Form dough into an approximate 12X12 inch square.  With a clean ruler, lightly mark a 4 inch space down the center.  Then mark dough on each side into
1 1/2 inch strips horizontally.

Mix cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and sugar together.  Spread cream cheese filling down the center and lightly on each strip.  Top cream cheese mixture with cheery pie filling.

Begin braid by folding top row toward filling.  Then fold strips left over right, right over left.  Fold bottom ends towards filling and finish by stretching last strip and tucking under.  Using both hands, carefully lift braid onto a large baking sheet sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  Brush with egg and let rise until double in size.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until dough is light brown.  Let cool and frost if desired.

Congratulations, Brooke!

Stratification

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K-State
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kksu
K-State Research and Extension, Candice Shoemaker

Most woody plants produce seed that will not germinate immediately after
harvest. Normally this is because of one of three reasons:
– Seed is immature and needs more time to develop;
– A mechanical barrier is keeping water from reaching the seed;
– A physiological block is inhibiting germination.
Immature seed needs time to complete development and does not require
special treatment. The water barrier and/or physiological block require
special treatments to prepare the seed for germination. One such
treatment is stratification. Stratification is a process whereby seed is
given the moisture and temperature conditions normally found in its
natural environment. Seeds that are shed in early fall often require a
warm, moist stratification period before the seed will germinate. Those
that drop later in the fall may respond to cool, moist conditions. In
Kansas, the most common stratification needed is the cool, moist type.
The amount of time required for stratification varies with the plant
species. For example, apple requires 75 days, red oak needs 30 to 45
days and sugar maple should have 60 to 90 days. All three of these
species require cool, moist conditions. If unsure of the amount of time
required for a specific species, 3 to 4 months usually is sufficient.
For cool stratification, temperatures just above freezing are best, with
a range between 35 and 45 degrees considered ideal. Temperatures higher
and lower than this are less effective. The minimum temperature at which
stratification occurs is reported to be 23 degrees, and the maximum is
62 degrees.
Stratification should be done in a medium that is moist but not soggy.
If there is too little moisture, the seed coat does not take up the
water needed. Too much reduces the amount of oxygen available to the
seed. If peat moss is used, a ratio of 1 or 1 1/4 parts water to 1 part
air-dried peat moss by weight is recommended. When wetting peat moss,
use warm water, which is absorbed more quickly than cold.
Small amounts of seed can be stratified by placing the seed in moist
peat moss inside a plastic bag and placing the bag in the refrigerator.
Small seeds can be placed between two sheets of cheesecloth so they are
not lost in the medium. Larger amounts of seed can be placed in a
plastic container or wooden box. Place layers of seed between layers of
moist sand or a mixture of sand and peat moss. Bury the container
outside so the top is even with the soil surface, and cover with leaves
or straw. Alternatively, the container may be placed in an unheated
garage or root cellar. (Ward Upham)

WSU’s new Applied Technology Acceleration Institute partners with ANSWR, creates new lab

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Editor
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ken_russell_ataiThe Applied Technology Acceleration Institute (ATAI) has a new partner that could reinvent how social knowledge is created, discovered and shared at Wichita State and across the globe. The ATAI has partnered with ANSWR, an invitation-based knowledge discovery, curation and collaboration platform.

ANSWR turns searching the Internet into shared knowledge and analytics. The goal at ANSWR is to make the Internet more human; to make adding to and tapping into the collective knowledge on the web simple and fast.

Kenneth Russell, director of ATAI, was hired in June and tasked with expanding the reach and focus of the ATAI. Russell expects ANSWR to be a key partner in the ATAI’s new Center for Social Knowledge.

“ANSWR’s unique and practical approach to the discovery, organization and curation of knowledge is fundamental to effective social knowledge management,” he said.

“Joining the institute and creating an ANSWR Lab at Wichita State is a great first step,” said ANSWR CEO Michael Wexler. “We share the belief that experiential learning is key for students; and it and gives us access to valuable talent as we help our customers gain actionable insights and strategic knowledge.”

Lifelong learning

The initial contract will provide funding to hire three students for an entire academic year.

“Our students will be a part of next-generation advances in technology and, more importantly, the impact of those technologies,” said Russell. “Searching the Internet has become a daily part of our lives, and WSU students will have the opportunity to make that activity more meaningful and accurate.”

“By placing student workers side-by-side with partners in real work situations, both benefit from the collaboration and accelerated pace. Students are transformed with new confidence and a sense of greater purpose. They learn practical approaches, methods and capabilities that will serve them as lifelong learners in the new knowledge economy.”

This is the second industry relationship announced by the ATAI; the first was NetApp, announced in May. The ATAI is located in Don Beggs Hall and is a key component of the Innovation Campus strategy. Focused on providing experiential learning opportunities for students and building strong industry partnerships, the ATAI promotes a practical approach to solving complex technology problems.

ANSWR is a leading technology company focused on reinventing how social knowledge is created, discovered, and shared on the Internet. As more knowledge migrates to the Internet, it is difficult, if not impossible, to find one simple, reliable solution to a specific problem. Better search is only a small part of a better solution.

Contact: Brandy Glennie

Marshall’s two goals help lead Barton’s women soccer in shutout at Hesston

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Editor
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Coming off a disappointing conference loss on Saturday the Barton Community College women’s soccer team put together a solid road win Tuesday at Hesston College pulling away for a 3-0 victory.  The non-conference win improved the Lady Cougars to 5-4-2 on the season while dropping Hesston to 3-5-1 on the season.

Maria Rodriguez got the Lady Cougars off to a good start just 9:24 into the contest as the freshman from Garden City slipped through the crowd to head in a Millie York free kick from well outside the 18′.

Barton would go scoreless the rest of the half and into the second frame until Aliya Marshall stepped up to score the first of her two goals with just under thirty minutes remaining in the game.  Taking a pass from the midfield by Rodriguez, Marshall settled just inside the 18′ then beat a Lark defender and keeper to find the net.   Thirteen and a half minutes later the sophomore from Wichita received a pass at the midfield from Sydne Harpenau then utilized her speed to outrace the defense to strike it far post past the diving Lark goalkeeper.

Barton will have an eight day break from competition until Wednesday, October 1, as the Lady Cougars host No. 20 ranked Hutchinson Community College.  The Lady Cougars sit in fourth place in the Jayhawk standings at 2-2-1 while Hutchinson leads the pack at 3-0-1 and 4-1-1 overall.  Kickoff for the pivotal conference matchup is 4:00 p.m. at the Cougar Soccer/Track Complex.

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