AG e-news March 15, 2021
News and events from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
COVID-19 UPDATES
Please continue to exercise caution and follow guidelines. For updated health and safety protocols, visit https://umanitoba.ca/coronavirus/latest-updates-and-safety#latest-covid-19-updates.
The Bruce D. Campbell Farm and Food Discovery Centre is open to the public for pre-booked visits at 25% capacity. Full details on COVID-19 safety protocol and procedures at https://umanitoba.ca/faculties/afs/discovery_centre/COVID19-information.html.
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, March 16 – The Entomology Seminar Series features Mr. Massimo Martini, Department of Entomology, on the topic “Pollination community composition and network structure in roadside verges and powerline easement corridors of Manitoba”. Chatting and announcements start at 10:00 am, seminars start at 10:10 am. Zoom meeting instructions are emailed just prior to the event. To be added to the mailing list, contact Kateryn Rochon at kateryn.rochon@umanitoba.ca.
Tuesday, March 16 – The Manitoba Government has declared March 16 as Agriculture Awareness Day, and is offering several webinars. 9:00am – Advances in Agriculture and Protein Innovation. The current advances in agriculture and protein innovation are very exciting. Join us for presentations on these innovations and their applications. Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1970557246982039819. 11:45am – Let’s Talk Tacos! Manitoba Agriculture and food Knowledge Exchange (MAKE) Taco recipe demo hosted by Farm and Food Discovery Centre. Join Getty Stewart and the Farm and Food Discovery Centre for a demonstration of this delicious and easy to prepare recipe featuring textured plant protein and Manitoba bison from Borderland Agriculture as you learn more about the exciting research taking place at the University of Manitoba. Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4792931027715649803.
Tuesday, March 16 – Are you interested in learning more about trending technologies and innovation in the protein industry? Hatch (Singapore, Norway and Hawaii), Wageningen University and Research (Netherlands) and the University of Manitoba have partnered with Manitoba Agriculture and Resource Development to deliver a webinar and panel discussion on Emerging Protein Technologies at 10:00 am CST. Register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1675989286172065293.
Tuesday, March 16 – The Be AgSafe and Rail Smart Webinar will be offered at 11:00 am by Canadian Agricultural Safety Association. As part of this year’s Canadian Agricultural Safety Week, they are bringing together rail and safety experts to discuss safe and smart behaviours around rural railways. This event is sponsored by CN. Sign up at https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8116141731551/WN_P_x8s4WpSYSipiIUbXlVKQ.
Tuesday, March 16 – The Department of Food and Human Nutritional Sciences is holding a seminar on “Extensions and Applications of Extended Redundancy Analysis for Research in Psychology and Related Field” with presenter Dr. Sunmee Kim, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba at 3:00 pm – https://umlearn2.webex.com/umlearn2/j.php?MTID=m2f23afe95b85f8f3db5646c5dd5dd1bf
Wednesday, March 17 – The next episode in the Faculty Conversation Series will feature Jitendra Paliwal, Biosystems Engineering, University of Manitoba, Colin Gilmore, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Price Faculty of Engineering, and Kurt Hildebrand, AGCO Corporation, on “A made-in-Manitoba solution to monitoring stored grain”. Event starts at 3:30 pm. Livestream link – https://youtu.be/xkbo5OtD_SA.
Thursday, March 18 – Grainews presents Hot Topics in Commodities – Corn in partnership with Manitoba Crop Alliance, an online presentation that will feature Don Flaten, Soil Science on the topic “Managing Fertility to Maximize Hybrid Corn Potential” at 11:00 am. Register for free at https://www.grainews.ca/hot-topics/corn/
Thursday, March 18 – Join the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives – Manitoba Office, the National Farmers Union, the Manitoba Eco-Network, Manitoba’s Climate Action Team, and the Winnipeg Food Council for a discussion on the future of food and farming in Manitoba 7:00 pm-8:30 pm. In the webinar entitled “Growing a Resilient Future: Food and Farming in Manitoba“, you will hear five diverse perspectives on what we need to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make our food and farming systems more resilient. Speakers bios and registration link at https://mbeconetwork.org/projects/food-and-farming/
Thursday, March 18 – The Advanced Plant Science Seminar Series takes place at 3:00 pm with a presentation from DuoDuo Wang, PhD candidate, Department of Plant Science, on the topic “Evaluation of fusarium head blight in rye and fungicide efficacy in fusarium head blight mitigation” To watch, register at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/791980836195966733.
