Author: Mary Jo Wagner

Tracking Livestock to Limit Diseases

Those worried about food safety say it’s time for a uniform animal identification system – one that could rapidly isolate animals suspected of carrying contagious diseases. Wisconsin agriculture officials have taken the lead on this type of preventative action but will need the help of all the Great Lakes states to make it work. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner has more:

Transcript

Those worried about food safety say it’s time for a uniform animal identification system, one that could rapidly isolate animals suspected of carrying contagious diseases. Wisconsin AG officials have taken the lead on this type of preventive action but will need the help of all the Great Lakes States to make it work. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner has more.


There’s growing consensus among agricultural officials that some type of universal animal identifier is needed to trace animals from birth to the marketplace. Especially in light of recent occurrences of “mad cow” and “foot and mouth” diseases in live animals overseas and the nasty form of e coli in meat products here. Wisconsin secretary of agriculture, Jim Harsdorf says the ID system started in Europe. Now it’s moved to Canada, where it’s mandatory, and Harsdorf says Holland has a central database containing information on all the nation’s animals.


“It’s housed in one location and the producers within 48 hours have an animal ID’d after it’s born and that animal ID stays with it for life.”


Federal officials in the United States have been slow to implement such a system though, so Harsdorf says state officials are working to come up with one. It might be tied to different identification networks that farmers already use to keep production and reproduction records, herd health, vaccinations and the location of cattle that are sold, or it could be a totally new system that keeps some or all of those records on one central computer database managed by state, private or non-profit organizations.


Wisconsin state veterinarian Clarence Siroky says public feedback surprised them. State officials were expecting farmers to want only a voluntary system but what they found at public meetings was that producers want a more comprehensive mandatory system nationwide


“We move cattle all over the United States rapidly…we can have one cow at least touch 27 other states within a week…one pig can touch 19 other states within 24 hours.”


For those reasons, Siroky says, all animals will have to be included, not only cows, but sheep, horses and pigs. In England for example, cows are identified, but sheep are not, and he says sheep were implicated in the rapid spread of foot and mouth disease there.


That concerns Ted Johnson. He’s a Wisconsin dairy farmer who likes the idea of a universal identification system because it would quickly pinpoint the location of animals that might have come in contact with a disease.


“If in the event of an outbreak of some highly contagious disease, it could be stopped very quickly and we wouldn’t have to have wholesale slaughtering of cattle.”


Still Johnson says many farmers are concerned about how much the ID would cost, who would maintain the records, and who would have access to them.


“The worst case scenario would be if that information is released and there is some doubt about the information or if the information is used in an incorrect manner, the perception can be there’s a problem on individual farms.”


State veterinarian Clarence Siroky says that’s why input from farmers, processors, privacy advocates and consumers is important as the technology is developing.


Still to be decided is the type of animal ID that would be used. Siroky says it could be a tag placed on the animal’s ear. However, some animals already have so many different ear tags, he says one ear can look like a Christmas tree. Other possibilities include a computer chip or other type of recyclables monitor placed inside an animal.


Meanwhile, AG secretary Harsdorf says the records included in a computerized type of system could be very beneficial to consumers at the supermarket.


“At some point in time, you’re gonna have the ability to go through a grocery store and see up on a screen when you buy that package where it came from, a picture of the operation — it’s almost mind boggling to see what could happen down the road.”


Still, farmer Ted Johnson worries all the talk right now about the need for animal identification might create a consumer backlash.


“I feel as a producer our food supply is very safe. I don’t want the perception to be that an animal ID program is being instituted because we have a problem.”


But a potential problem without plans to deal with it could create havoc for the agricultural industry, and so far veterinarian Siroky doesn’t know when a system with wide support might be in place. He does say animal health officials are on high alert for the appearance of any contagious diseases. At the same time, he says even if Wisconsin comes up with a proactive plan, unless other states adopt a similar identification method, any tracking system would have limited effectiveness. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mary Jo Wagner.

Eco-Cows Munch on Invasive Plants

  • Researchers are finding that Scottish Highland Cattle, such as these Rockhill Red Cows, have an appetite for many types of invasive plants. Photo courtesy of Marv & Ann Rockhill.

Cattle that love to eat thorny shrubs and nasty weeds are proving they can clean up areas infested with invasive plant species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner has this report:

Transcript

Cattle that love to eat thorny shrubs and nasty weeds are proving they can clean up areas infested with invasive plant species. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner reports.


