Nebraska
Nebraska-developed wheat variety to address new fungal threat
In the wake of heightened wheat concern in the Nebraska Panhandle in 2023, this year brings positive news: The University of Nebraska–Lincoln is releasing a new wheat variety, NE Prism CLP, that stands out for its resistance to fungal disease, including fusarium head blight.
Last spring, Husker faculty members Katherine Frels and Stephen Wegulo began receiving concerned phone calls from Nebraska wheat growers. Something strange, the callers said, was going on in wheat fields in parts of the Panhandle.
The farmers were seeing field conditions they hadn’t encountered before: Their winter wheat had reached maturity, but the kernels had none of their familiar golden color and robust appearance. Instead, they were bleached and sickly.
Tombstones, such kernels are called — blighted irreparably by fungal assault.
The culprit was fusarium head blight, a notoriously destructive plant disease rarely seen in western Nebraska. The disease, also known as scab, undercuts yield and contaminates the grain with mycotoxins harmful to humans and animals.
“Producers were caught off-guard,” said Frels, Nebraska’s small grains breeder and an assistant professor of agronomy and horticulture.
The Panhandle region, which produces more than half of the state’s wheat, is normally free of the disease because that part of the state rarely receives enough rain to trigger the release of harmful fungal spores during wheat flowering.
But 2023 was not a normal year.
While drought kept a tight grip on much of eastern Nebraska last year, the Panhandle received above-average rainfall before and during wheat flowering, and the moisture enabled a rare outbreak of fusarium head blight. Wheat-producing areas in Kansas and Colorado were similarly affected.
“If there is a lot of rain two to three weeks before flowering and that rain is consistent into the flowering period for wheat, we know that the risk for fusarium head blight is pretty high,” said Wegulo, professor of plant pathology.
Wegulo, who is also a plant pathologist for Nebraska Extension, does extensive surveys of Nebraska wheat field conditions each spring and provides regular updates in CropWatch.
The new wheat variety, a two-gene Clearfield package, is available through NU Horizons Genetics and will be a key topic for Husker representatives when they meet with producers during the annual wheat field days in June.
Nebraska producers had requested a new Clearfield variety, and the university responded after extensive field testing, Frels said. The variety “has some other good things in the disease package, like some stripe rust resistance and stem rust resistance,” she said. “That’s what our growers expect from us.”
Fusarium head blight is best addressed though a two-pronged approach, using a crop variety with genetic resistance supplemented by appropriately timed fungicide application.
“For growers, you really can’t see it until it’s too late to do anything,” Frels said. “That’s why we want to have at least that moderate resistance out, and then ideally if the environment is right, we recommend that growers also spray fungicides to have the best chance of highly reducing the risk.”
Producers can benefit by regularly monitoring conditions through a widely used online fusarium risk tool, Frels and Wegulo said.
Wegulo and research technologist Julie Stevens carry out extensive testing on potential new wheat lines in the university’s breeding program, checking for resistance to three diseases (stem rust, leaf rust and fusarium head blight). Partner labs elsewhere in the country check for additional diseases before any new variety can move forward for consideration.
“We give that data to Katherine, and she will use that data to select her lines, looking at the level of disease resistance and other agronomic qualities,” Wegulo said. “We try to identify wheat varieties with resistance and then combine the resistance with fungicide application and determine the amount of disease control you get.”
The university’s efforts benefit greatly from the federal funding provided by the U.S. Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative, which promotes research to develop innovative approaches to address fusarium head blight. Some farm-state lawmakers, pointing to the value of the research, have called for the program’s funding to be increased as part of the next farm bill.
Wegulo is giving a presentation at an international conference in Athens, Greece, this summer on how climate change influences fusarium head blight.
“With climate change, we’re seeing this shift toward more intense precipitation in places where we traditionally have not seen it,” he said.
That was the case in Nebraska in 2023, as the rainfall amount in the Panhandle exceeded the norm.
“We cannot rule out that we are probably going to see fusarium head blight in the west more frequently than in the past,” Wegulo said.
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – It’s a big recruiting weekend for Nebraska, and when Dylan Raiola calls, the Husker Nation answers. Raiola posted on X on Friday asking fans to welcome the nation’s top offensive tackle, David Sanders Jr. out of North Carolina.
Sanders visited Nebraska back in May and is keeping the Huskers as a top contender.
Raiola, Head Coach Matt Rhule and other Huskers greeted Sanders outside of the new Tom Osborne Complex.
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LINCOLN, Neb. (WOWT) – An attempt was made to end the second day of the Nebraska Legislature’s special session before senators got down to work.
Early in the session, Omaha Senator Justin Wayne introduced a motion to adjourn — something he had urged his senators to consider doing en masse immediately on Day 1 in a sharply worded letter to the body earlier this week.
Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature John Arch addressed the senators before the vote was taken into motion.
