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January 6, 2011
· ‘Zombie’ fly may explain bee die-off
· Corn seed shortage sows Farm Belt woes
· Monsanto profit tops analyst estimates
· Florida frost may be a boon to growers
· How Russia saved America’s sunflower
‘Zombie’ fly may explain bee die-off
(AP)
Scientists say the fly deposits its eggs into the bee’s abdomen, causing the infected bee to exhibit zombie-like behavior by walking around in circles with no apparent sense of direction. The bee leaves the hive at night and dies shortly thereafter.
The symptoms mirror colony collapse disorder, in which all the adult honey bees in a colony suddenly disappear.
The disease is of great concern, because bees pollinate
about a third of the
The latest study, published Tuesday in the science journal PLoS ONE, points to the parasitic fly as the new threat to honey bees. It’s another step in ongoing research to find the cause of the disease.
Researchers haven’t been able to pin down an exact cause of colony collapse or find a way to prevent it. Research so far points to a combination of factors including pesticide contamination, a lack of blooms — and hence nutrition — and mites, fungi, viruses and parasites.
Interaction among the parasite and multiple pathogens could
be one possible factor in colony collapse, according to the latest study by
researchers at
The combination of a parasite, pathogens and other stressors could cause die-off, lead investigator John Hafernik said. The parasitic fly serves as a reservoir that harbors pathogens — honey bees from parasite-infected hives tested positive for deformed wing virus and other pathogens, the study found.
“We don’t fully understand the web of interactions,” Hafernik said. “The parasite could be another stressor, enough to push the bee over tipping point. Or it could play a primary role in causing the disease.”
Hafernik stumbled onto the parasitic fly by accident. Three years ago, the biology professor looked for something to feed a praying mantis. He found some bees outside his classroom, placed them in a vial and forgot about them. When he looked at the vial a week later, he found dead bees surrounded by small fly pupae. A parasitic fly was feeding on the bees and had killed them, he said.
The fly is a known parasite in bumble bees. Scientists used DNA barcoding to confirm the parasite in the honey bees and bumble bees was the same species.
The fly might have recently expanded its host presence from bumble bees to honey bees, Hafernik said, making it an emerging threat to agricultural pollinators. The fact that honey bees live in large colonies placed in close proximity to one another and beekeepers frequently move the hives throughout the country could lead to an explosion of the fly population, he said.
The fly, which is found all over
Hafernik plans to expand his
research to other parts of the country and to study the parasite’s impact on
agriculture in
Since it was recognized in 2006, colony collapse has destroyed colonies at a rate of about 30 percent per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Before that, losses were about 15 percent per year from a variety of pests and diseases.
Corn seed shortage sows Farm Belt woes
(WSJ.com)
– As farmers across the
By some estimates,
The shortage of seed threatens to scuttle what some expect
to be the biggest planting of corn in the
The problem could mean the second year in a row of tumult
for the corn market. Last year, hot weather led to a smaller
Corn prices slumped in the second half as the fall harvest
replenished supplies. But in the past three weeks, corn futures prices have
been on the rise, jumping 14% in the past three weeks. While much of that has
been on the back of fears of lower-than-expected production in
Seed could propel prices even further, said Jason Britt,
president of Central States Commodities, a
On Wednesday, March corn futures settled unchanged at $6.5850 a bushel at the Chicago Board of Trade. A disappointing crop could renew talk of corn reaching as much as $9 or $10 a bushel, Mr. Britt said.
"The implications of having a crop like we had this year would be pretty extreme," Mr. Britt said. Traders are "going to have to question if that crop we're planting is starting off on the right foot."
Monsanto Co. and other large seed companies remain sanguine about supplies.
Pioneer Hi-Bred, the seed subsidiary of DuPont Co., said farmers in some cases won't get their first choice of seed, but noted that this happens every year. The company doesn't expect major disruptions from tight supplies, said Terry Gardner, Pioneer's director of marketing and sales effectiveness.
"We're in an excellent position as far as having an adequate supply of seed," Mr. Gardner said.