For years, land managers have been trying to find better ways to control particularly troublesome plants. Invasive species such as multi-flora rose, prickly ash and wild parsnip used to be held in check by natural fires, or grazing by bison and elk. But ever since wildfires have been mostly controlled, and elk and bison populations have plummeted, many invasive species in the Great Lakes region have been growing out of control. So researchers have been looking for other ways to fight these invaders. At the University of Wisconsin, researchers have been testing Scottish Highland cattle on some fields containing invasive species. Consultant Martha Rosemeyer says the preliminary results look promising…


“One of the things we’ve found out by following the cattle is they really like wild parsnip when it’s young. Out of a field of grass they’ll identify and hone in on the wild parsnip and eat the whole patch of it.”


One of two farms testing the cattle’s weed eating potential is owned by Peter Rathbun. He says on one of the test plots, the parsnip was so high and thick, biologists wouldn’t go in to take samples.


“I was a little concerned, well are the cows going to go in and eat it and get sick, but they went in and ate it and they loved it.”


Rathbun has various weed and brush problems or “junk” as he calls it on 120 acres, including prickly ash, hawthorn, gooseberries and other plants that produce large thickets. He was one of the first farmers in Wisconsin to start raising the highland cattle several years ago and now has around forty animals eating weeds on half his farm. His goal is to return some o the land to its original oak savannah status. So far on his fifteen test plots with and without cattle, the results of grazing Scottish cattle are positive.


“It’s so wonderfully obvious what’s happening because here’s three strands of electric fence. On one side you can walk right through the woods…its no problem – you can see everything there. On the other side it’s dense, you don’t even want to think about walking through it. And this is only after 2 rotations.”


Rotating means moving groups of up to nine cattle around on once-acre test plots. The cattle spend two or three days on select plots each month throughout the summer. Martha Rosemeyer says researchers were interested in the breed of cattle because in Europe, they’re referred to as “eco-cows.” That’s because of their unique ability to eat plants that have inch-long thorns.


“They’ve got really tough tongues – they wrap them around these and pull – so they pull these things up like prickly ash leaves off and aren’t really bothered by thorns. They actually like thorns to rub and scratch…they’ll lean on things and scratch and they’ll break them and change the vegetation in that way too.”


Peter Rathbun says it didn’t take long for his cattle to tackle a patch of prickly ash after the gate into one test plot was opened.


“They ran over to it and started eating the actual bush. And I loved to see the reaction of some of the graduate students who’ve been working on this for a very long time. In their heart of hearts they really had some doubts whether the animals were really going to like to eat the junk.”


Once results are in by the summer of 2003, consultant Martha Rosemeyer says researchers may have a better idea of how effective the cattle will be at permanent eradication of unwanted plants.


“Certainly if you knock down a plant by taking off it’s above ground vegetation a number of times, it weakens the plant and it eventually will die. That’s what we’re hoping will happen but we’re not sure we need to test this and see the results…it’s speculation at this point.”


By comparison, Rosemeyer says on Department of Natural Resources land, a few test pilots were grazed and burned earlier this year to compare the weed control with the Highland cattle. It turned out that combination was too destructive and the burning was discontinued.


Meanwhile, not only do these animals eat through the bad stuff, but they also provide great hamburgers. Rathbun sells the meat as a low fat, very tasty source of protein.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mary Jo Wagner.

Horse Disease Spreading?

A form of encephalitis may be killing horses in the northern Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner explains:

Transcript

A form of Encephalitis may be killing horses in the Northern Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner reports.


Twenty-eight horses with likely cases of “Eastern Equine Encephalitis” have died in Wisconsin in the past few weeks. A national lab has confirmed the disease in one of the horses. It is transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Health officials are concerned about the possible outbreak, because mosquitoes can also transfer the disease to humans where it causes flu-like symptoms — in some cases it can even kill people. So researchers in Minnesota and Wisconsin are trapping mosquitoes to test for the virus. In the meantime, Wisconsin state veterinarian Clarence Siroky says residents in several counties are scrambling to get their horses vaccinated.


“What we’re going to see is less and less horses involved but that doesn’t mean there’s less of a problem out there.”


That’s because, while there is a vaccine for horses, there’s none for humans.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mary Jo Wagner.

TRACKING INVASIVE PLANTS (Part 1)

  • Invasive plants, such as this patch of purple loosestrife in Saginaw Bay, have been out-competing native plants in the Midwest for years.

