Three Make MU Dean's List

The following local students made the Dean’s List at the University of Missouri in Columbia:
Blythedale
Paula Marie Constable, Senior, Health Professions
Denver
Kristen Danae Ross, Sophomore, Business
Eagleville
Betsy Marie Smith, Senior, Post-Baccalaureate

#MizzouMade -- Max Scherzer Strikes Out 20 in a Game

Former Mizzou baseball product Max Scherzer struck out 20 in a game tonight while pitching for the Washington Nationals against his former mates, the Detroit Tigers. He pitched a complete game, giving up six hits, two runs, no walks, and 20 strikeouts. He needed 119 pitches to accomplish his feat. He tied a major league record with his effort.

Scherzer was a dominant pitcher for Missouri before he hit the big time in the major leagues. He was born with a rare genetic condition in which he had two eyes of different colors. In 2005, he struck out a school record 131 batters. He has been inducted into the Missouri Intercollegiate Sports Hall of Fame. In 2006, he struck out future Royals star Alex Gordon, already one of the top prospects in the game at the time.

The following is a video that Mizzou posted about him:

Higher education officials voice support for $950 million bond proposal

By Matthew Patane
(MDN News) -- Higher education officials from across the state came before a House panel Tuesday, Feb. 5, to voice their support for an almost billion dollar bond proposal and to ask for state funds for a growing list of campus building and renovation projects.

University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe said the four-campus system has a $1.3 billion backlog of projects, such as renovating the engineering buildings at the system's Columbia campus. Representatives from other state colleges and universities echoed Wolfe's remarks with their own lists of projects that have been put on hold due to a lack of state funds.

Last month, House Speaker Tim Jones, R-Eureka, announced the creation of a special committee that was established for the express purpose of dealing with the $950 million bond proposal. In addition to construction on college campuses, the bond would dedicate funds for state buildings and facilities and potentially transportation infrastructure.

Committee chairman Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, said he would prefer if the bond proposal was combined with a transportation funding measure that was introduced earlier on Tuesday. If approved by voters, that legislation would dedicate funding specifically for Missouri's roads and transportation infrastructure through a one-cent increase of the state sales tax for 10 years.

No one spoke in opposition to the bond proposal at Tuesday's hearing, but Kelly acknowledged that the atmosphere may not remain friendly as the committee continues to work on the measure.

"Every single one of us will be disappointed, but every single one of us will be delighted," Kelly said. "There's no way that we can do everything that we need to do, but we can do some very good things and move our economy forward."

Expect 8 Percent Food Price Increase in 2013 Due to Drought’s Impact on Livestock

The livestock industry is taking a direct hit by this summer’s drought, and that will impact consumers’ wallets next year, says a University of Missouri agricultural economist.

 

“I expect to see food inflation, but it will take time,” said Scott Brown, research assistant professor in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources (CAFNR). “The short term effects will be fairly muted for the remainder of 2012, but we’re going to see food price increases in 2013 and maybe into 2014 because of this drought.”

 

Brown expects to see an 8 percent rise in meat, dairy and poultry prices next year.

 

The problem is that the drought has dramatically reduced the feedstuffs that animal agriculture needs to raise cattle, swine and poultry. Corn yields, Brown said, will probably suffer a 10 percent or more decrease compared to last year. This has caused corn futures to jump to $8 per bushel in late July from $5.50 per bushel at the beginning of June. 

 

Soybean meal and hay prices, also staples as animal feed, have also reached extremely high levels. “It is sobering to realize that 2013 feed expenses very well could be three times higher than the 1990-2004 average, and 70 percent above the 2007-2010 average,” Brown pointed out.

 

The livestock industry will experience a lot of short-term pain as it tries to adjust, Brown commented. Some producers will have to exit the industry, he said. Producers are already culling and slaughtering their existing animal inventories to a level they can afford to feed.

 

To offset the rising feed prices, some producers are now using pasture hay that is usually banked to feed cattle during the winter months. 

 

“This creates an added uncertainty for the cattle industry in the hardest hit areas,” Brown said. “Fall rains will be essential if any additional pasture growth is to occur. If available forage supplies are difficult to source or unavailable entirely, I expect to see herd liquidation.”

 

This shrinking livestock supply will mean less meat in grocery refrigerators in 2013. “That’s certainly going to raise prices,” he said.

 

Brown said that the pork and chicken industries will fare worse because there are not many substitutes for their rations of corn and soybeans. 

