Introducing Department of Agronomy Peer Mentor Wyatt Bailey!
Wyatt is a sophomore majoring in Agronomy with a secondary major in Seed Science. He comes to ISU from Bondurant, Iowa. This past summer he worked for Key Cooperative in Nevada, IA as a Crop Scouting & Seed Sales intern. He enjoyed communicating with farmers and co-workers about his findings in the fields. He was able to learn a tremendous amount by applying knowledge from his ISU classes to hands-on experience. This fall, he is working for the Agronomy Department in the crops greenhouses, where he completes tasks related to the growth and development of crops and weeds.
Wyatt wanted to be a peer mentor because he was able to see how much his peer mentors positively impacted him during his freshman year. He learned an incredible amount through his mentors and wanted to do the same for future students. A few of the many responsibilities he has include; hosting daily office hours, planning and hosting social events, striving to provide and conducive environment for new students to make friends, and successfully preparing students for the coming years of college. The advice that he has for current agronomy students is to get active in collegiate opportunities and to stay active. Wyatt shares, “There will likely never be another time in our lives to be able to participate in so many diverse activities and organizations.”
“My favorite thing about campus is truly the ability to choose your adventure. If you want to be an Agronomy major with a Criminal Justice minor and join the Amphibian and Reptile Club while competing in the Battleship H2O intramural, you are more than welcome and encouraged to do so. Quirky experiences like the one made above show just how unique one can make their experience here at Iowa State.”
Introducing Department of Agronomy Peer Mentor Maddy Krumins!
Maddy is a sophomore majoring in Agronomy and Environmental Science. She comes to ISU from her hometown of Naperville, IL. This coming summer, she will be excited for the opportunity to teach kids about the environment at a summer camp.
She was interested in being a peer mentor for the department because she wanted to help other students, especially those struggling and needing guidance. Her responsibilities include setting up social events, volunteer opportunities, field trips, helping out in classes, and having office hours. All of these things she is doing to help new agronomy students get involved and find a place on campus.
Maddy’s advice for new agronomy students is, “to lean on your support systems in agronomy because that’s what we’re here for!” Her favorite on-campus that she wants to share with everyone is how many different places there are to study; she shares that there is a place to fit every person’s needs.
A team led by an Agronomist researchers will expand and revamp an electronic toolbox designed to help farmers and landowners identify the conservation practices best suited for their land.
The team received a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to add to and expand the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF), which was first completed in 2013. ACPF relies on data concerning field boundaries, land use and soil conditions for watersheds across the upper Midwest to help guide decisions on conservation practices to improve watershed health and water quality.
The USDA scientists who developed the ACPF have retired, leaving the tool without a true home, said Rick Cruse, director of the Iowa Water Center at Iowa State. Cruse said the Iowa Water Center currently administers the Daily Erosion Project, which estimates soil erosion and water runoff occurring on hill slopes in Iowa and surrounding states. The initiative shares some important similarities with the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework, making the Iowa Water Center a good candidate to spearhead the toolbox’s next steps.
“This is a great tool for NRCS and their farm clientele,” Cruse said. “They can make maps of farms and watersheds and identify some options for you on how you can improve water quality. It’s a great conversation starter.”
Cruse and his colleagues intend to expand the region covered by the planning framework so that it can be of use to a wider range of stakeholders. They also plan to develop annual updates to account for changes in crop rotations and changes in soils.
Using the ACPF toolbox requires some knowledge of specialized agronomic software plus soils, land use and elevation data for a specific location. The toolbox predicts how various conservation practices will perform on specific sites. The result is conservation guidance tailored to the features and characteristics of a given location.
The toolbox considers practices such as saturated buffers, wetlands and bioreactors. These conservation practices help to reduce the runoff of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous from farm fields. Nutrient runoff can contaminate drinking water, affect wildlife habitat and contribute to the Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxic zone, an area along the Louisiana and Texas coast in which the dissolved oxygen content of the water is too low to support many kinds of aquatic life.
