Author: Sarah
COVID-19 and Animals
What you need to know about COVID-19 and Pets and Other Animals
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that range from the common cold to Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). About 20 percent of colds are the result of a human coronavirus. Animal species have their own coronaviruses that cause a variety of illnesses. The dog, cat, pig, and cattle coronaviruses are very common and do not cause illness in people.
SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, originated from wild animals (likely bats) in China. Due to mutations that created a new virus, it developed the ability to infect humans and spread efficiently from person to person. A few dogs and cats living with COVID-19 patients have tested positive for the presence of virus. Research is ongoing in multiple species to study how animals may be affected.
It is not surprising that SARS-CoV-2 can infect some animals under certain conditions. Other human viruses like H1N1 influenza and SARS-CoV-1, which is very similar to SARS-CoV-2, have also spread from people to animals in low numbers, most notably in cats, ferrets, and pigs. There is no evidence to suggest that a naturally infected animal is capable of transmitting infection back to humans.
COVID-19 is spread from person to person; the risk to animals is very low and the risk from animals is even lower. There is no reason to harm wildlife or abandon a pet out of fear, and fortunately, this does not seem to be an issue in the U.S. In fact, more people are fostering or adopting cats and dogs during the pandemic. The relationship with a pet can be a great source of comfort, helping to decrease depression, anxiety, and stress.
Frequently Asked Questions
Vegetable Seeds Are the New Toilet Paper
Seeds have been flying off the “shelves” of online stores.
Got seeds?
Seed sellers across North America have been overwhelmed by skyrocketing demand in recent weeks as home gardeners are preparing to grow their own vegetables in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Starting around March 16, online seed stores saw a huge spike in orders for vegetable seeds, as fears emerged that the pandemic could threaten food security.
The increase in demand was so dramatic for Wayne Gale and his Canada-based business, Stokes Seeds, that they temporarily closed down their online store for home gardeners, in order to ensure they could fill all of their orders for commercial growers. Gale’s business received around 1,000 orders from home gardeners during the weekend before March 16, a period of time it would usually receive around 350 such orders. “And this is not our peak season. Usually our peak season is the second week of February,” Gale says.
Sellers say that many of their new customers are likely new to the world of gardening, and are cooped up in their homes with a lot of time on their hands. While seed growers think any time is a good time to start growing your own food, they say concerns over the food supply are probably driving a lot of the current interest. Continue reading Vegetable Seeds Are the New Toilet Paper
Virtual Office Hours – Knox AgChat
As you know The Ohio State University has closed all Campuses and Extension offices. While our office is closed, we are working from home and will continue to do so until we are able to return. You can reach us by phone (740-397-0401) Monday through Friday from 8 – 5. You can also reach us anytime by email:
John – barker.41@osu.edu Sabrina – schirtzinger.55@osu.edu
In the meantime we are working diligently to create new options to stay in contact with everyone. With this in mind, beginning Monday April 6 we will begin VIRTUAL OFFICE HOURS – Knox AgChat
Knox AgChat will provide us the opportunity to utilize video and/or audio conferencing on your computer or cell phone. You can join us online here: https://osu.zoom.us/j/3927263521 or join by phone 1-253-215-8782 and enter Meeting ID: 392 726 3521.
We will focus on Ag questions from 7:30 – 8 and Horticulture questions from 8 – 8:30.
Additionally, we plan to periodically invite guest speakers to our chat. We will post that schedule each week.
CFAES Turf Team Update
COVID-19 FOOD SAFETY FOR PRODUCE AUCTIONS
Common Mullein- Mother Nature’s Answer to Our Toilet Paper Shortage?
Source: David Marrison, Coshocton County Extension Educator
When the news broke that we would need to retreat to our homes due to Coronavirus-19, the run on milk, eggs, bread and toilet paper began at our local grocery stores. I have been especially fascinated by the hoarding of toilet paper. Every time I have been out to get food and supplies, the toilet paper shelves have been completely bare.
As my wife Emily and I were out taking a Sunday evening walk, I noticed along the ditches some green, soft-looking plants which appeared to be the lambs-ear plant, with which many of us are familiar. After closer inspection, the plant we were looking at was Common mullein or Verbascum thapsus. Emily was quick to respond that locals refer to the plant as Cowboy’s Toilet Paper. Then the light bulb went off—could this be Mother Nature’s answer to our COVID-19 toilet paper shortage?