Wednesday, March 24 – There will be a Soil Science Seminar featuring Don Flaten, Department of Soil Science, on the topic “45 years of soil fertility lessons: Some learned and some forgotten” at 12:30 pm. To watch, visit https://zoom.us/j/97499634513?pwd=dEFEMWdUU2ZGdmZFVlhQZEZPeGp6dz09.
Tuesday, March 30 – The Entomology Seminar Series features Jean-Noël Candau, Great Lakes Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service, on the topic “Population dynamics and mass dispersal of the eastern spruce budworm, Choristoneura fumiferana“. This is s a DEGSA Invited Speaker, Endowment Fund Speaker Series. Chatting and announcements start at 10:00 am, seminars start at 10:10 am. Zoom meeting instructions are emailed just prior to the event. To be added to the mailing list, contact Kateryn Rochon at kateryn.rochon@umanitoba.ca.
Tuesday, March 30 – The Department of Animal Science will be hosting a Special Seminar in honour of Dr. T. K. Cheung, a former student of the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences who has made significant contributions to the Department of Animal Science. The guest speaker this year is Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science, Colorado State University, who will be giving a talk on “Handling Cattle, Pigs, and Sheep at Meat Plants”. Register to attend at https://eventscalendar.umanitoba.ca/site/fafs/event/tk-cheung-lecture-in-animal-science-handling-cattle-pigs-and-sheep-at-meat-plants/.
Wednesday, March 31 – There will be a Soil Science Seminar featuring Linda Jewell, St. John’s Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, topic TBA at 12:30 pm. To watch, visit https://zoom.us/j/99560394249?pwd=cnBNRUFyMjNaVTB0TkY4Z29QUnlwQT09.
Wednesday, April 7 – There will be a Soil Science Seminar featuring Manasah Mkhabela, Department of Soil Science, University of Manitoba, on the topic “Robbing Peter to pay Sam: Nitrogen trade-offs in conventional and no-tillage systems” at 12:30 pm. To watch, visit https://zoom.us/j/98565783203?pwd=VGE4Z0IrQ3F2cEdNV092Uk5Gd2xXQT09.
June 22-24 – Save the date! The Manitoba Protein Research Strategy will be holding a virtual sustainable protein research symposium and AIMday™ in partnership with the Manitoba Industry-Academia Partnership. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. Details coming soon. For more information please contact Erin Goldberg (Research Associate) at MBprotein@umanitoba.ca.
STAFF AND STUDENT NEWS
The Glenlea Research Station team has once again been recognized for their excellence, this time in dairy. Each year, Lactanet, a Canadian network for dairy excellence, recognizes the top 25 dairy producers in the country. Through this process they also identify the top three dairy producers in each province. Herds are selected based on herd management criteria and herd performance index (milk value, herd efficiency and longevity, udder health and calving interval). This year the Managra herd/Glenlea Research Station was identified as number 3 producer in Manitoba.
The 3MT heats were held March 2-5 and featured six students from the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences: Curtis Cavers, Soil Science; James Tucker, Plant Science; Sristi Mundhada, Biosystems Engineering; Yi Xie, Food Science; Susane Trevisan, Food Science; and Vimala Bharathi S K, Biosystems Engineering. Sristi and Vimala advanced to the finals, which take place April 21. Congratulations to all who participated! See more at https://news.umanitoba.ca/2021-3mt-finalists-announced/
Tressa Alexiuk, Human Nutritional Sciences MSc student with Joyce Slater, has been awarded the Dr. Elizabeth Award for Technical Writing from the Canadian Home Economics Foundation. The $500 award is presented annually to a graduate student from Faculties, Departments or Programs of Home Economics, Family and Consumer Studies/Sciences, Human Ecology, Foods, Dietetics and Nutrition, Clothing and Textiles, and home economics/human ecology/family studies Education. Tressa submitted a literature review of food and nutrition security in Newcomer Canadian youth.
