Ag Answers 5/1/08

Ag Answer

Web site: http://www.aganswers.net .

5/1/08

New OSU book helps farmers make switch to organic

    Smooth your switch to organic farming through a new book from Ohio State University.  A Transition Guide to Certified Organic Crop Management, published by the Organic Food and Farming Education and Research (OFFER) Program, part of the university¹s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), details in its 74 pages the rules and realities of organic farming : specifically, of grains, fruits and vegetables.

    ³It¹s the only manual of its kind in Ohio,² said OFFER Coordinator Deb Stinner, ³and there are very few like it anywhere else in the United States. It helps make the federal guidelines for organic crop production under- standable and is filled with both practical and scientific information about things farmers can do to meet these guidelines.²

    Among the topics:

    * Steps in the organic certification process, plus Midwest certification agencies.

    * Seed, land use, planting stock, crop rotation and harvesting/handling standards.

    * Pest, weed, disease, crop nutrient and soil fertility management standards.

    * Exemptions, exclusions, record keeping, and allowed and prohibited substances.

    ³Anyone thinking about or seriously interested in transitioning to certified organic crop production, both agronomic and horticultural crops, should consider reading this,² Stinner said.

    The author, Margaret Huelsman, prepared the guide with the help of experts from OFFER, Ohio State¹s Agroecosystems Management Program, and the grassroots Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association. Huelsman, who now lives in Indiana, previously was program manager of Ohio State¹s Integrated Pest Management Program and an OFFER postdoctoral researcher. She holds a doctorate in environmental science from Ohio State.

    Funding for the guide came from a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture¹s (USDA) Cooperative State, Research, Education, and Extension Service.

    ³Acknowledging the realities of organic farming from the start will better prepare you to make the transition,² Huelsman writes in the introduction. ³Arming yourself with knowledge and foresight only increases your chances of success from the beginning of the process.²

    To get a copy at $15 each, with checks made payable to OSU/OFFER, write to OFFER Program, 201 Thorne Hall, OSU/OARDC, 1680 Madison  Ave., Wooster, OH 44691.  To find out more, call (330) 202-3528.

    USDA, through its National Organic Program, requires organic farmers and food handlers to meet a uniform organic standard. The program makes certification mandatory for operations with organic sales over $5,000.

    Organic crops often, though not always, sell at higher prices than conventional crops do.

    The New Farm Organic Price Report, for example, listed these prices for the week of April 23:

    * #2 yellow corn in Chicago, $11 a bushel for organic versus $5.50 for conventional.

    * Granny Smith apples in Los Angeles, $45.50 per 100 count for organic versus $24 for conventional.

    * Strawberries in Los Angeles, $23.50 a pound for organic versus $13 for conventional.

    * Broccoli in Boston, $46 per 14 count versus $18 for conventional.

    ³The economics of organic agriculture,² Huelsman notes, ³makes it more likely that a farmer can be profitable on smaller amounts of land and run a viable family farm operation.²

    OFFER, established in 1998 on OARDC¹s Wooster campus, provides educational and scientific support for organic agriculture to the people of Ohio.

    OARDC is the research arm of Ohio State¹s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

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Rumen expert named 2008 OARDC Senior Faculty Research Award

    Ohio State University¹s Burk Dehority, an international expert on rumen microbiology who has two protozoan species named in his honor, has added to his recognition in a dark, wet, hard-to-see field.

    A professor in the Department of Animal Sciences, Dehority has received the 2008 Distinguished Senior Faculty Research Award from the university¹s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC).

    The award, presented each year at the OARDC Annual Research Conference, recognizes outstanding achievements by an OARDC faculty member at the rank of professor. Winners receive a plaque, $1,000 and $3,000 for their research project¹s operating expense account.

    In five decades of teaching and research, Dehority ³has opened Œthe black box¹ of the rumen for students and researchers in the United States and abroad,² his nominators said.

    The rumen is the first of four chambers in the stomach of ruminants, or cud-chewing animals. Billions of microbes may live there. They break down cellulose, the main part of plant tissue, and make it digestible to their host.  Cattle, for example, are ruminants.   

   ³The role of ruminants in intensive and extensive (agricultural) production systems depends on a better understanding of the function of rumen microorganisms,² the nominators noted. ³In this sense, Dehority¹s discoveries have enabled the animal-science community to understand the unique function of (the rumen) as well as to develop economic feeding strategies that meet the nutrient requirements of individual animals and allow for the use of alternative feedstuffs.²

    Dehority¹s achievements, among others, include publishing a laboratory manual containing his drawings of and identification keys for rumen protozoa, a first in the field and in wide use worldwide; isolating and identifying the rumen bacteria species primarily responsible for degrading and utilizing the structural carbohydrates in forages; showing the synergy between bacterial species in the digestion of those carbohydrates, the first direct demonstration of such activity; and studying both domestic and wild ruminants and marsupials, work that could someday lead to the use of other kinds of ruminants for food production.

    The protozoan species that bear his name are Dasytricha dehorityi from kangaroos in Australia and Eudiplodinium dehorityi from Turkish cattle.

    Dehority has authored or co-authored 159 peer-reviewed journal articles, 10 book chapters and two books; has advised 14 master¹s degree students and 10 doctoral students; has attracted numerous postdoctoral and visiting scientists to his lab from around the world; and has served on the editorial board of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology. He received the Department of Animal Sciences Research Award in 2000 and Ohio State¹s Gamma Sigma Delta Award in 1978.

    He joined OARDC, then the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, in 1959 and served as associate chair of the Department of Animal Sciences from 1981-1994.  He holds a doctorate in agricultural biochemistry from Ohio State, a master¹s degree in biochemistry from the University of Maine and an A.B. degree in chemistry from Blackburn College, Carlinville, Ill.