 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture in August added nearly 220 counties in a dozen drought-stricken states to the government's list of natural disaster areas. Counties in Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming were included in the announcement. The USDA uses the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor to help decide which counties to deem disaster areas, which makes farmers and ranchers eligible for federal aid, including low-interest emergency loans.

 

Nearly half of the nation's corn crop was rated poor to very poor, according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. About 37 percent of the U.S. soybean crop also rated in that category, while nearly three-quarters of U.S. cattle acreage is in drought-affected areas, the survey showed.

 

The impact on producers and consumers will become worse if the drought continues into 2013, Brown said. “I don’t know what to think about what will happen then to the domestic livestock industries,” he said. 

 

Brown is a member of a team at MU that is launching a new program to help increase the value of high-quality cattle and provide producers with economic feedback about their cattle. This long-term opportunity will be essential to help the cattle industry recover despite the lack of options many cattle producers have today given the current drought. For more information go to www.quality-beef.com.

Crafting a tool to inform fire management

To burn, or not to burn? That’s a question natural resource managers have asked themselves for years—often coming up with conflicting answers. Joe Marschall, research specialist at the Missouri Tree Ring Laboratory at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, seeks to bring science to that debate.

 

Marschall, who is also pursuing a master’s degree in forestry at MU, notes that not all natural resource managers see eye to eye on prescribed burning in areas with merchantable timber. “People all across the country are talking about this; prescribed fire is more and more often used as a management tool,” Marschall said.

 

However, its use is hotly contested. Marschall recently presented a poster summarizing his findings at a natural resources conference. The first two people who looked at it, a forester and a wildlife manager, both from Kentucky, started arguing about fire management.

 

Marschall has created a tool to systematically assess the value loss in lumber quality of red oak trees due to prescribed fire.

 

“It’s a tool that will enable a forest manager to go out in the woods and determine what value loss in timber products a particular tree has experienced to date,” he said. “It’s a snapshot and a solid model—anyone can go out and do it.” The equipment for the job: Marschall’s chart and a ruler.

 

The study was sparked by a request from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). Researchers at the Missouri Tree Ring Laboratory did a study a few years ago looking at volume loss from fire damage, not at lumber product value loss.

 

MDC asked them to expand the study. In the first study, researchers measured the volume injured by fire by taking cross sections from the trees. In Marschall’s study, they actually harvested and milled the lowest log (usually the only portion of the tree impacted by fire) of fire-injured trees into dimensional lumber.

 

Making the cut

The team harvested trees from three MDC conservation areas in southern Missouri with known prescribed fire histories: Peck Ranch in Carter County, Graves Mountain in Wayne County, and Lead Mine Conservation Area in Dallas County.

 

About 30 trees were felled and harvested from each site. They partnered with Baker Products of Ellington, Mo., to mill the logs into lumber. Marschall instructed the sawyer to ignore the fire damage and cut for the highest grade possible. A grader trained by the National Hardwood Lumber Association evaluated and scored each of the 1,315 boards for their actual value and determined what their value would be without fire defects, if fire defects were present.

 

Marschall noted that the slabbing process—where the sawyer trims and squares the log on the sawmill—often removes much of the area damaged by fire, especially if the damage is less than five years old.

 

“What we’re after is solid information in an area where there wasn’t solid information,” Marschall said. “With this data, managers might change the way they harvest and not leave the trees with defects in the forest.”

 

Rooted in tree science

Marschall has worked in the Missouri Tree Ring Laboratory for the last eight years. An interest in conservation and maintaining the well-being of natural resources led him to study and work at MU. He’s been able to further his academic research while gaining hands-on experience in the lab and at field sites across the country, including Pennsylvania, Nebraska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, California, Oklahoma and Missouri.

 

He was recently appointed as the consortium coordinator for the Oak Woodlands and Forests Fire Consortium, a network encompassing nearly 1 million hectares in 11 states with a mission to “provide fire science to resource managers, landowners, and the public about the use, application, and effects of fire.”

Missouri forests cover more than 14 million acres—nearly twice that of Iowa, Illinois, Kansas and Nebraska combined. Nearly 30,000 people work in the forestry industry, which generates $1.7 billion annually.

 

The effects of prescribed fire on forests will continue to be a burning topic as more research is produced and the team works to extrapolate their findings to the landscape level.

