Catching Up with CALS — May 28, 2025

Dean's Message — Coping with Cuts

Uncertainty breeds fear, and as a land-grant university, we’re navigating uncertain times regarding our access to federal research funding. In the interest of efficiency, federal grants are under extreme scrutiny, and we’re having to adjust and implement painful solutions as dollars we’ve already budgeted are being eliminated, curtailed or paused. Given the murky outlook, it’s tempting to panic and difficult to plan and prepare. Yet we know the dust will eventually settle and a clearer picture will emerge. We will get through this, and we will maintain the stellar reputation our elite faculty have earned our college for its research and scholarship, which are fundamental to our land-grant mission. Nonetheless, we must be realistic in our expectations and recognize that we’re not returning to business as usual any time soon.

Here are but a few examples of how cuts to federal grants have already affected our programs: A five-year, $59 million grant through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, called the Innovative Agriculture and Marketing Partnership (IAMP), was terminated based on new federal criteria. IAMP represented the largest grant in our institution’s history, intended to support Idaho producers in adopting sustainable practices. We may still be invited to apply to resurrect IAMP, with greater emphasis on marketing and direct payments to producers. We’re using stop-gap funding to retain the dozen students and technicians who were covered through IAMP until we determine if we will reapply based on details of the forthcoming request for applications. It’s notable that the new criteria are intended to “put farmers first,” which is at the forefront of everything we do. The AmeriCorps program has also been terminated, resulting in the loss of 19 AmeriCorps members who were actively working with the 4-H STEM AmeriCorps program operated by UI Extension 4-H Youth Development. Furthermore, 42 AmeriCorps members who were scheduled to start this summer assisting 4-H won’t be placed. In total, the UI Extension grants for AmeriCorps that were terminated equaled $937,350. Our Western Rural Development Center, which is devoted to elevating rural economies, is on hiatus, as are many of our USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) projects.

CALS encompasses 185 graduate students, about 40 of whom are funded by the college. The remainder are funded by principal investigators, who lean heavily on federal grants. Graduate student funding will also be affected by caps on indirect costs included in federal grants toward facilities and administration (F&A). A portion of those F&A funds are returned to the college and to the department from which they originated, where they can be used to support research programs, including wages toward graduate students. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has dramatically reduced its F&A cap to 15%, and other federal agencies, including USDA-NIFA, are also considering a 15% cap. We are asking faculty to pause hiring on federally funded positions until more clarity is available.

We know competition in grant writing will become more intensive, necessitating that faculty submit applications that are sharper and more innovative than ever before. We’ll also be more reliant on support from our commodity organizations and producers — regarding both funding and letters of support to raise awareness about the importance of our work for their industries. Working in our favor, we have good friends and cutting-edge facilities. Our lawmakers recognize agriculture is central to Idaho’s economy and that we represent an outstanding return on investment. Our stakeholders have offered us guidance and have stood with us in capital campaigns for facility upgrades. We’re in the midst of adding several facilities that are unique in the nation, giving our faculty a competitive advantage in securing grant support. We’ve begun leading tours at the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Idaho CAFE), which will include the nation’s largest research dairy in Rupert. We’ve hired additional faculty to lead research at CAFE, including an air quality specialist, a forage specialist and an irrigation specialist. We’re nearing completion of a modern meat processing facility at our Moscow campus, the Meat Science and Innovation Center Honoring Ron Richard. Our new Idaho Center for Plant and Soil Health at the U of I Parma Research and Extension Center opens new research opportunities in entomology, nematology, plant pathology, plant science, pomology and cropping systems. On May 29, we will celebrate the soft opening of the Deep Soil Ecotron, where our researchers will have the ability to study soils at greater depths than any other place on the planet.

Our best days are still ahead of us. This too shall pass.

Michael P. Parrella

Dean
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

Our Stories

New Associate Extension Director

University of Idaho Extension has hired a new associate director with a background in agricultural research and outreach and experience in teaching livestock producers about economics and ranch management.

