Posts tagged as:

agriculture

Designer roots to counter drought

12 July 2011

Genetics can be used to shape plants underground so they absorb water better Recent discoveries by a University of Queensland agricultural scientist provide the basis for custom designing plant roots. Her discovery is already being used by plant breeders to develop drought-resistant sorghum crops.

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A little lupin improves the bread of life

12 June 2011

In flour it reduces heart disease risk say Melbourne and WA researchers You can lower your risk of heart disease significantly, just by using flour containing 40 per cent lupin beans in the place of conventional wholemeal flour, according to research by Victoria University dietitian Dr Regina Belski and colleagues from the University of Western [...]

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Add fertiliser to fight weeds

14 June 2010

Feeding weeds fertiliser sounds like exactly the wrong thing, if you want to get rid of them, but Jennifer Firn of CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems has been doing just that—to control African lovegrass, an invasive species of rangelands in every Australian state.

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Waste is a waste: Pigs reduce the burden on the oceans

10 June 2010

A biotechnologist from the South Australian Research and Development Institute has taken using “everything but the pig’s squeal” to new lengths. Through clever recycling of pig waste, Andrew Ward has been able to produce feed for aquaculture, water for irrigation, and methane for energy. His ‘waste food chain’ can be applied to breweries, wineries and [...]

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The future of foot-and-mouth disease control: new test makes vaccines an option

17 June 2008

Researchers at the CSIRO’s Australian Animal Health Laboratory have developed a new test for foot-and-mouth disease that involves no infectious viral material and can differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals. This ‘DIVA’ test could transform how foot-and-mouth disease is controlled in future, because it’s so inexpensive and does not require infectious virus to produce the [...]

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Sheep smarter than we think

30 August 2005

Armidale sheep put to the test in a complex maze Sheep are smarter than we think. They can learn and remember according to CSIRO researchers from Armidale in NSW. The team is working to identify and breed smarter sheep as part of their work to improve animal welfare and production. Caroline Lee, a member of [...]

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New genes mean cleaner, greener, better quality crops

23 August 2004

Two plant genes have been identified that could lead to new crop varieties resistant to fungal diseases, meaning increased productivity for farmers and improved quality and cheaper costs for consumers. These two genes can help plants boost their own immunity to disease, resulting in less need for chemical sprays, improved produce quality and increased shelf [...]

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Plants eavesdrop on bacterial attack plans

19 August 2003

Plants can listen in on bacterial communication and can even mimic this communication, possibly in an attempt to stop any attacks, according to a breakthrough in scientific understanding announced today in Melbourne.

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Happy cows choose what to eat

22 August 2002

Cows produce more milk if they are given a choice of food, according to a study released today in Melbourne. “Presentation and choice of food affects how much we eat. It’s the same for cows,” says University of Melbourne researcher, Danni Marotti.

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Healthy ants, healthy country

26 August 2001

Ants have the answers when it comes to assessing the effects of land management on the environment. Up to 20 million ants from 100 species live in any single hectare of the Australian bush, says CSIRO ecologist, Dr Ben Hoffmann.

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Super ‘bug’ protects Australia’s wheat

24 August 2001

A naturally occurring bacteria has been shown to control diseases that attack cereal crops such as wheat, and at the same time boost the growth of crops. The research conducted by Flinders University PhD student, Justin Coombs, found the bacteria in a place it had never been discovered before – the tissues of cereal crop [...]

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Fire Destroys Weed and Saves Biodiversity

4 May 2000

Scientists have developed a new environmentally-friendly way of killing boneseed, a weed listed among Australia’s top twenty “Weeds of National Significance”. The new methods combines controlled fires, herbicides and revegetation, and replace the old ‘hit or miss’ method that threatened to wipe out rare and endangered plant species as it killed the boneseed.

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Drought adds threat to fish stocks

8 May 1999

320 tonnes of acid spills into river- Ben Wilson Research into acid-producing soils along major rivers in northern NSW has illustrated the threat posed by Mother Nature, not only sugar cane farmers, on fish stocks in the region, according to Dr Ben Wilson from Charles Sturt University.

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Bacterial gossip can be stopped!

10 May 1998

 Bacteria “talk” using chemical signals to prepare their attack on humans, animals and plants. Could a chemical from seaweed disrupt their conversation and stop the invasion?

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Soil development at a snails’ pace

10 May 1998

Soil development at snails’ pace: a pioneering study of soil formation in north Queensland shows that it takes 3000 years to form barely a millimetre of soil from the rocks beneath – too little, too long….. Too late!

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