College of Agriculture
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As the foundation of the land grant mission at Montana State University, the College of Agriculture and the Montana Agricultural Experiment Station provide instruction in traditional and innovative degree programs and conduct research on old and new challenges for Montana’s agricultural community. This integration creates opportunities for students and faculty to excel through hands-on learning, to serve through campus and community engagement, to explore unique solutions to distinct and interesting questions and to connect Montanans with the global community through research discoveries and outreach.
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Item Establishing an indoor agriculture system at a rural Montana PreK-12 school creates hands-on experiences for college seniors studying horticulture(Wiley, 2024-07) Tillett, Brandon; Baumbauer, David; Ewen, Julie; Luby, Claire H.In 2022, seniors studying horticulture at Montana State University (MSU; Bozeman, MT) had the opportunity to participate in a unique community-based learning project in collaboration with the newly built PreK-12 public school in the rural town of Winifred, MT, to establish the greenhouse infrastructure to be used in curriculum at the school. The new greenhouse facility presented an opportunity for Winifred students to not only gain experience growing vegetables, but also to provide a source of fresh vegetables for school lunches and for community members. This course presented two unique opportunities for the MSU horticulture students: (1) to experience problem-solving horticultural challenges through designing and troubleshooting the setup of the cropping systems for the greenhouse and (2) to participate in a course with a real-world impact on improving food security in rural areas of Montana. Over the course of the semester, the MSU students successfully established the infrastructure for the Winifred School greenhouse, which has continued to be integrated into the curriculum as well as providing fresh produce for students and community members. By the end of the course, MSU students demonstrated program learning outcomes including demonstrating the content knowledge and skills necessary to function successfully in a horticultural career and being able to identify and analyze plant growth problems and develop solutions or strategies to solve those problems.Item Efficacy of Entomopathogenic Fungi and Nematodes, and Low Risk Insecticides Against Wheat Stem Sawfly, Cephus cinctus (Hymenoptera: Cephidae)(2014-04) Tangtrakulwanich, Khanobporn; Reddy, Gadi V. P.; Wu, Shaohui; Miller, John H.; Ophus, Victoria L.; Prewett, JulieEntomopathogenic nematodes, fungi, and low risk insecticides were evaluated for the management of the wheat stem sawfly, Cephus cinctus Norton, in winter wheat at two locations (Devon and Western Triangle Ag Research center) in the Golden Triangle area of Montana (USA) in 2013. Two fungi (Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum), four nematodes species (Steinernema carpocapsae, Steinernema kraussei, Steinernema feltiae, and Heterorthabditis bacteriophora), an insect growth regulator (diflubenzuron/dimilin), and a botanical-based chemical (azadirachtin/Aza-direct) were used as foliar sprays. These control agents significantly reduced damage caused by C. cinctus larvae, compared to the untreated control or treatment with water alone. No yield differences were observed among entomopathogenic fungi, nematodes, and low risk insecticides. The effectiveness of azadirachtin, diflubenzuron, the entomopathogenic fungi, and the nematodes persisted at the 28th day post application, by which time the wheat had been harvested. Stubbles collected after harvest showed significantly fewer sawfly larvae in the plots treated with entomopathogenic fungi, nematodes, diflubenzuron, and azadirachtin compared to the untreated and water spray plots, indicating that these biorational pesticides have potential to be used as alternatives to conventional pesticides for controlling the wheat stem sawfly larvae.Item Potential Application of Pheromones in Monitoring, Mating Disruption, and Control of ClickBeetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae)(2014-01) Reddy, Gadi V. P.; Tangtrakulwanich, KhanobpornWireworms, the larvae stage of click beetles (family, Elateridae), are serious soil dwelling pests of small grain, corn, sugar beet, and potato crops globally. Since the 1950s, conventional insecticides such as lindane provided effective and inexpensive protection from wireworms, and little integrated pest management research (IPM) was conducted. The removal of these products from the agricultural market, particularly Lindane, has resulted in increasing levels of wireworm damage to small grain, corn, and potato crops. The wireworm damage has become an increasing problem for growers, so the demand for a meaningful risk assessment and useful methods to restrict damage is increasing. However, due to the cryptic habitat of the wireworms, pest control is very difficult and leads to unsatisfying results. The prospective appropriateness of sex pheromone traps for employing management strategies against wireworm’s populations was first suggested with experimentation in Hungary and