"Plow Sharing"

MUSINGS

Properly made compost, made from fresh green material, higher carbon materials, sufficient water, and necessary air, is the correct recipe. Within 2-3 days of making a pile, the inside temperature should reach 135 degrees and not exceed the 150 degree range. Too high heat will kill off beneficial organisms and quickly change the composting degradation from aerobic to anaerobic. Not turning the pile often enough also will make the pile go anaerobic. Turning and mixing based on the temperature is critical. If you are going to make this rejuvenating soil additive, it is to your best interest to invest in a compost thermometer.

To learn more about Dr. Ingham's work, check out her on-line homepage:
www.soilfoodweb.com

The other sessions of the SSAWG conference I thought were the most informative consisted of open grew forums based on commodity or sales activity. There was a livestock and pasture session, one on row crops, organic growers discussion, cut flowers, Direct marketing, and CSA discussion. These sessions brought together people involved with a specific type of production or marketing venture. Everybody would sit around and ask questions to the group and open it up for answers, discussion, and advice.

I attended the organic growers, cut flowers, and part of the direct marketing discussions. People would call out what problems most concerned them and others would respond based on their own experiences. In the organic growers session, a list of the top 10 concerns were written down on large sheet of paper in front of the room (thanks for coming up with that idea Cathy Jones!). As information came forth about solving problems, references or resources were written down for people to copy.

Everyone I talked to after these session mentioned how it was such a great help to them or it offered ideas that they hadn't thought of. The biggest fault for these discussions was that they were not long enough. Rather than an 1 hr-15min, they should have been 2-3 hours long.

I think this type of educational tool has a great deal of benefit for growers. It gets to the heart of alot of frustrating problems farmers face. It may be of some consolation to learn that you are not the only one facing a particular problem. It is even better to learn that someone may have also found a solution for that problem and is willing to share their experience. This forum for discussion is a great idea. I would like to see it used for possible CFSA conference. I will try to work it into some of my workshops throughout the year as well.

The basis was turning the craft industry into a tourist direct marketing enterprise. Using a "tour book" guide with designated roads as "heritage" trails, the craft cottage industries now have a viable customer base. More than 60% of their sales comes from out of state traffic that normally would not have travelled to this area. The added benefit has been to the small towns and villages. A renewal in business and pride has opened up (which incidentally, did not cost anywhere near the amount of money you might think!).

Their next project is to use this type of model to open up markets for their farmers and gardeners. Now, see the connection? Here in Chatham Co. we have both a significant number of artisans and farmers. We have major access roads running through the county. This is why Ms. Anderson was invited to tell her story here. We have a great potential in tapping into our own natural resources of arts, crafts, farming, gardening, history, and recreational areas to develop a revenue base without chasing smokestacks or the golden arches or stars.

About 40 concerned citizens showed up for an evening presentation by Becky. Her story is a long one but quite compelling. The next morning, at Celebrity Goat Dairy, a working meeting was held to start to identify resources, find out who was interested, and how to proceed.

More meetings will be taking place in the near future. If anything is to happen, it will be long process. Alot of work and dedication and inclusion of all interested parties will need to take place. For more info contact Craig DeBussey Economic Development Office 542-8274.

There is some research being done in the area of biological control for fire ants. Predatory nematodes is one area being investigated as well as a fungus. For small mounds, hot boiling water could be used. The trick is in trying to get enough water to reach down where the queen is. Without killing the queen, the colony will just move to another nearby site. Also, when attacking a mound, pour the liquid in a circle around the mound several inches and pour on gallons. Pour the liquid from the outside towards the center. The key is to saturate the area completely. If you only pour stuff on the mound, by the time it reaches the lower levels of these deep digging ants where the queen is, worker ants may have already moved her out of the mound in one of their many escape tunnels. That is why, no matter what you use, you need to start on the outside and work in.

For more info contact the Chatham County Plant Protection Specialist - Johnny Isenhour 919-553-4746

web site www.ces.ncsu.edu/TurfFiles/pubs/insects/ag486.html

Unfortunately, rather than cleaning up the filthy conditions at large, corporate farms and industrial slaughterhouses, the meat industry and their allies in the U.S. government are promoting food irradiation as a way to prevent food-borne illness. Food irradiation will not solve the problems associated with the unsanitary conditions at huge factory sized farms from which feces-covered animals are transported to industrialized-size slaughtering facilities. Workers at these facilities are required to speed-up work, for instance, "processing" as many as 300 cows an hour, and too few USDA inspectors are on hand to insure that procedures to prevent contamination are followed.

