Farming, Saturday, Novtmbar 20.1993
Farmer-Dealer Input Leads To System Development
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn.
The next generation of seed hand
ling systems was unveiled by
Northrup King Co. at the Ameri
can Soybean Association (ASA)
National Expo in Denver.
Northrup King’s new Load &
Go™ Seed Handling System for
com and soybean seed features
specially-engineered durable plas
tic boxes which make filling
planter boxes easier and quicker,
and allows growers to cover more
acres per day.
Program Aims To Unearth Secrets
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) Roots have been in the
dark for too long, said the leader
of a team of Penn State scientists
working to unearth the secrets of
roots.
“They’re used for everything
from food to plastics,” said Dr.
Hector Bores, associate professor
of plant pathology and biotech
nology in Penn State’s College of
Agricultural Sciences. “We owe it
to ourselves to leant more about
how they work.”
Bores heads Penn State’s Root
Biology Group, an interdisciplin
ary research and training program
supported by a $1.2 million grant
from the Collaborative Research
Agriculturalists To
Report On Recent
China Visit
LANCASTER (Lancaster Co.)
Six agriculturalists will be at an
On-Farm Biogas Production Con
ference to report on their recent
trip to China to study small and
medium-scale digesters to be held
on December Bth, at 9:30 a.m. at
Yoder’s Restaurant, New
Holland.
Their study took a look at Chin
ese technology to see what might
be transferable to Pennsylvania
conditions. The project was spon
sored by the USDA Office of
International Development, the
Center for Rural Pennsylvania,
local conservation districts, the
Pennsylvania Pork Producers, and
local banks.
The six-member team consisted
of Harlan Keener, a swine produc
er; Dr. Richard Fite, veterinary
medical officer; Dr. Robert
Graves, agricultural engineer pro
fessor; Gerald Heistand, Chesa
peake Bay technician; Virgil Gut
shall, vo ag teacher and swine pro
ducer; and James Kauffman,
poultry producer.
One of the goals of this confer
ence is to determine what interest
exists for the future of biogas
development in Pennsylvania.
Representatives for various
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“This system enables growers
to go straight from the dealer to
the field without taking the inter
mediate step of loading a poly bag
into a gravity wagon,” said Jack
Semens, Northrup King com pro
duct manager. “No one has ever
packaged seed like this before.”
The Load & Go system, in
development for more than two
years, originated with five lowa
farmer-dealers, their Northrup
King district manager Lloyd
Bigler, and Jim Berquam, North
Plant Biology Program sponsored
by the Department of Energy, the
National Science Foundation, and
the U.S. Department of Agricul
ture.
Their underground environ
ment makes roots difficult to stu
dy. “Most people don’t think
about roots, because it’s hard to
visualize something you can’t
see,” Bores said. “But a better
understanding of root biology
could enable scientists to help
plants withstand drought or flood.
It could even lead to more nutri
tious foods.”
Increased understanding of
roots also could benefit human
national, state, and loocal agencies
will be on hand to discuss their
viewpoints on biogas digester
development in Pennsylvania. On
a second panel, owners and desig
ners of large scale biogas digesters
will be on hand to give their views
and report on their experiences.
A majority of China’s 4.9 mil-
lion digesters are small in size,
whereas most of Pennsylvania’s
digesters are large. The main pur
pose for installing digesters is dif
ferent in the two countries, and the
environmental situation is diffe
rent. However, both countries are
looking to get eneigy from man
ure and at the same lime help
solve environmental problems.
Sponsors of this conference are
Penn State Cooperative Exten
sion, Lancaster County Conserva
tion District, and Center for Rural
Pennsylvania. They hope to come
away with a good indication of
whether more resources need to be
funnelled into digestion of animal
manures.
Registration should be made by
November 30. More information
about biogas digestion or the con
ference can be obtained from the
Lancaster County Conservation
District at (717) 299-5361.
nip King plant manager at Water
loo, lowa.
“We were looking for a safer,
easier way to handle large quanti
ties of seed to replace the poly
bags,” Bigler said. The group
shared their ideas with Northrop
King Com Product Manager Jack
Semens, who worked with con
tainer manufacturers to transform
the concept into blueprints and a
prototype.
