Farm Office Live – April Edition

The Farm Office Team will be back on April 22nd at 10 AM, for the next installment of Farm Office Live.  A look at what you can expect from April’s Farm Office Live includes:

  • State and Federal Legislation Update
  • LLC Liability Protection Review
  • 2021 Midwest Farm Performance Preview
  • Fertilizer and Crop Budgets Update
  • FSA Program Updates
  • Ohio General Assembly Website Tour

The Farm Office Team provides the latest outlook and updates on ag law, farm management, ag economics, farm business analysis, and other issues dealt with in your farm office.  Targeted to farmers and agribusiness stakeholders, our specialists digest the latest news and information and present it in an easy-to-understand format.

To register, please visit https://farmoffice.osu.edu/farmofficelive.

Mechanization-Automation in Vegetable Production: It’s Personal and Important

The big picture is that (vegetable) farming has been mechanizing and automating aggressively for more than a century, although the pace seems to be accelerating and the range of tasks targeted for improvement seems to be increasing. There are many reasons for these trends, but all may come down to the fact that technology that addresses peoples’ needs is personal and, therefore, important. Indeed, read nearly any issue of The American Vegetable Grower Magazine (or its online counterpart https://www.growingproduce.com/), The Vegetable Growers News (https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/magazine/), or other farmer-focused magazine, blog, or newsletter, watch videos or listen to podcasts, or attend industry programs and you will be exposed to personal stories of how specific machines or pieces of equipment are assisting growers in some new way at some point from seeding through post-harvest handling. Stories come from input suppliers, growers, people in extension and research, equipment manufacturers and retailers, and others. Collectively, these stories have given me many lessons but three will be highlighted here.

First, overall, mechanization and semi- to full automation of core farm activities will continue. Trends begun long ago are fully established with incentives to mechanize/automate increasing and obstacles to the process decreasing. Second, growers have various options now and will have others going forward. “There’s an app for that” was popularized about thirteen years ago (and trademarked soon after). However, it now also seems to apply to equipment or machines designed to help farmers since some see nearly every major vegetable seedling or crop production activity historically requiring people as eligible for some form of mechanization or automation. GPS and/or laser-guided automatic weeders/cultivators demonstrated at a recent industry program in Ontario, Canada (https://onvegetables.com/2022/02/28/tomato-day-coming-on-march-10-2022/) and available for rent were especially impressive to me, although many other examples of grower-friendly options are available or in the pipeline (e.g., “scouts,” sensors/actuators, samplers, seeders, transplanters, sprayers, harvesters, etc). Examples are often on display at conferences, tradeshows, and expos in and around Ohio and farther away (e.g., https://www.worldagexpo.com/ – see list of exhibitors at 2022 program). It is also important to note that some machines or pieces of equipment are being designed with more than completing the task in mind (e.g., environmental sustainability). The third lesson available from paying attention to mechanization-automation in the vegetable and specialty crop sector is that off-the-shelf technology that reduces down-time, increases efficiency and/or productivity, or provides other benefits is increasingly practical to an increasingly diverse range of vegetable growers, regardless of the size, location, or other characteristics of their operation. Formerly most relevant to very large, heavily capitalized operations, current generations of machines and pieces of equipment are available to a much larger group of vegetable farms. Some developers, manufacturers, and retailers are more willing to discuss or offer: a) machinery and equipment applicable across more production conditions (including farm size) and b) lease or lease-to-own access. So, access to viable options for mechanizing-automating is increasing, and the time may be right to experiment on your farm.

There is much to consider and a lot at stake when mechanizing-automating and various approaches are used. The farmers responsible for https://www.growingproduce.com/vegetables/why-one-small-vegetable-farm-adopted-mechanization/ emphasize relying on input from other farmers, including via YouTube. Going forward, we will feature grower experiences with tools improving vegetable production we are helping pilot, including systems increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of high tunnel ventilation (temperature, humidity) management.

1 Week until OHIO Specialty Crop Partners Virtual Listening Session

If you have thoughts on how Extension and OSU Department Specialists can help your operation or a particular industry, this is the time for you to participate.

Get Started Now On Your Ideas for the …

OHIO SPECIALTY CROP PARTNERS VIRTUAL LISTENING SESSION

March 25, 2022

9:30 – 11:00 a.m. EST

You have received an invitation to join this quality conversation about CFAES research and Extension support for Ohio Specialty Crops Partners. CFAES will:

  • Provide updates on our priorities, existing support for specialty crops, and actions we are taking related to research and education for specialty crops.
  • Explore emerging trends for specialty crops agriculture in the state.
  • Listen to the industry needs and how CFAES plays a role in the industry.

