Web: www.miloyield.com

Hardly a day goes by that there isn’t scientific news somewhere about a new advancement in genetic manipulation. For instance, recent news said that scientists are genetically modifying pigs so their internal organs can be successfully transplanted into needy humans.

The seed industry has for years used genetic manipulation to create new seeds that offer improvements in crop growth, yields and quality.

Likewise, the meat animal sector of agriculture has for years been doing genetic manipulation through cloning, embryo transplants, disease prevention, new crossbreds, etc.

All the above discussion about aggie genetic manipulations got me to thinking about an “Aggie Wish List” for still newer genetic manipulations that could solve some big and persistent problems for crop and livestock production.

Through a process called “CRISPR gene editing,” scientists can often clip and splice specific-trait genes from one organism to another. So, I’m advocating to use CRISPR technology to achieve my Aggie Wish List. Here’s the list of problems I’m talking about and my suggested genetic solutions.

• Eastern Redcedar invasion: Cedar trees are overtaking many productive farm and ranch lands. The trees are ugly, virtually worthless, nutritionally-void, rapidly-spreading, fire-fostering, water-sucking landscape parasites.

I want science to solve this problem by splicing highly-nutritious alfalfa genes into cedar trees, thereby making the cedar needles as palatable and nutritious as alfalfa hay. Just think about seeing cattle herds, sheep flocks, even deer herds fighting to devour cedar trees.

And, scientists can go one step further and splice genes for giraffe long legs and long necks into meat goats so those new edible critters can graze on the tops of cedar trees. My suggested name for the new meat animal is the Giroat.

Why, with this new technology, within a decade pastures throughout the land will be more productive and profitable.

• Sericea lespedeza and Caucasian Bluestem: These two aggressively invasive plants are endangering the highly productive rangelands of the Flint Hills. Cattle will scarcely touch sericea. It’s hopelessly expensive eradicate with herbicides. Caucasian Bluestem, likewise, is almost inedible for cattle. It replaces the nutritious native rangeland grasses like big and little bluestem, Indiangrass, switchgrass, and side-oats gramma.

So, scientists could partially fulfill my Aggie Wish List by splicing the nutrition genes and nitrogen-fixing genes of red clover into sericea. Then grazers would prefer it. The new grass would provide nitrogen for the soil, too. To improve Caucasian Bluestem, I request that the genes for eastern gama grass, which cattle love, be spliced into the plants. With just those suggested improvements, the invasive species encroachment into the Flint Hills would be solved.

• Cockleburs, pigweed and bindweed: These three immensely costly, absolutely worthless weeds are chronically impossible to eliminate from U.S. crop fields. So, solving that problem is high on my Aggie Wish List. Genetic manipulation can come to the rescue.How about scientists splice the cocklebur gene for easy growth in any soil, and the pigweed genes for prolificacy and abundant yields, and the bindweed gene for persistency and deep-rooted drought resistance into our standard grain crops of wheat, corn, soybeans, and grain sorghum? That way all those crops immediately become more prolific and profitable.

Then they splice the weak genes from a mamby-pamby plant like an orchid — that’s about impossible to keep alive — into the three worthless weeds. That way within one growing season under harsh field conditions, the miserable three weeds will wither and die out forever.

• Johnsongrass: Johnsongrass, which should be the state grass of Oklahoma, is a persistent nuisance grass that thrives in fields, fence-lines and road ditches. However, it is highly prolific and hardy, but not very nutritious for grazing. So, on my Aggie Wish List is having the best traits of sugar cane spliced into Johnsongrass. That way cattlemen have a new, easy-to-propagate, highly nutritious grass for their cattle.

• Crabgrass and Foxtail: Folks trying to have presentable lawns have been fighting crabgrass and foxtail forever. Both nuisance grasses are annuals, ugly, drought resistant, and highly efficient seed producers. So, gene spicing to the rescue on my Aggie Wish List.

The gene-manipulators should splice the genes for lovely green color and nice texture from Kentucky bluegrass and the genes for drought resistance and aggressive growth in bermudagrass and splice them into the crabgrass and foxtail. The world would end up with a wonderfully green, fine-textured, drought-resistant lawn grass. And a new market would open up. I suggest naming the new grass Perfecto.

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The last item on my Aggie Wish List has nuthin’ to do with genetics, but everything to do with the profitability of the nation’s farms and ranches. That item is commodity price.

Every year the U.S. spends vast sums of money to improve crop and livestock productivity. And, admittedly, progress is made incrementally. But, sadly, history shows that increases in productivity have minor correlation to profitability. One day’s downturn on the commodity boards of trade can wipe out all the profitability made from decades of productivity gains.

So, it’s clear the real progress to be made in profitability is to improve commodity prices. But, I’ve yet to see an economic research project with the stated goal of improving prices. Increasing ag exports has proven unreliable for improving profits. Increasing domestic use to improve price is equally spotty.

Nope, the answer to aggie profitability lies in national policy. And, I’ve yet to see a thin research dime spent trying to find and enact a national farm commodity price policy.

