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CapitalPress.com
Friday, September 24, 2021
People & Places
‘Dream team’ builds better turfgrass
By SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
CORVALLIS, Ore. —
Across the drought-stricken
Western U.S., some cities
and states have temporarily
banned watering “non-func-
tional turf,” including lawns.
Other
municipalities,
domestic and international,
are restricting fungicide use
on landscapes.
These and other devel-
opments have cast a sud-
den spotlight on turfgrass
management, an important
and often-overlooked field
of study, and the innova-
tors behind it — people like
Alec Kowalewski, Oregon
State University turfgrass
specialist.
BeaverTurf, OSU’s turf
management program, is
exploring how to grow turf-
grass on sports fields, golf
courses and parks in a way
that’s more environmen-
tally and economically
sustainable.
Kowalewski leads a
“dream team” of Ph.D.
researchers who are exploring
how to grow turfgrass with
less water, testing which cul-
tivars are disease-resistant,
experimenting with fungicide
alternatives, irrigating with
wastewater,
documenting
which varieties are safest for
livestock consumption and
exploring how management
practices can impact carbon
sequestration.
“I’m very proud of the
team I have. It’s truly a world-
class team,” said Kowalewski.
He and the researchers,
like game pieces on a check-
erboard, were standing on an
experimental plot with hun-
dreds of square test blocks,
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Capital Press Managers
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Western
Innovator
ALEC
KOWALEWSKI
Carl Sampson .................. Managing Editor
Samantha McLaren ....Circulation Manager
Entire contents copyright © 2021
EO Media Group
dba Capital Press
Age: 41
Hometown: Augusta,
Mich.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Pres
Researchers stand on test plots of various turfgrass cultivars. From left are Clint Mat-
tox, Cole Stover, Wrennie Wang, Alec Kowalewski, Chas Schmid, Emily Braithwaite.
each
con-
taining a dif-
ferent grass
cultivar.
T h e
researchers
under Kow-
alewski say
Alec
Kowalewski he’s not only
an innovator
but a teacher and adviser who
empowers other innovators to
shine.
This year, Kowalewski
said he’s excited about many
of the projects his team is tak-
ing on.
One project looks at soil
health and the potential to
sequester carbon in turfgrass
systems. Emily Braithwaite,
faculty research assistant, said
recent climate extremes have
created a “sense of urgency”
in the turfgrass industry for
ways to limit emissions and
be more sustainable.
The project uses a car-
bon-capturing
device,
tracks how much carbon
plants absorb while photo-
synthesizing and explores
how management practices
impact carbon storage.
Tests so far have found
that grass is healthier and
stores more carbon if it’s
mowed frequently — about
once a week — to four
inches tall rather than taller
or down to stubble.
In watering, too, fre-
quency matters. Irrigating
a plot four times a week at
just a quarter-inch leads to
healthier, better carbon-stor-
ing turf than a plot that’s
watered excessively but less
often.
“See how much greener
this is,” said Wrennie Wang,
research associate, pointing
at a block.
This “less water, more
often” concept can save
water during droughts.
The researchers are
also interested in irrigat-
ing turf with effluent water,
or “graywater,” non-sewage
wastewater that comes from
sources such as sinks and
showers.
Clint Mattox, another
research associate, is explor-
ing alternatives to fungicides.
Mattox is testing less toxic
products, including sulfur and
mineral oils.
Research associate Chas
Schmid is leading a study in
the National Turfgrass Eval-
uation Program for which
turfgrass seed breeders sub-
mit entries. Schmid tests the
entries, looking for which
cultivars “rise to the top” as
most disease-resistant, sus-
tainable and attractive.
“It’s like a beauty pag-
eant for turf,” said Schmid.
Education: Ph.D., crop
and soil sciences, Mich-
igan State University,
2010; M.S., crop and soil
sciences, Michigan State
University, 2006
Occupation: Associ-
ate professor and turf
specialist at Oregon
State University; advises
students and post-grad
researchers
Another project will
study endophytes, microbes
that live in some turfgrasses.