Besides Cowboy’s Toilet Paper, you may have heard it referred to as Quaker’s rouge, candle wick, flannel leaf, velvet dock, big taper, bunny’s ear, miner’s candle, or poor man’s blanket. These names commonly reflect some characteristic the plant exhibits, such as the flower stalk or leaf texture. If you read survival guides, this plant is mentioned as an emergency roadside toilet paper due to the large, fuzzy leaf of this botanical wonder. One word of caution however, the fuzzy leaf may cause some skin irritation when used as toilet paper.
The history of this plant is fascinating. Common mullein traces its roots back to Europe as it was planted in gardens for its medicinal purposes as an expectorant, diuretic, pain relief and healing of abrasions. Interesting enough, since Quaker women weren’t allowed to wear make-up, they would rub the hairy leaves on their cheeks to create a homemade blush look. Hence the name Quaker’s Rouge. However, its major claim to fame is definitely its use as a toilet paper.
Continue reading Common Mullein- Mother Nature’s Answer to Our Toilet Paper Shortage?
How to improve farm productivity with satellite technology in 2020
Effective decision-making requires lots of intellectual resources. Not long ago, the only room for improvement in agriculture was enhancing farming machinery technology and chemical supplement formulas. Now it’s been expanded to the digital field.
What can farmers do to improve their land-use efficiency?
The modern approach suggests using accurate material distribution such as variable rate application techniques, precise weather prediction, and remote sensing for advanced problem-spotting. Satellite monitoring technologies (and crop analysis platforms in particular) are a simple yet cost-efficient entry ticket to the future of farming. Digital tools along with satellite analytics prove especially efficient for big farmers due to good benefit-cost ratio and opportunity to save on scouting. However, it also suits small growers, providing them with a relatively cheap entry to the enterprise-level tech.
Increase profits from your field with crop monitoring platforms.
How satellite imagery and analytics help precision farming transformation?
The most obvious benefit remote sensing and monitoring platforms in particular provide is the comprehensive information that drives field management decision-making. Constantly updated data regarding vegetation health and moisture levels, for example, can point out to spots that need extra watering or fertilization (or have too much of those).
Satellite imagery is also irreplaceable in advanced farming machinery for guidance and variable rate application. For instance, the EOS Crop Monitoring platform features machine learning algorithms that automatically detect and divide fields into crop type category (currently available for Eastern Europe only), calculate field area, and display all the recorded satellite data regarding the field performance and local climate over the past few years upon request. Moreover, it enables to make crop production predictions so that one can make better management decisions.
Machine learning algorithms? What do they have to do with farming?
Satellite imagery takes lots of time to analyze manually, which is why developers train neural networks to automatically recognize the objects’ properties like crop type, field boundaries, and more. The EOS company has proved the data reliability with their comprehensive research and neural network training during the development of the Crop Map project. Crop Map was intended as a part of the World Bank and European Union cooperation with the government of Ukraine to support the agricultural sector transparency in the country. These algorithms helped revealing over 10 million acres of unauthorized land usage area.
- What can EOS Crop Monitoring tell about your field?
- With this platform, you can at least facilitate the following:
- being up-to-date with the state of your crops remotely;
- being aware in advance about weather changes and risks such as cold or heat stress;
- optimizing fertilizer application rates;
- field scouting;
- measuring precise field area;
- forecasting yields.
- How is that possible?
The application allows choosing specific fields to analyze. Then, all the relevant data will be automatically gathered and displayed. Field health information is being monitored through spectral analysis via NDVI, NDSI, and other indices. Precipitation measurements help to assess the soil moisture level while weather indicators (such as wind speed, cloud cover, temperature, and air humidity) will define if that field requires extra care. It can also point out the dependence of culture development on precipitation and temperatures. Interactive graphs with historical weather changes info as well as the forecast for the following days will contribute to field works planning and scheduling. Also, reviewing culture growth historical data allows comparing the regional metrics for yield performance from other fields and forecasting total production volume.
Are there any real cases of using this technology?
EOS Crop Monitoring was the product of choice for Agroprosperis Group (controlled by the American NCH Capital), the largest producer and exporter of wheat, soya, corn and other cultures in the Black Sea region. The company offers financial, growing, storing and exporting services for farmers.
Over the past year, the company has been looking to put Variable Rate Application into practice. By using the satellite imagery they have determined the most productive fields. The decision was to increase the dosage of nitrogen fertilizer to maximize the potential of these fields.
The old strategy implied putting fertilizers evenly distributed among all fields instead of multiplying the output from the best fields and spending fewer resources overall. Plus, 5000-7500 acres of croplands is a huge territory to look after manually. This is why using satellite imagery and crop monitoring was a commercially right decision for the company, as its top-management stated.
