Purdue Ag News Roundup

April 10, 1998 Indiana wheat escapes damage from late-winter storm WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Indiana's winter wheat crop dodged the bullet Mother Nature fired in early March, according to Purdue University Cooperative Extension wheat specialist Ellsworth Christmas. He said the crop emerged from the storm in very good shape, with few exceptions. "It's the prettiest wheat crop that I have ever seen, looking north to south," said Christmas, who has been observing Indiana wheat crops for more than 35 years. Five weeks have passed since an onslaught of bitter cold hit Indiana in early March -- more than enough time for the crop to show its wounds. "It appears that the wheat crop escaped any serious damage. Leaf burn was widespread across the state, with the most severe burn in the southwestern part of Indiana and very little in northwestern areas that had protective snow cover," he said. "A field or two in southwestern Indiana have been diagnosed with stem injury from the cold temperatures." Farmers who plan to apply nitrogen fertilizer to their winter wheat should do so right away, Christmas said, if soils are not too wet to sustain heavy equipment. "Most of the wheat yet to be top-dressed is in the northern half of the state," he said. "Since wheat in these areas has not yet started to joint or is in the early stages of jointing, nitrogen should be applied at the originally planned rate." Nitrogen applied later is not as effective, Christmas said. CONTACT: Christmas, (765) 494-6373; e-mail, christmas@dept.agry.purdue.edu Animals up close and personal featured at Purdue Spring Fest WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Bugs, pigs, milk cows and other creatures both great and small will be featured attractions at Purdue University's Spring Fest on April 18 and 19. Insects are center ring, of course, as organizers anticipate that Bug Bowl '98 will attract thousands of kids and curious adults to the two days of cockroach races, cricket-spitting contests and an insect art display. Honey tasting and bee hive inspections also are part of the fun, but the one with the highest "yuk" factor is the insect petting zoo. Entomology Professor Al York, a Bug Bowl co-founder, said it's fun to watch enthusiastic children and squeamish adults have close encounters with very large insects. The petting zoo includes giant Madagascar hissing cockroaches, New Guinea walking sticks, hornworms and insects both familiar and exotic. The Boiler Barnyard, organized by the Animal Sciences Ambassadors student group, will have baby chicks hatching in an incubator, a beef cow and calf, sheep, pigs, a dairy cow and a pony. Kids and parents can look, touch and learn more about domesticated farm animals. Children can win prizes in a coloring contest and in a game wheel that asks age-based trivia questions about farm animals. Sheep shearing and ultrasounds on pregnant animals also will be done. The Boiler Barnyard will run Saturday and Sunday. For Saturday only, School of Veterinary Medicine students will host both farm animals and exotic animals, along with tours of the animal hospitals and demonstrations on animal health and other topics. There also will be an animal petting zoo, milking contests and an oxen team on display. Also on Saturday only, the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources will have fish tanks containing several species of fish being grown at the Aquaculture Research Center on display. The student chapter of The Wildlife Society will answer questions about wildlife in general and attracting wildlife to your backyard. Children will be able to make pine cone bird feeders and learn what owls eat by examining their pellets. Spring Fest is sponsored by the Schools of Agriculture, Veterinary Medicine, and Consumer and Family Studies. It offers nearly 100 different events, activities, demonstrations and seminars, including perennial attractions such as the Horticulture Show as well as new activities from the Departments of Agronomy, Botany and Plant Pathology, Child Development and Family Sciences, and Foods and Nutrition. Spring Fest hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. All events are free and open to the public. Parking also is free in Purdue parking garages and lots. For more information about Spring Fest, call Dana Neary, Spring Fest coordinator, at (888) 398-4636 or check out the Spring Fest Web site at http://www.anr.ces.purdue.edu/anr/sfest/sfest98.html CONTACTS: York, (765) 494-4559; Neary, (765) 494-9113; e-mail, dn@aes.purdue.edu Data base of disaster information available on Web WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. -- Information about how to prepare for and recover from natural disasters is available on the Internet from a new program from land-grant universities. The Extension Disaster Education Network, or EDEN, is a multistate effort to help county officials improve the delivery of services to citizens affected by disasters. EDEN has established a Web site, http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/~eden/, which has information on a variety of specific topics, such as: Flood cleanup information. Preparing homes for common disasters. Safe food handling during power outages. Emergency management for business and industry. Helping children cope with disaster. Checklist for people with mobility problems. Applying for federal disaster relief. Agricultural problems and how to solve them. In addition, the Web site has links to major disaster resources on the Internet, such as the Web sites for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the American Red Cross and the National Hazards Center. According to Steve Cain, communications specialist at Purdue University's Department of Agricultural Communication and co-coordinator of the EDEN project in Indiana, EDEN is designed to reduce the impact of disasters by coordinating information available from various land-grant universities and putting it into the hands of people who can make a difference. "When a disaster strikes a community, people need information right now," Cain said. "It may be information on how to keep food safe, how to care for pets or livestock, or how to reclaim their home. EDEN was produced by an association of land-grant universities that can provide that type of information based on research. In the past, we've relied on overnight delivery or faxing of information to key people in a community. Today, those people can access critical information via the EDEN Web site." Cain says that although the EDEN data base was created for use by Cooperative Extension Service educators and agents, it was put on the Web so that it would be available to anyone. "There are many people in communities -- firefighters, emergency management personnel, animal care providers -- who can benefit from this data base of information," he said. CONTACT: Cain, (765) 494-8410; e-mail, cain@aes.purdue.edu Compiled by Chris Sigurdson, (765) 494-8415; E-mail, sig@ecn.purdue.edu Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; e-mail, purduenews@purdue.edu To the Purdue News and Photos Page