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AG e-news November 21, 2016

November 21, 2016 — 

News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences, University of Manitoba.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday, November 22 – A Department of Animal Science Seminar will be held on in Room 219 Animal Science Building at 10:00 am. Kelsey Fehr, M.Sc. student,  will make the poster presentation “Bovine mammary gland health: The impact of bedding materials”. Brittany Byron, M.Sc. student,  will make the poster presentation “Relationship between RFI classification of beef cattle and intake on pasture”. All are welcome to attend.

Tuesday, November 22 – A Human Nutritional Sciences Graduate Seminar entitled “”Factors associated with the need for eating assistance by long-term care residents: The Making the Most of Mealtimes Study (M3)” will be presented by graduate student Amanda Gravelle at 3:00 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building.

Wednesday, November 23 –  A Soil Science Seminar will take place at 12:30 pm in Room 346 Ellis Building. Dr. Xiaofeng Wang, Visiting Scholar, Department of Soil Science, will present “Heat-activated persulfate oxidation of DDT: implications for remediation of soil contaminated by DDT”.

Thursday, November 24 – A Final Ph.D. Oral Defence by Jessay Devassy, Human Nutritional Sciences, is scheduled for 10:00 am in 339A University Centre. Jessay will present ““Effect of Dietary Soy Protein and Oils Containing Omega-3 Fatty Acids on Disease and Renal Oxylipins in Polycystic Kidney Disease”. Faculty, students, staff and general public are welcome to attend.

Tuesday, November 29 – A Department of Animal Science Seminar will be held on in Room 219 Animal Science Building at 10:00 am. Bonjin Koo, M.Sc. student,  will make the poster presentation “Effect of diet complexity and multi-carbohydrase on growth performance in weaned pigs”. Amarkoon Sirini, M.Sc. student,  will make the poster presentation “Plant extracts and oxidative stress in pigs”. All are welcome to attend.

Tuesday, November 29 – A Human Nutritional Sciences Graduate Seminar entitled “Cholesterol-lowering effect of indigestible proteins from Manitoba pulses)” will be presented by graduate student Hongyi Wu at 3:00 pm in the Carolyn Sifton Lecture Theatre, 130 Agriculture Building.

Wednesday, November 30 – FASO is once again joining the Movember movement in support of Prostate Cancer research by putting on the annual Head Shave’N Shine. They have some student volunteers lined up to shave their head/cut their hair but would LOVE to see some staff volunteers as well! You can set a price at which you would be willing to participate and we will see if students/staff can reach that! All proceeds go to Prostate Cancer research. To participate contact Courtney at boyache3 [at] myumanitoba [dot] ca. And of course, if you are just wanting to donate and have some lunch (and watch the fun), you can drop by the Agriculture Atrium that day to do so!

Wednesday, November 30 – You and your colleagues are invited to attend, “Pulses – A Culinary Perspective” from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at Kitchen Sync, 370 Donald Street, Winnipeg. Chef Christine Farkas of iHeartFoodCanada will demonstrate the diversity of pulse ingredients and how they can be used in recipes and formulations to reach your product development goals. A sampling of pulse based foods will be served. There is no charge to attend the event, however pre-registration is required.  Please RSVP by sending an email to manitobasection [at] cifst [dot] ca, including your name and whether you are a CIFST member. Deadline for registration is November 24, 2016.

Tuesday, December 6 – Are you an alumnus in the Calgary/Edmonton area?  Dean Karin Wittenberg invites you to attend the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Alumni Reception at 5:00 pm at the Calgary Marriott Downtown (110 9ths Avenue SE). There will be a general University of Manitoba Alumni Reception immediately following at 6:30 pm. To RSVP please contact kim [dot] stefaniuk [at] umanitoba [dot] ca by November 30.

Monday, December 12 – Everyone is welcome to attend the Faculty’s Annual Holiday Celebration from 2:00 – 4:30 pm. This year the event will be held in the Agriculture Building Atrium.