Moreover, if the FDA does not continue to require labeling, the USDA is unlikely to require labeling. USDA is "harmonizing" all of their food regulations with the FDA. Requirements are as follows:
1) Packaged meat products irradiated in their entirety must bear the international radura symbol. Unfortunately, the symbol, which contains simple petals in a broken circle is benevolent looking and its meaning is not widely recognized. Additionally, products must either include the word "irradiated" as part of the product name or must bear a statement such as "Treated with radiation" or "Treated by irradiation." The radura must be placed in conjunction with the required statement, if the statement is used. The statement is not required to be more prominent than the declaration of ingredients and it can be anywhere on the package.
2) Unpackaged meat products irradiated in their entirety are required to have the radura symbol and a statement "prominently and conspicuously" displayed to purchasers either through labeling on a bulk container or "some other appropriate device." The agency does not define what this "other appropriate device" could be.
3) USDA is also allowing labeling statements and claims regarding the "beneficial effects" and the purpose of irradiation.
4) Multi-ingredient products, which include an irradiated meat product, must only reflect its inclusion in the ingredient statement on the finished product's label.
5) USDA eliminated two labeling requirements for poultry. The requirements that "letters used for the qualifying statement shall be no less than one-third the size of the largest letter in the product name" and second,that the radura logo on irradiated poultry product labels be colored green have been eliminated.

A special task force of the FDA reviewed a large body of scientific literature on the toxicological testing of irradiated food, however, they based their approval of food irradiation on only five studies. The FDA task force reviewed over 2000 studies, over four hundred of which met a high enough standard that they could potentially have been reviewed Obviously, since the FDA used such a small sample, the potential for bias is great.

Furthermore, because they were unable to provide definitive evidence of the safety of irradiated food, the FDA eventually based their legalization of food irradiation on a theoretical model about how many new chemicals (potential carcinogens) are formed in the food products by irradiation.

Guest speakers featured John and Betty Vollmer, from Franklin Co. These folks have been farming for a significant number of years. There original farming enterprise centered around tobacco. But with the handwriting on the wall, they diversified into alternative crops and eventually into alternative production practices. They started vegetables and strawberries, selling wholesale and then direct marketing themselves at farmers markets and on-farm road side stand. They have gone into spring production of strawberries and vegetables and heavily into the fall crops centered around pumpkins and Halloween farm festivals.

They have gone from conventional strawberry production using methyl bromide for ground sterilization to using organic practices and the use of compost to boost the biological activity of the soil. Through the compost, the need for soil sterilization is unnecessary. In fact, the yields now exceed what they used to get on their fields. (Compost to boost biological activity, where have I heard that before?)

The main point of all this, is that the Vollmers really used planning to make their decisions before proceeding. Setting up a business plan through analyzing what resources they have, what it costs to do the job right, and what goals they were trying to shoot for. Now they are faced with their grown children wanting to return to the farm. A five year farm plan has been investigated to accomplish this goal. In order to achieve their new goal, sales have to increase to new levels to accommodate the profit potential to pay for new salaries. To make money, you have to spend some money. This start up capitol must be planned for.

Our next speaker was Guido van der Hoeven, NCSU agricultural economist. He discussed looking at what resources a farmer might have in order to diversify into new production. Goal planning, analyzing what costs are going to be, and putting together the necessary capitol to make the plan proceed were items he brought to the attention of the audience.

Jeff Rieves of CCCC Pittsboro Small Business Program went over the nuts and bolts of how to put together a business plan. There are several recipes for doing this but the important point is to write things down and keep very good records. Jeff gave out some very good handouts for this that would be very useful for farmers to have.

Business planning is boring and somewhat tedious. However, it is so very important in knowing how to set up your business. All too often, farmers do not have a clue to many important aspects of their business, like costs. Why should you have written plan?

Soybean Oil May Be the Key to Reducing Late-Spring frost Damage

Even with more research needed, preliminary results indicate that applying soybean oil to dormant peach trees can delay blooming and enhance the crop yield and quality.

The idea of using an oil comes from the study of controlled atmosphere storage of apples. The controlled atmosphere process reduces the respiration of fruit and this delays ripening. To reduce respiration, increases in levels of CO2 and the lowering of levels of O2 is necessary.

Applying this to peach buds, the researchers thought that by using an oil coating sprayed onto the buds would coat them pretty tight. It would restrict gas exchange and this would allow for a buildup of CO2 and slow bud development.