Initially, the researchers will gear their system to be of use to Natural Resources Conservation Service employees, but Cruse said the research team will build a network of other partners to help with the expansion of the toolbox use and to widen the clientele interested in using it. He said making those connections and coordinating with new audiences will expand the usefulness and longevity of the toolbox.
The team working to expand and update the ACPF includes nearly a dozen faculty and scientists at Iowa State University, as well as personnel at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota
This past summer, senior in agronomy, Brooke Beinhart, had the opportunity to intern virtually with Land O’Lakes as their Corporate Sourcing Intern. Her daily tasks included attending meetings, following markets, and working on her capstone project. The capstone project she was working on consisted of developing logistical models to help meet the needs of the companies customers and finding more efficient ways to track feed consumption at the dairy farm level.
The most memorable part of interning with Land O’Lakes for Brooke was when she had the chance to visit one of the feed plants in Wilmar, Minnesota. When she visited the feed plant, she was able to experience the process of how the plant operates and how her role fits into their daily tasks. Seeing a direct correlation between her internship position and the actual day-to-day work happening in the feed plant was eye-opening and helped show her how her work was relevant.
“Leaving this internship, my biggest takeaway is knowing that every day will present its challenge, but with the right mindset and team, you can overcome any challenge.” Brooke reflected on her summer with Land O’Lakes and shared that she learned many skills that will help her in her professional life.
Alli Harms, junior in agronomy, spent her past summer in Milford, Iowa, with Cooperative Farmer’s Elevator as an Agronomy Sales Intern. Each day was different throughout her internship. A couple of things she focused on were crop scouting, tissue and nitrate sampling, and attending meetings and plots. A few of her other responsibilities included putting up field signs, training, working on field trials, transporting materials to growers, and flying the drone. All of the different tasks she did throughout the summer gave her a lot of experience and insight into what an Agronomy Sales professional does.
The most memorable experience from Alli’s summer was networking and going to different plot tours and meetings where she could talk to growers and other sellers from various distributors. “I learned a ton from this experience again; here’s a list I compiled of most of the things I learned: scouting importance, products, how to fly the drone, staging in the field, floating roots, sticky traps, weed ID, Winfield united applications: R7 & FFT”, Alli shared the most important things that she learned.
Alli gladly shared her advice for students looking into interning with CFE or any other companies. “Be prepared for anything and everything; no two days will be the same. Having an internship comes with great responsibilities also, so don’t just treat it like another summer job. Make an effort to make as many connections as possible, meet growers, meet people within CFE, make sure someone remembers your face and your name because that could potentially be beneficial in the future.”
Overexpression of soybean gene might lead to resistance from SDS and more
No matter if it is 50 acres or 50,000, crop producers must hone their management practices to maximize yield while minimizing costs. Any number of different pathogens or pests can derail a good season. Soybean farmers in Iowa know how devastating they can be, with some causing millions in losses each year.
Now, new research, recently published in “Plant Biotechnology Journal” by Iowa State University’s agronomy professor Madan Bhattacharyya suggests that there could be hope of future immunity against some of the worst offenders, like sudden death syndrome (SDS) in soybeans.
Enhancing SDS resistance was Bhattacharyya’s initial goal in manipulating soybean genetics.
SDS is caused by a fungus in the soil that attacks a soybean plant’s roots called Fusarium virguliforme. The symptoms of SDS are typically seen on leaves after flowering. Leaves of infected plants will likely show scattered yellow spots between veins. These spots grow to form large chlorotic and necrotic blotches between the leaf veins, while the midvein and major lateral veins remain green. Diseased plants will have rotted taproots and lateral roots, so by the time a farmer sees discolored leaves, it is already too late.
SDS is typically is one of the leading causes of yield loss for soybeans, and that’s no different in Iowa.
“Sudden death syndrome regularly finishes as one of the most destructive soybean diseases across the north central region and a disease that soybean farmers have been battling since the 1970s,” said Daren Mueller, coordinator of the Integrated Pest Management program at Iowa State and co-director of the Crop Protection Network.
In the last 20 years, there have been over 167 million bushels lost with an average of a $72.8 million loss each year just in Iowa. On average, it kills about 1.6% of soybeans each year, and went up to 5% losses in 2010.
