BISMARCK – Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring has announced North Dakota Agricultural Products Utilization Commission (APUC) awards for 11 projects. The requests totaling $427,225 were approved at the APUC quarterly meeting Nov. 19 in Valley City.
APUC is a program of the North Dakota Department of Agriculture that administers grant programs for research and development of new and expanded uses for North Dakota agricultural products. The grants can be used for basic and applied research, marketing and utilization, farm diversification, nature-based agritourism, prototype and technology and technical assistance.
The following requests received approval:
4 Family Farms Alliance was awarded $75,000 to assist in developing a meat processing plant in Devils Lake. Contact John Jacobson at 701-799-1895.
Bueche LLC was awarded $8,193 to develop and implement a marketing plan for artisan herbal products. Contact Shannon Bueche at 701-200-3490.
J & J Hazen Meats, Inc. was awarded $29,525 to expand their existing USDA inspected meat processing plant in Hazen. Contact Justin Hill at 701-301-7252.
Minn Dak Market was awarded $15,000 to implement a marketing plan to promote local products. Contact Greg Kempel at 701-532-1371.
North Dakota State University was awarded $63,600 to research the effects of feeding hempseed cake on ruminal fermentation and site of digestion in cattle. Contact Kendall Swanson at 701-231-6502.
The NDSU Department of Plant Sciences was awarded $35,090 to research the valorization of brewers’ spent grain using simultaneous co-fermentation to enhance nutritional value. Contact Paul Schwarz at 701-231-7732.
The NDSU Department of Plant Sciences was awarded $17,517 to evaluate small-scale vegetable planting technologies and techniques. Contact Chiwon Lee at 701-231-8062.
The University of North Dakota was awarded $62,800 to research the early identification of soybean cyst nematode disease. Contact Prakash Ranganathan at 701-777-4431.
Quandt Farm was awarded $20,500 for engineering design of a swine finishing facility. Contact Justin Quandt at 701-710-1101.
Minn-Dak Growers Ltd. was awarded $100,000 to research the use of genome-wide association study and transcriptome analysis to reveal the possible candidate gene/s controlling the seed coat color in buckwheat. Contact Mala Ganiger at 225-287-9301.
APUC will hold its next grant application hearing on Feb. 17-18, 2021, in Bismarck. Applications for the February meeting must be received by Jan. 1, 2021. Prototype and technical assistance applications must be received by March 1 for the May 19-20, 2021, meeting.
For additional information, please visit https://www.nd.gov/ndda/apuc.