Bridger Feuz worked for 21 years with University of Wyoming Extension, serving as its associate director before joining U of I on April 28. He’ll be working from U of I’s Aberdeen Research and Extension Center in southeast Idaho and living in Pocatello.

Feuz has filled a position that was vacated in June 2024 when Nav Ghimire left to become associate dean of University of Nebraska Extension.

“Bridger Feuz brings to University of Idaho Extension experience as an educator, a specialist and an administrator,” said Barbara Petty, associate dean and director of Extension. “As an agricultural economist, he will provide leadership for the agriculture programming, which complements my background in family and consumer sciences in our roles of directing UI Extension.”

In his previous job, Feuz partnered with several members of the UI Extension team, especially in eastern Idaho.

Benefiting his state’s beginning livestock producers, Feuz developed two intensive, multi-faceted UW Extension courses — the Master Cattleman and Master Woolgrower programs. Feuz also helped Extension educators in Utah and Idaho adopt the programs for their own stakeholders.

Furthermore, Feuz worked closely with UI Extension educators while serving on tristate rangeland and master gardener teams involving the UW, UI and USU Extension programs.

“The U of I team seems to be a great team. They get along really well and they have great leadership, so that was really attractive to me,” Feuz said. “The educators I had partnered with before were always great partners and had really great programs.”

Feuz was raised on a Wyoming cattle ranch and participated in 4-H Youth Development livestock projects for nine years during his childhood.

He attended UW, earning a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business and a master’s degree in agricultural economics. He also finished a doctorate in education from UW last year.

He went to work in the biotechnology industry after completing his master’s program, spending eight years with a company that did DNA testing of pedigreed canines, cattle, poultry and egg-laying hens. Feuz’s job entailed explaining the company’s products and services and their economic benefits to ranchers and producers.

He then became a UW Extension educator and was promoted to specialist, before becoming interim associate director five years ago. He was made associate director two and half years ago.

His doctoral dissertation involved surveying western Extension programs about their perspectives on Extension. Having earned his doctorate remotely, Feuz sees opportunities to develop online, asynchronous learning programs for onboarding and professional development in Extension.

“I learned a lot about how people view their jobs, things that they feel can help them be successful and things they’re concerned about to really apply that knowledge in professional development,” Feuz said.

New Forage Agronomist

Producing crops has always seemed like magic to Pramod Acharya, who joined University of Idaho in January as an assistant professor and Extension forage agronomy specialist.

Acharya was raised on a subsistence-scale farm in Nepal, where his family raised vegetables, grain, and a few cattle.

“I was always interested in how one tiny seed would turn into a whole plant, feeding both people and livestock,” Acharya said. “That magic stuck with me. Farming wasn’t just how we lived; it was what shaped how we saw the world.”

In his new role, Acharya will work his magic on behalf of Idaho dairymen, cattlemen and forage producers, advancing sustainable, resource-efficient, eco-friendly and economic approaches to forage production, storage and utilization.

His research and Extension interests include understanding productivity and nutritive values of annual and perennial forages, soil nutrient management, soil health and carbon management, and resource-efficient and climate-resilient forage production. He has always been fascinated by how soil, plants and livestock all connect to the bigger picture, and aims to solve the complex web of these components.

He’ll be based at U of I’s Kimberly Research and Extension Center and will also be heavily involved in research at the Idaho Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Idaho CAFE), which will include the nation’s largest research dairy in Rupert and should be milking cows by early 2026.

Acharya earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture in 2014 from Tribhuvan University in Lamjung, Nepal. He earned a master’s degree in biology in 2019 from Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico, followed by a doctorate in plant and environmental sciences from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico, in 2023.

While pursuing his master’s, Acharya researched how the use of cover cropping and dairy compost in crop production systems influenced soil health. Like Idaho, eastern New Mexico and western Texas had many large dairies and heavy forage production. This marked the point at which he directed his research toward forage agronomy.