Italy. Simultaneously, considerable work has been done on the identification and use of pheromone traps to monitor population of click beetles. The work has been mostly done in European and former Soviet Union countries. For this paper, we reviewed what work has been done in monitoring the click beetle which was considered as pests and how the pheromones can be used in IPM to monitor and control wireworms/click beetles. Also, the possibilities of using the pheromone-baited traps for mating disruption and control tested in the fields were summarized.Item Module of Integrated Insect Pest Management on Tomato With Growers’ Participation(2014-04) Reddy, Gadi V. P.; Tangtrakulwanich, KhanobpornTomato, Lycopersicum esculentum L. (Solanaceae), is an important vegetable crop in the Mariana Islands (Guam, Saipan, Rota and Tinian). Because tomato is heavily attacked by both the tomato fruitworm Helicoverpa armigera Hübner (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) and the red spider mite Tetranychus marianae McGregor, research was begun in 2011 to develop an integrated pest management program to better protect the crop from these pests. Our previous studies have indicated nominal threshold levels for T. marianae to be 8-12 mites/leaf in the dry season and 8-14 mites/leaf during the wet season, while for H. armigera the threshold was found to be 2 eggs per 10 of the plants, followed by an additional pesticide application only if 2 damaged fruit or H. armigera larvae were detected per 50 immature fruits. Other studies have found the IPM package used here of petroleum spray oil (PSO), BotaniGard, neem, and DiPel applied 15, 30, 45 and 60 days after tomato transplant to be a viable approach, significantly reducing the pest complex and giving higher tomato yield compared to both the growers’ current practice (carbaryl or malathion, 15 applications per cropping season) and control plots. The current field study was conducted at two locations in Guam (Yigo and Inarajan), USA, in 2012 and 2013 to compare this IPM package with the growers’ current practice in larger plots designed to educate the growers. The IPM package significantly lowered the pest complex and gave higher tomato yield at both the locations. Tomato growers were invited to attend an informal IPM training program on December 16, 2013 at the University of Guam, which was attended by 48 growers from four Mariana Islands. Of these growers, 41 (85%) were aware of and understood the risks associated with traditional insecticides and recognized the concept of using an IPM package in managing tomato pests before the workshop. However, all the attendees understood the concept and benefits of IPM after the workshop. Follow up with these tomato growers found that 35 (73%) later adopted the IPM program using PSO, BotaniGard, and Dipel at 15, 30, 45 and 60 DAT in the Mariana Islands.Item Impact of growing conditions on the competitive ability of Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz (Camelina)(2013-03) Davis, Phillip B.; Maxwell, Bruce D.; Menalled, Fabian D.It has been claimed that Camelina sativa, a recently introduced crop in the northern Great Plains, is a highly competitive species. However, this issue has not been formally tested. Utilizing replacement series diagrams, we assessed the importance of growing conditions in the competitive ability of C. sativa. Results indicated that canola and Bromus tectorum were superior competitors in both loam and sandy soils, thus providing evidence that C. sativa may not be as competitive as previously indicated.Item Impact of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses on the Competitive Ability of Multiple Herbicide Resistant Wild Oat (Avena fatua)(2013-05) Lehnhoff, Erik A.; Keith, Barbara K.; Dyer, William E.; Menalled, Fabian D.Ecological theory predicts that fitness costs of herbicide resistance should lead to the reduced relative abundance of resistant populations upon the cessation of herbicide use. This greenhouse research investigated the potential fitness costs of two multiple herbicide resistant (MHR) wild oat (Avena fatua) populations, an economically important weed that affects cereal and pulse crop production in the Northern Great Plains of North America. We compared the competitive ability of two MHR and two herbicide susceptible (HS) A. fatua populations along a gradient of biotic and abiotic stresses The biotic stress was imposed by three levels of wheat (Triticum aestivum) competition (0, 4, and 8 individuals pot−1) and an abiotic stress by three nitrogen (N) fertilization rates (0, 50 and 100 kg N ha−1). Data were analyzed with linear mixed-effects models and results showed that the biomass of all A. fatua populations decreased with increasing T. aestivum competition at all N rates. Similarly, A. fatua relative growth rate (RGR) decreased with increasing T. aestivum competition at the medium and high N rates but there was no response with 0 N. There were no differences between the levels of biomass or RGR of HS and MHR populations in response to T. aestivum competition. Overall, the results indicate that MHR does not confer growth-related fitness costs in these A. fatua populations, and that their relative abundance will not be diminished with respect to HS populations in the absence of herbicide treatment.