California Ag Network

Tag: Crop Science Society of America

  • New Dry Beans from UC Davis Combine Qualities for Both Farmers & Consumers

    Beans in the UC Davis breeding program, whose varieties have been selected to combine excellent culinary with improved yields and resistance to bean common mosaic virus. Credit: Travis Parker

    Plant breeders are constantly working to develop new bean varieties to meet the needs and desires of the food industry. But not everyone wants the same thing.

    Many consumers desire heirloom-type beans, which have great culinary quality and are visually appealing. On the other hand, farmers desire beans with better disease resistance and higher yield potential.

    The bean varieties that farmers want to grow are sometimes different than the varieties consumers want to purchase. Until now.

    Travis Parker, a plant scientist at University of California, Davis, has worked with a team of researchers to release five new varieties of dry beans that combine the most desirable traits.

    The new varieties, UC Sunrise, UC Southwest Red, UC Tiger’s Eye, UC Rio Zape, and UC Southwest Gold, were recently highlighted in the Journal of Plant Registrations, a publication of the Crop Science Society of America.

    “Our new beans combine the best of both worlds for farmers and consumers,” says Parker. “They combine the better qualities of heirloom-type beans with the better qualities of commercial types.”

    Heirloom-type beans often represent older bean types that are known for culinary qualities and seed patterns. These are highly desired by consumers. Heirloom types often fetch a higher market value than other beans.

    Commercial dry beans often have higher yields, shorter maturity times, and improved disease resistance. While they possess qualities desirable to producers, they don’t command as high of a market price compared to their heirloom counterparts.

    A comparison of the heirloom variety “Tiger’s Eye” (left, with virus symptoms) and the newly released “UC Tiger’s Eye” (right, healthy leaves). These varieties have similar culinary qualities, but UC Tiger’s Eye is resistant to the common mosaic virus and has higher yields. Credit: Travis Parker

    “Our goal was to improve field characteristics of the heirloom beans without losing culinary characteristics,” said Parker. “We have an interest in higher-value varieties and want them to grow well.”

    Farmers growing the heirloom dry beans often sell the beans to health-conscious consumers or high-end restaurants. This sale often leads to a higher price point. However, these beans are prone to disease and don’t perform well in the field.

    “We know that existing heirloom beans don’t usually do well in terms of yield,” said Parker. “Breeding beans for high yields is a major improvement for farmers. The new varieties are high-yielding, heat-tolerant, and are also resistant to bean common mosaic virus.”

    Incorporating disease resistance was essential when developing the new bean varieties. Bean common mosaic virus is a well-known problem that is hard to control in the field.

    “The only really effective means to handle the virus is through genetic resistance,” explains Parker.

    The new varieties, such as UC Sunrise, satisfy the need for farmers to have a bean that is disease resistant while also yielding 50% more than heirloom types. In addition, the beans do not take as long to grow between planting and harvest.

    UC Sunrise seeds Photo Caption: A detailed view of UC Sunrise, one of the new varieties of the heirloom-like dry bean. The colorful pattern is desirable to consumers. Credit: Travis Parker

    Commercial and heirloom beans come from the same species, but they are in different market classes. The heirloom varieties are bred with intimate knowledge of what tastes good and what works well in the kitchen.

    “In recent decades, there has been less attention paid to consumer desires during the bean breeding process,” says Parker. “There are more layers between the breeder and the consumer. We are trying to make sure to keep consumers in mind while incorporating qualities that are beneficial to the farmer.”

    With consumer desires in mind, the research team used cross-pollination to breed plants with key characteristics they selected. As Parker and the team continued the breeding process, they performed taste tests to ensure the beans met the level of culinary quality expected of an heirloom-type bean, in terms of flavor and visual appeal.

    This research was supported by the Clif Bar Family Foundation, Lundberg Family Farms, the United States Department of Agriculture Organic Agriculture Research & Extension Initiative, and the United States Department of Agriculture Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.

    To learn more about the research behind these new dry bean varieties, watch this video from Travis Parker.

  • Keeping Pinto Beans Away from the Dark Side

    Pinto beans are good for us. They are nutritious, packed with protein and fiber. They also contain a host of micronutrients like B vitamins and folate.

    But being good isn’t enough for pinto beans. They also need to look good.

    A new variety of slow-darkening pinto beans shows benefits for the entire value chain (Photo by Juan Osorno).

    Typically, pinto beans have a striking mottled pattern of dark and light brown. However, the beans can darken after harvesting.

    Consumers perceive pinto beans with darker colors to be older, harder to cook, and less nutritious than lighter beans.

    “We eat with our eyes,” says Juan Osorno. Osorno is a researcher at North Dakota State University.

