Award Data

Through the proposed USDA-SBIR Phase I Marketing and Trade project, market expansion and diversification opportunities will be explored for the Amazing Grains Grower Cooperative and their trademarked MontinaTM products. MontinaTM products are formulated from the gluten-free grain Indian ricegrass. The expanding demand for gluten-free/wheat-free products, largely by the growing population of indivi ...

Farmers, crop consultants, and regulators are constantly faced with management/policy decisions that require the integration of current crop and soil conditions, and current and future weather conditions. Farmers and crop consultants must make these management decisions within a regulatory environment that is becoming more restrictive and complex. Regulators are forced to make policy recommendatio ...

Native grass seed is important to restoration or reclamation of burned, mined or otherwise disturbed lands. The native seed industry is growing rapidly to meet increasing demand for more seed species in commercial quantities. However, the morphology of the seed of many important species of native grasses makes them difficult to harvest resulting in limited supplies and high prices. Combines and ot ...

Recreation trails are a key component of the social, economic and health of rural communities. People with mobility impairments are often excluded from trails, shared-use paths, parks and other public areas where barriers are erected to prevent access by motorized trail vehicles (MTVs), to control livestock or wildlife, as an access point in a fenced area, or for a variety of other reasons. Many p ...

Ethylene is a growth hormone for fruits and vegetables that is generated by the plants themselves; that is, it acts as a self-ripening agent. Hence, the removal of ethylene gas can play a central role in maintaining the freshness of these products. Whereas the temperature and the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide gases are also important system variables that demand a significant economic invest ...

A. Water must be removed from biodegradable hydraulic fluids as they react with water and degrade insitu. B. Biodegradable hydraulic fluids for farm equipment provide a significant improvement over traditional petroleum based fluids due to decreased pollution. Increase the use and value of biodegradable hydraulic fluids by development of a membrane-based dewatering system.

The use of biodiesel offers significant advantages with regards to the reduction of total harmful engine emissions with the exception of NOx. Biodiesel is a renewable resource and soybean oil is known to be economically viable as a biodiesel fuel. Recent studies from the Environmental Protection Agency have shown that soybean oil alone or blended with #2 diesel fuel results in a significant decrea ...

Montana producers have long needed a broadleaf crop which will grow in all areas of Montana to provide a beneficial crop rotation. Gold of pleasure is that crop. High protein OmegaMeal(TM) will have a major impact on Montana agricultural income, by providing a quality protein source to supplement Montana barley and distillers grains, encouraging livestock feeding in Montana. Camelina oil can be re ...

Summer flounder (Paralichthys dentatus) are a valuable commercial and recreational species with a natural range from the southern Gulf of Maine to South Carolina. Landings of Atlantic flounders decreased from 90,000 mt in 1984 to 25,000 mt in 1994. Total annual landings of summer flounder peaked at 39.9 million pounds in 1979, but recently from 1990-2003 landings have been much lower, fluctuating ...

The emergence of compact, high-performance imaging spectrometers and small, military-grade Uninhabited Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) has created an opportunity to develop an airborne system that provides affordable, timely, map-registered, hyperspectral data for precision agriculture. The purpose of the Phase I effort is to design an airborne hyperspectral imaging system for flight on small UAVs and cust ...