Nick Adcock Represents US at Thorpe Cup

Nick Adcock, former MU track and field decathlete/heptathlete, traveled to California to represent the USA, August 13, 14, 2011 at The Thorpe Cup, which was held at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, CA.
The Thorpe Cup is an annual International Track & Field (decathlon/heptathlon) Meet between the USA and Germany men and women, each having 7 men & women athletes to compete for their country; the meet is named after USA Olympian Jim Thorpe who won the first Olympic gold medals for the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon.
This was Adcock's 3rd consecutive year to represent the USA at The Thorpe Cup; the last two years were held in Marburg, Germany.
Adcock's first day of competition consisted of the 100 meter dash at 11.23, long jump 23' 10&3/4", shot put 44' 4&1/4", high jump 6' 6", and ending day one with the 400 meter run at 48.85 with a score of 4,043. He was in third place and top American behind Germans Hechler and Fricke.
On day two Adcock started with 110 meter hurdles at 14.41, then discus 125' 9", pole vault 15' 1&1/2", javelin 168' 4" and ending the day with the 1500 meter run at 4:39.58 with a total score of the two days of 7,679 and taking 5th place overall and the second highest scoring American.
The German men won 38,870 to the USA men 38,006, but the USA Men leads over the German Men in the 18 years of competition 13 to 5.
The USA women won 17,611 over the German Women 17,115 in the heptathlon competition.
In 2012, the Thorpe Cup will be back in Marburg, Germany.
Adcock is the son of Gary & Sue Adcock of Kansas City, MO, grandson of Galen & Betty Ruckman of Grant City, MO and Carl & Virginia Adcock of Bethany, MO.

Plant buffers can slow runoff of veterinary antibiotics

Field tests by University of Missouri scientists have backed up laboratory research indicating that buffer strips of grass and other plants can reduce the amount of herbicide and veterinary antibiotics in surface runoff from farm plots.

Vegetative buffer strips have already proven effective in limiting erosion as well as reducing sediment and nutrients in runoff.

The findings come amid concerns about the potential of veterinary antibiotics in surface water leading to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The antibiotics can enter the environment through manure from confined animal feeding operations and from crop fields fertilized with manure.

“Vegetative buffer systems are recognized as one of the most effective approaches to mitigate surface water runoff from agroecosystems, and we think that such systems also have the utility for reducing veterinary antibiotic loss,” said Bob Lerch, USDA soil scientist and MU adjunct professor.

Researchers compared the effectiveness of three grass buffer treatments in reducing the transport of herbicides and veterinary antibiotics in surface runoff. Plant species used in the three treatments included tall fescue, switchgrass and native warm-season grasses—mainly eastern gamagrass. The control treatment was cultivated fallow.

The researchers applied three herbicides and three antibiotics, then generated surface water runoff using a rotating-boom rainfall simulator to create uniform soil moisture content. Water and suspended sediment samples were collected and measured.

All vegetative buffer systems significantly reduced the transport of both dissolved and sediment-bound herbicides atrazine, metolachlor and glyphosate in surface runoff by 58 to 72 percent, said Chung-Ho Lin, research assistant professor with the MU Center for Agroforestry and Department of Forestry.

In addition, the processes governing herbicide fate also applied to veterinary antibiotics. Four to eight meters of grass buffers reduced more than 70 percent of veterinary antibiotics in runoff surface water, Lin said. Using certain species, such as hybrid poplar, can further enhance degradation of deposited antibiotics.

Antibiotics included Tylan, used in swine feed to promote growth and as a disease preventative; sulfamethazine, also used in swine feed with other antibiotics, and Baytril 100, used for swine and cattle for respiratory illnesses.

Filter strips provide an opportunity to use an accepted practice in a manner that people had not explored before, said Keith Goyne, MU assistant professor of environmental soil chemistry.

Much Missouri soil is claypan, which tends to enhance runoff. From a surface water standpoint, buffers can work well in these soils, he said.

One goal of the research is to provide simple, practical guidelines that agencies, land managers and agroforestry practitioners can use in the design of effective buffer strips, Lerch said.

A Calmer Tornado Alley

Tornado Alley, the swath of prairie from Texas through Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri famous for twisters, may see a largely calm tornado season this year.

The same dominant atmospheric phenomenon that spawned winter blizzards through much of the country generally shifts spring and summer thunderstorm activity northward, says Tony Lupo, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Missouri College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources.

That dominant climate factor is a strong La Niña. La Niña occurs when cooler-than-normal water temperatures develop in the equatorial Pacific Ocean.