Wednesday, December 14 and Thursday, December 15 – The 2016 Manitoba Agronomists Conference themed “Advances in Crop Scouting: Balancing Technology with Technique will be held in Room 172 Agriculture Building and via webcast. The cost is $225.  Register by December 4 to take advantage of the early bird rate of $185.  Registration closes December 9. Register early for Winnipeg as space is limited. Graduate students are invited to attend as well as submit posters.  Poster requirements and deadlines as well as registration information are on the MAC website at www.manitobaagronomists.ca. Any inquiries can be directed to the MAC Coordinator, Rachel Sydor at mbagconf [at] umanitoba [dot] ca or 204-474-8473.

 

STAFF AND STUDENT NEWS

Derek Brewin, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, was the invited speaker at the Fall Seminar of the Alberta Agricultural Economics Association and the University of Alberta Department of Resource Economics and Enviornmental Sociology on November 14. His topic was “Games Involved in Grain Handling and Transportation in Western Canada.”

Ed Tyrchniewicz, Senior Scholar in Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, visited Sumy National Agrarian University in Ukraine October 17-22 to advise them on establishing a cooperative education program. While there, he also presented a university lecture on “Agriculture and Climate Change: Implications for University Education and Research”.

Two Plant Science Ph.D. students in the Brassica breeding program with Rob Duncan presented at the annual meeting of the Crop Science Society of America in Pheonix, AZ, November 7-9. Valeria Lobos Sujo presented two research topics entitled “Development of KASP Markers for Restorer Homozygosity in the Ogu-INRA CMS System in Brassica napus L.” and “Improvement of Brassica napus L. Restorers Using a Recurrent Selection Strategy”.  Chad Koscielny presented a talk entitled “Metabolic Biomarkers Associated with Heat Stress in Spring Canola”.

In celebration of Best Cooking Pulses’ 80 years in business, a symposium “Understanding the Nutritional and Functional Benefits of Pulses Flours and Fibre”, was held at AACC International’s meeting in Savannah, GA in late October.  One of the invited speakers was Martin Scanlon, Food Science and Associate Dean (Research), who presented a paper, “Real-time monitoring of the effect of pea fibre addition and its particle size on dough proofing potential” on behalf of co-authors Adrienne Shum (former Food Science graduate student), Anatoliy Strybulevych and John Page.

At AACC International’s meeting in Savannah, GA, Martin was also co-author of a presentation given by Filiz Koksel, Food Science, entitled “Reducing sodium in baked goods by control of bubble size distributions in dough” with co-authors Reine-Marie Guillermic and Xinyang Sun (University of Manitoba), and Andrea Stone, Alek Yovchev, Nicole Avramenko and Mike Nickerson (University of Saskatchewan).

As part of Health Canada’s support of sodium reduction in the food supply, Food Science Ph.D. student Xinyang Sun presented a paper at AACC International’s meeting in Savannah, GA (October 23 – 26) entitled, “Effects of wheat cultivar, water, NaCl and mixing on the rheological properties of bread dough” on behalf of co-authors Filiz Koksel and Martin Scanlon (University of Manitoba) and Mike Nickerson (University of Saskatchewan).

 

IN THE NEWS

Mario Tenuta, Soil Science, was quoted in the article “Are food companies influencing fertilizer use?” in the Western Producer (November 17) – page 26 at http://static.producer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20161117.pdf.

Mario was also quoted in the story “Soybean pest headed our way” in the Western Producer (November 17 – page 32 at http://static.producer.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/20161117.pdf.

Martin Entz, Plant Science, was interviewed by the Winnipeg Sun (November 15) in the article “Spend carbon tax revenue on curbside composting: NDP” – http://www.winnipegsun.com/2016/11/15/spend-carbon-tax-revenue-on-curbside-composting-ndp.

Derek Brewin, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, was quoted in the article “New York Times findings on GM crops disputed” in the Manitoba Co-operator (November 10) – http://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/new-york-times-findings-on-gm-crops-disputed/.

Derek was also quoted in the article “Scrapping maximum revenue entitlement will double farmers’ freight bill” in the Manitoba Co-operator (November 3) – http://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/scrapping-maximum-revenue-entitlement-will-double-farmers-freight-bill/.

Dilantha Fernando, Plant Science, was quoted in the article “Reducing blackleg key to increased trade” in the Western Producer (November 3) – http://www.producer.com/2016/11/reducing-blackleg-key-to-increased-trade/.

Dilantha was also quoted in the article “Blackleg and canola can get along… until” in Country Guide (November 4) – page 40 at http://static.agcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CGE161108.pdf.

