Chicory-based industry emerging in Panhandle
An industry based on chicory is emerging in Nebraska's Panhandle, thanks in good part to six years of University of Nebraska research.

"We began looking at chicory as an alternative crop for Nebraska in 1995," said Chuck Hibberd, director of NU's Panhandle Research and Extension Center at Scottsbluff. "There are now five producers, including NU, producing 950 acres of chicory. The crop will be sliced and dried for use in pet foods at a new processing plant in Scottsbluff that should open in September 2001."

U.S. Chicory, an independent company, has partnered with the university to build and operate the new processing plant.

This will be the first chicory processing plant in the United States and in the Americas. Chicory, a pet food ingredient that provides intestinal health benefits to animals, is primarily a European crop.

"What we have found, through study tours of Belgium, the Netherlands and France and three years of growing the crop in the United States, is that here in western Nebraska, we can produce a crop that meets or exceeds the best chicory in Europe," Hibberd said. "Though the Nebraska chicory industry is small now, it has tremendous potential and can have a significant benefit for producers."

The industry also has the potential for expansion, Hibberd said. In the future, Nebraska chicory may be processed for use in human foods as well.

Western Sugar, Cascadian Inulin and Nestle Corp. help fund this research.

– Heather Corley

Here are a few NU Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources Web sites that may interest readers. For more options, visit IANR's home page at www.ianr.unl.edu.

• Agricultural biotechnology and genetically modified crops are the focus of IANR's new Ag Biosafety site. It features information for consumers, educators and policy-makers. Information ranges from biotech basics to a database of safety information on genetically engineered crops that includes a complete description for each bioengineered crop approved in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. It's at http://www.agbiosafety. unl.edu/.
• From armadillos to weasels, bats to woodchucks, if you've got a problem with wildlife, the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management has information on problems and solutions at http://deal.unl.edu/icwdm/. This information-packed site offers solutions for controlling wildlife damage, links to related sites, animal activity pages for kids, some of the latest scientific reports and an events calendar.
• If your soybeans look sickly or your sugar beets are taking a beating, check out Plant Disease Central at http://pdc. unl.edu. This site offers disease descriptions, symptoms, management options and photos to help producers, crop consultants and educators diagnose and manage field crop diseases.
• If insects are what's bugging your crops, you'll find answers at the Field Crop Entomology site at http://entomology.unl.edu/fldcrops/. This site features information, worksheets and pest management guides to help producers identify insect pests and decide whether they need to be treated.
• Just found a strange-looking bug in your yard? Wondering if a particular insect species frequents Nebraska? You can get information from the Nebraska State Insect Records database at http://nebrecs.unl.edu/. The database is based on years of entomology research. It includes the most common insects found in Nebraska as well as rarer species.

– Vicki Miller

Beekeepers are using a University of Nebraska-Lincoln graduate student's discovery to check their hives for potentially devastating parasitic mites.

Entomology grad student Paula Macedo found that dusting caged honey bees with powdered sugar and shaking them in a canning jar with a screened lid is a fast, simple, inexpensive and safe way to detect varroa mites.

Beekeepers now use this technique for early detection, which is key to preventing infestations from destroying bee colonies. Once detected, beekeepers can take steps to control mites. Other detection techniques are labor-intensive, less effective or have damaging side effects.

Macedo came up with the idea in 1999 while painstakingly picking mites from bee pupae for lab tests. "I thought there must be a simpler way," she recalled.

She and adviser Marion Ellis, an Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources entomologist, learned researchers previously had tried dusting colonies to control mites but the dust didn't penetrate bee clusters and nest materials.

Macedo and Ellis tried dusting powdered sugar on bees in a jar, isolated from their nest.

To their surprise, Macedo said, "The mites just came down like rain."

Ellis thinks Macedo's detection technique works partly because it's probably difficult for the sugar-coated varroa mites to stick to bees. Powdered sugar also stimulates grooming in mites and bees.

Macedo's method recovers about 90 percent of mites from bees, works year-round and doesn't harm the bees.

Her work suggests inert dust may help control mites if bees are isolated from their nest. IANR researchers will study how effectively the technique reduces mite populations in bulk bee cages.

Varroa mites were first found in the United States in 1987 and threaten honey bees worldwide.

– Molly Klocksin

Graduate student Paula Macedo and Entomologist Marion Ellis collect bees from a hive.