His dissertation entailed understanding the ecosystem services of cover cropping in silage corn and sorghum rotations. Cover crops are crops that are planted primarily for soil-health benefits rather than solely for commercial harvest, and they sometimes include blends of different plant species. He found the region’s producers were skeptical about using cover crops, concerned they would deplete nutrients and soil moisture for subsequent silage crops. Instead, Acharya found that cover crops improved soil organic matter, nutrient recycling, soil water infiltration and soil retention, and subsequent silage yield, more than offsetting the water and nutrients that they used.

Acharya has been evaluating several potential research projects benefiting Idaho forage farmers and livestock producers. He plans to evaluate how well the different varieties of perennial, non-bloating legumes — sainfoin, cicer milkvetch and birdsfoot trefoil — establish and provide forage in southern Idaho for comparison with alfalfa. He also intends to evaluate various blends of the legumes and grass species with alfalfa to identify combinations that reduce bloating in cattle while delivering the proper nutrition.

Another trial on his list of potential projects would evaluate if there’s sufficient time to raise cover crops as additional forage for grazing immediately after 95-day silage corn in Magic Valley’s climate.

Acharya’s wife, Manisha, is also an agricultural researcher. They have a 2-year-old daughter, Shreya.

Ecotron Soft Opening

University of Idaho’s College of Agricultural and Life Sciences will celebrate the soft opening on May 29 of a unique facility where researchers will study the interrelationship between deep soil communities and ecosystem processes.

Funded with a $18.9 million U.S. National Science Foundation grant obtained in October 2021, the Deep Soil Ecotron will encompass 24 heavily instrumented lysimeters containing soil columns, in which scientists will have the ability to manipulate environmental conditions including temperature, soil moisture and gasses.

The Ecotron will accommodate soil analysis down to 3 meters deep, which is the greatest depth of any research facility on earth. Some of the lysimeters will initially be filled with loose-packed dirt for testing of operations and sensors. In-tact soil cores will soon be taken from locations of interest, such as U of I’s Sandpoint Organic Agricultural Center, to replace the loose dirt in the eco-units, providing researchers with a better glimpse of how changing conditions affect the soil microbiome. Each filled lysimeter weighs about 9 tons.

Renovations of space within the J.W. Martin Lab at the Moscow campus have been completed to house the Ecotron. Lysimeter units should be fully installed this fall, and the project should be completed, tested and ready to accommodate research projects by the fall of 2026.

Professor Michael Strickland and Associate Professor Zachary Kayler, both with the Department of Soil and Water Systems, are the project’s principal investigators.

Kayler believes having the building renovations complete and the Ecotron ready for systems testing will drive interest in the facility and spur proposals for research projects involving collaborators from throughout the world.

“It’s a lot easier to get people to buy into it if the lights are on,” Kayler said.

Researchers will be able to monitor experiments in real time and manipulate variables within lysimeter units remotely using their cell phones. The facility will accommodate soil temperatures ranging from 23 degrees to 104 degrees.

“We can manipulate and look at future climate scenarios and look at how things we’re going to rely on in the future are going to respond to that change,” Strickland said. “The Ecotron should also give us a better understanding of contributions from plants above ground, carbon sequestration and root growth in deep soils, which I don’t think we have a good answer to.”

Experts with the College of Art and Architecture are helping to design a soil-themed motif for entryways, halls and conference rooms to impress upon visitors that they’re entering a world-class facility.

Plans are also in the works to use the Ecotron for evaluating imaging technology using soundwaves to detect objects such as tree roots below ground without having to dig.

The project has generated considerable interest off campus. For example, the director of the federal National Science Foundation has touted the Ecotron in presentations about the importance of Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research grants (EPSCoR). Furthermore, an advisory board comprising collaborators from several other institutions has been formed to guide research priorities at the Ecotron.

The community is invited to attend the soft opening on May 29 from 10:30 a.m. to noon. A short program will be held at 10:45 a.m. The Deep Soil Ecotron is in the J.W. Martin Laboratory located at 1355 W. Sixth St. in Moscow.

Meyer Earns National Award

A national family and consumer sciences honor society has recognized the distinguished service of Sonya Meyer, who recently retired as a University of Idaho professor.