The impact of La Niña is most clearly seen in wintertime, Lupo said. It tends to bring cold weather extremes to parts of the nation. La Niña’s opposite, El Niño, is associated with warmer water temperatures. In the continental U.S. during El Niño years, temperatures in the winter are generally warmer over the North, Midwest and East.

Both climate phenomena, which typically trade places every three to six years, influence weather patterns throughout the world.

Lupo says that La Niña tends to shift the jet stream patterns northward over the U.S. In a La Niña season, the jet streams pick up warm Pacific moisture and direct their cargoes of warm and unstable air to Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Storm systems tend to follow these streams.

“There has to be heat and moisture to build severe thunderstorms,” Lupo says. “An atmosphere that is too cold or dry will not produce dynamic cloud systems like supercell storms. When the jet stream is farther north, as it is in a La Niña event, you have a better chance of achieving these kinds of temperatures and dew points in these parts of the country.”

In a typical El Niño or neutral year, the jet stream travels farther south through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas – Tornado Alley.

“There is no statistical data that storm intensity or duration differs between La Niña and El Niño years nationwide,” Lupo says. “However, our data from the 1950s and 1960s relied on human observation, which can be spotty and inaccurate. We only have a few years of reliable national Doppler radar and satellite imagery.”

Tornado Alley may see an unusually calm year for another reason, Lupo said. Atmospheric models predict a dryer-than-normal spring and summer, taking away the fuel for supercell development.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration charts La Niña patterns through monitoring buoys in the Pacific Ocean. NOAA observed a strengthening La Niña in August 2010 and predicts that it will continue through 2011.

Lupo is a member of the Global Climate Change Group, a group that researches planetary-scale atmospheric processes, specifically a phenomenon called atmospheric blocking. Here, stalled large-scale anticyclones impact not only the regions in which they occur, but also regions upstream and downstream of the event.

Nick Adcock Continues Heptathlon Career

Nick Adcock, Former MU Tiger Multi-Event track athlete is continuing his track career as "unattached". Adcock competed in his first Heptathlon of the season at the Iowa State Classic in Ames, Iowa Feb. 10,11, 2011, placing 2nd out of 15 competing, just 112 points behind the winner, Darius Draudvilla also competing unattached.
Adcock's first day of events consisted of 60 meter dash 7.17, long jump 22' 1", shot put 44' 6 3/4", shot put 44' 6 3/4" and finished up day one with the high jump of 6' 8 1/4", placing him with a score of 3,119 points and in 2nd place.
Day two started with 60 meter hurdles at 8.14 time, pole vault 15' 9" and ending the events with 1,000 meter run at 2:51.09 with a total of 5,669 points and 2nd place for the meet, ranking Adcock #25 in the World in the Heptathlon. Adcock's Multi-Events (Heptathlon & Decathlon) track career ended last season with MU with him being Five Time All-American, Three time Big 12 Champion (two times in heptathlon and one time in decathlon), Seven time All Big 12 performer, Academic All Big 12, Two Event School record holder in heptathlon score of 5,938
and Indoor 60 meter hurdles time of 7.92, 2007 he was USATF Junior Champion in the decathlon which earned him a trip to the Pan-American Junior Championship in Sao Paulo, Brazil where he earned Silver medal. In 2008 he represented the USA at the NACAC under-23 Championship in Toluca, Mexico where he earned the Silver medal, was USTF CCCA Midwest Regional Athlete of the Year in 2010, and was selected in 2009-2010 to represent USA at the Thorpe Cup in Marburg, Germany.
Adcock has performed with multi Olympians & National Champions such as, Brian Clay/Nike & 2008 Olympian winner, Jake Arnold/ Asica, Trey Hardee/Nike, Ashton Eaton/Nike, and Tom Pappas/Nike.
Adcock will earn his Accounting Degree from MU in December 2011 & is continuing his training at MU where he has a goal to make the Olympics one day.
Adcock will be traveling to Bloomington, Indiana to compete at the USA Combined Events Championship March 5,6.
Adcock is the Son of Gary & Sue Adcock Kansas City, MO, Galen & Betty Ruckman Grant City, MO, and Carl & Virginia Adcock Bethany, MO.

John Kadlec retires

Missouri Tiger football games are not going to sound the same next year. He was all about MU Tiger Football and you could tell it in his broadcasts.

