8 grants totaling $812,939 to small businesses to improve plant production and protection,

8 awards totaling $797,602 for animal production and protection, and

7 awards totaling $706,120 for conserving natural resources.

A project from Southern Escape Vanillery, LLC, of Homestead, Florida, “Domestic Vanilla Cultivation: Agrivoltaics, Propagation, and Breeding,” to develop novel approaches to vanilla cultivation, plant propagation and breeding to increase domestic production and support rural communities.

A project from Stephen Peterson of Foresthill, California, “Developing Osmia Ribifloris as a Commercial Pollinator for Blueberries,” to help blueberry growers improve crop yields by adding this gentle, native bee species and reducing the number of hives rented.

A project from Argvegenix, LLC, St. Louis, Missouri, “Development of Novel Cover Crop, CoverCress, as a Sustainable Plant-based Protein Source for Food Applications,” to demonstrate CoverCress as a new source of protein for the plant-based protein market.

A project from Pan Genome Systems, LLC, of Madison, Wisconsin, “Multivalent Vaccines Against Infectious Bronchitis Virus,” to develop and test new, better vaccines for treating severe respiratory infections in poultry.

A project from Oxford Biomedical Research, Inc., of Metamora, Michigan, “Simple & Rapid Tests for the Quality of Animal Feeds,” to develop a test to determine the freshness of chicken feed on-site at farms in less than five minutes.

A project from Emery Animal Health of Castle Dale, Utah, “Improving Herd Reproductive Efficiency Utilizing Artificial Intelligence Assisted Sperm Analysis & Support Apps,” to create more reliable diagnostic tools that will objectively analyze bull semen to help producers improve herd fertility.

A project from Applied Environmental Solutions, LLC, of Madison, Ohio, “Investigation of Passive Phosphorus Reduction Through Use of an Innovative Hydrogel Technology,” to use hydrogel technology to reduce harmful phosphorus resulting from fields, streams, or outflows from constructed wetlands.

A project from Onvector, LLC, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, “Treatment of Non-Traditional Water Sources for Agricultural Irrigation Using a Novel Plasma Reactor,” to develop and demonstrate a new type of reactor that would be an inexpensive and reliable means to treat non-traditional source waters for use in agricultural drip irrigation.

A project from Giner, Inc., of Newton, Massachusetts, “A Rapid, Field-Portable Sensor for Detection of E. Coli O157:H7 in Irrigation Water Used for Fresh Produce Cultivation,” to give produce growers the ability to rapidly monitor and reduce the incidence of pathogen-contaminated fresh produce.