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2016 Interns

Final Post: Writing a Factsheet for Extension

I spent this past summer and fall of 2016 working with the Nutrient Management SPEAR team in the Animal Science Department. Over the summer I worked on updating the manual used to prepare for the Certified Crop Advisor exam and this past semester I worked on writing a factsheet for the ‘Agronomy Factsheet’ series, a SPEAR project. All the summer interns worked on an individual topic this semester and we developed our topics from rough, three-page outlines to two-page, condensed, easy-to-read format over the 12 weeks of the semester. My factsheet was about using cover crops and I focused on establishment and termination methods for field crop operations. Sarah, Lindsay and Chutao wrote about soil aggregates, forage quality testing and sorghum, respectively.

At the start of the semester, we wrote outlines with what we thought were the main points of our factsheet. These outlines were the backbone for the rest of the semester and were probably the most challenging part of the process for me. There is so much information about cover crops everywhere and isolating the most important pieces, then organizing them in a way that took season timing (planting/harvesting), cost and equipment into consideration- was a feat. Sarah, Lindsay, Chutau, Quirine our fearless leader and I met once a week throughout the semester and in the beginning we helped each other organize the outlines. Once we had polished outlines, we each sent them to our own external review teams. These were experts who Quirine identified and reached out to over the summer to ask if they would be involved in the reviewing process. My review team was Joe Lawrence, Janice Degni, Thomas Bjorkman, and Mike Stanyard who regularly work with farmers in the northeast and have intimate insights to their operations that google does not. Karl Czymmek, senior extension associate on the SPEAR team, worked with all the factsheets and posed thought-provoking and critical questions to challenge our positions.

With feedback from the experts, our factsheets moved into the next stage of first drafts. We incorporated our reviewers’ feedback which, for some of us, meant a total upheaval of our content. I had a few sections to rearrange and some points that needed attention but getting my questions answered about tricky timing, and climate considerations was so helpful. Its so difficult to get the whole picture just from reading research papers, extension articles and cover crop guides online. We formatted our factsheets using the standard page layout and font size of the other factsheets in the series and we brainstomed ideas for images to include. This was also the stage where we worked to get our content to fit into the two-page format, which involved some serious craft. Quirine has the magical powers of creating space from thin air and showed us some of the tricks. As we moved through our first drafts into our almost-finished-drafts, we reached out to our review teams again for feedback. This second round of feedback was more mellow, with some questions and comments but content was accepted. It was great to see my factsheet go through the wringer and really learn about the intricacies of cover cropping methods.

I would like to thank the factsheet team- Sarah, Lindsay, and Chutao for a fantastic semester together. It was challenging, it was fun, and you guys are awesome. Also HUGE thank you to my review team- Joe, Janice, Thomas, Mike and Karl. The internet can only take education so far. And finally, Quirine, for holding down the fort and facilitating an intense and incredibly productive team!

See the factsheet I wrote here: http://nmsp.cals.cornell.edu/publications/factsheets/factsheet93.pdf

10_tips_first_time_cover_croppers_1_635010116391789049.jpgCOVER CROPS ARE AWESOME!
Photo credit: FarmFutures.com

Data are Glory

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Our final trial was finished on October 2nd. We had been collecting data for about four months, amassing a pile of data sheets. You can see some of them above. I spent a few days inputting all the data into excel a few weeks ago. Connor just sent me the preliminary graph as seen below that shows the preference of the different species we looked at. It is difficult to see the insect species names and plant species names in the picture so I will try to describe a bit of what it says. Gryllus is on the top right, Pterostichus is on the bottom right, Harpalus is on the bottom left, and Allonemobius is on the top left. As predicted in my previous post, Gryllus ate the majority of most species except velvetleaf and hairy vetch. Radish was also one of the least preferred (it also has a harder seed coat). One of most significant findings we found overall was Gryllus’ preference for red clover. They ate every red clover seed! The others they preferred most were pearl millet, triticale, giant foxtail, ragweed, winter barley and annual ryegrass.

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The graph shows clearly that Pterostichus preferred pearl millet seeds to all others. If I had to guess based on all the counting I did I would’ve said Pterostichus preferred triticale and radish more than they apparently did in contrast to the millet. Millet was always their first choice though.

