Ames, Iowa small business battles major epidemic

In 2014, the porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) virus was responsible for the death of eight million piglets in the United States. Developing a vaccine took months—sometimes years—making it hard to rescue the declining swine community. Harrisvaccines, in Ames, Iowa, used its patented SirraVaxSM technology to analyze PED gene sequences to commercialize a vaccine in just four months. Harrisvaccines became the first company in the country to gain conditional licensure from USDA. The vaccine, called iPED, is administered to sows right before they give birth to a litter, protecting the piglets.

To produce their customized vaccines, Harrisvaccines collects saliva, blood, or tissue samples from infected animals and sends them to state or private diagnostic labs to extract gene sequences. The gene-sequencing codes provide the blueprint for the specific pathogen strain on each farm. The sequences are added to an information library to rapidly develop herd-specific vaccines.

NIFA supported this research through funding from USDA’s Small Business Innovation Research Program. 

Read more on the Harrisvaccines breakthrough. 

SPLAT goes the beetle

All 19 Western states and parts of Canada are dealing with mountain pine beetle (MPB) attacks, and this ongoing, area-wide infestation has devastated 27 million acres of forests. This caused ecosystem disruption, water contamination, rising carbon levels, and thousands of miles of power line damage due to falling trees.

With USDA SBIR funding, ISCA Technologies introduced a highly effective pest control product that targets mountain pine beetles. The repellent uses one of the beetle’s own pheromones, called verbenone, a chemical which tells beetles to find another host tree.  The repellent, called SPLAT Verb (Specialized Pheromone and Lure Application Technology), is a non-toxic alternative to pesticides.

Learn more about SPLAT Verb.

Water saving measures for California

California is the nation’s top agricultural producer, responsible for two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts and more than one third of its vegetables. The state’s ag-focused economy means farmers have historically been power players in politics, especially in discussions about apportioning water.

Farms and ranches in the Golden State constitute a $54 billion annual industry. In 2015, during a record-setting drought, California Governor Jerry Brown instructed cities and towns to reduce water use by 25 percent, the first cutback in state history. 

George McFadden, a field agronomist for Ceres Imaging, headquartered in Oakland, California, uses aerial imagery to help farmers optimize water and fertilizer application. Funding for this research was supported through USDA’s SBIR program.

When it launched in 2014, Ceres focused on lucrative nut crops in the Central Valley, but soon expanded to other crops in California, the Midwest, and even Australia.

To assess fields, Ceres hires pilots who fly their aircraft low over the ground. The company attaches special cameras that focus on particular wavelengths to gauge water stress, chlorophyll content, and biomass—all indicators of health in a crop. Within 24 to 48 hours, growers can view imagery on phones or tablets, which McFadden says are popular with growers in the field.

Ceres offers a unique, proprietary product to measure chlorophyll content and its guidance for growers is also unique.

Ceres has teamed up with the University of California Cooperative Extension to conduct several studies, including a trial for the Almond Board of California that measured the response of nuts to different rates of watering. 

Read more about Ceres Imaging.

May the forest be with you

Whole Trees, LLC, of Madison, Wisconsin, uses trees as turn-key structural systems in commercial and residential building construction. The Whole Trees team, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service’s Forest Products Laboratory, has developed a process that allows them to cost-effectively grade, engineer, and manufacture the small trees removed from routine forest thinning. This small-diameter, round timber is used in patented trusses, beams, and joists in building construction. The process turns forest waste into a sustainable and high-value building material.

The company, a four-time SBIR grantee, has increased its local revenue from $150,000 to $4 million and doubled its staff. Construction projects that use Whole Trees products receive triple the amount of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design credits for green structural material.

Read more on Forbes coverage of Whole Trees.

2016 SBIR brochure

The Small Business Innovation Research Program is helping thousands of rural businesses expand on new ideas to benefit their own operations and the country. 

Since 1983, the SBIR program has awarded more than 2,000 research and development grants to American-owned, independently operated, for-profit businesses with 500 employees or fewer.

Read about USDA’s Small Business Innovation Research program and other SBIR success stories in this NIFA brochure.

One size fits all is a myth

Green Heron Tools in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania is a company that empowers women by creating agricultural and gardening tools that are designed to work with women’s bodies. NIFA has supported the efforts of Green Heron Tools with three Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants totaling more than $572,000.

In Green Heron’s first SBIR grant, the company set design parameters for tools and equipment designed for women, created prototypes of three hand tools, including the “hergonomic” HERShovel, and established design concepts for a rototiller for use by women. Hergonomic is Green Heron’s trademarked term, meaning ergonomic for women.

“One-size-fits-all" is and always has been a myth,” said Liz Brensinger, Green Heron Tools co-founder. “It’s convenient for manufacturers and a disservice for consumers. One of the most basic principles of ergonomics is that tools should fit, yet that principle has been ignored.”

Watch the video Green Heron video.