Showing posts with label United Kingdom (UK). Show all posts
Salt-Tolerant Rice 'Could Aid Japan's Tsunami Farmers'
Posted by Unknown in Flood, Food Security, Japan, Plant Breeding, Research and Technology, Rice, United Kingdom (UK) on Tuesday, 29 January 2013
UK
scientists have claimed a breakthrough in research on rice that could
help farmers devastated by last year's tsunami in Japan.
Researchers
in Norwich said a method of identifying and isolating crop traits has
been developed that means new varieties could be created in a year.
A Sainsbury Laboratory scientist said Japanese farmers could now grow a salt-resistant crop within two years.
It previously took up to 10 years to develop new crop strains, he said.
Much
of the agricultural land to the north east of Japan was drenched in sea
salt from the tsunami, which has since made it hard for rice to grow.
As
part of the research between the UK and Japan, a spokeswoman from the
Sainsbury Laboratory said seven salt-tolerant mutants have now been
identified in a particular type of rice, meaning breeders could be
creating usable varieties for Japanese farmers in the next few years.
"This is a huge leap forward," said Dr Brande Wulff from the Sainsbury Laboratory at Norwich Research Park.
Crop traits
"Advances in technology allow us to sequence plant genomes and identify gene variants that give rise to desirable traits.
"Our colleagues in Japan have already identified mutants that are more salt-resistant.
"Now
it's just a matter for them to back-cross those mutants to the parental
variety and clean up the background - get rid of the bad mutations and
keep the good one - and then bulk up the seed provided to the farmers,"
he said.
Crop
traits such as drought and salt tolerance, plant height and yield are
often controlled by many genes, with each having a subtle effect, the
laboratory spokesman said.
It is therefore difficult to identify the complete genetic basis for a particular characteristic, he added.
But
in the new research method, called MutMap, the laboratory said
scientists can now identify the characteristics by working with an
"elite" rice and creating mutants that harbour different traits.
'Genomics revolution'
Once
a mutant is identified with the desired trait, for example salt
tolerance, this can then be crossed with the original rice and grown in a
field.
The difference between the offspring of this cross and the elite rice can then be identified.
The
changes detected are called single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPS) and
insertion-deletions (indels), which are tiny genetic improvements that
can be observed using genome sequencing.
"Until
now, plant breeding has not been able to take advantage of the genomics
revolution," said Professor Ryohei Terauchi, from Japan's Iwate
Biotechnology Research Centre.
"MutMap
overcomes one of the greatest limitations, which has been the time it
takes to identify genetic markers for desirable traits."
Results from the study have been published in Nature Biotechnology.
Nothing Sheepish About A 12 Year British Farm Boy With Big Ideas
Posted by Unknown in Layer Poultry, Sheep Farming, Success Stories, United Kingdom (UK) on Sunday, 27 January 2013
By Chris Benfield
(Yorkshire Post) He’s still just a slip of a lad but schoolboy farmer William Watson is already thinking big in business.
Farmers
at a pedigree sheep event last week were surprised to find themselves
outbid for the prize-winners of the day by the 12-year-old.
And
it was no stunt. William was spending his own money, saved from the egg
business he has been running since he was 10, with 130 genuinely
free-range layers producing about 100 eggs a day.
He
goes out at 7am daily to let them out of their shed, locks them up
before going to bed at night and mucks out every weekend. And he and his
mother, Julie, deliver the eggs locally at £2.50 a dozen.
He
is now moving into sheep breeding and he took his cheque book to the
Northern Texel Sheep Show and Sale of pedigree females at Skipton on
Saturday, December 3.
The
judge. David Burkill, who runs the Beechtree Texel flock at Driffield,
awarded first prize to a shearling ewe from the Beautry flock of Stuart
Currie at Rathmell, near Settle, and second prize to another young ewe
from Angela Nairey’s Meinspride flock, based at Liusey, near Blackburn.
And
William agreed on the judgment. Bidding in the old English currency,
which is still traditional at pedigree sales, he paid 1,440 guineas
(£1,512) for the first animal and 1,150gns (£1,207) for the other – the
top prices of the day.
He also bought two cheaper ewes, at 550gns and 280gns, taking his total spend on the day to nearly £3,500.
For
the benefit of younger generations who do not bid at livestock markets,
a guinea means 21 old shillings, or 105p. The name refers back to the
first machine-minted English coin, which was made of gold from the
Guinea region of West Africa.
William took his new stock home to Hellifield, near Skipton, where his father, Paul, deals in stone.
Mr
Watson is also a buyer for Dunbia, a big meat processor, and well known
around the auction markets. And he runs a few commercial cross-breed
cattle and sheep on their home smallholding.
But
the Texel flock is William’s own project and he did his own research on
what was interesting in the sale catalogue and what he might expect to
pay.
He consulted neighbours John and Linda Mellin at Hull House, Hellifield, who already have a name in Texel circles.
It
was seeing and admiring their flock that set him off on his new venture
and he bought six from them a few weeks before heading for the Skipton
sale – making his total investment so far about £6,000.
William
does not yet have a ram but the two prize animals he bought at Skipton
are already in lamb to top-quality sires and one is carrying twins. All
the others he has bought in lamb and should start delivering in
February.
From
routine scanning, he knows in most cases whether he is expecting twins
or singles. But he does not know of which sex. A bid for a pregnant
sheep is basically a bet.
But sometimes that bet can pay off in fine style.
“I think it spurred him on,” said his father yesterday, “when our neighbour sold a tup lamb at Carlisle for 36,000 guineas.”
William is a pupil at Settle Middle School, where he has friends like him who are already planning a career in farming.
“That’s what I want,” he said.
“I did used to say I wanted to be a racing driver but that was when I was very young.
“I help my dad out with his sheep and I just like the look of Texels. They are just nice big strong-looking animals.”
Most
of his new flock are about twice his size, in fact, but he is learning
to hold them, with an eye on exhibiting at Gargrave Show next summer.
Texels are a burly breed, originally from the Continent, which have won themselves an important role in the UK meat industry.
In the mood for festive Moo-sic
It
may sound udderly ridiculous, but a government quango set up to promote
dairy farming has released a collection of Christmas songs put together
from North Yorkshire cows’ moos.
DairyCo,
an organisation funded by a levy on farmgate milk prices, got the cow
noises from Easby Grange, Stokesley, near Middlesbrough, where farmer
John Chapman recorded them on his smartphone.
Then
DairyCo got the digitalised sounds chopped up and re-assembled into
tunes including Silent Night, Jingle Bells and other compositions which
might appeal for ringtones, message alerts and alarms.
