Progress 07/01/10 to 06/30/13
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audience for this project included horticulture and agriculture and natural resources county extension agents, and farmers looking for crop production and marketing information to help them diversify their operations. Although the target audience is primarily in Kentucky, Google Analytics statistics indicate that people in neighboring states, as well as in California, New York, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, also utilized the Center’s Web site. Over the three-year life of this grant, 26,450 unique visitors utilized our Web site 53,149 times, accounting for 165,176 pageviews. The most popular pages utilized by these visitors were our price reports (produce auctions and farmers markets), crop profiles (fact sheets on a variety of crops), and crop budgets pages. In 2013, five of our crop profiles were translated into Spanish in an effort to better serve Hispanic growers in the region. The average size of Kentucky farms is much smaller than the national average, and more than half of Kentucky farms have sales of less than $10,000 per year. Many Kentucky farmers were highly dependent on tobacco as a primary source of income, and as Kentucky tobacco production fell, alternative enterprises became essential to the survival of many family farms in the state. This project targeted farmers looking for alternative crops to replace lost income from tobacco, and farmers looking to enhance their enterprises by improving production and marketing techniques. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The Center's coordinator attended the 2010 Association for the Advancement of Industrial Crops Conference for professional development in the area of bioenergy crops. The faculty member working on the novel new crops and production systems project attended the Southern Region ASHS Conference in 2013, while the graduate student working on the same project attended both the Southern Region ASHA Conference and the ASHS Annual Conference in 2013. The modeling team working on the sustainable/organic production project attended the International Society of Ecological Modeling meeting in Beijing, China, and the International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas in Montreal, Canada in 2012. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The Center’s coordinator spoke about alternative crops at extension office meetings in Bath County, Marshall County, and Nelson County, attended field days at Princeton, Quicksand, and Whitley County to share alternative crop and marketing information with growers in those areas, and displayed the Center’s exhibit and publications at the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy Conference in Bowling Green. Information was disseminated annually at the Fruit and Vegetable Growers Meeting (Lexington), and at producer meetings across KY. Information was in the form of presentations, research reports, and crop profiles. The audience included farmers and extension agents. Information about the cellulosic bioenergy project was presented at meetings in Belgium, Canada, Massachusetts, California, Indiana, Kansas and Pennsylvania, and at a seminar at the University of KY. Information about hops was presented at a regional extension meeting in Bath County. Eleven trainings, with attendance of approximately 320, featured the solar greenhouse and strip tillage systems in Year 2. These trainings taught growers about the production systems being developed and how they might fit into their farming practices. Three agent trainings/field days covered strip tillage of vegetable crops; 150 people attended. In Year 3, information for strip tillage and solar greenhouses was included in nine county and regional extension meetings. The section of the farm that was used for organic/sustainable research has been the site of numerous educational programs, including a large number of tours for a range of people, from elementary students through college students, the public, visiting scholars, and many farmers. More than 1,000 people toured the organic/sustainable section of the farm each year. Additionally, the site is a focal point for the university’s Apprenticeship in Sustainable Agriculture class (SAG 397), which provides students with hands-on experience operating an organic community supported agriculture produce farm and marketing its harvest in the local community. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The Center's Web site has expanded over the course of this project with the addition of 42 new crop profiles and nine new marketing profiles. In addition, 88 crop and four marketing profiles were updated. In the bioenergy project, a 5-acre pilot scale planting of Miscanthus was established at the UK Horticulture Research Farm in Lexington in Year 1. Experiments were conducted to determine carbon sequestration potential, on-farm densification efforts, microbial components, and establishment and growth responses in Kentucky. One study was performed by developing a model based on data obtained from the literature regarding nitrogen fertilization (N), potential biomass yields, nitrous oxide emissions factors, and efficiency of biomass harvest and transport logistics. Sixteen scenarios were studied that considered biomass yield, two N application rates, two Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGE) factors for synthetic N to nitrous oxide, and three harvest/transportation efficiencies. This research showed that intensified use of N to maximize yield both minimized land use and maximized efficiency in terms of diesel use; however, the data implied that synthetic N supplementation to maximize yield would quickly become the most significant contributor to GHGE, because GHGE are strongly related to the emission of nitrous oxide from soils due to N fertilization, and could represent more than 80% of the GHGE relative to biomass harvest logistics. Minimizing the impact of N fertilization will be critical for reducing the GHGE associated with biomass production. In the sustainable/organic production project, investigators worked with University of Kentucky Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm management to collect data on CSA production operations, including labor, inputs, and crop yields. Data collection for the life cycle/energy analysis component of the sustainable and organic production systems was completed. Investigators worked with colleagues from the University of Georgia to develop an input-output model to