We’re anxious to get started in this conversation and want to give you time and opportunities to give us your thoughts. If you would like to, please go ahead and get started by answering a few questions for us at this link https://go.osu.edu/listenspecialtycrops .

Please plan to attend the virtual session even if you complete this form. We want you to have as many opportunities as possible to provide feedback and have your voice heard.

Please send your thoughts back to us no later than March 23.  

And don’t forget to register for the virtual session no later than March 24, 2022 at register me now!

Produce Safety Alliance Grower Training

The Ohio Department of Agriculture and the Clermont County OSU Extension Office is announcing a Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) Grower Training to be held on 3/16/2022 at the OSU Extension Clermont County Office, 1000 Locust St, Owensville, OH 45160.

The training will be one day starting at 9 AM. There is no cost for Ohio produce growers. There will be an hour allotted for lunch; however, it’s not provided due to grant funding restrictions.

The PSA Grower Training Course is one way to satisfy the FSMA Produce Safety Rule requirement outlined in § 112.22(c) which states ‘At least one supervisor or responsible party for your farm must have successfully completed food safety training at least equivalent to that received under standardized curriculum recognized as adequate by the Food and Drug Administration.’

The course will cover basic produce safety; worker health, hygiene, and training; soil amendments; wildlife, domesticated animals, and land use; agricultural water (both production and postharvest); postharvest handling and sanitation; and developing a farm food safety plan. As a participant you can expect to gain a basic understanding of microorganisms relevant to produce safety and where they may be found on the farm; how to identify microbial risks, practices that reduce risks; how to begin implementing produce safety practices on the farm; parts of a farm food safety plan and how to begin writing one; and requirements in the FSMA Produce Safety Rule and how to meet them. There will be time for questions and discussion, so participants should come prepared to share their experiences and produce safety questions.

To receive a completion certificate, a participant must be present for the entire training and submit the appropriate paperwork to their trainer at the end of the course.

To register for a course, contact Matt at (614)600-4272. Please leave your name, mailing address, and a phone number contact in the voicemail. We will contact you to confirm your registration.

Why Aren’t My High Tunnel Tomato Plants Growing Faster?

Beginning about now and lasting through mid-April, I am often asked by high tunnel tomato growers why their crop is not developing as rapidly as they expect. Troubleshooting covers a wide range of possible explanations. As various ones are considered and ruled out, the possibility they have overlooked the role of soil temperature becomes more important. The high tunnel may be heated, and the crop may have been irrigated and fertilized aggressively, but there is usually no record of the soil temperature, which greenhouse growers know is very important and work to optimize. After all, root growth significantly influences shoot growth and root growth is influenced by soil or root zone temperature.

In my view, we know far too little about soil temperatures in high tunnels — what the optimal ones are at any time and how to achieve them. Still, discussing this with people in Ohio and other states and having done some research on the topic, I was asked to summarize findings at the recent Mid-Atlantic Fruit and Vegetable Convention in Hershey PA (https://www.pvga.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Mid-Atlantic-Convention-Program-22-website.pdf). The subject of the presentation was “root zone heating and root zone temperatures for high tunnel growers” and what follows are a few messages from that presentation.

Root systems are rarely seen but their size, form, and function influence every aspect of the crop, including the size of the canopy and crop marketable yield and profit potential.

Root systems are hard-wired to follow general patterns as they develop. However, conditions surrounding root systems influence their development significantly. Further, those conditions include temperature and are partially set by the grower. So, growers are partially responsible for root system development and function. While a “strong” canopy is good evidence of an equally strong root system, without another canopy to compare it to, it is difficult to be sure it is as strong and productive as it could be. This indicates that a little on-farm experimentation can go a long way in helping optimize total crop management. It also reminds us that since we usually cannot see roots while experimenting or farming, we often need to rely on tracking factors we can measure and that are known to influence root system development and function.

Research findings suggest that tomato growth and production tend to be greatest at root zone temperatures of 65-70 degrees F. This begs two questions.

First, are root zone temperatures in your high tunnel in the optimal range as often as possible? Do you measure soil and irrigation water temperatures? We have recorded soil temperatures every fifteen minutes for various entire seasons in high tunnels and open fields at OSU-Wooster/OARDC and some of the data are shown below (click to enlarge, if needed). Notice the description of the situation in which the readings were taken and when soil temperature readings were in the optimal range. These readings may or may not represent your farm or crops. However, the data may give clues as to the potential temperatures in your fields and high tunnels and encourage you to record those temperatures directly. Reliable, easy to use, inexpensive instruments are available for doing that.

