8 minute read
EYES ON ASSOCIATES
By WPVGA Associate Division President Julie Cartwright, Jay-Mar, Inc.
Greetings! The calendar says that it is spring. As I write this, we should be in the field. Fertilizer application should be underway. Planters should be rolling. The reality is that March has just roared out like a lion and April fool’s weather will continue until at least the middle of the month. We are in for a slow start to the growing season.
Hopefully when you read this in early May, Mother Nature will be in a better mood! During our last WPVGA Associate Division meeting, we spent considerable time reviewing the survey responses from 2022 Industry Show exhibitors. Providing a forum that brings value to both the growers and vendors is very important to us. We spent a lot of time evaluating the responses and looking for commonalities, both good and bad, for us to expand on or improve. Here are some of the highlights from the surveys:
When we asked for suggestions on improving the annual WPVGA Industry Show, 41 percent of survey respondents thought everything about the event was fine. Those offering suggestions would like to see meals return to buffet style and an increase in face time with customers. Enjoying lunch at the 2022 Industry Show are, from left to right, Seyed Bagherr and Cheryl and Bruce Andersen of BioGro, and Andy Wallendal, who is retired from Wallendal Supply, Inc.
1. We were very happy to see that 86 percent of those responding plan to attend next year. The remaining 14 percent were not sure. 2. Eighty-seven percent of responses gave the show an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars or better. 3. The overall feedback on the show was 60 percent positive. Those exhibitors giving positive feedback liked the format, customer interaction, balance between educational sessions and breaks,
Julie Braun’s level of organization and the venue. The 40 percent that responded negatively wanted a better booth location and felt that attendance was down. 4. We asked vendors what entertainment they would enjoy at the banquet. Some suggested the dueling pianos or live bands that we have had in the past. Others gave suggestions like motivational speakers or hypnotists for future banquets. 5. When we asked for suggestions for improvement, 41 percent thought everything about the event was fine. Those offering suggestions would like to see meals return to buffet style and an increase in face time with customers. We discussed ways to implement some of the suggestions. As we continue to move past COVID, we expect attendance to increase and buffet-style serving to return to our
lunch routine. Please feel free to reach out to an Associate Division Board member if you have additional suggestions. The Putt-Tato Open is coming up on July 19, 2022, at the Ridges Golf Course in Wisconsin Rapids. We are working on coordinating another funfilled event with lots of fellowship and great raffle prizes. Information about the event and sponsorship opportunities has been sent out. Sponsorships are a great way to continue supporting the industry and showcasing your business. Please let us know if you have ideas for raffle prizes. Spring is a time when we invest. We have invested in crops for another growing season. We do this to invest in the health, nutrition, and wellbeing of our businesses, family, community, and planet. As a Board, we are proud to have joined many in our industry by investing in education with our support of the Farming for the Future Foundation. Follow their progress since groundbreaking last month and as they move toward their grand opening in spring 2023 at https:// www.fftf.us/. I am very excited to see the Foundation in action as it teaches consumers and builds appreciation and understanding of agriculture. Thomas Jefferson said it well in his statement that, “Agriculture is our wisest pursuit because it will, in the end, contribute most to real wealth, good morals and happiness.”
Julie Cartwright
WPVGA Associate Division President
Information about the Putt-Tato Open as well as on sponsorship opportunities has been sent out. Sponsorships are a great way to continue supporting the industry and showcasing your business. Shown are Ray Grabanski (left) and Penney Hammer of Progressive Ag, which sponsors a hole annually at the Putt-Tato Open.
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Old Beans May Have New Uses
Breeders study wild bean species resistant to Fusarium root rot and wilt
Provided by the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America
Each year, Crop Science Society of America celebrates “Crop Wild Relative Week” to bring attention to the importance of ancient relatives to today’s crops. The September 22, 2021, Sustainable, Secure Food Blog highlights the importance of ancient beans in breeding new types of bean crops. Beans are the highlight of many dishes across the world. In some cases, beans are the primary protein or iron source in a community’s diet. These bean dishes are all from one species: Phaseolus vulgaris. According to blogger and plant breeder Miranda Haus, “Beans were first domesticated around 8,000 years ago in Central and South America. During this time, humans shifted their focus to breeding bigger beans that are tastier and easier to harvest.” One problem that has been difficult for breeders to overcome is reducing yield loss due to fungal root pathogens. Such pathogens include Fusarium root rot and wilt caused by oxysporum. In some instances, Fusarium root rot can cause a farmer to lose an entire crop. Every crop we eat was once growing in the wild, undisturbed. These versions of crops are referred to as crop wild relatives. Over the last 10,000 years, humans domesticated food crops to make them easier to grow and harvest and become even more nutritious. During domestication, humans only took select individuals from the entire bean population and began to grow and cultivate plants from this subset of seeds.
REDUCED GENETIC DIVERSITY
By selecting the best-tasting or highest-yielding beans, farmers inadvertently reduced the genetic diversity. This doesn’t just apply to beans; it applies to all crop species. As an example, let’s think about aliens coming to Earth and abducting the population of a small town to populate a new planet. Any small town in the world cannot represent the genetic diversity of our entire planet! So, you can see the new planet would suffer from reduced genetic diversity. That’s what has happened with crop diversity during domestication. Wild beans have retained more genetic diversity and may exhibit resistance to Fusarium root rot, a trait that is lacking in cultivated beans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) maintains gene banks throughout the United States that contain collections of seeds from all over the world.
These collections are freely available to breeders, and the USDA works closely with researchers to create catalogs of traits for the seeds within their collections. Haus’ team evaluated the USDA wild bean collection to see if they could find examples that might be resistant to Fusarium wilt.
They infected seedlings with two pathogens that cause Fusarium wilt and root rot, and rated the wild beans, specifically looking for those that did not show symptoms of either disease.
LINES OF RESISTANCE
From the entire collection of 248 wild bean species, they found 21 lines with resistance to Fusarium root rot and 16 lineages resistant to Fusarium wilt.
They are attempting to crossbreed some of the resistant wild species with cultivated beans to see if the new varieties will also be resistant to Fusarium.
They have made the resulting information freely available, including in a paper published by Crop Science Journal (https://access.onlinelibrary. wiley.com/doi/10.1002/csc2.20495), specifically so other breeders can start introducing resistance into their lines.
Be sure to check out Crop Science Society of America’s Crop Wild Relative page, https://www.crops. org/crop-wild-relative/, for a
– Miranda Haus,
plant breeder and blogger
collection of blogs, news stories and a video about the use of crop wild relatives in potato breeding. To learn more, read the entire blog: https://sustainable-secure-food-blog. com/2021/09/22/old-beans-mayhave-new-uses/. The blog is sponsored and written by members of the American Society of Agronomy and Crop Science Society of America. Members are researchers and trained, certified professionals in the areas of growing the world’s food supply while protecting the environment. Members work at universities, government research facilities, and private businesses across the United States and world.
The image at left shows a healthy bean root system, while the one at right depicts a young root system infected with Fusarium root rot, which causes necrosis, discoloration, and stunting. Image courtesy of Miranda J. Haus
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IRRIGATION & SPECIALTY EQUIPMENT ISSUE
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