Each year, Phi Upsilon Omicron recognizes one collegiate chapter advisor. Meyer, who retired May 9 as a professor of apparel, textiles and design within the Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS), will be presented with the Phi Upsilon Omicron 2025 National Bachtel-Holbrook Collegiate Advisor Award in the fall of 2026 during the organization’s annual Conclave in Lubbock, Texas.

Meyer, who was co-advisor of the organization’s Zeta Chapter at U of I along with Assistant Professor Adrianne Griebel-Thompson, was nominated for the award by chapter members, including past President Isabelle Higgins. In her nomination, Higgins described Meyer as a mentor to faculty and students alike.

“As student advisor, professor of apparel, textiles and design and curator of the Leila Old Historic Costume Collection, her ability to inspire, support and empower those around her has left a lasting impact on our chapter and our university,” Higgins wrote.

Higgins emphasized Meyer’s commitment to community service projects, including leading the chapter in sewing more than 100 Christmas stockings to donate to local food banks during the past seven years and making baked goods for local first responder and staff at the university’s Dean of Students Office and Counseling and Mental Health Center following a tragedy on campus.

Meyer earned her undergraduate degree in vocational home economics education from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas, before becoming a high school home economics teacher in Dodge City, Kansas. She went on to earn a master’s degree and a doctorate, both in adult education, from Kansas State University, working at Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, while pursuing her doctorate.

“Teaching has been my passion,” Meyer said. “From an early age, probably first grade, I decided I wanted to be a teacher.”

From 1986 through 2012, Meyer worked for the University of Wyoming, where she managed the university’s costume collection. She joined U of I in 2012 as FCS director before returning to the classroom in 2018, when she became collections manager of the Leila Old Historic Costume Collection. Her favorite piece in the collection is a basic pair of men’s overalls with white and blue stripes and patches that once belonged to a farmer.

“When I give tours of the collection, I like to tell people those garments tell a story about the individual,” Meyer said.

Professor Shelley McGuire, the current FCS director, believes the word that best describes Meyer’s contributions is “useful.”

“What we are supposed to be doing as a land-grant institution is teaching useful classes so people can be useful citizens,” McGuire said. “She has spent her entire career doing that.”

In retirement, Meyer plans to be a busy emeritus faculty member and is already planning on participating in a student-led international experience to Ireland focused on FCS disciplines during the coming school year. She’s also a tenor drummer who plans to join the Border Highlanders pipes and drums, performing alongside Dean of the Libraries Ben Hunter, Shelley McGuire and U of I Distinguished Professor Mark McGuire.

Canola Tour

University of Idaho Extension and the Pacific Northwest Canola Association (PNWCA) are again collaborating on a tour highlighting research, cultivars under development and best management practices pertaining to the state’s important canola industry.

This year’s tour will meet at 7:30 a.m. June 11 at the Craigmont Legion Hall, 31 E. Lorahama St., for breakfast, covered by PNWCA and the Idaho Oilseed Commission.

Extension Educator Klae O’Brien, Lewis County, and Karen Sowers, PNWCA executive director, organized the first Prairie Area Winter Canola Tour last May, with help from other PNWCA members. The inaugural tour drew 58 participants, representing 34,000 canola acres throughout the Northwest, and made stops at the U of I winter canola variety trial and an industry-sponsored winter canola variety trial.

“While many farmers are adding canola into their crop rotations, it is a relatively new crop that requires very specific management practices,” O’Brien said. “With common stakeholders and program outcomes, UI Extension and PNWCA saw an opportunity to work together and provide one immersive educational experience for canola farmers and other interested individuals.”

O’Brien and Sowers hope to build upon their initial success with this year’s tour, which will visit canola fields in full bloom. They encourage participants to register online or call the UI Extension, Lewis County office at 208-937-2311 prior to the event. There is no fee to participate, as sponsors cover tour costs.

“This collaboration is huge. It’s a way to reach a lot more people,” Sowers said.