Endophytes can make
grass more disease-resis-
tant, which is great for land-
scaping. But grass with high
endophyte levels can be
toxic to livestock. Although
grass seed breeders have a
general idea of which cul-
tivars have endophytes, a
comprehensive study has
never been done. This fall,
the researchers will docu-
ment endophyte levels in
hundreds of cultivars.
Kowalewski said that
he, as “facilitator” for the
researchers, is excited to see
where the projects go.
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Student artists showcase Oregon agriculture
Winners chosen for
Oregon AITC calendar
OREGON AITC CALENDAR ART CONTEST
Winners for the 2021-22 Oregon AITC Calendar Art Contest
include:
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — Thirteen stu-
dent artists ages 6-12 will
have their artwork featured
in this year’s Oregon Agri-
culture in the Classroom cal-
endar, with 10,000 copies
distributed statewide.
The
winners
were
selected from 1,327 entries
and honored during a recep-
tion Aug. 29 at the Oregon
State Fair, where they also
received a $50 prize and
certificate.
Oregon AITC holds its
calendar art contest annually
for students from kindergar-
ten through sixth grade, cel-
ebrating Oregon’s agricul-
tural diversity. The winning
entries for 2021-22 depict
• Cover — Elin Casper, fourth grade, Eugene.
• September — Tiel Morgan, sixth grade, Gresham.
• October — Stella Holley, second grade, Portland.
• November — Leif Hagborn, second grade, Fields.
• December — Kate Janzen, fifth grade, Happy Valley.
Oregon AITC
Winners of the 2021-22 Oregon Agriculture in the Class-
room calendar art contest were honored during a re-
ception Aug. 29 at the Oregon State Fair.
scenes featuring everything
from Christmas trees, pump-
kins and tulips to corn, ber-
ries and livestock.
Each month in the cal-
endar showcases a differ-
ent student’s artwork and
includes a fact about Oregon
agriculture.
“The calendar contest is
a great project for teachers
and students,” said Jessica
Jansen, Oregon AITC exec-
utive director. “It gives them
an opportunity to teach and
discuss about the bounty and
beauty of Oregon agricul-
ture and incorporate art into
their classrooms.”
Joe Colby, a sixth-grade
teacher in Condon, Ore.,
said the contest — along
with virtual field trips orga-
nized by Oregon AITC —
• January — Isaiah Cota, fifth grade, Redmond.
• February — Emma Defoe, fifth grade, Junction City.
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News: Contact the main office
No bull: Scientists potty train cows to use ‘MooLoo’
Researchers in
Germany have potty
trained cows, all in
the name of science
By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer
Turns out cows can be
potty trained as easily as tod-
dlers. Maybe easier.
It’s no bull. Scientists put
the task to the test and 11 out
of 16 cows learned to use the
“MooLoo” when they had to
go.
Just like some parents,
the researchers used a sweet
treat to coax the cows to
push through a gate and uri-
nate in a special pen. And it
took only 15 days to train the
young calves. Some kids take
quite a bit longer.
“The cows are at least as
good as children, age 2 to 4
years, at least as quick,” said
study senior author Lindsay
Matthews, an animal behav-
ioral scientist at New Zea-
land’s University of Auckland
who worked with colleagues
on the tests at an indoor animal
research lab in Germany.
What started with a half-in-
jest question on a New Zea-
land radio talk show about
the very real problem of live-
stock waste resulted in a seri-
ous study published Monday
in the journal Current Biology.
And it wasn’t just a “wow, this
could be fun” academic ques-
tion. Massive amounts of urine
waste is a serious environmen-
tal issue, Matthews said.
Urine contains nitrogen,
and when mixed with manure
becomes ammonia, which is
an environmental issue with
acid rain and other problems,
Matthews said. It can also
taint the water with nitrates
and create the airborne pollut-
ant nitrous oxide, he said.
And cows do pee a lot. A
single cow can produce about
8 gallons of urine a day, Mat-
thews said. In 2019, nitrous
oxide comprised 7% of all
the U.S. greenhouse gases,
according to the Environmen-
tal Protection Agency.
