Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

Award–winning technology featured at July 11 Leopold celebration

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June 21, 2007

AMES, Iowa -- The 20th anniversary celebration of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture on July 11 will showcase a new technology recently named to a top 10 list even David Letterman would envy.

The Impellicone anhydrous ammonia manifold, conceived through a Leopold Center research grant and is now marketed by CDS-John Blue Company of Huntsville, Ala., has been selected by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers as one of the top 10 new agricultural products developed over the past 20 years.

The Impellicone received an AE50 award in 2004, designated as one of 50 best new products engineered for agricultural, food and biological systems that year. In the most recent award competition, it was selected from among 1,000 new products and technologies receiving the AE50 award in the past 20 years.

Iowa State University Extension engineer Mark Hanna will talk about the research team's work on July 11 during an outdoor festival and conference that marks the 20th anniversary of the Leopold Center. Hanna will show the prototype that was developed and field tested at Iowa State University, as well as the commercial product mounted on an anhydrous ammonia applicator and parked in the courtyard of the ISU Scheman Building in Ames.

"It may have been that this technology was the right idea at the right time to be selected for this award," Hanna said. "But none of this would have been possible without the Leopold Center offering a grant so we could study a problem and try to find a better way to do things."

The Impellicone uniformly mixes and distributes the liquid and gas phases of anhydrous ammonia to multiple outlets across an applicator, resulting in more accurate application. Hanna said field tests showed that nitrogen use could be reduced by about 10 percent and still maintain the same minimum amount delivered to all plants. He "conservatively estimates" a 5 percent reduction in the amount of applied nitrogen is possible with use of this technology.

The midday festival during the Leopold Center conference will feature a number of other interactive displays and demonstrations, live music and a locally-sourced lunch. Offerings include:

  • a truck-mounted soil probe,
  • an A-frame farrowing unit,
  • two place-based Iowa food producers, their stories and samples,
  • a switchgrass display,
  • models that show the flow of groundwater and erosion from rainfall,
  • a soil testing demonstration,
  • an earthworm exhibit,
  • in-home composting bins, and
  • a portable unit for on-farm biodiesel production.

Keynote speaker will be Mark Ritchie, newly elected Minnesota Secretary of State and founder of the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The conference also will have more than 20 breakout sessions on four hot topic issue tracks: Natural Resources, Food and Health, People on the Land, and the Bioeconomy.

Conference registration is $50, which includes lunch and materials. To register or for more information, visit the conference web site.

For more info contact:

Mark Hanna, Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, (515) 294-0468, hmhanna@iastate.edu

Laura Miller, Leopold Center communications, (515) 294-5272, lwmiller@iastate.edu

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