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| Cooperative
Extension educators have led composting
workshops throughout the state.
Howard
P. Nuernberger—Information and Communication
Technologies, College of Agricultural
Sciences |
Springtime is prime time for composting. "Things
don't happen much in the winter," said
Dr. Rick Stehouwer, associate professor of environmental
soil science in the College of Agricultural
Sciences. "In the spring, people can get
into their gardens and add lawn trimmings to
their composting bins, along with food scraps.
Toward late summer, they will have some finished
compost that they can mix into their garden
beds to improve drainage and provide some fertility."
Stehouwer has for the past few years been behind
a broad effort to educate Pennsylvania residents
about the benefits of composting.
"We're trying to promote the whole concept
of recycling organic material," he said.
"Materials can be recycled, reused and
removed from the solid waste stream. We'd like
to encourage people to compost and to increase
awareness and support of local composting efforts."
Since 2000, each year in the fall up to 55 counties
statewide have participated in the workshops
led by Cooperative Extension educators, in partnership
with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental
Protection. The educators have led hundreds
of workshops; thousands of Pennsylvania residents
have attended.
Follow-up surveys show that people are using
their composting bins provided by the state,
although Stehouwer says that the initiative,
the Backyard Recycling Program, plans to conduct
a longer-term survey this spring to learn whether
those who took the workshop in 2000 are still
composting.
Sherri Clayton, senior planner in Franklin County,
reports that the program in her area has been
successful. "People are conscious of what
they do with their waste."
Animal
Composting
A partnership with Penn State, the Cornell Waste
Management Institute and the Pennsylvania Department
of Agriculture seeks to educate residents about
another type of composting.
"When an animal dies on a farm in New York
or Pennsylvania, the law says there are four
options for disposal," explained Craig
Williams, a Penn State Cooperative Extension
educator in Tioga County and the leader at Penn
State behind the effort. These are burying,
rendering (taking the animal product and making
it into another), composting and insineration.
"With rendering costs rising, we saw a
need to make livestock and dairy producers more
aware of the composting option," which
is easier on the environment.
He and educators across the state are leading
workshops that provide demonstrations of the
process, and Williams reports that many farmers
throughout the state call for fact sheets (available
online at http://composting.cas.psu.edu/natrendering.htm).
In addition, Williams said: "Local Cooperative
Extension educators are able to see a community's
need and then create their own programs to meet
that need," citing an online course developed
by Greg Strait, Linda Spahr and Melanie Barkley
in Bedford County for Pennsylvania meat goat
producers.
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Penn State's Pesticide Education
Program recently was one of four such state programs
to be recognized as models by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA noted the program's
outreach initiatives and its leadership of Penn
State's West Nile Virus educational efforts. Led
by Dr. John Ayers, professor of plant pathology,
the Penn State program was cited for making "great
strides in addressing urban concerns about pesticide
issues."
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| Greg
Hoover checks the health of a tree.
Howard
P. Nuernberger—Information and Communication
Technologies, College of Agricultural Sciences
|
Ask Penn State entomologist Greg Hoover what
keeps him interested in insect-related problems
and he'll say that he's a diehard fly fisherman.
"I enjoy places where trout live, and I appreciate
plants that grow there," he says. And where
there are plants, there are insects.
He and Dr. Gary Moorman of the Plant Pathology
Department in the College of Agricultural Sciences
have for nearly 20 years traveled extensively
across Pennsylvania presenting the latest research
findings on pest management in hands-on workshops
with green industry professionals.
Hoover and Moorman go from plant to plant in a
landscape setting discussing symptoms with participants—landscapers,
nursery workers and arborists—in order to help
them better identify the cause of poor plant health.
"I could give a lecture about plant pathology,
and Greg could give a talk about entomology. But
these meetings that we have are more of a real-life
experience: here's a sick plant—what's the cause?"
explained Moorman.
Robert McMullin, president of Keystone Tree Experts
in Doylestown, estimates he has attended about
50 workshops over the years. "I go to increase
my knowledge, because they have updated information,"
he said. McMullin added that although national
meetings address the subject, "as far as
availability and frequency in Pennsylvania—[Hoover
and Moorman] are it."
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Brad
Hilty teaches dairy producers to analyze
production costs with DairyCOP$.
Photo
courtesy of Brad Hilty
|
Cooperative Extension educator Dave Dowler has found
that dairy producers are uncomfortable talking about
numbers. "They usually leave the accounting
work to someone else," he said.
But, says Dowler, in order to be successful, farmers
should be familiar with their production costs.
To encourage farmers to talk in these terms, Dowler
in his risk management workshops trains them on
how to use DairyCOP$, an Excel spreadsheet program
that calculates how much it costs to produce 100
pounds of milk—a standard measure in the industry.
The program—created by Brad Hilty, information
management specialist with Penn State's Dairy Alliance—allows
producers to break down their total production costs
by category. "We plug in the information from
several dairy producers in a workshop setting,"
explained Hilty. "Then we compile it and compare.
The farmers can look at one another's expenses and
ask how they are getting things like feed costs
down to a certain level. They can ask themselves:
‘What are the top performers doing?'"
Hilty trains producers on how to use DairyCOP$ in
several workshops, including Busines$ense, which
teaches best management practices and business and
information management to dairy producers. Thus
far, he's taught Pennsylvania producers to use DairyCOP$.
However, it appears to be a course with national
appeal: he is receiving calls from all over the
country from interested producers. |
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