This is why Bhattacharyya’s work might be a game changer for some farmers. He and his team were able to identify a gene, that once overexpressed, could provide immunity against SDS.
“This gene has only been found in legumes, and a limited number of other crops like cocoa, jute and cotton,” Bhattacharyya said.
He and his team tested the transgenic lines with the overexpressed gene from 2015 to 2018 in the field, and found that up to 91% showed SDS resistance. This could save farmers millions of dollars each year in lost yield.
“Managing SDS is very complicated, and often involves using a lot of different management tactics to tackle it,” Mueller said. “But the most reliable management strategy should center around resistance.”
Mueller said that researchers like Bhattacharyya who are studying how to improve resistance gives soybean breeders a fighting chance to develop better lines which is the most sustainable foundation for SDS management strategies for farmers.
“The expression of this gene is very rapidly suppressed by an F. virguliforme infection. To overexpress the gene during infection, we swapped a part of the gene with that of three other genes that are induced during infection,” Bhattacharyya said. “We were very surprised to see that the transgenic soybean plants exhibited resistance not only against F. virguliforme, but also against spider mites, soybean aphids and soybean cyst nematode.”
Soybean cyst nematode is the number one pathogen in soybean that causes yield suppression valued at over $1.2 billion annually in the U.S.
Bhattacharyya’s team has been studying the mechanisms used by the overexpressed gene in inducing broad-spectrum resistance against multiple pathogens and pests in transgenic soybean lines. They have observed that over 20 putative signaling genes for defense responses are regulated by this gene. Further research and testing might establish that this gene could be a “master switch” for defense pathways against multiple pathogens and pests.
This research develops a better understanding of how the mechanisms of resistance work, and soybean breeders can learn from and use it to help develop lines to combat serious diseases and pests.
In high school, Kaleb Baber wouldn’t have pictured himself studying abroad. But, after discovering his love of travel as an undergrad at Iowa State, he’s serving as an officer for an international student organization.
Baber, a senior in agronomy from Weston, Missouri, maximizes his experiences at Iowa State through extracurriculars on campus as well as serving as the vice president of the International Agriculture Club at Iowa State.
“Once I came to Iowa State I realized how affordable studying abroad is and how we have such great opportunities to travel. Various scholarships were also offered, so it was kind of a no-brainer for me to go,” says Baber.
He is the recipient of the Elinor L. Fehr and Walter R. Fehr Endowed Scholarship, the Agronomy Academic Fellowship and the Dean’s Study Abroad Leadership Scholars Scholarship. Baber studied abroad in Australia, where he gained hands-on experience in animal science. He learned about the history of Australia and gained a broad knowledge of the agricultural commodities produced in different regions of the country. He visited cultural sites like Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, the Port Arthur Historic Site and the Sydney Opera House. Baber also had the opportunity to travel to New Zealand.
“Coming from the Midwest, my experiences with agriculture before college were with corn and soybeans. It was really exciting to experience agriculture first-hand somewhere different,” says Baber. “I took a pasture and animal science class abroad where I worked sheep one day with a farmer. That was really interesting to me because I had never even touched a sheep before.”
Marshall McDaniel, Baber’s academic adviser and assistant professor of agronomy, emphasizes the importance of traveling abroad to all of his students. He teaches an annual study abroad course during spring break rotating among Australia, Argentina and Spain.
“I think studying abroad is critical. It gives students a different perspective on agriculture and also allows them to see a different culture,” says McDaniel. “I recommend my advisees take advantage of studying abroad while they are here because in the future they might not have the same opportunities.”
In addition to traveling and serving the International Agriculture Club at Iowa State, Baber is the fundraising chair for the Agronomy Club. He also has worked as a research assistant collecting and processing soil and water samples for the Agricultural Water Management Research Group.
And, he was a peer mentor for the Department of Agronomy guiding incoming freshmen to successful first-year experiences. Studying abroad helped Baber develop soft skills like independence and confidence.
