Did you know? CALS patents and discoveries

Compiled by Katrina Hageman

Images courtesy of Iowa State University Special Collections and University Archives

Faculty and staff in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences have developed many patents and contributed to impactful innovations and discoveries over the years. Did you know about these notable ones?

Nation’s last and most complex popcorn breeding program

• Iowa State’s popcorn breeding program was started in 1921 by J.C. Eldredge, who ran it until 1960.
• Ken Ziegler served as leader of the Iowa Corn Yield Test Program from 1977 until his retirement in 2004. Upon his retirement, the popcorn breeding program was discontinued.
• In 2000, the program released to the popcorn industry BPM1, the first popcorn inbred to pop 100% round ball mushroom flakes.

Measuring the strength of horses

• E.V. Collins (1914 agricultural engineering), an agricultural engineer, developed a device to test the strength of horses in pulling contests.
• The device also helped determine how much weight a good team of horses could pull on a daily basis.

• This was the first patent received by the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station.

  

Large round baler created at Iowa State

• In 1966, Wesley Buchele, professor in agricultural engineering, and Virgil Haverdink, a graduate student, patented and developed the first large round baler.
• The goals for this new device included being able to pick up windrowed hay and wrap it into large round bales, transport and unload the bales, and distribute them into animal feed bunks.

• By the late 1970s, 18 companies were manufacturing these round balers.

  

Finest blue cheese

• Fred and Robert Maytag, owners of Maytag Dairy Farms in Newton, Iowa, collaborated with Iowa State food scientists to create American blue cheese.
• In 1937, Iowa State dairy microbiology professors Clarence Lane (’32 MS dairy industry and dairy and food industry, ’34 PhD) and Bernard Hammer developed the process to make blue cheese using homogenized milk. 

• Known as the Lane and Hammer process, it became the standard for the blue cheese industry and was first used by Maytag.

  

Catnip oil as a mosquito repellent

• Iowa State researchers began testing catnip oil as a repellent against mosquitoes in 1998.
• Joel Coats, distinguished professor of entomology, and Chris Peterson, a graduate student, found that catnip oil was the most effective repellent because of Nepetalactone, the primary active ingredient, which was patented by Iowa State.
• Note: catnip oil is not safe to put directly on the skin.

Discovery leads to low saturated fat cooking oil

• In the late 1960s, Walt Fehr (‘67 PhD agronomy), distinguished professor of agronomy, and Earl Hammond, University Professor of food science and human nutrition, started researching linolenic acid content in soybean oil.
• By the early 1990s, Fehr and Hammond isolated three soybean genes that control the 1% linolenic acid trait.
• In 1997, their LoSatSoy, a low-saturated-fat soybean oil cooking oil product, was being sold at Hy-Vee stores in seven states.

Corn gluten meal found to control weeds

• Nick Christians, University Professor of horticulture, discovered that applying corn gluten meal before plants emerge helped control various weeds.
• In 1991, Christians patented the corn gluten meal as a natural, pre-emergence herbicide for all crops.
• In 1993, the patent was reissued for use on both field crops and home gardens.
• This discovery led to the first effective natural herbicide that is now distributed under various trade names.

Origination of worldwide known watermelon varieties

• Charles Hall, former emeritus professor and department chair of horticulture, is credited for the discovery of several watermelon varieties.
• The most well-known is the Crimson Sweet, which is grown in more than 50 countries. It has fewer and smaller seeds, sweeter flavor, thinner rinds and is more resistant to plant diseases.
• Other varieties include All Sweet, Super Sweet and Petite Sweet.