“This is ours now to do; only we can pass legislation. The governor cannot pass Legislation. So, it is now our work that we have to do; citizens are watching,” Arch said. “I don’t know about you, but I know in my district, there is a lot of interest with what’s happening here in this session.”
The motion to adjourn failed on a 34-4 vote. The senators went back to work, discussing bills and amendments that have been made over the first two days of the special session.
State Sen. Tom Brant of Plymouth introduced legislation that would redefine terms related to Nebraska’s brand new sports betting, under the Nebraska Racetrack Gaming Act.
Right now, Husker fans can’t bet on their team when they play at home, and there is no mobile betting in Nebraska.
Critics believe fans will take their betting dollars across the bridge to bet on the Huskers, and make other bets from their phones without walking into the casino.
Officials from Omaha’s Warhorse Casino say that once again, Nebraska will be missing out on millions of dollars every year.
“That’s another $32 million towards property tax relief; we’re very focused on that. Nebraskans have supported gaming lately because they wanted to reduce some of their property taxes,” Warhorse Casino spokesman Lance Morgan said.
Lawmakers will take Saturday off to give the bill drafters time to catch up on dozens of bills that have been introduced. They will reconvene at 9 a.m. Monday.
Speaker Arch says the third day of the session will be the last day to drop bills.
DAY 2 BILLS SUMMARY
Among the other 15 bills submitted on Friday:
State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue put foward a bill on retail delivery fees.
Omaha senators Machaela Cavanaugh and Jen Day introduced bills on homestead exemptions.
State Sen. Kathleen Kauth of Omaha introduced a bill to change how state constitution amendments are proposed to the Legislature.
State Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha submitted a bill focused on reducing the prison population by allowing early release from parole and commutation recommendations for certain sentences.
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Digital Director Gina Dvorak contributed to this report.
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Copyright 2024 WOWT. All rights reserved.
Nebraska
Nebraska Supreme Court upholds state’s 12-week abortion ban and transgender care restrictions
LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – The Nebraska Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state’s 12-week abortion ban and transgender care restrictions on Friday.
A lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and its medical director, Dr. Sarah Traxler, in May 2023 claimed LB 574 violated the “no bill shall contain more than one subject, and the subject shall be clearly expressed in the title” rule in the Nebraska State Constitution.
LB 574 allowed Nebraska’s chief medical officer the ability to regulate transgender care for minors, and a last minute amendment tacked a 12-week abortion ban onto it. Governor Jim Pillen signed the bill into law on May 22, 2023.
The Supreme Court Justices peppered lawyers with the ACLU and State of Nebraska with questions about the constitutionality of LB 574 pertaining to the single-subject rule earlier this year.
In an opinion issued Friday morning, the Supreme Court found no merit to Planned Parenthood’s argument that the bill contained more than one subject, affirming a district court decision in 2023.
The state’s high court acknowledged in its ruling that abortion and gender-affirming care “are distinct types of medical care,” but found the law does not violate Nebraska’s single-subject rule because both abortion and transgender health fall under the subject of medical care, the AP reported.
The ACLU of Nebraska highlighted Justice Lindsey Miller-Lerman’s dissent from the majority’s interpretation of the single-subject requirement.
Justice Miller-Lerman accused the majority of applying different standards to bills passed by the Legislature and those sought by voter referendum.
The ACLU of Nebraska released the following statement:
“We respectfully disagree with the court majority’s determination, and we had of course hoped for a very different outcome,” Mindy Rush Chipman, executive director of ACLU of Nebraska, said. “But looking beyond the legal arguments of this specific case, it is so important that Nebraskans do not lose sight of the impact of these restrictions. Nebraskans have been harmed every week since the governor signed LB 574 into law. That will continue under today’s ruling. However, this case will not be the final word on abortion access and the rights of trans youth and their families in Nebraska. Despite this loss, we will continue to do all that we can to ensure that Nebraskans can make their own private decisions about their lives, families and futures.”
Pillen, who pushed for the bill to be passed, released a statement following the Court’s decision:
“I am grateful for the court’s thorough and well-reasoned opinion upholding these important protections for life and children in Nebraska. There was a dark moment last year when many feared that a victory for unborn babies was impossible and that the pro-life coalition might break apart. I was honored to partner with faithful allies and leaders across the state to combine the abortion ban with protections for kids against irreversible sex change surgeries. We worked overtime to bring that bill to my desk, and I give thanks to God that I had the privilege to sign it into law. I immediately directed our state government agencies to swiftly bring these protections into effect. I am grateful for their work and for the work of the Attorney General to defend it,” Pillen said.
Attorney General Mike Hilgers also commended the Court on its ruling.
“The Legislature passed Nebraska’s 12-week abortion ban and its ban on gender-altering procedures for minors, and we are pleased that the Court upheld the constitutionality of the Legislature’s work,” Attorney General Mike Hilgers said.
Read the full Nebraska Supreme Court opinion below:
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Copyright 2024 KOLN. All rights reserved.
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