Harpalus seemed to favor the Giant Foxtail. This is important because, as I spoke of before, Giant Foxtail is a weed, it isn’t used as a cover. Perhaps Harpalus is ultimately beneficial (at least from an economic perspective) in an agro-ecosystem because of the suppression of that weed it offers. On the other hand it also has a particular taste for annual ryegrass, pearl millet, red clover, and white mustard. These are all commonly used cover crops that can have huge benefits on production over time. Harpalus’ potential benefit (or potential for harm) would depend on the agricultural system.

I haven’t spoken much about Allonemobius allardi. Maybe this is because until recently Connor was still debating which species of cricket this was. They are a smaller cricket than the Gryllus species we tested. We would spend hours sweeping nets across the tall grasses out behind the processing center looking for them. We caught hundreds. Interestingly they were the only species to prefer Ragweed more than the others. Ragweed is another one of the three plants that we tested that aren’t used as cover crops. They also preferred pearl millet, giant foxtail, and winter barley to the others.

These are preliminary results. Connor plans to do quite a bit more work with these numbers before they can be applied.

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The final tasks have been cleaning petri dishes and recovering the traps from the field.

Thank You Connor, Matt, and the entire Sustainable Cropping Systems Lab!

The Cover Crops

Of the 13 plants we are testing in SPOC, 10 of them are often used as cover crops.

Cereal Rye is thought to be the best cool season cereal cover for absorbing unused soil nitrogen that would otherwise wash out of the system. It is a dynamic crop that has been used in many different cover crop systems, offering benefits including erosion control, additions of organic matter and weed suppression.

Winter Barley is often used to protect soil from erosion, provide weed suppression and act as an input of green manure and organic matter in the cool season when cultivation of a grower’s cash crop isn’t possible.

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Radish is a plant that has been growing in its appeal as a cover crop in recent years because of its ability to protect from erosion, scavenge nutrients, suppress weeds, and alleviate compaction while creating far fewer of the challenges associated with residue in many other covers.

White Mustard is preferable as a fall seeded cover crop that winter kills. So, while mustard offers benefits such as addition of organic matter, the breaking up of hard pans, weed suppression, etc., plants won’t survive the winter and fields will be better prepared for spring planting.

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Crimson Clover is a legume that is often used to provide spring nitrogen for full season crops.

Red Clover is a very common cover crop that is known for fixing nitrogen, protecting soil from erosion, suppressing weeds, helping improve soil tilth, as well as providing forage.

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Triticale is known for its excellent value as forage for grazing livestock. The plants also leave a heavy residue on the soil offering good weed suppression and protection from erosion.

Pearl Millet is a warm season annual grass that is often used as forage. These plants are known for having less of a demand for nutrients than other cover crops, making them potentially useable on lands unsuitable for other covers. It is primarily used as a weed and nematode suppressor, as well as for protection from erosion.

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Hairy Vetch is a legume that fixes a greater amount of nitrogen in contrast to other cover crops. As plants grow they are known for spreading out and become very dense. They offer very good weed suppression and protection of soil erosion. Vetch can also be harvested and used as forage.

Annual Ryegrass is usually used a ‘catch crop’ because it is known for having a dense shallow root system that can tolerate compacted soils. ‘Catch’ crops are crops that have a particular capability of absorbing nitrogen that would have otherwise washed out of the soil and been lost from the system. Annual Ryegrass also has other benefits including erosion control, improvement of aggregate stability and compaction prevention.

September of SPOC

September has been consumed by trials that test the preference of Harpalus, as well as two species of crickets (Gryllus pensylvanicus and Allonemobius allardi). From August 20th until September 27th we ran 260 Harpalus trials which come out to 20 replications of the experiment (20 trials of each of the 13 plant species), 105 Allonemobius trials which come out to about 8 replications, and 72 Gryllus trials which come out to about 5 and a half replications.

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You can see some of the physical differences between these two species of cricket in the pictures above. The first picture is of a Gryllus Pensylvanicus, the second is Allonemobius allardi. The third picture shows a Gryllus cricket molting. When I went to check that dish I actually thought this cricket was dead. Then it starting jumping, trying to shed its shell.