About irrigation water – much of it draws from wells and surface sources and can be very cold (from the crop’s perspective) fall through spring. Although it has not been tested to my knowledge, passing well, surface, or municipal water through drip lines in a high tunnel, heated or not, may be unable to bring its temperature to 65-70 deg F. So, irrigation in the earliest part of the season may amount to bathing roots in water well below the optimal temperature for tomato and other crops and heating the air may overcome that issue only partially.

This brings us to Question 2. Are you convinced that your returns on investments in high tunnel heating, especially of the air for early season tomato production, are as high as possible? If the air temperature is high but soil temperature is low, are you getting as much from the relatively short photoperiods as you could? In early spring, crops may be more limited by a lack of sunlight than below-optimal air temperatures (and excessive heating during extended low-light periods may be counterproductive). We cannot change daylength or cloud cover, but we have some control over air and soil temperatures and may benefit from bringing investments in them into alignment with daylength. For example, should heating increase with daylength? What is the return on investment in aggressive air heating when daylength is very short soon after transplanting?

Addressing those questions opens doors to exploring the relative value of investments in air, soil, or combined heating. That is a subject for other discussions and articles, but it is worth asking if investments in air heating are returning as much as we expect based on the air temperature alone. The 11/6/21 issue of VegNet included an article on root and air heating in fall-time high tunnel leafy vegetable production (https://u.osu.edu/vegnetnews/2021/11/06/soil-heating-effects-on-days-to-harvest-quality-and-regrowth-of-three-high-tunnel-and-fall-grown-vegetable-crops/) and our previous research included spring season experiments, too. Individual crops respond differently to air and soil temperature due to biology and other reasons. For example, the growing tip of lettuce plants is closer to the soil surface than the growing tip of tomato plants and, therefore, may be more strongly impacted by root zone temperature and heating over brief periods.

The point here is that investments in high tunnel heating may be most effective when taking the whole cropping cycle and rotation into account. High tunnel management systems, including temperature, can be designed around one or a set of crops – i.e., around optimizing income from one crop or across the year. Of course, this would occur on a farm by farm, market by market basis. This spring and season, as you are able, consider taking a moment to examine your high tunnel temperature management practices and ask if they maximize your entire annual profit potential.

Specialty Crops Stakeholder Meeting – March 25

Over the past 10-20 years there has been significant change in the specialty crops industry and in OSU department specialists and Extension educators serving the specialty crop arena.

We invite you to join us in quality conversation about CFAES research and Extension support for Ohio Specialty Crops Partners. CFAES administration and department chairs will provide updates on our priorities, existing support for specialty crops, and actions we are taking related to research and education for specialty crops. We will also take time to explore emerging trends for specialty crops agriculture in the state, listen to the industry needs and how CFAES plays a role in the industry.

The agenda is listed below:

-Welcome – CFAES Dean Cathann Kress – 10 minutes

-Department Updates – 24 minutes (3 minutes apiece)

  • Entomology – Jamie Strange
  • Food, Agricultural & Biological Engineering – Scott Shearer
  • Food Science and Technology – Sheryl Barringer
  • Horticulture and Crop Science – Doug Karcher
  • Plant Pathology – Tom Mitchell
  • School of Environment and Natural Resources – Jeff Sharp
  • Extension – Jackie Wilkins
  • CFAES Research Stations, Field Labs and Farms – Ken Scaife

-Specialty Crop Industry Trends – Guil Signorini – 10 minutes

-Small Group Interview Sessions Report – Jim Jasinski – 5 minutes

-Stakeholder Listening Session – 45 minutes

Due to the comprehensive statewide nature of this meeting, it will be held virtually over Zoom so that travel will not be a barrier to participate.
Please REGISTER no later than March 24, 2022 at
https://go.osu.edu/2022speccropreg

We look forward to seeing you on March 25th!

March Edition of Farm Office Live

This month’s Farm Office Live will be held on March 16th, from 7 – 8:30 pm, and again on March 18th from 10 – 11:30 am. The Farm Office Team provides the latest outlook and updates on ag law, farm management, ag economics, farm business analysis, and other issues dealt with in your farm office.  Targeted to farmers and agribusiness stakeholders, our specialists digest the latest news and information and present it in an easy-to-understand format.