Commodity market updates and discussions about canola quality factors and insurance issues are scheduled following breakfast. Participants will then leave on a bus tour that will make its first stop at Clearwater Farms in Craigmont, where U of I has a pair of canola trials underway, in partnership with the commercial farm. U of I Brassica breeder Kamal Khadka will showcase his winter canola variety trials and present data from his 2024 trials. Kurtis Schroeder, a UI Extension specialist of cropping systems agronomy, will discuss his canola fungicide trials.

Khadka, who joined the university in March 2023, breeds canola, industrial rapeseed and mustard cultivars. Among the hundreds of lines in his canola breeding program, Khadka is evaluating more than 40 advanced breeding lines from U of I’s program, divided about evenly between spring and winter lines. Khada anticipates releasing two new varieties within the next two years — a winter canola cultivar and a winter rapeseed cultivar, both selected from the crosses made by U of I’s prior canola breeder, Jack Brown.

Khadka is emphasizing a short list of key traits in his canola breeding efforts. He’s started making crosses in spring canola with the goal of improving performance in acidic soils, as soil acidity is an increasing problem in parts of northern Idaho. He also intends to develop acidic soil-tolerant winter canola lines. Furthermore, Khadka plans to incorporate improved drought tolerance into spring lines, and he’ll prioritize cold hardiness in winter lines.

“In 2023, when I started here, there was a lot of winter damage in winter canola. In some fields I could see almost 50% winter kill,” Khadka said.

Schroeder’s trials have focused on the ideal timing for winter canola farmers to apply fungicides to manage blackleg. Schroeder has confirmed fungicides significantly reduce disease incidence of blackleg when applied either in the spring or in the fall, but spring applications were more effective. The greatest reduction in his trials came from applying fungicides both during the spring and fall, but applying during both seasons may not be cost effective. Schroeder has also been trapping spores to determine when the fungus is active and fungicide applications will be most effective. Blackleg is among the most destructive diseases affecting canola globally but has yet to emerge as a major threat in the Northwest.

The tour will make its second stop at 1890 Ag in Cottonwood, where participants will see a private canola trial involving varieties from Rubisco Seeds, based in Kentucky. During the Cottonwood stop, officials from Terraplex Northwest will demonstrate the use of drones for spraying crops and taking aerial imagery. David Crowder, an associate professor with Washington State University’s Department of Entomology, and one of his graduate students will present about pest control, and Infinity Agriculture representatives will demonstrate how to sweep a field for both beneficial bugs and insect pests.

In 2024, Idaho ranked fifth nationally in canola production, with 93,652 acres, up 6% from the prior year. Most of the state’s production occurs in the Palouse region of Latah, Nez Perce and Lewis counties. Idaho canola acreage made an even greater jump in 2023, when it increased by 43% from the prior growing season. Southeast Idaho is a burgeoning production area, where canola is raised at the highest elevations in the U.S., both under irrigation and on dry land. The Northwest is the sole U.S. region that produces both winter and spring canola.

Most of the region’s canola crop is crushed for culinary oil at a facility in Warden, Washington, and the byproduct is hotly demanded as a high-value cattle feed additive.

For many Idaho farms, canola provides an important option to deviate from a wheat-fallow crop rotation, thereby breaking disease cycles and enabling producers to alternate pesticide chemistries.

“Different research has clearly proven that having canola in a crop rotation is going to help with better soil health and better sustainability, and also some studies show it increases the yield of the following crops,” Khadka said.

Sponsors of the event include UI Extension, PNWCA, Idaho Oilseed Commission, Bell Equipment, Rubisco Seeds, Columbia Grain, HUB International, Infinity, Agri-Service, Northpine Aa Equipment and Precision Bio.

Faces and Places

North Carolina State University and Future Leaders for Food and Agriculture have invited Mike Kamyabi, a graduate student in the Department of Animal, Veterinary and Food Sciences, to become a member of the 2025-2028 FFLA Fellows. His advisor is Associate Professor Amy Skibiel.

340 CALS undergraduates were named to the Spring 2025 Dean’s List. These students achieved a GPA of 3.5 or better in at least 23 graded credits for the spring semester.