    Photo courtesy of Karen Holland, USEPA


The unchecked spread of invasive plants is causing alarm
throughout the Great Lakes region. Invasives are plants that are
often imported for ornamental use, and have now gone wild and
spread to places they’re not wanted. The concern over these plants
is so great that hundreds of land managers, educators, botanists and
others attended a recent conference in Eau Claire,
Wisconsin to learn more about the problem. In the first of a
three-part series, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Mary Jo Wagner reports:

WEEDING OUT INVASIVES (Part 2)

Government officials say invasive plants are taking over
public lands at the rate of thousands of acres a day. These invasives
are plants that are not native to the area. Often, plants such as
garlic mustard and kudzu were brought to a region for ornamental use,
before spreading to other areas where they weren’t wanted. The
problem attracted hundreds of people to an invasive plants conference
in Eau Claire, Wisconsin recently to discuss the current state of
control.
In the second of a three-part series, the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s

Mary Jo Wagner reports that so far, efforts to stop the spread of these
plants have been spotty:

DETECTING FUTURE INVADERS (Part 3)

Devastating weed infestations in natural areas of the Great
Lakes region present a big challenge to land managers, educators,
scientists, and government agencies. That’s why hundreds of people
came to an invasive plants conference held recently in Eau Claire,
Wisconsin. In the third of a three-part series, the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner reports…those attending formed an
organization to deal with the problems and to spot new threats:

Will Gas Crunch Harm Farmers?

A cold winter across the U.S. and the Great Lakes region has placedincreased demand on natural gas supplies for heating. But that demandcould soon hurt Midwest corn farmers. The Great Lakes RadioConsortium’s Mary Jo Wagner reports:

Transcript

A cold winter across the U.S. and the Great Lakes region has placed increased demand on
natural gas supplies for heating. But that demand could soon hurt Midwest corn farmers.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner reports.


Growing corn requires a great deal of nitrogen. That’s because unlike many other crops,
corn can’t take nitrogen out of the air. So farmers must *add* nitrogen by fertilizing their
fields. There are two ways they typically do this — by spreading manure, or applying
some form of anhydrous ammonia.
The problem is, natural gas is used to produce anhydrous ammonia. And with high
natural gas prices this winter, fertilizer companies have been making more money selling
their natural gas supply to utilities FOR HOME HEATING than producing fertilizer. So
that has left corn growers wondering whether there will be any fertilizer for them when
they start planting their crops this spring. Bob Olson is the Executive Director of
Wisconsin’s corn grower’s association.


“We’ve lost 2 months production – Nov. Dec. and part of January production on
all kinds of nitrogen fertilizer so the pipeline has some nitrogen in it. I don’t think
anybody knows how much and I don’t know how full the storages are.”


One sign of a possible shortage is the current price for fertilizer
double last year’s price, according to university of wisconsin corn
agronomist Joe Lauer. Even so, he’s skeptical about claims of a shortage.


“Every year it seems like there’s some sort of scare out there generated from any
number of sources – last year it was a drought situation.the year before that something
else, this year it’s nitrogen.”


To be on the safe side, Lauer says farmers should not wait
until spring planting time to see if there’ll be fertilizer to
buy.

“I think if a grower can lock in some prices and supply, he should do it.”


Corn grower Bob Olson has already locked in his supply of liquid
nitrogen–but it’s only 28 percent nitrogen the rest is water.
The normally cheaper anhydrous ammonia has an 80 percent concentration.
Luckily, Olson says, in some areas there’s still natural fertilizer.

“We’re still an animal state..just barely those dairy farmers we haven’t driven
out of Wisconsin are still in business. We still have beef cattle, sheep and hogs and that
manure very effectively is a natural fertilizer. If we don’t have that, we have to substitute
with the elemental fertilizers – nitrogen,
phoshorous and potash.”


Meanwhile, Purdue University Specialists in Indiana worry that
some farmers in the Great Lakes Region may switch to
soybeans since that plant doesn’t need the expensive added
nitrogen. But they say such drastic measures are not needed.
They suggest simply using slightly lower-than-recommended doses
of nitrogen. While that may hurt yield, they say there’s a
potential for record low corn prices to rise because of the latest pressure
on fertilizer prices.


There is some evidence meanwhile that worries about the natural
gas supply may be leveling off — one of the largest anhydrous
ammonia manufacturers in Oklahoma says it will restart
production of fertilizer over the next few weeks.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mary Jo Wagner.