compare the model production system in this work with conventional agriculture and other relevant agricultural model systems. Preliminary results were presented at meetings in China and Canada. This project considered that a one-for-one relationship of energy inputs to outputs, which exists in self-regulating ecosystems, provides a goal for sustainable and organic production and is a holistic, systems-level indicator of the sustainability of agricultural production systems (i.e., energy returned on energy invested is greater than or equal to one, EROI≥1). Similar to most conventional agriculture, findings indicated that a typical mechanized, intensive organic agricultural operation operates with an EROI less than one (EROI=0.025). Although organic agricultural methods such as removing synthetic fertilizers and pesticides tend to reduce energy imbalances, overall, useful energy inputs still exceed useful energy outputs. This project showed that direct and indirect energy dissipation data remains difficult to collect and or generate for organic agricultural operations; however, the project demonstrated that current state-of-the-art input-output energy analysis produces sufficient results for broad conclusions in agricultural operations and helps to identify areas for future research. Three primary focus areas for novel new crops and cropping systems research were conducted: hops production at the Robinson Center in Eastern KY; passively solar heated greenhouse production, and strip tillage for vegetable production, both conducted at the UK Horticulture Research Farm. A hops yard was established in 2011. Hops varieties Cascade, Chinook, Mt. Hood, Newport, and Nugget were planted on June 1 (5 varieties x 3 replications), and first emergence was one week later. Survival of rhizomes was 33% for Chinook, 40% for Newport, 60% for Mt. Hood, and 87% for Cascade and Nugget. Weed control was primarily hand removal for broadleaved weeds with a graminicide for grasses. Drip irrigation was used as needed in July and August. In all blocks Cascade had the top yield, ranging from 11-16 quarts. Chinook, Nugget, Newport and Mt. Hood ranged from a minimum of 0.5 quarts to 6 quarts though not significantly different from each other within a block. No sprays were used for disease or insects and only mechanical weed control was used in the second year. Cutting the bines at shoulder height and pulling them down at harvest was much quicker and easier than using a lift as was done in Year 1.The upper portions of the vines had disease problems. The most significant weed problems were Bermuda grass and clover.In Year 3, extreme Japanese beetle pressure led to high defoliation followed by high disease pressure; no hops were harvested in 2013. Hops proved to be labor intensive and have a limited though potentially profitable market. The purpose of the strip tillage study was to investigate the interaction between tillage regime and irrigation management in organically and conventionally managed systems on soil quality and yield of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.), ‘Aristotle’. The trial was arranged in a split plot with eight treatment combinations. Plants were grown in strip tillage and with plastic mulch under well-watered and drought conditions in organically and conventionally managed systems in 2011 and 2012 in Lexington. Soil compaction, leaf water potential, and yields were determined in this trial. There was a significant interaction between soil compaction within and between rows in the strip tillage and plasticulture systems. In-row soil compaction was less in the plasticulture plots than in strip tillage plots. However, between-row compaction was significantly greater in plasticulture plots at 15, 20, and 30 cm compared to strip tillage plots. In addition, organically managed plots had significantly less in-row compaction than conventionally managed plots at depths up to 20 cm. Leaf water potential was measured at pre-dawn and mid-day regularly during the growing season. There were no interactions present among any treatments for leaf water potential. In addition, there were no significant effects of treatments for pre-dawn leaf water potential, but there were significant differences in leaf water potential between plants subjected to well-watered and drought conditions. This indicated that irrigation regime impacted plant water status, regardless of growing system. There were no significant interactions between production system and yield. However, there were significant treatment differences in yield between well-watered and drought stressed plants, with well-watered plants producing much greater yields than drought stressed plants. Results suggested that while tillage system may impact soil quality characteristics, irrigation regime was the only treatment that significantly impacted plant water status and yield in this trial. Construction of the solar greenhouse was completed in 2012. A variety trial of 18 tomatoes was conducted in the solar greenhouse in the spring of 2013, and temperature data was collected. Data is currently being analyzed, but anecdotally, the side heated by water barrels held warmer night temperatures and the plants had visibly greater growth than the side heated by sand. Overall, the tomatoes came in earlier than in standard high tunnels, despite being planted a few weeks after they would have ideally been planted in the solar greenhouse.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Montross, M., S. DeBolt and W.C. Adams. 2013. Interplay between yield, nitrogen application, and logistics on the potential energetic and greenhouse gas emissions from biomass crops. GCB Bioenergy. doi: 10.1111/gcbb.12064
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Coolong, T., R. Warner, J. Wilhoit and Z. Wang. 2013. Methods for controlling soil-moisture based irrigation in field-grown vegetables. Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Science, Feb. 2-4, Orlando, FL.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Wang, Z. and T. Coolong. 2013. Irrigation and tillage regime affects soil quality and yield of bell pepper (Capsicum annuum L.). Southern Region American Society for Horticultural Science, Feb. 2-4, Orlando, FL.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Schramski, J.R., K.L. Jacobsen, T.W. Smith, M.A. Williams and T.M. Thompson. 2013. Energy as a potential systems-level indicator of sustainability in organic agriculture: Case study model of a diversified, organic vegetable production system. Ecological Modelling. 267:102-114.