“It used to be that I couldn’t imagine even traveling abroad, but now I’d live abroad if the right opportunity arises,” he says.
Ask any farmer and they will explain the importance of soil. While seasonal weather can be the difference from a good harvest and a worrisome one, the soil moderates the long-term productivity of that harvest. The inherent properties of soil types are vital to know when it comes to management practices on any agricultural landscape.
“We rely on soil for so many different things, the list can be overwhelming at times,” said Bradley Miller, assistant professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. “You think about why the state of Iowa has the agricultural economy that it does, and that is largely because of the soil it has.”
Miller is working to update Iowa’s soil survey, or soil map, which was completed about 30 years ago, with small tweaks since then. Those original maps were produced by the Cooperative Soil Survey, which was a partnership between Iowa State University and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Funding for that project came from a combination of federal, state and county sources. The maps were compiled county by county and each took about four years to complete.
A lot of the mapping was done with aerial photography, and while many of the maps may have been completed in the 1980s, the technology that was used to produce the maps was from the World War I era, Miller said.
“We have been essentially mapping soils in Iowa the same way for almost 100 years now,” Miller said. “The concept has been, that we use the aerial photography as a base map. And based on what we see in that photography, we delineate different areas of the landscape with what we believe have similar soil properties.”
With any soil survey comes a certain element of prediction, because a hole can’t be dug everywhere. Miller said maps were made by surveyors building mental models from the experience of taking representative soil samples around each county. They identify all the different environmental factors, like geological and topography associated with that sample, and matched areas with the same factors to predict similar soil samples. This information was combined with the aerial photography to produce the maps, which were hand drawn onto the photos.
Soils are placed in a series, and a series is a collection of soils that have similar properties. Each soil series gets a name, and those names are usually tied to the area, like Clarion, Webster or Nicollet in north central Iowa.
Miller said that the maps in use today were never meant to be used at the sub-field level when deciding management practices for crops, but that is how they are used.
“The existing soil maps were supposed to give a general idea of the soil resources, but as we get into precision agriculture, a lot of farmers—because they don’t have a better resource—are using this map to decide on their management zones within the field,” Miller said. “Even though the creators of this map never intended it for [that], but it is still the best available for that purpose.”
He said when considering the accuracy of Iowa’s soil maps, the question is really about what can be done with the information it provides.
“The reality is that we really want higher spatial detail and a more statistically-based approach in how the uncertainty in predicting soil properties is described,” he said.
This is what Miller is trying to accomplish through his research. He and his team are working on an algorithm they developed to automatically classify a landscape with different soil properties.
“We have several algorithms as part of our toolbox, and we could do a better map than [the current] map right now,” Miller said. “But every landscape has some special characteristics that we need to customize to, and we do that through machine learning.”
This means that the algorithm “learns” about these characteristics in the landscape without having to specifically be programed to do so. Different technologies Miller is using are being input into the algorithm to be consistent and accurate.
He takes the aerial photography, and stacks together a large number of potential covariates or predictors. This means taking remote sensors, from an airplane or satellite platform, that could predict, or covary, different soil properties. The difference from the traditional soil survey methods is the large quantity of covariates and the complex, quantitative models built by machine learning.
There are two different ways Miller is collecting the covariates. The first is terrain analysis. This starts with detailed elevation data that comes from an airplane equipped with LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging. This measures the rise and fall of the landscape and records the elevation information by shooting a laser from the plane to the ground and recording the amount of time it takes to bounce back. Then Miller’s team analyzes the elevation data for the different landscape aspects that influence environmental conditions, such as water flow.
The second method is collecting spectral information from satellites. This means the whole electromagnetic spectrum, both light seen by the human eye and light that can’t be seen. Miller said that healthy vegetation on a landscape is directly related to the plant’s root system in the soil, thus being able to infer the soil based on what it above ground. Miller said that strategy, classifying soil by the vegetation growing from it, actually dates back to the ancient Greeks.
“In some ways we aren’t inventing the wheel, we are using concepts that we have known for a while,” Miller said. “The big difference is we now have this big data source with this satellite information, LIDAR information, plus we have the machine learning that helps us find much more complex patterns.”
