 versus susceptible (left) beets.jpg)
Response of sugar beet varieties to Cercospora leaf spot. On the left is a susceptible variety and on the right is a resistant line developed by the USDA-ARS breeding program.
This plate is an isolate of Cercospora beticola growing on a pH indicator medium, showing one of the types of impacts a fungus can have on its environment.
An apple harvest and automated infield sorting machine. The machine enables to grade and sort harvested apples into fresh-market and processing quality grades at a speed of up to 10-12 fruit per second. The machine is also integrated with computer-controlled systems for handling graded fruit and empty and full bins.
A new robotic harvesting prototype for picking apples in orchard. The robot’s picking arm is composed of a small-size vacuum tube with a specially designed soft end effector, which first sucks and holds a target fruit and then rotates to detach the fruit from the tree.
Yellow Kidney Bean Seed
Photo Credit: Jon Shaff
Yellow Bean Breeding Line at Flowering Growing at Organic Farm
Mission
The mission of the Sugarbeet and Bean Research Unit is to: 1) develop disease and crop management practices and analyze new germplasm of sugar beet and other beet types with desired agronomic traits using genetic/genomic, physiological, pathological, precision agriculture and automation techniques; 2) develop dry bean germplasm with improved nutritional and end-use quality and identify beans and other pulse crop germplasm with desirable ingredient quality, via phenotypic evaluations, plant breeding, and molecular analysis methods; and 3) develop innovative sensing and automation technologies for harvest and postharvest quality evaluation of fruits and vegetables to help growers and processors achieve labor and cost savings, enhance product marketability and reduce postharvest loss.