Gryllus pensylvanicus is one of the most common species of cricket over the majority of the U.S. and much of Canada. The Gryllus are the larger of the two species we have been testing. We’ve found them to be anywhere from a third of an inch to probably a full inch. It depends how old they are. They are known to be major predators of both seeds and other invertebrates. Similar to the beetles their population is known to max out in the fall because that it when seeds are most prevalent, after they have been shed (the crickets are commonly known as the ‘fall field cricket’). These bugs really differ from the beetles and the cricket species in terms of their life cycle because of their range in diet. It is generally accepted that years with greater seed abundance produce greater populations but the variety in available prey that the species has gives it really good flexibility. But, their ability to prey on invertebrates has been proven to give them an important advantage in years with worse seed abundance. It is actually debated how significant the effect of seed abundance is at all with these species because of this range. I found an interesting study talking about how certain genotypes in these types of insects can be preferable in years of greater seed abundance, and others can be preferable in years of worse seed abundance.

img_3221-1 It has been easy to notice from these Gryllus trials that they aren’t exactly picky when they are hungry. We have seen one bug eat all 26 seeds in one 24-hour interval. We have seen one bug eat all 26 seeds and a good amount of the paper towel that lines the dish. They are much more rambunctious than they other species we’ve looked at. The only two plant species that they noticeably stay away from are velvetleaf and hairy vetch because of their hard seed coats.

Final Growth

I spent weeks watering and tending to my forage plot in Hall, NY. With minimal rains, on the edge of a drought, the crops looked weak with no sign of growth. I left my plot in the best shape I could when I headed back to school, and on September 10th, I returned to see that the sparing rain had miraculously helped the cover crops prosper and the alfalfa to regenerate.

Cover crop and grass mixes

Cover crop and grass mixes

On September 9th and 10th, I was invited back to the Annual Seedway Kick-off meeting held in Geneva, NY. The evening of the 9th, we held a reception for all of the district sales managers and their dealers beneath them. A night of meeting new growers I never had to chance to connect with, and catching up with those I did spend time working with was a great experience. Both Seedway and CHR Hansen had tables set up displaying their new products for the upcoming year and enhancements made in their old products and literature.

Final alfalfa and clover stands

Final alfalfa and clover stands

The morning of the 10th, we had a plot day at the Hall, NY forage plot I maintained during my internship. We had three different stations, each spending an hour talking about the outlook for that crop in the upcoming year. The forages and cover crops were my showcase. Explaining the numerous hours spent and gallons of water used to try to make the plot look as well as it did for the conditions it faced. I was able to tag along with a group and listen to the pitches about the corn and the soybean plots as well. When he came to the CHR Hansen tent, I was able to pitch in and help my boss describe the products and when to use them.

Plot Day cover crop talk

Plot Day cover crop talk

 

Overall, the kick-off meeting was a good ending to my internship. Being able to see just how far my plot had come since the beginning and being able to connect with many growers and sellers, I was extremely grateful to have the opportunity to intern with such a welcoming company and community.

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August of SPOC

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One study (co-authored by Matt Ryan!) looked at Harpalus pensylvanicus preference of Giant Foxtail. Giant Foxtail is an example of a plant that isn’t considered useful as a cover crop, it is generally considered to be undesired in agricultural fields. The study was run through two seasons and found that not only did the beetles prefer newly shed foxtail seeds to older aged ones, but also the population density of beetles was found to hit its maximum at the same time foxtail seed shed began.

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The pictures above show the seed counter I spent time using in August to separate Giant Foxtail seeds from small debris and count them. I had never seen a machine like this before so it was fun to spend a few hours working with it. You set it so it rotates and vibrates with a certain amount of power depending on how heavy the seeds are you hope to count. The seeds travel around the cylinder while other debris stays behind. Eventually the seeds make their way to the top and pass across a laser as they are deposited out of the spout. They are counted one by one digitally.

Adventures at the Manure Expo

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel to London, Ohio with fellow intern Nicole to attend the North American Manure Expo. As we were approaching the end of our internships, it was a great time to get out of the office and connect with farmers and extension associates out-of-state.