John Kadlec Retires From MU Football Broadcast Booth - MISSOURI OFFICIAL ATHLETIC SITE

Volunteers Wanted for Weather Monitoring

Pennsylvania has Punxsutawney Phil, but without a weather-predicting groundhog of our own, Missourians make do with a network of volunteer monitors.

A community-based network of volunteers across the state collects weather information to help forecasters issue alerts throughout Missouri.

The Missouri CoCoRaHS (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network) taps into people power to add to a database of weather information.

“You can never have too much precipitation monitoring, so we try to recruit volunteers to collect that data,” said Pat Guinan, a University of Missouri Extension climatologist with the Commercial Agriculture Program. “Here in Missouri we all know the large differences you can see in rainfall or snowfall over very short distances, from the sub-county level to the sub-neighborhood level.”

Guinan is the CoCoRaHS state co-coordinator with Anthony Lupo, chairman of the MU Department of Soil, Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences.

CoCoRaHS began in 1998 at Colorado State University after a Fort Collins flood spurred more interest in collecting data. Since then all 50 states have joined. In Missouri, about 300 regular observers report out of all 114 counties.

To ensure uniform measurements, participants need a specific type of rain gauge, which costs about $30. They also need Internet access to submit reports.

The data is used in various ways, often fleshing out National Weather Service reports and warnings.

“If you receive 2-3 inches of rain within a few hours, you’ll likely receive flash flooding. An observer can submit a significant weather report at any time to the NWS, which may use these reports to issue flash flood warnings,” Guinan said. “CoCoRaHS reports are also used by the river forecast centers, and the more information and ground-truth reporting you can get in a watershed, the better those models will perform.”

Guinan practices what he preaches, diligently checking his rain gauge at his home in Columbia, Mo.

Since most people love to talk about the weather, why not put that information to good use?

“You can never have too many participants, so those interested can go to the website and read more about it and, perhaps, join,” Guinan said.

Learn more at www.cocorahs.org.

Farmers will hold grain to sell at market highs; don’t bet on it, says MU FAPRI crops analyst

Recent government grain reports showing low-end-of-year carryover stocks have sent corn, soybean and wheat futures prices upward at rates that make crop farmers smile.

For most, their present marketing plan will be to hold and sell at the market peak.

“Rethink that!” says crops analyst Melvin Brees at the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI). “Hitting the high depends mainly on luck and is nearly impossible.”

Grain owners should have plans in place, now, for marketing both the old crop and new crop.

“No one wants to sell when prices are going up,” Brees says. “But, expecting these price levels to last until harvest time might be asking a lot!”

In other words, if prices can go up fast, they come down faster.

“We are in a complicated marketing situation, but it can be managed,” Brees says. In his University of Missouri “Decisive Marketing Newsletter,” Brees outlined several plans.

“Current prices offer profit opportunities that are well above typical break-even prices. Don’t let profitable prices slip away. It is one thing to pass up a good price on the way up, but don‘t miss it on the way down.”

Growers can set upside and downside price objectives to target sales. Brees admits that upside price is difficult to set in an uptrend. But, with prices at historic levels, targeting a higher price is almost sure to lock in a “good sale.”

Downside prices are easier to set; but more difficult to execute. Set a trigger price that will stop losses as prices drop.

“If the market moves higher, increase the downside price. This is called a “trailing stop.”

As prices go up, you avoid making a sale and the downside price continues higher. If the price drops, you are out of the market at the highest downside price objective.

Another strategy is to use futures options. Options cost money for premiums, but they are flexible and can protect a very profitable price while allowing retained ownership of the grain. Then the producer can sell the grain at a higher price later. The combination can bring a high average price.

The third option is more traditional. Spread the sales at intervals through the year.

If prices continue up after making the first sale, the season average price goes up with subsequent sales. If prices reverse, at least part of the crop was sold at those historic highs.

Some grain marketers follow technical chart prices to guide sales. Until the uptrend line is broken on the chart technical signals remain for continued upward prices. Sales are made when the chart line breaks.

For now, that trend line remains bullish, with prices pointed higher.

But, Brees notes that records for the past 40 years show that downtrends follow major uptrends within 12 months--or less. The current uptrend has run almost seven months.

“Many factors, from energy prices to foreign markets, can change a booming market,” Brees says. Having a plan helps prevent selling all at the low.

To read the marketing newsletters go to “Farmers Corner” on the MU FAPRI Website.

