November 19, 2008

C-FAR Day at Western Illinois University

MACOMB--The Illinois Council on Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR) held its 8th Annual C-FAR Day on November 11 at Western Illinois University (WIU) in Macomb. This special event highlighted research initiatives taking place at the university funded by the State of Illinois through C-FAR. C-FAR Day provides a unique opportunity for C-FAR members, who represent practically every sector within Illinois’ food and agricultural industry, to engage in discussions directly with researchers about their C-FAR-funded research activities.

One of the key cornerstones of C-FAR is the partnerships formed among industry stakeholders and researchers working together to identify the most pressing research needs to strengthen Illinois’ food, agricultural, and related industries. “Considerable time is devoted by C-FAR members and our research partners identifying priority research opportunities,” said Jerry Hicks, C-FAR research chair. “The progress we have achieved together has enabled many positive results for our state and its citizens.”

WIU’s top administrators welcomed C-FAR Day attendees to campus. President Alvin Goldfarb, Provost and Academic Vice President Jack Thomas, and Dean of the College of Business and Technology Tom Erekson addressed attendees and expressed their appreciation and support of their university’s partnership with C-FAR.

WIU faculty shared details of their C-FAR research in areas including alternative crops, micropropagation techniques for Wintergreen, nitrogen rates for grazing corn, and comparative analysis of the average daily gains and feed efficiency of sheep and goats. Attendees engaged in discussions with researchers asking questions and providing input from their industry perspective. Attendees also visited research laboratories, viewed a milkweed processing demonstration, and toured the WIU beef and ram/goat research facilities.

Chair of WIU’s Department of Agriculture William Bailey noted that C-FAR funding permitted faculty to pursue research that has led to the positive but unexpected results discussed during the day. “The C-FAR-funded research in milkweed at Western has opened up new marketing opportunities in the medical industry while C-FAR funding on goat feeding has generated significant interest from several major ethnic groups around Illinois,” said Bailey.

Those who attended the event were grateful for the opportunity to visit WIU and learn more about C-FAR research taking place at the university. “I found the day very interesting and timely,” said Blake Roderick, a C-FAR member from Pittsfield. “I think it is a great venue to display some of the research that C-FAR funds.” Constance Locher Bussard, a C-FAR member from Springfield, shared “I enjoyed the day and will have a meaningful supply of conversation about Illinois agricultural research from a hands-on and saw-it basis.”

C-FAR Days are held annually on a rotating basis at C-FAR’s partner universities: the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Illinois State University, and Western Illinois University.  Next year’s event is expected to be held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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