Monsanto, the world's largest seed supplier by volume, is expected to provide an update on supplies when it reports quarterly earnings. A company spokeswoman declined to comment ahead of the report, but pointed to a November investor presentation in which an executive voiced confidence in supplies.
The shortage of corn seed is most acute in the northern
Given enough seed, farmers likely would have planted close
to three million acres, he said, but the shortage will keep plantings closer to
2.5 million. Farmers in
Further south in the heart of the corn belt, dealers said there aren't enough top-quality seeds, which are rated by how much corn they yield, to go around.
"I really don't know that I've ever seen it quite this
tight," said Skip Long, product manager for Merschman
Seeds in
Yield is a measurement of the number of bushels produced per acre, and lower yields result in smaller harvests. Yields often are volatile year to year, with last fall's crop averaging 146.7 bushels an acre, a 4% decline from the previous year. Corn seeds are kernels from a cob. Seed companies have bred and modified the plants genetically in a process that has resulted in hardier plants.
Seed suppliers said they plan to turn to imports of seed
from South America to make up for the weak
Moreover, a late harvest in South America or early planting
season in
Monsanto profit tops analyst estimates
(Bloomberg)
– Monsanto Co. (MON), the world’s largest seed company, posted first-quarter
earnings that exceeded estimates as Latin American farmers grew more
genetically modified corn and said
Net income climbed to $126 million, or 23 cents a share, in the three months through November, from $9 million, or 2 cents, a year earlier, St. Louis-based Monsanto said in a statement. Monsanto said last month that earnings would be 15 cents to 20 cents a share, and the average of 10 estimates (MON) compiled by Bloomberg was for profit of 18 cents.
First-quarter revenue rose 33 percent to $2.44 billion from
$1.84 billion as farmers in the southern hemisphere bought more genetically
modified corn seed. Chief Executive Officer Hugh Grant is increasing sales in
“The strength in the quarter was driven by a sharp increase
in biotech seeds and traits in the
Forecast Narrowed
Shares of Monsanto rose (MON) 4.7 percent to $76.11 as of
9:58 a.m. in
Monsanto narrowed its full fiscal-year earnings forecast to
$3.39 to $3.44 a share, compared with a December forecast (MON) of $3.34 to
$3.44. The average estimate of 13 analysts in the survey was for profit of
$3.44 a share.
“We’ve seen a very strong start to the year, with real
growth in Latin America and early orders in the
Monsanto said it advanced a record 14 research projects toward commercialization. The company also maintained its full- year cash-flow guidance of $1.3 billion to $1.5 billion.
Results in Monsanto’s first and fourth quarters are
typically weakest because farmers are between planting seasons in North America
and
Florida
(Tampa
Bay Times) – A freeze that threatened widespread crop damage may have ended
up being exactly what
Thanks largely to the ninth-warmest December on record, strawberry plants are producing more fruit, and faster. Industry wide, farmers are reeling in record hauls.
That's fine except for one thing: All that supply is driving down prices.
While that's good for the consumer, it means farmers are forced to sell at very low prices that promise little, if any, profit.
Wednesday's low and freezing or near freezing temperatures Thursday could help by slowing plant growth, reducing the supply and increasing the price.
"There's no doubt about it," said Joe Gude, the owner of Brandon Farms, a strawberry farm. "We definitely needed some cool weather to cool this thing down."
Gude said the weather will slow the yield, but it also has another benefit. Lower temperatures help make sweeter berries.
"We hope it's going to be a good thing and spread the
production out a little further," said Carl Grooms of Fancy Farms in
George Casey, who owns a farm on
His farm was colder for longer than most, but he sees the freeze as a good thing. He said he sees a big correction in the market coming.
"Right now the market's saturated," he said.
He said last year at this time he was selling a flat of strawberries, eight, 1-pound containers, for about $22 or $24. This year it's down to $8.80.
"A good price is in the teens," said Ted Campbell, the executive director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association. "Under 10 is a very difficult price for them."
Casey said the freeze is going to be good, but may have come too late and may impact farmer's ability to plant next season.