Upon arriving at the expo, the first thing we did was venture to the equipment. Nicole and I are not from farming homes so we were wowed by the large tractors with tires taller than us! We were amazed by the size and power of the equipment. We spend a lot of time talking about spreading manure and different management practices, but it was neat to actually see the equipment that carries out these practices.

We then hopped on the bus to participate in the beef tour. One stop along the way was an organic beef farm. They have slats upon which they feed their cows, which was interesting to learn about as none of the farms I have seen in NY use slats. Slats are “flooring” under the pens which is constructed of slightly separated boards so manure can fall through the cracks and be collected underneath the pens.

After spending some time cooling off in the shade and hydrating, we hopped around to different sessions. One that really peaked my interest was a session promoting a new product that separates manure into clean water, solid pellets and a liquid byproduct. The latter two can be used as nutrient sources for growing crops while the water can be used to clean parlors, or even for animal consumption! The session was trying to sell the system to the farmers that were there, but it sparked my attention as systems such as these could make farms more sustainable if cost-effective. Finding the most efficient ways to use our resources and recycle nutrients is key in today’s agricultural systems so it was interesting to think about this systems’ potential in farms in NY.

We later ran into fellow Cornellian Jordi whose family has a dairy farm nearby. I went to tour the farm later that night. Jordi’s parents came to the US in 2002 from the Netherlands and have since built the farm from the bottom up and now manage a herd of 2000 Holsteins. Their farm operates with very low inputs and use their manure as direct fertilizer on fields after collecting sand to reuse for bedding. It was a really neat experience to actually experience the farm that Jordi has spent so much time telling us about!

Overall, I had a super fun time at the expo, and learned a lot through the sessions and even through visiting Jordi’s farm! It was a great way to start to bring my internship to a close as I could bring together what I learned this summer and see its applications. I had a really great summer in the NMSP and am excited to continue my work on the project this fall!

Week 6-Final Musings

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Recap: I learned a lot from the different leaders on the farm and from doing different jobs with the M-team.

Transplanting-putting plants in the ground and driving the tractor

Installing overhead irrigation-in a greenhouse

Irrigation-laying down pipes in outdoor fields

Hand seeding-seeding butternut into the ground(direct seeding) and seeding into trays for the greenhouse.

Trellising- keeping tomato plants upright and healthy

Weeding- melons and squash with 20 other people from Rodrigo’s crew, (a lot of acres.)

Soil sample- taking samples from all the green houses to see if the plants needed fertilizer.

Harvesting– berries and lettuce

Markets!

CSA- assembly line

I also learned a lot working with different people and different tasks, but there were common goals:

-Do the job well- when I harvested lettuce, Sally said for people doing lettuce for the  first time, don’t worry about speed, focus on quality, speed will come later.

-Adapt to be efficient- There were many jobs that required different skills, we were always looking to see how we could do the job better and use less resources-like time.

-keep a good attitude- the people who worked the most hours had the best sense of humor and I think that made the time go faster, but it also made people want to work better too.

My thoughts on the Mission Statement GTF prides itself in it’s quality and diversity of produce. But during one Monday Meeting, the topic of conflict came up. Sally said that it is better to say something than to be whining or gossip to someone else about your troubles. Someone brought up the point that they felt undervalued and that people perceived their work as not adding value to the crop. (cultivation) -the victim argued that they were and the point is to be efficient and make the farm money. Sally then said- I get that we need to make money, but I think our top priority should be respecting one another and what they do. I care about how we treat each other. Everyone nodded in agreement.

During my time at GTF I saw that the people working there did care for one another and the farm was more about a sense of community than just food. I feel honored to have been a part of that community.

Week 5- Machinery

Machinery (tractors and such)

So I mentioned earlier that GTF has 16 tractors (!)  John Deere, Kubota, Allis Chamlers, Landini, Farm All, Ford- and quite a few more. I drove three while I was there! I used a model G Allis Chalmers to transport irrigation pipes, a Ford for transplanting with the high speed transplanter and the Landini for the lay-down transplanter.