Exotic Aphids Attack Soybeans


Great Lakes scientists have now identified a foreign insect thatthreatens to cause major damage to the region’s soybean crops. Itapparently came from China and has so far been found in crops in atleast four Great Lakes states. The insect is causing concern amongscientists in the region, where more than 40 percent of the nation’ssoybeans are grown. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagnerreports:

Transcript

Great Lakes scientists have now identified a foreign insect that threatens to cause major
damage to the region’s soybean crops. It apparently came from China and has so far been found
in crops in at least four Great Lakes states. The insect is causing concern among scientists
in the region, where more than 40-percent of the nation’s soybeans are grown. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner reports.

The soybean aphid, which is native to China, has been a big problem for that
country’s crops. But until now it had not been seen in the United States.
University of Wisconsin scientists first discovered the pin-head sized aphid
sucking on soybean leaves in university test plots this spring…then
farmers started calling in with questions about what was causing their
soybean leaves to crinkle and turn yellow. University entomologist John
Wedberg says the aphids were so thick in some Wisconsin fields where
students were working, their legs would be covered by a sticky substance
researchers call “honey dew”. It’s a waste product excreted by the aphids.
Wedberg says the pest probably got into the country on some type of
ornamental plant.

“We’re convinced it didn’t come in on soybean seeds or something of that nature. And
to have the infestation we have over most of southern Wisconsin, and now we find southern
Michigan, northern Illinois and perhaps a little bit in southern Minnesota, it had to have been
here more than a year.”

Wedberg says the aphid doesn’t destroy the plant but it can hurt the
plant’s yield. A crop consultant in southern Wisconsin has seen the aphid
damage firsthand while walking through soybean fields.

“I’m very worried about this aphid”

Paul Haag says that’s because there are no pesticides right now designed
specifically to kill the soybean aphid – the ones farmers are using appear
to kill many, but not all of the pests. However, the chemicals are expensive
and they can also kill potential natural predators that may prey on the
bug. The good news is there are some natural predators at work right
now. One is a fungal disease that resides in the soil. Researchers have
found that when the weather is hot and humid, it destroys aphids. Another
enemy of the aphid is the ladybug. Haag says in some unsprayed spots there
is a “mini-war” going on between the ladybugs, the fungal predator and the
non-native aphid.

“We had thousands and thousands of ladybugs out in the fields – as the numbers went up, the
ladybug population came up behind them. The predators were trying, they just couldn’t keep up.”

Haag says the extent of the crop loss won’t be known until harvest time
this fall. Meanwhile, there’s concern about the extent of the problem
next year. That’s because the aphid produces wings during a portion of its
life cycle and could fly to uninfested locations where it would survive
winter by latching onto woody plants like the buckthorn.

That’s not good news for farmers, struggling to pay bills with record low
prices caused by a glut of soybeans around the world. If the aphid reduces
their soybean yield, the government guaranteed cash payment, that’s
available when prices are low, will be cut back.

A spokesperson for the American Soybean Association in St. Louis says from
what he’s heard, concern about the soybean aphid’s potential to hurt the
soybean supply is exaggerated. Instead, Paul Callinan says it’s a regional
problem, like a flood or severe dry weather. He says any yield loss in the
northern bean belt would not have a major effect on the huge soybean
crop expected this fall.

“Producers in the United States and in South America during the last 2 or 3 years have
produced bumper crops…they’ve had good weather…and although soy demand has continued to grow
during this period, the production supply has exceeded the demand in each of the last 3 years.”

In fact Callinan says his organization wants the government to give a
billion dollars worth of soybeans to foreign food aid programs.

Still scientists are worried about damage the soybean aphid could cause in
the future since the U.S. produces half these world’s crop of soybeans.
Wisconsin entomologist Wedberg says the U.S. Department of Agriculture
has given up any plans to quarantine or destroy fields because the aphid has
spread so far. And he says efforts to find other means to control the aphid
have been slowed because its natural home is China – so all the research
conducted on the pest so far is written in Chinese.

For the great lakes radio consortium, I’m Mary Jo Wagner.

Utility Cracks Down on Energy Theft

A large, Midwestern power company has stepped up efforts to find customers who tamper with their meters. Nationwide, it’s estimated energy theft costs about six billion dollars annually. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mary Jo Wagner has more: