Expertise:
Kaufman's research interests involve cotton seedling disease
control. The High Plains produces more than half of the state
s cotton. Earlier planting, to gather more heat units for a
crop with a relative short growing season, has increased losses
from this disease. Kaufman conducts an active educational program
on cotton seedling disease involving news releases, publications,
meetings, and field days. Most of the educational material presented
is generated by on-station or on-farm research, looking at control
through use of quality seed, fungicide seed treatments, and
furrow fungicides. Other research interests include economically
important diseases of corn, sugarbeets and wheat. Food corns
are being evaluated for resistance to stalk rot, northern corn
leaf blight, and head smut. Kaufman's sugarbeet foliar disease
control project screened new fungicides for control of Cercospora
leaf spot and powdery mildew, in addition to developing new,
more effective, and economical application techniques for older
materials. Early planting of wheat for livestock grazing has
caused an increase in spring losses from common dry land root
rot. He also evaluates seed treatment fungicides for control
of this disease. Kaufman serves as the only diagnostician for
the Lubbock Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory, diagnosing
all plant disease samples for county extension agents and clientele
for a 62 county area including the Panhandle, South Plains,
and parts of the Trans Pecos and Rolling Plains.
Professional
and Academic Training:
1978, PhD, Plant Pathology, Texas A&M University
Cirriculum Vitae