07/17/08 Downy brome biocontrol agent being commercialized

Farm and Ranch July 17, 2008 USDA Agricultural Research Service scientist Ann Kennedy at Pullman, Washington has been working for 20 years with naturally occurring bacteria in the region that can provide bio-control of the invasive weed downy brome on rangeland. Kennedy says this technology is now going to be commercialized. Kennedy: "Northwest Ag Products has licensed our technology, this bio-control agent, and is going to develop it into a product. So we are pretty excited about that." Kennedy says the bacteria work selectively on inhibiting the growth of the downy brome without harming other plants. Kennedy: "We have these bacteria that we have placed out in cropland and rangeland and we find that while after the first year we don't see necessarily a big, huge decrease in the populations of the cheat grass. After many years we will see that the organism is reducing that seedbank and can actually reduce populations to near zero." Kennedy says there is no long term research on control in cropland. She does say it looks like the bacteria can colonize better in an undisturbed system such as rangeland, so perhaps no-till cropping would provide a good environment for the bio-control's establishment. I'm Bob Hoff and that's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on the Northwest Ag Information Network.