“I am not surprised they
can train calves to urinate in
set locations, but I am sur-
prised no one has demon-
strated this before,” said Duke
University animal cognition
scientist Brian Hare, who
wasn’t part of the research.
“The critical question is can it
and will it scale?”
If it could be done, toi-
let training animals makes it
easier to manage waste prod-
ucts and reduce greenhouse
gas emissions, said Donald
Broom, a professor of animal
welfare at the University of
Cambridge in England.
At the lab in Dummer-
storf, Germany, the research-
ers mimicked a toddler’s
training, putting the cows in
the special pen, waiting until
they urinated and then giving
them a reward: a sweet liquid
of mostly molasses. Cows do
have a sweet tooth, Matthews
said. If the cows urinated out-
side the MooLoo after the ini-
tial training, they got a squirt
of cold water.
Then in two sets of exper-
iments, the researchers let
the Holstein cows roam
about the indoor facility.
When they had to urinate,
11 of them pushed into the
pen, did their business, and
got their sweet reward.
mendations from OSU Extension
cereal scientist and assistant pro-
fessor Ryan Graebner; and a report
on best practices for strong yields
and pest management in wheat
from OSU field crops agent Nicole
Anderson. The session is free but
you must register to get the credit.
Registration:https://beav.es/39h
worlddairyexpo.com
CALENDAR
Submit upcoming ag-related
events on www.capitalpress.com
or by email to newsroom@capital-
press.com.
THROUGH SEPT. 26
Washington State Fair: Wash-
ington State Fair Events Center,
110 9th Ave. SW, Puyallup, Wash.
Website: https://www.thefair.com/
SATURDAY SEPT. 25
Spokane Conservation Dis-
trict’s 80th Birthday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
4422 E. 8th Ave., Spokane Valley,
Wash. Tour the district’s new facil-
ities, Vets on the Farm seed sav-
ing class, scavenger hunt, chil-
dren’s activities, food trucks and
other offerings. Website: https://bit.
ly/3AimLFj
TUESDAY SEPT. 28
Washington State Dairy Coun-
cil 88th annual meeting (vir-
tual): 9:30-11:30 a.m. The event will
include speakers from the National
Dairy Council and the Washington
Dairy Council. Website: https://bit.
ly/3lqeSrf
Public Lands Council 53rd
Annual Meeting (online): On behalf
of the Public Lands Council Board
of Directors and Executive Commit-
tee, we invite you to attend the 2021
Public Lands Council Virtual Annual
Meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 28. While
we originally planned to see you
in Seaside, Ore., due to increased
COVID-19 cases, we have made the
difficult decision to move the annual
meeting to a virtual format. Website:
https://bit.ly/3sR4NH0
OSU Extension’s Seed and
Cereal Crop Production meet-
ing (online): 8:30 a.m. Agenda: a
look at Oregon Wheat Commission
activities from Amanda Hoey, chief
executive officer for the Oregon
Wheat Commission and the Ore-
gon Wheat Growers League; winter
and spring wheat variety recom-
or news staff member closest to you,
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Include a contact telephone number.
Letters to the Editor: Send your
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issues to opinions@capitalpress.com, or
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Press. Letters should be limited to
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Index
TUESDAY-SATURDAY
SEPT. 28-OCT. 2
World Dairy Expo: Alliant
Energy Center, 1919 Alliant Energy
Center Way, Madison, Wis. Among
the many events held are contests
and a trade show. Website: https://
WEDNESDAY
SEPT. 29
Production Animal Consul-
tation Summit (in person and
online): Lincoln Marriott Corn-
husker Hotel, Lincoln, Neb. The
summit focuses on issues and
opportunities in the beef indus-
try. This year’s event will include
presentations and discussions on
carcass quality, selling more beef,
global meat trade and the role of
antibiotics. Website: www.pacd-
vms.com
Markets .................................................10
Opinion ...................................................6
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