The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service are investigating a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Montevideo.

Testing conducted by the Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa confirmed on Monday, Jan. 25, that this strain of salmonella is linked to the outbreak that has sickened 187 people in 39 states (one case in Iowa) since July 1, 2009. No deaths have been reported. Thirty-five people have been hospitalized.

On Jan. 23, Daniele International, of Pascoag, R.I., announced a recall of more than 1.2 million pounds of its ready-to-eat sausage products because of the possible salmonella contamination. More information about the recalled products is available on the Food Safety and Inspection Service Web site at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FSIS_Recalls/. Consumers with questions regarding recalled items should contact the Daniele International hotline at 888-345-4160.

The Iowa Department of Public Health and public health officials in Plymouth County, Iowa, investigated the one case of Salmonella Montevideo in the state. They discovered leftover suspected sausage product frozen in the individual’s home and immediately sent the meat to the Hygienic Laboratory for testing. That patient has since recovered.

Using DNA fingerprinting, the laboratory confirmed that the meat product contained the same Salmonella Montevideo strain as the national outbreak, which also matched the salmonella isolate from the patient. The Hygienic Laboratory is the first lab in the nation to confirm this connection.

“The work of our laboratory scientists continues to distinguish the state as a leader in disease detection,” said Michael Pentella, Ph.D., associate director of the Hygienic Laboratory. “Thanks to the work of the physician who cared for the patient and ordered the test, the laboratory was able to identify the isolate as part of this national outbreak.”

People with salmonella develop diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts four to seven days. Infants, elderly persons and those with weakened immunes systems are more likely than others to develop severe illness. When a patient seeks medical attention, it is important for physicians to order laboratory tests to detect the pathogens.

To prevent Salmonella infection, follow these tips:
–Wash hands with warm soapy water for at least 20 seconds before or after handling raw meat and poultry.
–Wash cutting boards, dishes and utensils with hot soapy water.
–Clean up spills right way.
–Keep raw meat, fish and poultry away from other food that will not be cooked.
–Use separate cutting boards for raw meat, poultry and eggs.

The Earth Policy Institute reported this week that the 107 million tons of grain that went to U.S. ethanol distilleries in 2009 was enough to feed 330 million people for one year at average world consumption levels.

In Nebraska, the USDA reported that corn for grain production in Nebraska last year was estimated at 1.58 billion bushels, up 13 percent from last year and a record high.

In 2007, Congress passed the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) that mandated production targets for “renewable fuels,” mainly biodiesel and ethanol. The bill mandated ambitious production targets of 9 billion gallons of biofuels a year in 2008 and rising to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022. Corn ethanol is capped at 15 billion gallons a year in the law.

Last year, Chief Ethanol Fuels in Hastings celebrated its 25th anniversary. The plant, which opened in 1984, was Nebraska’s first ethanol plant. Since then, Nebraska now has 23 operating ethanol plants produce 1.7 billion gallons of ethanol using about 600 million bushels of corn.

According to the Nebraska Ethanol Board, as of September 2009, 70 percent of motor fuel sold in Nebraska contained ethanol. Sneller said Nebraska ethanol generates millions of dollars of economic activity by exporting 96.2 percent of its 1.7 billion gallon annual production of Nebraska-produced ethanol out of state.

Nebraska ranks second nationally in ethanol production.

The EPA is considering a proposal to boost the amount of ethanol allowed in gasoline from 10 percent to 15 percent, which could lead to an increase in ethanol production.

Earth Policy Institute said that more than a quarter of the total U.S. grain crop was turned into ethanol to fuel cars last year. With 200 ethanol distilleries in the country set up to transform food into fuel, the amount of grain processed has tripled since 2004, EPI reported.

According to EPI, the United States is the world’s leading grain exporter, exporting more than Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Russia combined. In a globalized food economy, increased demand for food to fuel American vehicles puts additional pressure on world food supplies.

According to EPI, even if the entire U.S. grain crop were converted to ethanol (leaving no domestic crop to make bread, rice, pasta, or feed the animals from which we get meat, milk, and eggs), it would satisfy at most 18 percent of U.S. automotive fuel needs.

EPI said that the amount of grain needed to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol just once can feed one person for an entire year. According to EPI research, the average income of the owners of the world’s 940 million automobiles is at least ten times larger than that of the world’s 2 billion hungriest people.

Cattle Center Trader  reports that a central Nebraska feedlot will pay $110,000 for allowing cattle waste to flow into the Platte River on several occasions between 2005 and June 2008 when heavy ran fell.