Petroleum oil spray was not really looked at because it would have to be registered with EPA, require expensive labeling, and take years to get it on the market. Using the most abundant vegetable oil on the market, soybean oil was the likely choice. It is exempt from EPA's normal pesticide registration process and is more environmentally friendly ( providing it is GMO free).

Applications of a 5% oil solution applied near bloom provided a delay of blooming by 5-7 days. Another aspect that was apparent was that fruit size also increased slightly compared to untreated trees. Timing of the spray is still being investigated. In some trials, sprays made too early or too late caused either no effect or advancement of bud bloom.

The use of soybean oil may also be researched as an insecticide or miticide. Professors Dennis Deyton and Carl Sams from TAES is still conducting research using the soybean oil. They expect that actual recommendations might be available for using this system of bud delay this year or next.

Harry Swartz, associate professor of horticulture, U. Maryland has been breeding blackberries and raspberries for years. He has produced hybrids of the two in varieties available today like Shawnee, Chesapeake, Kiowa, and Big Beauty. This breeding program offers the best characteristics from both types of fruit, thornless, less seeds, better taste, and larger size.

This larger size allows growers to pack berries into larger containers than the pint size conventionally used. A pint does not allow a consumer to go very far with berries. But packing these large berries into a larger clam-shell container offers more convenience to shoppers. And after all, consumers are usually willing to pay a higher price for convenience.

Raising blackberries under polytunnels to bring on production uniformly is another method of developing a quality product. This controls when a given amount of berries will be harvestable at one time. Staggered covering with tunnels will bring in harvest at nearly predetermined times and earlier too.

Off-season production of greenhouse raspberries is gaining a rapid following in the north. This "technology" can also be used here in NC without much more effort than what the northern growers are putting into this production. One attribute of the forced greenhouse system is that a larger percentage of higher quality fruit is produced following good cultural practices.

Researchers like Herbert Stiles, associate professor of horticulture at Virginia Tech's Southern Piedmont Research and Extension Center has developed a trellis system that will make production more profitable. Stiles has come up with a Limited Arm-Rotation System for raspberries and blackberries that makes picking easier and more economical. By separating the bearing floricanes from the new growth primocanes, a wall of fruit is created. this makes picking more efficient. This system helps improve berry quality by providing for better air flow through the canes means fewer disease problems and the danger of sun scald is reduced.

The trellis system is relatively easy to put together and is less costly to build and maintain. I have contacted Dr. Stiles to send me more details on how this trellis is put together. As soon as this information comes in, I will post it the newsletter.

Once you remove that fruit or vegetable, etc., from the plant, you cut off its water and nutrient supply. The translocation of water through the plant helps keep the whole plant cool. Heat can degrade the quality of a plant part quickly once it is removed from the plant. That is why cooling it down as soon as possible is so important. Maximize the freshness.

Harvest early in the morning before the mid-day sun really heats things up. Bring portable coolers out to the field like ice chests or set up a make shift cooler under the shade of a tree. Pick smaller container sizes to get them out of the field and into some shade or in a refrigerator. It may mean more trips back and forth, but the quality will be better. After all, you want your customers to get the very best. It doesn't make any sense to grow a terrific crops for weeks or months only to end up with a poor looking thing at the market.

Enclosed in this newsletter is a NCSU publication, AG-414-07 on building a low cost portable forced air cooling unit.

2/19
OUTDOOR CUT FLOWER PRODUCTION BASICS SCHOOL Iredell co. Extension Center Statesville, NC 704-873-0507 for directions 919-779-4618 info

2/25
2000 NORTHERN PIEDMONT SPECIALTY CROP SCHOOL Oxford, NC Pumpkin, Asparagus, Irrigation, Transition from Crops/Cattle to Specialty Crops, and Edible Green Soybeans 919-599-1195 for info

3/15
FARMING 2000 & BEYOND Workshop Series: Small Scale Irrigation Techniques Dennis Wicker Civic Center Sanford, NC 919-775-5634 910-947-3188 for info

The use of brand names and any mention or listing of commercial products or services in this publication does not imply endorsement by North Carolina State University, North Carolina A&T state University or North Carolina Cooperative Extension nor discrimination against similar products or services not mentioned.

 If I may be of further service to you, please contact me at the following number:
Phone:(919)542-8202; FAX (919) 542-8246

 If you have something to list in the next newsletter, send it to me by the first of the month before the next issue comes out. Address it to: P. O. Box 279, Pittsboro, NC 27312.