Trina Semenchuk, Biosystems Engineering student, was the winner of the 2021 UM Sustainability Award for Undergraduate Students. Trina is the President of the University of Manitoba Efficiency and Renewable Technology Hub (@umearth). She oversaw the implementation of the Greenwall in the new Stanley Pauley Building, and she also founded the Student Energy: UM Chapter. She also helped organize the Sustainability Town Hall two years in a row.
Jason Gibbs, Entomology, has had another bee species named in his honour (that makes four now). A colleague from his time at York University, Julio Genaro, named the species Lasioglossum jagibbsi, which was discovered in the high mountains of Hispaniola of the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean. See page 8 – https://centerforsystematicentomology.org/insectamundi/0853_Genaro_2021.pdf
Second year Diploma in Agriculture students once again worked to develop policy resolutions as part of the DAGR 0920 Current Issues in Agriculture and Food class taught by Reg Dyck, School of Agriculture. The selected resolution, which supports agriucltural literacy and Agriculture in the Classroom-Manitoba, was presented and passed at the Keystone Agricultural Producers annual meeting on January 26, and subsequently presented and approved at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture annual meeting. (Articles on this in the In the News below).
Derek Brewin, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, was part of a panel on rail regulation related to grain exports at the February 17 Simpson Centre Webinar with the School of Public at the University of Calgary. Watch at: https://youtu.be/4yOL7zqzv9A. The Simpson Centre also hosted Jared Carlberg on beef processing on November 23 – https://youtu.be/6lRMcIuGRsk
The Farm and Food Discovery Centre partnered with EMILI and Agriculture in the Classroom – Manitoba on a Digital Agriculture Career Panel in celebration of International Women’s Day. Participants included Jenessa Karlowsky [BSc(Agribus)/15], Sheena Pitura [BSc(Agribus)/04], Krista Kilback and Erin Romeo.
IN THE NEWS
Callum Morrison, PhD student in Plant Science, has been interviewed by numerous media outlets regarding the cover crop survey:
GuelphToday – https://www.guelphtoday.com/local-news/wellington-county-farmers-part-of-manitoba-researchers-study-of-cover-crops-3539545
Several CBC Radio stations – https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/online-survey-cover-crops-1.5937292
Cornwall Standard-Freeholder – https://www.standard-freeholder.com/news/local-news/hoping-seaway-valley-farmers-can-provide-ontario-cover-crop-feedback
Cornwall Seaway News – https://www.cornwallseawaynews.com/2021/02/24/survey-seeks-feedback-on-cover-crops/
Ottawa Valley News – https://www.insideottawavalley.com/news-story/10337197-ottawa-valley-farmers-urged-to-participate-in-cover-crops-survey/
Fort Frances Times – https://fftimes.com/news/district-news/study-seeks-help-from-farmers/
Martin Scanlon, Kees Plaizier and Rick Holley co-authored the op-ed “The Buttergate theory isn’t solid” which was published in the Globe & Mail (March 3) – https://news.umanitoba.ca/op-ed-the-buttergate-theory-isnt-solid/
Kyle Bobiwash, Entomology was quoted in the article “Promoting and engaging Indigenous science ” in the Manitoban (February 23) – http://www.themanitoban.com/2021/02/promoting-and-engaging-indigenous-science/41546/
Reg Dyck, School of Agriculture, and students in his Current Issues in Agriculture and Food class were featured in the article “An education in engagement” in the Manitoba Co-operator (March 3) – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/farm-it-manitoba/an-education-in-engagement/. The Diploma students were also featured in the article “Familiarizing non-farmers with agriculture a worthy goal” in the Western Producer (February 18) – https://www.producer.com/opinion/familiarizing-non-farmers-with-agriculture-a-worthy-goal/
Natalie Riediger, Food and Human Nutritional Sciences, and Myra Tait, Athabasca University, published the article ” A sin tax on sugary drinks unfairly targets Indigenous communities instead of improving health” on Conversation Canada (February 21) – https://theconversation.com/a-sin-tax-on-sugary-drinks-unfairly-targets-indigenous-communities-instead-of-improving-health-155108
Dilantha Fernando, Plant Science, was quoted in the article “Canola foes the same — but different” in the Manitoba Co-operator (February 17) – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/crops/canola-foes-the-same-but-different/
