Bozeman Daily Chronicle - Congressman Tours MSU Wheat Research

News Article

By Troy Carter

U.S. Rep. Steve Daines, R-Mont., toured Montana State University's Arthur Post research farm near Four Corners on Monday learning about innovations in wheat production.

Daines, whose 1984 MSU degree was in chemical engineering, said seeing the research at the university farm made him proud.

"Growing up, my mom and dad used to take me to see the ag research station, and I used to say that someday I want to be a farmer," said Daines. "What this meant to me was really learning today how important what's done right here at MSU and not just to the state but for the country and the world."

MSU plant sciences professor Barry Jacobsen said it's important for members of Congress to see their work.

"The agriculture experiment station gets a little more than half its funding from the federal government from the Hatch Act," Jacobsen said. "There's a partnership between the state and federal government going way back."

Jacobsen noted that it was the 100-year anniversary of the Smith-Lever Act -- legislation that established extension offices connecting researchers and experts from land-grant universities with rural agricultural producers.

MSU professor Luther Talbert told Daines about his research and development of a wheat variety known as egan, which has a unique genetic quality making it tolerant to the orange wheat blossom midge -- a mosquito-sized insect that has devastated wheat crops in the northern Great Plains and Canada. The midge has been recently detected in Richland County and is being sprayed for in the Flathead region.

"A variety that starts out here can end up on millions of acres," said Talbert.

Daines said he saw the economic importance of the research. "You're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in impact for the industry as a whole," he said.

"Very interesting job -- you're about half detective aren't you?" said Daines.

"It's really about patience," said Talbert, who has helped develop 35 percent of the wheat varieties grown in Montana.

Montana's sole representative also heard from beef cattle specialist Rachel Endecott, recently back from Kansas City, where MSU agriculture students she advised placed second in a national competition that included Texas A&M, Penn State and Ohio State.

"It's pretty exciting to be able to compete right along with those bigger schools," Endecott said. "We are technically training our students."

Daines said, "Go Cats … people want to put high-tech in a bucket over here with software and stuff, but agriculture is high-tech."

Last year, in an open letter from a group of university presidents, including MSU President Waded Cruzado, urged President Barack Obama and Congress to avoid cutting federal funding for research, warning that America's economic future is at stake.

"Because the innovation deficit undermines economic growth, it harms our nation's overall fiscal health, worsening long-term budget deficits and debt," the university leaders wrote. "Investments in research and education are not inconsistent with long-term deficit reduction; they are vital to it."

Daines is running against Democratic Sen. John Walsh for the U.S. Senate. Walsh has criticized his Republican opponent for supporting the Ryan Budget -- arguing that it would have Montana lose nearly $4 million in research funding from the National Science Foundation.

Walsh has received $8,500 in campaign contributions from members of the crop production and processing industry. Daines has received $34,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

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