Author: bigwave

May 27, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

New Hawaii cases of rat lungworm infection reported

Four probable cases of rat lungworm infection have been detected on the Big Island.

Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Friday the cases are disturbing because the disease is usually found during the winter season.

East Hawaii epidemiological specialist Marlena Dixon says rat lungworm is a parasite that causes a rare form of meningitis and is difficult to diagnose because of a wide array of symptoms.

Symptoms can include severe headaches, nausea, vomiting, neck stiffness and numbness.

In a severe 2009 case former Big Island resident Graham McCumber spent three months in a coma.

Dixon says the disease can be contracted when people mistakenly eat small slugs on the surface of leafy green vegetables.

Slugs and snails become carriers when they eat feces of rats carrying the parasite.

New Hawaii cases of rat lungworm infection reported – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

May 27, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Geothermal company eyeing Ulupalakua

KULA – The company that has delivered geothermal power to the Big Island for nearly the past 20 years is going to look for a place to create a similar plant on Ulupalakua Ranch land.

Christopher Heaps, a representative of Ormat of Reno, Nev., told Kula residents for the first time publicly that his company would be searching about 8,000 acres of leased ranch land for suitable sites to dig wells that could produce at least two-dozen megawatts a day of energy for the Valley Isle.

If it is able to find a viable drill site and get all the proper government permits, Ormat could break ground on the project as soon as next year, Heaps said. It would provide about 150 construction jobs and another roughly 30 full-time positions.

And, Ormat would pay millions in taxes and mineral rights royalties, one-third of which would go to the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, another third to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the final third to Maui County, Heaps said. In addition, the company would assist community needs, such as pay for more security officers in public parks or create a scholarship program, he said.

About 100 Kula residents attended the special meeting hosted Wednesday night by the Kula Community Association.

A few Kula residents, such as Hula Lindsey, said they were skeptical about the project because Heaps said it probably would not reduce their electricity rates even though it is in their backyard.

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May 26, 2011 Gardening, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

The Chelsea Flower Show: New plants and the not-so-new

The Chelsea Flower Show is perhaps the world’s brightest stage on which to launch new plants. It’s great opportunity to tell gardeners about new plants, and blogs, websites, newspapers and magazines are full of the news. The Chelsea Plant of The Year award, launched last year, has ratcheted up the interest.

But some nurseries announce plants as new when they’ve been around for years. Others fail to mention really good new plants that they’re exhibiting and have to have the information coaxed out of them. And can a plant first publicised last summer really be “launched” at the show?

Hillier Nurseries have a very attractive new ruby-red leaved maple, Acer palmatum ‘Shaina’ (pictured above), a lovely plant, which they say is “Available exclusively through Hillier Garden Centres and online at www.hillier.co.uk in 2011”. But in fact it’s been available since the 1990s, the RHS themselves say it’s listed by 24 other nurseries and garden centres all over the country have it. Despite three or four attempts I have been unable to get hold of Hillier to ask why they’re promoting the plant in this way.
Clematis ‘Celebration’ Clematis ‘Celebration’. Photograph: Fred Godfrey/Sussex Plants

Clematis ‘Celebration’ is certainly a breakthrough clematis – the first ever large-flowered type with yellow foliage – and Thorncroft Clematis are lucky to have it.

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May 26, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Mackay Sugar formally lodges takeover offer for Tully Sugar

MACKAY Sugar has formally lodged its $41 a share bid for Tully Sugar, even though US-based agribusiness giant Bunge and China’s state-owned Cofco have already revised their bids higher to $43 a share valuing Tully at $132.9 million.

Mackay’s bid is backed by French-based commodity trader Louis Dreyfus, which has agreed to provide debt funding of up to $102 million to help fund the offer.

Mackay is Australia’s second largest sugar milling company, operating three mills, a refinery, and producing molasses and electricity on the Queensland central coast south of Tully.

At stake is the ownership of one of the last independent grower-owned sugar mills in Australia and other assets including residential properties in the Far North Queensland town.

The Tully mill, whose operation is highly regarded in the industry, has a crushing capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of cane a year and produced 315,000 tonnes of raw sugar in 2002, before production started falling as a result of a series of poor crop seasons.

“By accepting Mackay Sugar’s offer, you are ensuring Tully Sugar’s business remains in Australian hands, managed by a professional grower-controlled company” that has a proven track record of working with growers to deliver higher prices and a more secure and diversified business while investing in the industry,

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May 26, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

New rice crisis cannot be ruled out

MANILA – A REPEAT of the 2008 rice crisis that led to riots in the developing world cannot be ruled out as the cost of other agricultural goods surge, a research group has warned.

The International Rice Research Institute said the global rice market was delicately balanced as the grain had managed to avoid huge price rises thanks to stable weather in rice growing regions.

The cost of wheat surged 121 per cent over the eight months to February, maize jumped 92 per cent and sugar 80 percent higher due to bad weather and rising global demand for commodities. However, at the same time rice prices rose just 17 per cent due to good harvests in 2010.

But the IRRI, in its quarterly Rice Today magazine, said the possibility of panic-buying of the staple similar to that three years ago could send prices soaring again. Rice prices nearly tripled from US$362 (S$448) a tonne in December 2007 to almost US$1,000 in April 2008 as stocks fell to 30-year lows amid surging global demand, IRRI data show.

‘The rice sector has been fortunate to have escaped the wrath of the weather,’ the magazine report said. ‘However, similar panic actions by other rice-consuming countries may tilt the market to an override mode and possibly cause a repeat of 2008.’

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May 26, 2011 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Rinderpest, or ‘cattle plague,’ becomes only second disease to be eradicated

Rinderpest, or ‘cattle plague,’ becomes only second disease to be eradicated
By David Brown, Thursday, May 26, 4:12 PM

Rinderpest, a cattle disease that for centuries felled herds in Europe, Africa and Asia and caused periodic human famine, has been eradicated, veterinary epidemiologists announced this week.

Eradication is the Holy Grail of disease prevention and has been successful only once before. Smallpox, an equally devastating human scourge, was eradicated in 1980, proving it is possible to stamp out a microbe across the entire planet. Attempts are underway to rid the world of polio and Guinea worm disease.

The bovine equivalent of measles, rinderpest is described in ancient Chinese writings and in documents from the Roman Empire. It hobbled Charlemagne when he moved herds to support his armies in the 8th century. When it entered Ethi­o­pia in 1889, it caused starvation that killed one-third of the country’s human population, even though the microbe does not infect people.

Even in communities that do not depend on herding for their livelihood, rinderpest could be lethal because it killed draft animals and disrupted agriculture.

“This is quite a momentous occasion for humanity,”

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