Agriculture Graduates are Highly Demanded

Agriculture Graduates are Highly Demanded

Agriculture

In the not too distant past, we heard from some so called experts that agriculture grads were going to have a hard time finding jobs in the near future,  Many of us in the social media world wrote blogs refuting that notion.  Today I ran across this story that says Ag Grads are in High demand.

Build the Soil

Build the Soil

Agriculture health soil

We started off the morning with our great elementary students with our "what we know about agriculture" lesson, but this time shared it with 4th graders. At the end of the lesson they raised the chain above their head while in a circle and stated "Agriculture feeds the world!" in both Creole and English.



Next we had some down time before our afternoon activities so we loaded up and headed to a

2015 in Review

2015 in Review

Agriculture

I usually do a Year in Review between Christmas and the New Year.  This year flooding was underway, so I filled the space dealing with the flood.

Looking back on blogs in 2015, One of the popular ones was written early in the year in response to tight budgets.  It still applies now.  Saving Trips across the Field

My on-line friend and fellow blogger Ed Winkle passed away and I wrote about him In Memory of Ed Winkle. 

Eduardo Paim continues to send reports from Brazil.  Like my reports his focus on his home area, Mato Grosso.  Eduardo's reports such as this one on Corn Harvest in Brazil continue to be popular.

Cover Crops continue to be a hot topic and I wrote several entries.  This one asking if you are On the Fence about Cover Crops was the most read.  

I look forward to continuing my attempt to offer advice and opinions on agriculture in 2016.

Sampling in Rushville Area

Sampling in Rushville Area

Agriculture

We took a trip to Rushville today to sample for a new customer.  Low areas were very wet.  There is lots of tillage done in that area on some pretty erosive soils.

Nutrient Management and Edge Conference Day 1

Nutrient Management and Edge Conference Day 1

Agriculture farm politics soil health

I am in Memphis attending the Nutrient Management and Edge of Field Conference. The conference kicked off with a symposium on healthy soils and healthy waters.  The morn started with academic research reports.  The afternoon moved to much more interesting topics as farmers and other discussed healthy soils from a more practical standpoint.  lames Moseley of Agree a food and agriculture policy group summed up the afternoon discussing policy and summing things up.  Mosey speculated that 25% of the yield increase needed to feed 9 million people would come from improving soil quality.  The farmer presentations were very compelling with the notion that such an increase is possible.  He also asked who would lead.  He thinks that government leadership is a bad idea.  He suggested that individuals will need to step forward.  Moseley discussed regulation and the idea that farmers need to avoid regulation by implementing god management on their own.  I would add that the reason we need to avoid regulation is that regulations limit our ability to manage a dynamic system. We need the flexibility to address issues as they present themselves. Andrew Sharply of Arkansas pointed out that they are no cookie cutter methods to solve every soil quality and water quality issue.

Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina

Agriculture flooding

I was attending a meeting in St. Louis as Hurricane Katrina came to shore.  It was close to a year after my retirement from USDA.  As news reports came in, I thought that perhaps some of my experience could be put to use in Louisiana.  I sent a resume to FEMA and I had a phone interview shortly.  It took until almost Thanksgiving before I heard from them again.  I left for Orlando the day after Thanksgiving to report for mustering in and training.  After a week of 11 hour days training in Florida we reported to Baton Rouge.  I spent most of my time inventorying properties that had repetitive claims for flood insurance.  I went all over Louisiana and saw a lot of devastation everywhere.  The second picture below, sums it up.  A house sitting on a pickup truck in the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans.  Tom Brokaw reported from in front of that house a year later.  The mess was still being cleaned up.

The people of Louisiana were very nice to me.  I made the acquaintance of Rodger in the third picture down and we worked together many days.  I still hear from him from time to time.  I worked 6 days a week 12 hours a day until Christmas.  After Christmas, We did 11 hour days and got Saturday afternoons off.  I stayed in Port Allen across the river from Baton Rouge after Christmas.  The people below also became friends and even invited me to their superbowl party.  I was also able to celebrate Mardi Gras season in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.  Despite news reports to the contrary, I never met anyone who treated me badly.

It is gratifying to see the ten year anniversary reports on television showing how well the area has recovered.  I am proud to have been a small part of that effort.

Why did we need to save New Orleans?  It is an area that is very important to commerce and agriculture.  A large portion of our agricultural exports go through New Orleans.  A large part of a our petroleum imports come through New Orleans.  The port of New Orleans extends up the Mississippi River as far as Baton Rouge.  There are 47 refineries located in the area.  If we did not restore New Orleans, we would have needed to build a new port and all that infrastructure somewhere else.  A new city would like not have been any safer from hurricanes than New Orleans, and would have been much more expensive.

Having lived through the flood of 1993 on the Mississippi River, I saw first hand what it takes to recover from a major disaster.  Some people asked me how long I thought it would take to recover in Louisiana.  I told them that it would take at least 5 years until you could look around and say, "It looks like we are recovering."  I said it would take 10 years until things really felt "normal" again, but it would be a new normal.  I am sure that 10 years later we can still find damage, but it is good that the people are back and that commerce continues to move in Louisiana.

Levees are more than meets they eye

Levees are more than meets they eye

Agriculture flooding levee

Dr. Ken Olson and his Co-author Lois Wright Morton have written a series of articles concerning flooding especially in southern Illinois, Missouri, and Kentucky based on experiences in that areas during the flood of 2011.  Olson and Morton have done  good job of talking about the effects of flooding on soils and agriculture.  In the latest article they explain how Slurry trenches and relief wells are installed to strengthen Ohio and Mississippi river levee systems.  Click on the link to see how there is more than meets the eye when it comes to levees.  The seepage control is an important component of the system, are often not visible at least to the untrained eye.