The North Dakota Agricultural Products Utilization Commission is reviewing more than $535,000 in grant requests for some innovative beef, wheat straw, grape and hop projects. The requests include:

• $43,540 for North Dakota State University Department of Plant Sciences to carry out initial screening research to identify high-phenolic, high-antioxidant grape varieties suitable for cultivation in North Dakota.

• $42,870 for NDSU Department of Animal Sciences to continue research of monitoring heifers and cows for pregnancy as well as to determine if hematological assessments can predict successful pregnancy.

LOCAL WINES: Samples of wine are set out for tasting at Schade Winery, Volga, S.D.

• $151,000 for North American Green Pulp Inc., Grand Forks, to design, engineer, construct and operate a state-of-the-art wheat straw pulping plant in Grand Forks. NAGPGF plans to produce approximately 35,000 metric tons of straw pulp annually from 77,000 to 85,000 metric tons of wheat straw depends on the quality of the wheat straw. The plant will directly employ 30 to 40 individuals.

• $39,954 for Section 3 Hops, Casselton, to set up a hops yard to supply hops to craft breweries. The funds would be used to purchase trellising and equipment to plant, weed, fertilize and harvest hops. The equipment would be leased out to other hop yards.

• $230,929 for the NDSU Center for Social Research to estimate the economic contribution the agriculture industry makes to the North Dakota economy. This study will include an assessment of not only agriculture commodity production, but also value-added processing, farm input manufacturing, and commodity handling, merchandising and processing.

• $27,409 for the NDSU Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics to identify and demonstrate potential industrial applications of cattails. Information collected will be used to develop biobased products. The project is an integrated effort with Red River Basin Commission.

Source: APUC