The big questions Miller is tackling now are what is the appropriate machine learning algorithm to find those complex patterns, what is the best sampling design that can capture the variation in the landscape and what are the best covariates to use.
The inventory of Iowa’s soil is important, not only for those in the agriculture industry, but also for tax assessment, real estate valuation and the environment.
“We are always [working] to improve the accuracy of our predictions,” Miller said.
Ask any farmer and they will explain the importance of soil. While seasonal weather can be the difference from a good harvest and a worrisome one, the soil moderates the long-term productivity of that harvest. The inherent properties of soil types are vital to know when it comes to management practices on any agricultural landscape.
“We rely on soil for so many different things, the list can be overwhelming at times,” said Bradley Miller, assistant professor of agronomy at Iowa State University. “You think about why the state of Iowa has the agricultural economy that it does, and that is largely because of the soil it has.”
Miller is working to update Iowa’s soil survey, or soil map, which was completed about 30 years ago, with small tweaks since then. Those original maps were produced by the Cooperative Soil Survey, which was a partnership between Iowa State University and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Funding for that project came from a combination of federal, state and county sources. The maps were compiled county by county and each took about four years to complete.
A lot of the mapping was done with aerial photography, and while many of the maps may have been completed in the 1980s, the technology that was used to produce the maps was from the World War I era, Miller said.
“We have been essentially mapping soils in Iowa the same way for almost 100 years now,” Miller said. “The concept has been, that we use the aerial photography as a base map. And based on what we see in that photography, we delineate different areas of the landscape with what we believe have similar soil properties.”
With any soil survey comes a certain element of prediction, because a hole can’t be dug everywhere. Miller said maps were made by surveyors building mental models from the experience of taking representative soil samples around each county. They identify all the different environmental factors, like geological and topography associated with that sample, and matched areas with the same factors to predict similar soil samples. This information was combined with the aerial photography to produce the maps, which were hand drawn onto the photos.
Soils are placed in a series, and a series is a collection of soils that have similar properties. Each soil series gets a name, and those names are usually tied to the area, like Clarion, Webster or Nicollet in north central Iowa.
Miller said that the maps in use today were never meant to be used at the sub-field level when deciding management practices for crops, but that is how they are used.
“The existing soil maps were supposed to give a general idea of the soil resources, but as we get into precision agriculture, a lot of farmers—because they don’t have a better resource—are using this map to decide on their management zones within the field,” Miller said. “Even though the creators of this map never intended it for [that], but it is still the best available for that purpose.”
He said when considering the accuracy of Iowa’s soil maps, the question is really about what can be done with the information it provides.
“The reality is that we really want higher spatial detail and a more statistically-based approach in how the uncertainty in predicting soil properties is described,” he said.
This is what Miller is trying to accomplish through his research. He and his team are working on an algorithm they developed to automatically classify a landscape with different soil properties.
“We have several algorithms as part of our toolbox, and we could do a better map than [the current] map right now,” Miller said. “But every landscape has some special characteristics that we need to customize to, and we do that through machine learning.”
This means that the algorithm “learns” about these characteristics in the landscape without having to specifically be programed to do so. Different technologies Miller is using are being input into the algorithm to be consistent and accurate.
He takes the aerial photography, and stacks together a large number of potential covariates or predictors. This means taking remote sensors, from an airplane or satellite platform, that could predict, or covary, different soil properties. The difference from the traditional soil survey methods is the large quantity of covariates and the complex, quantitative models built by machine learning.
There are two different ways Miller is collecting the covariates. The first is terrain analysis. This starts with detailed elevation data that comes from an airplane equipped with LIDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging. This measures the rise and fall of the landscape and records the elevation information by shooting a laser from the plane to the ground and recording the amount of time it takes to bounce back. Then Miller’s team analyzes the elevation data for the different landscape aspects that influence environmental conditions, such as water flow.
The second method is collecting spectral information from satellites. This means the whole electromagnetic spectrum, both light seen by the human eye and light that can’t be seen. Miller said that healthy vegetation on a landscape is directly related to the plant’s root system in the soil, thus being able to infer the soil based on what it above ground. Miller said that strategy, classifying soil by the vegetation growing from it, actually dates back to the ancient Greeks.
“In some ways we aren’t inventing the wheel, we are using concepts that we have known for a while,” Miller said. “The big difference is we now have this big data source with this satellite information, LIDAR information, plus we have the machine learning that helps us find much more complex patterns.”
The big questions Miller is tackling now are what is the appropriate machine learning algorithm to find those complex patterns, what is the best sampling design that can capture the variation in the landscape and what are the best covariates to use.
The inventory of Iowa’s soil is important, not only for those in the agriculture industry, but also for tax assessment, real estate valuation and the environment.
“We are always [working] to improve the accuracy of our predictions,” Miller said.
Jack Pieper, a senior in agronomy, is spending his semester studying abroad in the Netherlands after finding the opportunity on the CALS study abroad website.
“I wanted to study at Wageningen University in the Netherlands because I knew that it had a very strong reputation for being the top agricultural university in the world. I also was interested in some of their master’s programs so I wanted to see if it could potentially be a good option for graduate school,” said Jack.
Jack begins his day aborad by waking up around 7:30. He goes to class from 10:10-11:40 a.m. and then he grabs lunch and prepares for his next class, which is from 2-4:30 p.m. After classes, Jack goes to the gym or some ESN (erasmus student network) events like international dinners or game night.
“My favorite part of being abroad is having the opportunity to meet and learn from people from around the world. Every day I’m able to learn something new from the people I’ve met and I’m thankful for that,” said Jack.
At Wageningen, the “semester” system is much different than at Iowa State, explained Jack. Instead of semesters, there are six total periods. Generally, students take two classes at a time during each period, which includes one morning class and one afternoon class. The classes often last 1.5 hours each day and can include a lecture and/or a practical (group work in the lab).
“All of the classes that I have taken so far have been related to agriculture in some way. I’ve already taken a horticulture and ecology course, and I’m currently taking a post-harvest plant physiology and food systems course,” said Jack. “It’s been interesting to compare Wageningen’s concepts and viewpoints on agriculture and agronomy specifically compared to what we learn at Iowa State.”
While being abroad Jack has enjoyed studying new languages, such as Dutch, since he is taking it as a language class. He has also experienced different sports like handball and field hockey.
“If anybody has the opportunity to study abroad, he or she should take full advantage of it. There’s so much more to discover in the world than what we see in Iowa, and the best time to explore is during your college years,” said Jack.
Austin Day, senior in agronomy, spent several months studying abroad in New Zealand this past year.
“I chose to study in New Zealand because I wished to learn about alternate forms of agricultural production and hoped to find methods that could improve our own,” said Austin.
Austin was able to take classes that fulfilled requirements in both his agronomy major and animal science minor. These classes included animal nutrition, animal production, and understanding plant protection.
“My weekends and breaks from class consisted of traveling and experiencing everything that New Zealand had to offer. I was even able to spend a week in Australia. During my adventures, I enjoyed hiking, climbing mountains, visiting scenes from “Lord of the Rings,” trying new things like surfing, and much more,” said Austin.
Austin found the opportunity to study abroad by talking to others that had been involved in similar programs as well as attending the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences study abroad fair. His experiences have given him a broader perspective of the agriculture industry and how farmers around the globe are striving to reach the same goals of efficiently and effectively feeding the world.
“What I have experienced has expanded my love for all aspects of agriculture. I would highly recommend this kind of experience to anyone who has an interest in traveling and exploring new cultures,” said Austin. “I wouldn’t trade my adventure nor the chance of meeting all of the new friends I have now for anything.”
This past summer, senior in agronomy, Brooke Beinhart, had the opportunity to intern virtually with Land O’Lakes as their Corporate Sourcing Intern. Her daily tasks included attending meetings, following markets, and working on her capstone project. The capstone project she was working on consisted of developing logistical models to help meet the needs of the companies customers and finding more efficient ways to track feed consumption at the dairy farm level.