“You many not want to sell yet, but remember you have to sell some time,” Brees says. “Be ready.”

Proactive Weed Management

For adequate weed control in soybean, growers need to take a proactive approach using an appropriate pre-emergence herbicide program, said a University of Missouri Extension agronomist.

“Pre-emergence programs have increased in importance within the past several years as the number of glyphosate-resistant weed species has increased,” said Julie Abendroth.

Currently, there are five species confirmed to be glyphosate-resistant in Missouri: common ragweed, giant ragweed, horseweed (marestail), waterhemp and Palmer amaranth.

Glyphosate-resistant waterhemp populations are becoming more common in Missouri, Abendroth said. An MU weed science team conducted a survey in 2008 and 2009 inviting people to submit waterhemp samples suspected to be glyphosate-resistant. Of the 144 waterhemp samples submitted, 58 percent were confirmed glyphosate-resistant. Thirty-nine counties in Missouri are now known to have glyphosate-resistant waterhemp, although the actual number of counties is likely higher.

From 2007 through 2010, MU has investigated the influence of pre-emergence herbicide treatments on waterhemp control. MU plant pathologist Kevin Bradley’s research has shown that there are numerous pre-emerge herbicide options that will provide excellent waterhemp control.

These herbicides all provided excellent control in the three-year study: Valor (2 ozs./acre), Valor XLT (3 ozs./acre), Prefix (2 pints/acre), Boundary (1.5 pints/acre), Gangster (1.8 ozs./acre), Fierce (3 ozs./acre), Enlite (2.8 ozs./acre), Envive (3.5 ozs./acre), and the Authority line of products, which includes Authority First (3.2 ozs./acre), Authority MTZ (10 ozs./acre) and Authority Assist (5 ozs./acre).Other pre-emerge options, including INTRRO, Dual, Outlook and Prowl, were not as effective but did provide some early season waterhemp control. (Mention of trade names within this article does not imply endorsement by the University of Missouri.)

For those growers struggling with giant ragweed control, a proactive approach is very important, Abendroth said.

“It is difficult to achieve adequate control of giant ragweed once plants have emerged, and research data indicates that if ragweed is allowed to compete with the soybean crop for at least four weeks, a 25 percent yield loss can occur,” she said.

From the two-year weed survey, 44 percent of the 27 giant ragweed samples submitted to MU were confirmed glyphosate-resistant.

“In addition to controlling glyphosate-resistant weed populations, the residual control offered from a pre-emerge herbicide will also provide growers with greater flexibility with their postemergence applications,” Abendroth said.

MU Extension’s 2011 Missouri Pest Management Guide (M171) is available for purchase or free download at http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=M171. The guide provides weed, insect and disease control recommendations for corn, cotton, soybean, grain sorghum, rice and winter wheat.

For more information, contact your local MU Extension center or see extension.missouri.edu.

Adcock Qualifies for Nationals

Nick Adcock MU Senior in Track and Field competed on April 10 in the Pepsi Invitational in Eugene, Oregon where he entered three events. In the 110 Hurdles he set a personal best with a time of 14.13 and placed 2nd; in the high jump he went 6'4" and placed 6th; his 4X400 team ran it in 3:12.66 where they placed 5th.

Adcock traveled from Oregon to California where he and teammate Lars Rise (Norway) competed in the Mt. SAC Combined Events at Azusa, California with 50 other decathletes. On day one Adcock ran the 100 meter dash in 10.99, Long jump he jumped 22' 7"; the shot put 46' 2&1/2", a height of 6' 4" in the high jump and ran the 400 meter run in 48.55. He was in 2nd place after day one with 4,004 points; on day two he started the day with a win of the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.19, just shy of his personal best he had set the weekend before. Next he threw the discus 122' 4" and got a height of 15' 5" in the pole vault and threw the javelin 161' 5". The last event was the 1500 meter run with a time of 4:34.80. At the end of the day he had a personal best score of 7672 and placed 2nd overall, being beat out by his teammate Lars Rise by 21 points.

Adcock's score of 7672 automatically qualified him for the NCAA Nationals in Eugene, Oregon in June.

Rise and Adcock are ranked second and third nationally in the decathlon just behind Ashton Eaton of Oregon.

Adcock's next big meet will be The Big 12 Championship May 14-15 in Columbia, MO.

Adcock is the son of Gary & Sue Adcock, Kansas City, MO and the Grandson of Galen & Betty Ruckman, Grant City, MO.