Model G modified to carry pipes

Model G modified to carry pipes

Transplant: GTF has two main transplanter, a “high speed” transplanter and a lay-down transplanter. One might wonder why use the lay down transplanter if there is a faster one, well the leaves of some plants are too big to fit in the cups of the high speed transplanter, I wish it were different though. The lay-down is as the names suggests, the people lay down on boards behind a spinning spiked wheel. The wheel has a spike every six inches, so we would plant every other hole or every fourth hole opened on the spacing of the particular plant, Brussel sprouts, (2 ft) to swiss chard (1 ft. ) The high-speed has a spinning carousel that we would fill up and it would rotate and drop the plant into a shoot that would plant it in the ground. On the lay-down we would have to use trowels to make the holes big enough to put the plant in and then cover it up so the root ball wasn’t exposed. Thank goodness a lot of the other vegetables fit with the high speed. Another complication with transplanting on the tractor side was driving in a straight line. It was a combination of following a previous tire track and sighting the middle of the front of the tractor with a line left by field prep.

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Lay down transplanter   

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High speed transplanter

Field prep: Rodrigo (in charge of the field crew) uses a rotary harrow (rotarrow) to decompact the bed and have it ready for transplanting.

Cultivation: to keep the young plants healthy, there is a lot of cultivation and hand weeding going on. GTF has two people who just cultivate fields. They use a mix of spider gangs, danish s hooks (for bigger weeds) and basket weeders (for just emerged seeds). GTF also uses a flame thrower after planting carrots. Carrots take a while to emerge and are really slow, weeds take advantage of this. Flaming after planting carrots will kill a lot of the weeds.

Manure and Compost

GTF uses a lot of compost on their fields, as well as leaf mulch for root crops like onions and shallots. They have 10 or so ~400 ft wind rows of compost that Josh will turn. All the leaves and suckers from tomato trellising will end up in a compost pile, as well as food scraps, rabbit manure from up the road, horse stall bedding, and all the leaves that are raked up in the fall from the area. Rabbit manure is Josh’s favorite because it has a lot nitrogen. The finished product is beautiful, black, and fluffy compost.

Equipment used to rotate compost piles

Equipment used to rotate compost piles

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My thoughts: I got to drive tractors! Rachel who is in charge of the M team had to do other jobs so they put me in to steer the transplanting.

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(I took this photo while we were stopped)

whats in: Tomatoes!

Week 4-Monday Meetings

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Seeding Schedule


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The Monday meeting board

CSA
One more of the many things that GTF does is a CSA. They farm and sell produce all year round, but in the winter they have less to sell and an influx of cash from the CSA helps them in the spring. They have an efficient assembly line with an expandable rack with wheels that the boxes can roll down and each person puts one thing in. Then they are put on pallets according to the location where they will be picked up.

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CSA packaging line

My thoughts: Our jobs are varying a little bit, with transplanting and harvesting boysenberries before markets, but it is nice to have a routine and to know what is expected of us. It also helps to know that we are working towards one goal and the farm is also working towards that goal of producing quality produce.

What’s in: blackberries!

Multiple Trials-

Though the farm ultimately has to make money to keep going and support the employees and community, they are open to trying new varieties. GTF has a good relationship with seed companies and extension at OSU. GTF plants a lot of trials for OSU but also for themselves.

While I was there we planted super sweet corn varieties for OSU. Some didn’t even have names yet.

GTF also tried out 6 different root stocks for each tomato variety to see which combination did the best.

Monday Management Meetings (what needs to get done for the week)

One of my favorite things to witness was the Monday Meetings. Each person in charge of an aspect of the farm came to the meeting with a list of things that needed to get done that week. What vehicles needed to be repaired or what materials they needed to buy (like twine for stringing tomatoes.)

Joelene is in chards of seeds and plants and gives a list of what needs to be seeded or transplanted.

Rodrigo says what is going to be harvested. Joey says all the fields and crops he is going to cultivate. Josh, who does compost doesn’t add anything, he just keeps up turning the compost (still very important). The soil fertility checks are done by John Yeo and he says what kind of tests he is going to run and for what plants. Chris who works in the office brings printed sheets of the week’s forecast. Overseeing this all are John and Sally. John will provide wisdom and Sally resolves tension.

I really like the meetings because they set the priorities of what needs to be done each week and who does what.

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