According to the Associated Press, the Nebraska U.S. Attorney’s office says Robb Feedyard pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and agreed to pay the fines and penalties. The feedlot is located near Doniphan.

Prosecutors say the feedlot was ordered in 2005 to build something to control livestock waste and prevent the waste from reaching the Platte River. The waste-control measures weren’t completed until late 2008.

Robb Feedyard will pay a $75,000 federal fine, a $15,000 state penalty, and the feedlot will contribute $20,000 to the Nebraska Attorney General’s environmental protection fund.

During those periods, central Nebraska saw both record rainfall and flooding following nearly a decade of drought.

According to the National Weather Service, two of the top 10 weather events of the last decade involved flooding.

Between May and June of 2008,  thunderstorms, day after day, produced widespread heavy rainfall, which saturated the ground and caused areas of flooding. Three day rainfall totals from May 22-24 ranged from more than 3 inches to over 7 inches across much of central Nebraska.

The rain weather continued into June which exacerbated the flood conditions. June 4th brought another significant heavy rain event of 4-7 inches, with the heaviest rain falling in portions of Polk, Merrick, Nance and Howard Counties.

The 28 day stretch from May 9 through June 5 broke records for being the wettest period in Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney. On May 11, 2005, thunderstorms ravaged a large part of south central Nebraska with Wood River recording more than 11 inches of rain.

The city of Grand Island set a rainfall record for a since event with 7.21 inches of rain. The National Weather Service said tha statistically this event was a 100 year rain and flood event for the area. The Wood River near Alda, which the National Weather Service said had been dry for three years, tied a record river crest of 12.2 feet early in the morning on May 12.  Flood damage was in the tens of millions of dollars, with 12-15 million dollars occurring in Hall County alone.

Prior to these record rain events,  drought conditions, that developed late in the 1990s, persisted through more than half of the first decade of 2000. Causing the Platte River to dry up in the summers of 2002 and 2003. The Wood River, which had record flooding in May 2005, had extremely low flows during that drought period.

In research funded by Pioneer Hi-Bred International and Purdue University, a Purdue University researcher has shown that corn plants are in a fierce battle with each other for resources.

Tony Vyn, a professor of agronomy, said it’s been known for a long time that young corn plants are, on average, shorter in no-till, corn-on-corn fields, but that doesn’t mean there is an overall stunting of growth among all plants. Instead, residue left over from last year’s corn crop is changing soil conditions and creating a disadvantage for some plants fighting for sunlight, water and nutrients.

“There is a hierarchy that is formed, even though the plants are genetically the same and should be equal in size and stature,” Vyn said about his findings, which were published in the early online version of the journal Soil & Tillage Research. “No-till corn yield reductions have little to do with an overall height reduction early in the season. They have more to do with height variability during vegetative growth.”

Vyn said yield losses of up to 14 percent can be attributed to this competition in no-till fields where corn is planted the year after corn. In those fields, the leftover corn residue creates patches of soil with lower temperatures and different water and nutrient content. Seeds planted there are at a disadvantage.

“These conditions created by the field residue can affect root development,” he said. “Plants that have better access to resources grow faster and then dominate their smaller neighbors.”

Vyn studied plant height data over 14 years and found that there were pronounced height differences among plants by four weeks. It had been thought that a no-till field situation with high residue cover and no soil loosening uniformly reduced the height of all plants because of overall cooler soil temperatures, but Vyn said significant height differences were observed from plant to plant.

The negative consequences of this plant competition are exacerbated as planting density increases.

“For example, competition for nitrogen increases as crowding increases,” Vyn said. “The higher the density, the greater the intensity of the competition for all resources.”

Weather conditions, such as a lack of rainfall during a critical development period, also can affect the final yield from plants fighting for limited resources.

While some plants dominate and grow to their full potential, the smaller, dominated plants decrease the field’s overall yield.

Vyn said growers should ensure during the previous year’s harvest that residue cover will be uniform, that fields are drained adequately, that surface soil compaction is avoided and that nutrients are evenly distributed. No-till fields are desirable because they decrease the amount of nutrients running off into nearby water, but Vyn said newer tillage options, such as vertical tillage, are less disruptive than the traditional intensive tillage and could ensure more uniform conditions for seeds.

The next step in the research is to investigate how vertical tillage systems and nutrient banding affect plant height uniformity and yield in corn-on-corn fields and whether hybrids developed for rootworm resistance are as susceptible to plant height variations.