Meagan King, Animal Science, was featured in the article “Robots don’t just help farmers’ mental health. Cows like them, too” which appeared on Canada’s National Observer (February 16) and was picked up by numerous media outlets – https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/02/16/news/robots-dont-just-help-farmers-mental-health-cows-them-too
Derek Brewin, Agribusiness and Agricultural Economics, was interviewed in the article “A century later a key data report still informs the grain trade” in the Manitoba Co-operator (January 28) – https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/a-century-later-a-key-data-report-still-informs-the-grain-trade/
PUBLICATIONS
Fife, D, Fordyce-Voorham, S, Worsley, A, Slater, J. 2021. Food literacy education in Manitoba, Canada and Victoria, Australia: A comparative pilot study. International Journal of Home Economics. 13(2):16-28
Lepp, D., Zhou, Y. *, Ojha, S., Iman Mehdizadeh Gohari, I.M., Carere, J., YANG, C., Prescott, J., Gong, J. (2021). Clostridium perfringens produces an adhesive pilus required for the pathogenesis of necrotic enteritis in poultry. Journal of Bacteriology, 203 (7) e00578-20; DOI: 10.1128/JB.00578-20 https://jb.asm.org/content/203/7/e00054-21
Tan, Z.*, Lu, P.*, Adewole, D.*, Diarra, M. S., Gong, J., YANG, C. (2021). Iron requirement in the infection of Salmonella and its relevance to poultry health. Journal of Applied Poultry Science Research, 3 (1): 30:100101.
GENERAL NEWS
The Department of Animal Science has posted the position of Assistant Professor in Applied Animal Microbiology. Deadline to apply is April 11 – see the posting here https://viprecprod.ad.umanitoba.ca/DEFAULT.ASPX?REQ_ID=14590.
The Fields on Wheels conference from December is now available for viewing online – visit https://umanitoba.ca/agricultural-food-sciences/fields-on-wheels-2020 (Agenda section) to see the conference sessions.
The Sustainability of Canadian Agriculture conference presentations are also now available online – visit https://umanitoba.ca/agricultural-food-sciences/sustainability-canadian-agriculture-2021#monday-march-1 to see both the workshops and speaker sessions.
The Manitoba Protein Research Strategy has sent out their second survey to individuals conducting research involving sustainable protein. If you received the survey, please complete it no later than March 19, 2021. If you did not receive it, and your research falls within the realm of sustainable protein pertaining to health, environment, economics and sociocultural dimensions, please send an email to MBprotein@umanitoba.ca.
The University of Manitoba 2020 T4 and T4A are now available on Employee Self Service (ESS) portal. Use the secure ESS login by following these simple steps: Log in to VIP https://vip.umanitoba.ca and click My Pay -> T4 -> Print or download. Inquiries about the T4/T4A can be forwarded to Payroll@umanitoba.ca or visit https://umanitoba.ca/admin/financial_services/payroll/index.html for the staff contact list
The Manitoba Farm Safety Program is hosting free virtual mental health literacy training called “In the Know”. The training is focused on mental health and illness, how to promote your own wellbeing, how to recognize mental health struggles in others, and how to provide assistance. There are a number of March dates remaining – details and registration at https://www.manitobafarmsafety.ca/upcoming-events.
Students in Food and Human Nutrition Sciences are looking for your participation in a study regarding Canada’s Food Guide via a short (about 10 minute) online questionnaire to examine the general awareness, perception and use of the 2019 Canada’s Food Guide among adults living in Canada, and how this relates to demographics and self-perceived health status. The results of this study will provide information to benefit Health Canada and health care practitioners such as registered dietitians in promoting the use of the 2019 Canada’s Food Guide to improve the dietary habits of Canadians. Read more and find the link at https://news.umanitoba.ca/do-you-know-your-canadas-food-guide/.
Fiscal year end of March 31, 2021 is nearly here. Visit Year End at the University website (http://umanitoba.ca/admin/financial_services/comptrollers/yearend.htm) to review the Year End Guidelines & Schedule for 2020-21 which includes frequently asked questions, key deadline dates, checklists and your Financial Services contacts to help you through the process.