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So, I admit, all the items on my Aggie Wish List are fantastical and doomed from the start.

Wish lists are seldom every fulfilled. But, that doesn’t keep me from wishing.

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Finally, I got a real good soaking rain. Good for my newly-planted lawn. Bad for my shop under construction. Gotta take the bad with the good.

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My words of wisdom for this week are: “We’ve turned back our clocks to standard time. The election is over. Now America needs to turn back to a time of standard politics.”

Have a good ‘un.

Web: www.miloyield.com

This little story proves that there’s a lot that can be learned in the rural classroom — by students, teachers and administrators.

A second-grade boy, who wuz a rancher’s kid, started the school year with a new teacher. Before the first week of classes were over the lad’s teacher had sent him to the principal several times for using unseemly cuss words.

Finally, the principle decided to get to the bottom of the lad’s use of such profanity. “Where did you learn nasty words like the ones you’re using in class?” he asked the lad.

“From my father,” the lad innocently replied,

“Well, that’s surprising. But, at your tender young it’s still no reason for you to use them in school. I bet you don’t even know what those words mean.”

“I do, too,” the lad replied indignantly. “They mean the heifers are out of the pen again and are in with the bulls.”

***

A rural guy who seemed like a confirmed bachelor finally got married to a citified gal.

As the years passed, the wife tired of saying over and over again, “Sit up straight. Use your napkin. Close your mouth when you chew. Don’t take such big bites. Brush your teeth before you go to bed.”

Then, just when she thought she was finally got through with the training, along came the children!

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Just when you think you’ve seen all the strange agricultural research going on in the world, you run across a true story like this one.

Here’s the gist of the research findings: “Using Artificial Intelligence to ‘decode’ the oinks and grunt of both free-range pigs and pigs in confinement, European researchers have developed an algorithm that when recorded and played for the pigs can keep them happier and more profitable.”

The scientists, from universities in Denmark, Germany, Switzerland, France, Norway and the Czech Republic, used thousands of recorded pig sounds in different scenarios, including play, isolation and competition for food, to find that grunts, oinks, and squeals reveal positive or negative emotions.

The algorithm demonstrated that pigs kept free-ranging outdoors with the ability to roam and dig in the dirt produced fewer stress calls than conventionally-raised pigs. Short grunts typically indicate positive emotions, while long grunts often signal discomfort, such as when pigs push each other by the trough. High-frequency sounds like screams or squeals usually mean the pigs are stressed, for instance, when they are in pain, fight, or are separated from each other.

The researchers believe that this method, once fully developed, could also be used to label farms, helping consumers make informed choices.

This research sounds goofy to me, but, I hope it works and didn’t cost too much.

***
Well, the election to determine our next president and congress is just around the corner. It’s a very important election. And, if you are like me, you’ve been inundated with all kinds of political “stuff,” from phone calls, to the mail box and the email box. All the “stuff” I’ve been sent, hasn’t changed my mind one whit. But, it’s been entertaining. So, I decided to include a sampling of just “stuff” contained in the political emails I’ve received in the last week. Here goes.

• “Tolerance will reach such a level that people will be banned from thinking, so as not to offend the imbeciles.” — Dostoevsky

• “The truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged.”

• “Idolizing a politician is like believing a stripper really likes you.”

• “No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.” — Mark Twain

• “If you want the truth, don’t ask me. If you want it sugarcoated, go eat a donut.”

• “I disagree with you. It doesn’t mean I dislike you or that I’m mad at you. It just means that I like you. I won’t treat you disrespectfully just because we share differing opinions. Give me the same respect.” — attributed to Clint Eastwood

• “Remember: when something goes wrong in the circus, they send in the clowns to distract the audience. Well, something has gone very wrong with the American political circus, and the clowns are everywhere.”

• “The Dunning-Kruger Effect is a type of cognitive bias where people with little expertise or ability assume they have superior expertise or ability. This overestimation occurs as a result of the fact that they don’t have enough knowledge to know they don’t have enough knowledge.”

• You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you, that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.” — attributed to Warren Buffett

• “Actions prove who someone is. Words just prove who they pretend to be.”

• “If it’s not yours, don’t take it. If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it. If you don’t know, shut up.”

• “The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the Axe, for the Axe was clever and convinced the Trees that because his handle was made of wood, he was one of them.” — Turkish Proverb

• “The sheep will spend it’s entire life fearing the wolf, only to be eaten by the shepherd.” — African Proverb.

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I urge everyone to vote in the election. Folks ask me how I’m going to vote. I tell them I’m going to vote to try to re-establish the kind of Constitutional Republic, not a pure democracy, that our Founding Fathers strived to create and warned us pointedly about losing. That is a nation based on freedom, limited government and wide spread distribution of wealth, property and power.”

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Words of wisdom for the week: “Voting the same — and expecting change — makes as much sense as having manure on your jeans and changing your shirt.” Have a good ‘un.