The centerpiece of the Load &
Go system is the Q-Bit™ contain-
health. “Chemicals from the roots
of the Chinese cucumber plant are
a promising treatment for AIDS
victims,” Flores said “Many other
plants produce medicinal com
pounds, but we’re just beginning
to explore their potential. Biotech
nology may be able to enhance
this ability.
“We know so little about the
thousands of compounds roots
make that it is no exaggeration to
suspect there may be hundreds of
new medicines and other benefi
cial substances in toots.”
The program unites 23 faculty
members from nine academic de
partments in the Colleges of Agri
cultural Sciences and Engineering
and the Eberly College of Science.
The group includes physiologists,
biochemists, molecular biologists,
computer scientists, and engi
neers. “This diversity allows us to
study roots from many perspec
tives,” said Flores. “We all benefit
from the collaboration.”
Flores and others spent a year
recruiting the best possible gradu
ate and postdoctoral fellows and
developing new courses and
workshops for the program. Dur
ing the next five years, the team
will pursue research projects
...and save money and critical time.
Spread damp lime, fertilizer, poultry
waste or Indus
your lime and
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S) STOLTZFU
(215) 286-5146
er, an injection-molded
polyethylene bin manufactured in
two sizes from durable, recyclable
plastic. One Q-Bit container is the
equivalent of 30 bags of seed com
or 40 bags of soybeans. When full,
the Q-Bit container weighs about
2,000 pounds and can be loaded
between the wheel wells of a full
size pickup truck box. Seeds can
then be discharged from the con
tainer using a simple hose connec
tion or belt conveyors, specially
designed augers, or pneumatic air
Of Roots
while training six graduate stu
dents and six postdoctoral fellows
in the latest root biology tech
niques. Also offered will be an in
tensive residential summer pro
gram for promising undergradu
ates.
Flores has developed tech
niques that enable root cells to
mass-produce chemicals. “Seed
lings infected with certain bacteria
enter a state of perpetual growth,”
Flores said. “Because they in
crease their size several thousand
times in a single month, these
modified roots can act as factories
to mass-produce pharmaceuticals
and other chemicals.”
Other scientists in the Root Bio
logy Group are examining the
growth, development, architecture
and function of roots in plants and
the environment. Others study the
relationship between roots and
soil organisms, detailing the inter
actions between roots and bacter
ia, mycorrhizal fungi, and insects.
Flores hopes the program will
change the way roots are grown,
used, and even thought about.
“Right now, roots remain a scien
tific black box.” he said. “But
we’re planning to shine a little
light on them.”
transfer systems to fill planters or
drills.
Rodent-proof, moisture
resistant and stackable, the
patented design of the Q-Bit con
tainer features a sliding gate for
unloading the container from the
side or bottom, and regulating the
flow similar to‘a gravity box. A
slanted floor ensures that beans or
com empty out, and smooth inner
walls keep seeds from becoming
trapped. Before shipment, the top
of each container, as well as the
slide gate, is sealed to guarantee
varietal purity. The Q-Bit contain
er also includes a built-in, four
way pallet for lifting the box with
a fork-lift, a retro-fitted three
point hitch, or an adapted front
end loader. When empty, the con
tainers can be collapsed in half for
storage and dealer return.
The popularity of large poly
bags one of every 10 Midwest
ern soybean fanners has switched
to bulk soybean purchases in the
past five years has presented a
disposal problem.
“Every year, our industry needs
to find a way to get rid of about 90
million soybean and seed com
bags,” Bemens said. “The Q-Bit
container addresses this problem
with a 15-20 year life expectancy.
That’s five to seven times longer
than the poly sacks.”
Prototypes of the new seed
handling system were tested this
season on lowa and Minnesota
farms. For example, Jerry Ostran
der and his son. Jay. used the pro
totypes to plant soybeans on their
Jefferson, lowa farm this spring.
“We planted 1,800 acres of com
and soybeans this year, and with
the wet spring, we didn’t have a
lot of time to get the crop in,” Jer
ry Ostrander said. “On a normal
day, we go through 150 to 200
50-pound seed bags. The Load &
Go system really helped speed up
planting.”