    And it’s not only consumers who are skeptical about dark pinto beans. “Farmers see darker pinto bean seeds as being of poorer quality,” says Osorno. “And when farmers try to sell darker beans, they often have to accept discounted prices.”

    That’s a big deal because pinto beans are the most common type of dry bean grown and consumed in the United States.

    In the recent study, Osorno and colleagues describe the process of developing a promising new variety of slow-darkening pinto bean. “The study found no major differences in the agronomic performance of regular versus the slow-darkening pintos,” says Osorno.

    He believes these slow-darkening pinto beans can be a good alternative for the existing pinto bean value chain. “Both farmers and consumers will benefit from it in many ways,” he says.

    For example, the slow-darkening beans cooked faster than regular beans. Needing less time to cook can be a great benefit in areas where cooking fuel is scarce.

    The key advancement has been improving agronomic performance – such as yield and bean size – of the slow-darkening beans. That’s huge progress, because past plants with the slow darkening gene have had many issues associated with agronomic performance.

    For example, one older variety of slow-darkening pinto beans has low yields. Another won’t flower under farming conditions in the United States. Yet another grows in such a way that it makes mechanical harvesting of the beans difficult.

    At the root of these difficulties lies pinto bean genetics. Physical characteristics, such as yield, bean size, or rate of darkening, are all affected by one or more genes.

    Turns out, a single gene – aptly named slow darkening or SD – controls how quickly pinto beans darken after harvesting. Researchers can breed this gene into new pinto bean varieties fairly easily without creating a genetically modified organism (GMO).

    But whenever they incorporated this gene in the past, other genes responsible for lower yields or smaller beans would come along with the slow darkening gene.

    Osorno and colleagues tested several varieties of slow-darkening and regular pinto beans over the past decade. The tests were carried out in research plots in Washington and North Dakota.

    The researchers compared traits such as seed weight, yield, and cooking time between slow-darkening and regular pinto beans.

    The initial tests – from 2010 to 2012 – did not yield encouraging results. The slow-darkening beans performed poorly compared to regular pinto beans.

    But the latest round of field trials using slow-darkening pinto beans was more promising. According to the 2018 tests, the newer slow-darkening pinto bean varieties are catching up to regular varieties in yield and bean size.

    In fact, a second generation of slow-darkening pinto beans is already showing higher yields compared to the previous generation.

    Osorno is encouraged but says there’s still work to be done. “Remember that breeding yields gains in a stepwise manner rather than through big jumps,” he says.

    Read more about this research in Crop Science. This work was funded by Northarvest Bean Growers Association, United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, United States Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service, and the North Dakota Department of Agriculture.

  • Crop Residue Decisions Affect Soil Life

    In some ways, farming is like cooking. Cooking would be much easier if we could leave the kitchen after eating and not come back until we make the next meal. But someone needs to put away the leftovers, do the dishes, and clean up the table.

    Similarly, there’s work to do in farm fields after harvest and before planting the next spring.

    After harvest in the fall, farmers take the harvested crops to market or store them on their farm. They don’t take the whole plant from the field, though.

    The leftover parts of the plant, like the stalk and leaves from corn, remain in the field. This debris is called crop residue.

    Using no-till and prescribed fire management are two potential ways to manage crop residue. Both practices help keep organic matter and nitrogen in the soil. However, research was needed to understand how these two practices can affect long-term soil health.

    Lisa Fultz and her team want to help farmers determine the best way to manage their residue between growing seasons. To do this, her team decided to learn more about how no-till and prescribed fire management affect nutrients and microbes in the soil. Fultz is a researcher at Louisiana State University AgCenter.

    No-till is a practice where farmers plant directly into the crop debris from the previous year. Prescribed fires are used to purposely burn off the previous crop debris with controlled fire. “Both of these practices have minimal physical disturbance to the soil,” says Fultz.

    Both of these practices also come with drawbacks. No-till can cause poor conditions for crop growth like low spring temperatures and increased moisture, which promotes disease. Prescribed fire can leave bare soil vulnerable to erosion.

    The team focused the research on wheat and soybean rotations and continuous corn production systems. “These are common practices not only in the mid-south, but across many areas of the world,” explains Fultz.

    “Wheat and corn production leave behind residue,” she says. “Common practices, like conventional tillage, are highly disruptive. The need to identify viable conservation practices is growing in importance.”

    Crop residue and its degradation by soil microbes is an important part of the carbon cycle. Plants store carbon during the growing season, then microbes use the plant residue for food. The carbon then gets stored in the soil in a chemically stable form.

    “Fresh, green material in no-till fields is easy to breakdown and provides rich nutrients for soil microbes,” says Fultz. “Ash from burned residue is more chemically stable, but it doesn’t provide a nutrient source for microbes.”

    The team found that impacts from crop management practices, like crop rotation or fertilization, outweighed the influence of prescribed fire for residue management. Researchers found some decreases in microbial activity after yearly prescribed burns.

    Findings show prescribed fire had some possible short-term benefits for soil nutrient availability, but timing is crucial. Prescribed burning of wheat residue provided an increase of nitrogen for about 7 days. These benefits should be weighed against other possible impacts, like carbon dioxide production and crop yield.

    We still need to learn the long-term influence of prescribed fire on the soil biological community,” says Fultz. “While short-term impacts were measured, the long-term influence on soil nutrients, biological cycles and soil health are not known.”

    No two farm management systems are the same, and their success is defined by the user. Scientists continue to examine possible scenarios to provide accurate and sustainable recommendations to farmers.

    “I have always been interested in soil conservation and the potential it has to impact many facets of life,” says Fultz. “By improving soil health, we can improve air and water quality, store carbon, and provide stable resources for food production.”

    Read more about this work in Agrosystems, Geosciences & Environment. This research is supported by the Soybean and Forage Grain Research and Promotion Board.

    American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, Crop Science Society of America: Collectively, these Societies represent more than 12,000 individual members around the world. The scientists’ memberships build collaborating partnerships in the agronomy, crops, and soils science fields for the advancement of knowledge.

  • Reusing Chicken Litter Shows Benefits

    Chicken is the most consumed protein in the United States. According to the National Chicken Council, the U.S. produced more than 9.2 billion broiler chickens in 2019. US consumers spent more than 95 billion dollars on chicken products.

    All these broilers – chickens raised for meat – need millions of tons of litter, or bedding material. Reusing chicken litter can save costs. There exists some health and safety concerns though.

    A new study shows that the environment in reused poultry litter can deter growth of pathogens like Salmonella.

    “When you read or hear that broiler litter is reused to raise multiple flocks of chickens, the typical reaction is that it must be bad for food safety,” says Adelumola Oladeinde, a co-author of the recent study. “Our study demonstrates the exact opposite.”

    Oladeinde is a researcher at the USDA’s National Poultry Research Center in Athens. He and his colleagues found that ‘good’ bacteria in used poultry litter can hinder Salmonella growth.

    “It may be worthwhile to invest time and resources to characterize the bacteria in reused litter,” says Oladeinde. “We can develop the promising ones into beneficial microbes for better chicken gut health.”

    The study also explored litter characteristics, such as moisture and ammonia levels. These characteristics can dramatically affect the litter microbiome – the mix of bacteria, fungi, and viruses in litter.

    “Our findings provide new information on the relationship between the physical environment of broiler litter and its microbiome,” says Oladeinde. “Management techniques that account for both factors may help reduce Salmonella in chickens.”

    Chicken litter plays a big role in determining broiler health. After a broiler chick gets to a farm, it usually spends the next several weeks pecking and living on litter.

    In fact, chicks begin to eat litter even before eating from feeding troughs or drinking. The microbiome present in the litter likely become the ‘first settlers’ in the guts of the chicks.

    “These first microbes play a key role in determining gut health,” says Oladeinde. “Therefore, it is critical to determine what a beneficial litter microbiome looks like.”

    The team collected samples of reused poultry litter from the University of Georgia Poultry Research Center. The litter was used to raise three flocks of broiler chickens under conditions like those used in broiler farms. “Each sample represents a unique broiler litter environment,” says Oladeinde.

    In the lab, researchers measured characteristics of the litter samples. Then they added Salmonella to each sample. After that, the samples were tested for levels of Salmonella, other bacteria, and physical characteristics.

    Within two weeks of adding Salmonella, most samples developed predictable microbiomes. Certain microbes, such as Nocardiopsis bacteria, seemed to reduce growth of Salmonella.

    That makes sense, according to Oladeinde. Some species of Nocardiopsis bacteria are known to produce antibiotics and toxins. These compounds could be keeping Salmonella levels low in the litter samples.

    A key aspect of reusing broiler litter is how long to wait before reuse. This waiting period is called litter downtime.

    “For farmers, a shorter downtime will result in growing more birds through the year,” says Oladeinde. However, we know little about how downtime affects litter microbiome.

    Results from the study show that surveying levels of specific bacteria could help determine if litters have had enough downtime. That could be of big help to farmers.

    “Poultry litter is a complex environment to study,” says Oladeinde. “We showed that the reused litter after two weeks of downtime had a microbiome that was unfavorable to Salmonella.”

    Oladeinde aims to repeat these experiments with litter from various sources. He also wants to test for multiple Salmonella strains. “These studies will tell us about the underlying mechanisms behind reusing litter and reducing Salmonella,” he says.

    Read more about this research in Journal of Environmental Quality. This work was funded by the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.