Underground Cameras, Feedmills and Wine: State’’s Permanent University Funds Aid Studies

COLLEGE STATION -– Almost $1 million from the state’s Permanent University Fund has been designated for agricultural research projects — most of which target ways to supply higher quality, healthier food, according to Texas Agricultural Experiment Station officials.

On the shopping list: everything from feed mill equipment to a camera system that explores plant roots underground and a machine that finds pathogens on wine grapes. Studies reach from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley and from the East Texas forests to the deserts of El Paso.

The funds, created by the Texas Legislature in 1876, come from the sale of oil and gas pumped from more than 2 million acres of state land. The monies are shared by Texas A&M University and University of Texas systems’ institutions. The funds supplement dollars from other sources, such as federal and individual grants.

“We like to use these funds to kick-start new research programs or to leverage funds that a scientist may get from other sources,” said Dr. Elsa Murano, Texas A&M vice chancellor and Experiment Station director. “Another plus is that this money supports those who have studies that reach across academic disciplines and include a wide variety of scientists.”

The largest grant made to one project – $50,000 – will pay for feed mill equipment used in research at San Angelo.

“Feed costs are the largest variable cost of livestock production,” said Dr. John Walker, director of the Experiment Station in San Angelo. “Finding new livestock supplements and feeding strategies can result in big savings to the producer, and that translates into better products at better prices for the consumer.”

Walker said research their studies focuses on feed rations for sheep, goats and deer in West Texas.

Rangeland management and ecology research will receive $72,500, the bulk of which will pay for instruments used to study global climate change, according to Dr. Mark Tjoelker, Experiment Station forestry scientist in College Station.

“A camera called a minirhizotron lets us explore underground to watch root growth. Added to that will be an automated system which determines the amount of carbon exchanged between soil and the atmosphere,” Tjoelker said. “These two instruments will help us better understand tree-grass interactions in response to warming temperatures and altered rainfall patterns.”

Researchers near Corpus Christi asked for a special laboratory separator that is used to sort bad seed from good.

“In the native plants breeding program at Beeville, we have found that a large portion of the seeds of many native grasses do not fill, or grow,” said Dr. Bobby Eddleman, Corpus Christi Experiment Station director. ” This device will help us remove that seed so that the seed we plant to test will be the most likely to grow. Otherwise, time is lost planting seed that ultimately doesn’t grow.”

Biodiesel fuel efficiency will be tested with a $15,000 controller for a internal combustion engine “dynamometer.”

“We will run performance tests pure diesel, pure biofuel and biofuel-diesel mixtures. The we will evaluate performance of brake horsepower, fuel consumption, torque and exhaust emissions against engine speed,” said Dr. Sergio Capareda, Experiment Station biological and agricultural engineer in College Station.

Scientists at the Experiment Station in Stephenville will use $20,000 to buy a PCR Thermo Cycler which detects and identifies pathogens via DNA technology.

“Pathogens usually can be determined within a couple of hours,” said Dr. Don Cawthon, director at the Stephenville station. “This equipment will be used especially to track Pierce’s Disease, one of the most debilitating diseases of wine grapes in Texas.”

Other research supported by the funds will include water sampling, new wheat varieties, wildlife species conservation, drought stress in plants, plant disease detection and air quality.

Funded projects were chosen for the extent to which the scientist had other sources to help pay for the effort, whether the equipment would be used by scientists from several disciplines and/or locations, and how the research was consistent with priorities in the agency’s Science Roadmap, according to Dr. Bill Dugas, associate director for operations.

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