"The financial impact is both going to be on the loss and next year's crop," he said.
Of course, there's a very fine line. Too much cold is devastating.
"Last night, if I had not of watered, I could have lost a million or a million-and-a-half," said Grooms, noting that he doesn't anticipate any losses though it's still too early to tell
The kill point for strawberries and their plants is 28
degrees, said
Some parts of the
Largely, farmers said, temperatures didn't get low enough for long enough to do major damage and they said they weren't expecting heavy loses.
"This is minimal," said Gude. "This won't be a big deal for us."
Likewise, the tropical fish industry was hopeful it escaped the freeze unscathed.
"At this point in time, I'm not anticipating any problems," said Art Rawlins of the Rawlins Tropical Fish farm in Lithia. "Usually most of the time, our farm can sustain one or two nights with all the cold weather protection"
How Russia
saved America
(npr.org) -- Next time you buy some potato chips, take a look at the list of ingredients. There's a good chance that, right after potatoes, you'll see this: "Sunflower oil."
You might think nothing of it. After all, the sunflower is
the state flower of
But before the sunflower ended up helping to fry potatoes,
it had to take a long detour through, of all places, the
Let's follow this trail from the beginning.
The sunflower is, indeed, a home-grown plant. It's one of
the very few food crops that actually originated in the territory of the
current
"I always call the sunflower one of our native sons. We
are the center of origin of this crop," says Gerald Seiler, a botanist who
works at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Sunflower Research Unit in
Before
After that, though, the sunflower found itself neglected. This native son had to go abroad to find love and respect.
Early Spanish explorers took seeds home with them. It spread
across
Finally, the Russians adopted it. They turned this native American plant into one of the world's great sources of cooking oil.
Why
"But it just happened that sunflower was such a new crop that it was not on the prohibited list," he says. "And when they discovered that they could use sunflower, it just blossomed."
By the 1800s, sunflowers covered huge fields in
Then, during the Stalin era, Soviet plant breeders made these little oil factories even more productive. They created varieties with almost 50 percent more oil in their seeds.
Eventually, sunflower oil filled grocery shelves across
Brent Hulke, who's now the USDA's
sunflower breeder in
But in the
Then came the 1990s, and sunflowers got a boost from somewhere they never expected: Potato chip makers.
"It all started with what was called the Mediterranean diet," says Jerry Miller.
Olive oil was in. Transfats were on their way out. And companies like Frito-Lay were wondering how they would fry their potato chips if people didn't want to eat transfat-filled partially hydrogenated soybean oil.
Miller had an answer. He told the companies that Soviet plant breeders had created a mutant sunflower, one that produced oil that was still good for you, but didn't go bad while frying potato chips. It had much higher levels of monounsaturated oleic fatty acids, and much lower levels of polyunsaturated fats. So, no transfats!
"Frito-Lay had a chemist named Monoj Gupta, who recognized immediately what it could do for his company. And he said, 'Let's go. Let's do this,'" recalls Miller.
Today, farmers in the
For an encore, the sunflower may be going where no oil seed
has gone before. Right now, in the greenhouses of the USDA's sunflower research
center in
The genes for these low levels of saturated fat came from
sunflowers that were collected in
"It's just so fascinating that something like that can exist on the landscape and you just don't even know it," says Hulke.
Which brings us back to the USDA's Gerald
Seiler - the scientist who calls the sunflower
He's pretty sure there are more genetic treasures still to
be discovered in cultivated sunflowers all over the world and in the extended
family of the sunflower's wild relatives, which grow from
For the past 40 years, Seiler has been driving country roads, stopping to gather sunflower seeds.
He deposits the seeds in storage vaults, including one at
his research center in
In this refrigerated room, he shows me row after row of metal and plastic boxes. Each one holds hundreds of seed samples. A lot of these boxes have the name Seiler on them. "This is my life in here! This is 30-some years of work in here!" he says.
Each seed is a package of genes that Seiler wants to preserve. Because those genes, he says, are like nuggets of gold. Their true value is still waiting to be discovered.
End Transmission