How to calculate potential profit from using satellite monitoring?
We know that the average yield in the US from one acre of wheat is around 48 bushels (1306 kg). Let’s review a hypothetical situation. If a 500-acre farm produces 340 tons of crop and the price will average $190 per ton, this field’s owner can lose over $6 000 of income if just 5% of that field fails.
To sum up, satellite analytics and crop monitoring platforms provide an easy and cost-efficient entry into the smart farming trend. Not to mention the fact that they indeed make the life of a farmer easier. And a farm more profitable if the provided information is being used correctly!
Source: https://www.agweb.com/article/how-improve-farm-productivity-satellite-technology-2020
Continue reading How to improve farm productivity with satellite technology in 2020
Tough Lessons From 2019 Farmers Can Use Now
While 2019 was a nightmare for many farmers, it provided valuable lessons that farmers can act upon this year.
The 2020 spring planting season is starting soggy, which is less than encouraging for farmers, but with 2019 close in the rear-view and means farmers know how to quickly adapt.
Despite recent rain, “right now, as of March, our stream flow is actually more like ‘normal’ compared to last year,” says Ken Ferrie, Farm Journal Field Agronomist to AgriTalk Host Chip Flory. “Which is a sign that if we can just get some weather to break it, we could actually be in a normal time frame right where we sit here from draining these fields out and get ready to go.
“I think we can take what we learned a year ago and apply it to this year,” he adds.
For one thing, Ferrie says farmers are in better shape in terms of field preparation than they were in the spring of 2019. More fall nitrogen was applied, and more tillage was completed, for example.
“From a weather sense, it hasn’t been as intense as it was in 2019,” says Michael Clark, BAM WX meteorologist. “The outlook going forward isn’t nearly as intense, either.”
Here is Clark’s weather breakdown by region for the upcoming week:
- Parts of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska: Current rainy weather pattern calms down as farmers get into April; good opportunity for more drying. Early April will open up chilly for the first six to 10 days but will eventually warm up.
- North Dakota and South Dakota: Has been drier—just 15% to 20% of normal precipitation. The outlook for next few weeks is for dry conditions.
- I-80 Corridor, from Omaha to Ohio: More rain over the next seven to 10 days. Some parts of southern Indiana and into Ohio are running 200% of the normal precipitation for March. The outlook for April is that the rain will stop and conditions will improve.
What if planting gets pushed back?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecast suggests higher-than-normal precipitation through June. If this comes to fruition, already saturated fields could mean farmers again push planting into late May and June—possibly later, depending on local conditions.
But how late is too late to plant?
“We put this to the test last year of course,” Ferrie says. You have to consider a few factors when it comes to late planting: First, what is the crop maturity you’re planting; what growing degree units (GDUs) do you need to get the crop to maturity; do you have drying capacity if GDUs take longer to accumulate; what is the upcoming weather?
Take those factors into consideration before switching crop maturities, crop types or taking prevent plant.
Written by Sonja Begemann
Source: https://www.agweb.com/article/tough-lessons-2019-farmers-can-use-now
Can livestock get COVID-19?
While there’s no evidence so far that pets, livestock, or their owners can infect each other with COVID-19, there’s also very little research about a potential crossover.
The novel coronavirus started with an animal, then mutated to transfer to people, but research hasn’t yet shown if the virus has jumped back to animals, said Scott Kenney, a researcher at The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES).
“Viruses are constantly sampling and evolving, trying to find other hosts,” said Kenney, who studies coronaviruses, including those that cross over from one species to another.
Quickly spreading among people across the world, COVID-19 is believed to have originated in bats, but the bat virus changed, altering surface proteins to be able to efficiently transfer from person to person. These surface proteins are different in the mutated bat virus, so COVID-19 is now less likely to affect the original bats. Whether other animals are susceptible to COVID-19 has yet to be tested, Kenney said.
When viruses infect an animal, they produce billions of copies of themselves. Some of the copies tend to be slightly changed from the original virus. While most of these irregular copies die, occasionally one has a change that is beneficial for the virus, such as altering its ability to infect a different species, Kenney said.
“If the new species is exposed to this altered virus, it can now make many more copies of itself and potentially infect a whole new species,” he said.
So far, the only research on COVID-19 and animals involves studies in China that showed two dogs tested positive for COVID-19. But neither of the infected dogs had symptoms of the virus, and researchers in those studies do not believe they transmitted the disease to any other animals or people, Kenney said. Continue reading Can livestock get COVID-19?