Duane A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator,
Webster County March 16, 2012 Edition
Who doesn’t enjoy this unusual late winter weather? You would think the snowbirds would be better served to be spending this time right here in Nebraska. We have indeed enjoyed and unusual winter with temperatures most certainly over average on most days. We even enjoyed a pretty good moisture event that made things look a little better from the moisture standpoint. Now all of this is great for us humans, but are there some circumstances that may make this nicety a little challenging? Let’s explore that a little bit in this week’s discussion.
Wheat Dormancy: Unusually warm weather in late February and early March coupled with good topsoil moisture can, if it hasn’t already caused wheat fields to break dormancy and start greening up. Many people bring up that this year in many ways remind you of the spring of 2007, which was a year with severe spring freeze injury. I remember that well, as I made many trips out to wheat fields looking at limp and even slimy wheat plants. Hopefully we will avoid that this year. I really hate to say this, but in some ways I think it would be much better if temperatures were a little colder.
Why would I say that? Well, plants growing at this time of year use valuable soil moisture, something we may be short of if we don’t get some good spring rains. Even though topsoil moisture is adequate in our area right now, the moisture would be better used later in the growing season. In addition, I am afraid that plants may have lost some of their winter-hardiness, which really won't be a problem if the weather never turns extremely cold again this month or if temperatures cool down gradually. Those are prerequisites if the plants are to regain some of their winter-hardiness. If the wheat is green and actively growing and temperatures suddenly go from unusually warm to extremely cold, freeze injury could occur.
I have a feeling we may also want to monitor the wheat for some other things. The warm weather could also result in early-season insect and disease problems like Army cutworms and few other insects (perhaps aphids), which sometimes become a problem in wheat fields during March, especially in environment like this. We may also want to watch for early-season disease concerns include powdery mildew and tan spot. I suggest that farmers should watch their wheat crops for insects and diseases, and if you plan to top dress with nitrogen, that you do it pretty soon, before the crop reaches the jointing stage. The longer temperatures remain above normal, the more susceptible the wheat will be to a sudden temperature drop to the single digits or below. I have looked at the long range forecasts and we may be out of the woods on that, but then I remember the April Fools’ snowstorm that hit our area several years ago.
Pink Slime: I was resisting, but just can’t on the next topic. Pink slime….Good Lord when will all of this stuff end? Even that description of the fine textured “boneless lean beef trimmings”, or LFTB, that has been used for many years, was alarming to me when I first heard it, so I can only imagine what that would sound like to a housewife or any consumer that doesn’t know better. This LFTB or misnamed as “Pink Slime” has recently came under fire from bloggers, activists and even news media. I think we need to look at this with a little science instead of emotion and hype from people that haven’t properly looked at this topic before making knee-jerk reactions and then stirring up unwarranted angst amongst consumers.
The typical beef production process results in beef trimmings, consisting of fat and meat, that frequently had been cooked down to recover the oils from the trim because it was not profitable to otherwise separate the meat from the trimmings. However, today much of these beef trimmings are sent as “USDA-approved cuts of meat” to special separation plants, where centrifuges separate the beef from the fat. The production process was pioneered by Eldon Roth, who in the 1980s founded Beef Products Inc., to produce frozen beef. In the 1990s, ironically, in the wake of public health concerns over pathogenic E. coli in beef, Roth developed a process to use a puff of ammonia gas to raise the pH and kill any pathogens that may be found in beef trimmings purchased from other meat production houses.
I believe it all started with the Jamie Oliver's “Food Revolution” film that came out of Los Angeles more than a year ago and then was picked up around the country on blogs and twitters and then on ABC news and has taken a life of its own, aided by comments from former USDA scientists whose main concern was that it technically was not “meat”. The trouble is that there were a lot of inaccuracies in Mr. Oliver’s film including his statement that: "The trimmings are full of anything from Salmonella, E-coli and stuff like that.” That is not true. It also should be pointed out that household ammonia and other household chemicals are not used in the making of LFTB as he suggests in his film. These are not “scraps of animals picked up off the slaughter house floor, laden with e-coli and all kinds of other bacteria.” You just have to love when demagogues tell half-truths or use downright deception and lies and don't respect the audience. What the industry has done is develop a way to create more human-consumable beef out of what was previously considered unfit. This lets more people eat for less, with safety as a driving factor. One other observation – LFTB doesn’t even remotely look like slime.
It is both unfortunate and a disservice to our nation’s beef producers and all consumers that media outlets starting with ABC and then on to CBS and NBC television, as well as a huge number of newspapers and magazines have resorted to misleading the American public and sensationalizing this safe, lean beef product. I suggest that you take a look “Pink Slime Is A Myth,” at: http://pinkslimeisamyth.com/ which aims to debunk the myths spread by sensational coverage.
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster
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