 

PUBLICATIONS

Lees, C.J., Li, G., Duncan, R.W. (2016). Characterization of Brassica napus L. genotypes utilizing sequence-related amplified polymorphism and genotyping by sequencing in association with cluster analysis. Molecular Breeding, 36(11), 1-13.

Laura Wiebe, S. Fox, Martin Entz.  2016.  Organic selection may improve yield efficiency in spring wheat: A preliminary analysis.  Can J  Plant Science 10.1139/CJPS-2016-0141.

Hajihasanni, A., Tenuta, M., Gulden, R. 2016. Host Preference and Seedborne Transmission of Ditylenchus weischeri and D. dipsaci on Select Pulse and Non-Pulse Crops Grown in the Canadian Prairies. Plant Disease 100: 1087-1092.

 

GENERAL NEWS

The Canadian Society for Bioengineering has issued a Call for Abstracts for its 2017 AGM and Technical Conference in Winnipeg, MB, August 6-10, 2017 which is themed “Food, Fuel and Fiebre for a Sustainable Future”. Abstracts on a wide range of topics are due February 1 and complete submission details can be found at  https://www.conftool.com/csbe-scgab2017/.

Certificate of Merit Call for Nominations – The Certificate of Merit is presented by the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and the School of Agriculture in recognition of leadership with agricultural organizations and outstanding service to the community at large. Each year two Certificates of Merit are presented, normally, one to a graduate of the Agriculture Diploma program, and one to a graduate of the Agriculture Degree program. Nominations are considered by the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences Executive Committee and must be received no later than January 15, 2017. Nominations should include a letter from the nominator describing the nominee’s leadership contributions and service to the community.  Letters of support may also be included. More information including a list of previous recipients can be found at http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/school/merit.html.

The 2016 Manitoba Agronomists Conference (MAC) has put out a Call for Grad Student Posters. MAC will be held on December 14 and 15.  All grad students are welcome to submit a poster for our poster session.  This is a great networking opportunity and offers students a chance to learn about current developments in the industry. Attendance is free for grad students who submit a poster. It is standing room only and does not include lunch. For all requirements and deadlines for submitting a poster, please visit our website:  www.ManitobaAgronomistsConference.ca.

Due to popular demand, the Manitoba Arborist Training & Licensing Program is offering a second in-class course beginning Thursday, January 12, 2017 and continuing weekly until Thursday, April 20, 2017.  The in-class course consists of 28 hours of classroom instruction. The face-to-face instruction gives students the opportunity to ask questions, have discussions and meet other people interested in arboriculture. The course material is broken down into 14 sections with review quizzes administered on a weekly basis. The instructor for the Thursday night course offering, Craig Fisher (B.A., B. Sc. Agroecology), is a graduate of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences. Craig has held several “A” titles during his career in agriculture: arborist assistant, canola agronomist for Cargill Ltd., and agroforestry researcher for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Currently he is working as an upland agronomist for Ducks Unlimited’s Native Plant Solutions, where he develops naturalized, ecologically-sound stormwater retention ponds in and around Winnipeg.  He has an abiding passion for small-scale, perennial-focused, ecologically-based agriculture, and is ever working toward a more sustainable world. Craig completed the Manitoba Arborists Training Course in 2015. To learn more or to register, visit http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/arborists/.

Beekeeping for the Hobbyist is a non-credit course offered by the Department of Entomology in collaboration with Manitoba Agriculture. It runs nine Wednesday evenings – January 25 to March 22, 2017 – and includes an apiary demonstration in mid-April. The course fee is $195. An optional textbook is available for purchase at an additional cost. The course is currently full at 60 students but spaces may open – please sign up to the wait list if you have interest in this course. Learn more and sign up at http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/dept/entomology/programs/Beekeeping.html.

Beginning January 9, 2017, and continuing for 11 Mondays, the non-credit Horse Production and Management course will be offered by the Department of Animal Science. Learn techniques of horse mastership that will allow you to provide quality care for your equine partner. This series of lectures deals with the principles of horse production and management, including anatomy and physiology, genetics, selection and breeding, reproductive management, nutrition, stable and pasture management, health and welfare, and equine behaviour. The class is capped at 20 students. For more information and to register go to  http://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/dept/animal_science/programs/Horseproduction.html.

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