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Progress 07/01/11 to 06/30/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A Crop Diversification & Biofuel Research & Education Center (formerly New Crop Opportunities Center) was developed to disseminate information about alternative crops and research. Extension agents and farmers make up the audience for information delivered through the Center's Web site (www.uky.edu/ag/CDBREC), which includes 141 crop profiles and 22 marketing profiles to help farmers decide which crops and marketing systems might work for them. These include 13 new profiles that were developed and 25 profiles that were revised during year 2 of this project. Research has focused on: 1) bioenergy, 2) sustainable/organic production, and 3) novel new crops. Information was disseminated at the Fruit and Vegetable Growers Meeting (Lexington), and at producer meetings across KY. Information was in the form of presentations, research reports, and crop profiles. The audience included farmers and extension agents. Information about the cellulosic bioenergy project was presented at meetings in Belgium, Canada, Massachusetts, California, Indiana, Kansas and Pennsylvania, and at a seminar at the University of KY. A 5-acre pilot scale planting of Miscanthus was established at the UK Horticulture Research Farm in Lexington in year 1 of this project. Experiments are ongoing to determine carbon sequestration potential, on-farm densification efforts, microbial components, and establishment and growth responses in Kentucky. In the sustainable/organic production project, investigators worked with UK Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm management to collect data on CSA production operations, including labor, inputs, and crop yields. Data collection for the life cycle/energy analysis component of the sustainable and organic production systems was completed. Investigators worked with colleagues from the University of Georgia to develop an input-output model to compare the model production system in this work with conventional agriculture and other relevant agricultural model systems. The modeling work has been completed and a manuscript is in final revisions. Preliminary results have been presented at meetings in China and Canada. Three primary focus areas for novel new crops and cropping systems research are being conducted: hops production, at the Robinson Center in Eastern KY; passively solar heated greenhouse production, and strip tillage for vegetable production, both conducted at the UK Horticulture Research Farm. Hops varieties Cascade, Chinook, Mt. Hood, Newport, and Nugget were planted. In 2011-2012 there were seven strip tillage plots focusing on strip tillage of peppers and cucurbits in organic and conventional production systems, including two on-farm demonstration sites in Clark and Lyon counties. Construction of the solar greenhouse is nearly complete and a tomato crop will be planted by September 2012. Eleven trainings, with attendance of approximately 320, have featured the solar greenhouse and strip tillage systems. These trainings taught growers about the production systems being developed and how they might fit into their farming practices. Three agent trainings/field days covered strip tillage of vegetable crops; 150 people attended. PARTICIPANTS: Robert Houtz is the principal investigator on the project. Principal investigators and co-principal investigators on specific research projects are Seth DeBolt, Mike Montross, S. Ray Smith, Tim Coolong, Mark Williams, and Krista Jacobsen. Others who work on the project are extension professor Tim Woods, horticulture specialist Shawn Wright, research analyst Jozsef Stork, Center coordinator Christy Cassady, extension associates Kevin Heidemann and Cheryl Kaiser, engineer associate William Adams, lab technician Crystal Sparks, and freelance agricultural economist Matt Ernst. This project involves the training and professional development of one graduate student and six undergraduate students. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences of this project are extension agents in horticulture and agriculture and natural resources, and farmers seeking information about the production and marketing of bioenergy crops and hops, as well as organic/sustainable production systems. The average size of Kentucky farms is much smaller than the national average, and more than half of Kentucky farms have sales of less than $10,000 per year. Many Kentucky farmers were highly dependent on tobacco as a primary source of income, and as Kentucky tobacco production fell, alternative enterprises became essential to the survival of many family farms in the state. This project is targeting farmers looking for alternative crops to replace lost income from tobacco, and farmers looking to enhance their enterprises by improving production and marketing techniques. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Interest in alternative crops has risen as tobacco income has fallen in KY ($784 million in 1999 to $320 million in 2011). The Center's Web site received 17,718 visits from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. Those visits accounted for 52,494 pages being viewed on the Web site. The most-viewed pages were the produce auction price reports, the crop profiles, and the farmers market price reports. KY has enormous potential for sustainable biomass-based energy production. This project represents a shift toward using abandoned agricultural or nutritionally depleted land for production of non-food crops to produce energy, rather than using corn. KY has one of the highest proportions of arable marginal lands in the U.S. at about 20%. Supporting an integrated biofuels and bioproducts industry will enhance revenue and value-added processing income for farmers and foresters. Research to define carbon sequestered by Miscanthus over time into the soil is currently underexplored; it may have equal or greater value to the above ground portion of the plant, which will be used for energy synthesis. An analysis of harvest logistics reveals that intensification of yield will enhance efficiency of the bioenergy farming system as opposed to expansion. A number of external collaborations have been initiated in large part due to this project. These collaborative relationships are expected to continue and new relationships will be formed with both academic and industrial partners. As for organic research, increased acreage in organic production nationwide is aligned with an increase in direct marketing of organic products through CSAs, farmers markets, etc. There has been little systemic study of the economic, environmental and social benefits direct markets are touted to produce. This project is using the model CSA system at the university as a case study for diversified organic vegetable production. This study is being used to create a conceptual model for direct-marketed vegetable systems representative of the scale and types of operations used across KY. The results could have a significant positive impact on grower acceptance of organic agriculture. Researchers are continuing to collect data in an ongoing effort to contribute to the scientific understanding of the energy and inputs involved in diversified organic vegetable production. This multi-year data collection effort will bolster the analysis of the system, as well as contribute to preliminary data for broader scale work on energy use efficiency in organic farming systems. In the novel new crops project, survival of rhizomes in the hops research plot was 33% for Chinook, 40% for Newport, 60% for Mt. Hood, and 87% for Cascade and Nugget. The worst weed problems were Bermuda grass and clover. Hops have been extremely sensitive to glyphosate. Several growers have begun to grow hops as an alternative crop in KY. Eight growers have signed up to conduct on-farm demonstrations of strip tillage technologies. This project will have the only passively solar heated research greenhouse located at a land grant university in the U.S.; it is too early to determine the long-term impact of the greenhouse.
Publications
- Smith, T., Schramski, J. and Jacobsen, K.L. Energetics of Organic Agriculture: Case Study of Community Supported Agriculture in Kentucky. Proc. 2012 International Conference on Degrowth in the Americas, Montreal, Canada.
- Wang, Z. and Coolong, T. 2011. Evaluation of conservation tillage and plasticulture production systems for organically and conventionally grown bell peppers in well-watered and drought conditions. 2011 Fruit and Veg. Crop Res. Report. PR 626:38-41.
- Harris, D. and DeBolt, S. 2010. Synthesis, regulation and utilization of lignocellulosic biomass. Plant Biotechnology Journal 8: 244-262.
- Harris, D., Petti, C. and DeBolt, S. 2012. Biogenesis of lignocellulosic biomass for advanced fuels, in James Lee (ed.), Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts. Springer Publishing Co. New York, N.Y. (in press).
- Mendu, V., Shearin, T., Campbell, E. Jr., Stork, J., Jae, J., Crocker, M., Huber, G. and DeBolt, S. 2012. Global Bioenergy Potential From High Lignin Agricultural Residue. Proc. of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 109(10): 4014-4019.
- Schramski, J.R., Jacobsen, K.L. and Smith, T. 2011. The coupling of human and natural systems: agroecological energy systems modelling and case study of a diversified organic vegetable farm in Kentucky, USA. Proc. 2011 International Society of Ecological Modeling Conference, Beijing, China.
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Progress 07/01/10 to 06/30/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: A Crop Diversification & Biofuel Research & Education Center (formerly New Crop Opportunities Center) has been developed to disseminate information about alternative crops and research. Extension agents and farmers make up the audience for information delivered through the Center's Web site (www.uky.edu/ag/CDBREC), which includes 136 crop profiles and 13 marketing profiles to help farmers decide which crops and marketing systems might work best for them. These include 11 new profiles and 34 profiles that were revised during the first year of this project. Research has focused on: 1) bioenergy, 2) sustainable/organic production systems, and 3) novel new crops. Information was disseminated at the Fruit and Vegetable Growers Meeting (Lexington); the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy meeting (Bowling Green); and at producer meetings across the state. Information was in the form of presentations, research reports, and crop profiles. The audience included farmers and extension agents. In the bioenergy project, a 5-acre planting of Miscanthus hybrids (40,000 transplants) was established at the Horticulture Research Farm in Lexington. Plants are a protected variety (hydride) sourced from Mendel Bioenergy Seeds. Herbicide regimes for weed control were developed during establishment. An endophyte treatment study is being conducted as a means to increase vigor in early seedlings. Another experiment is being conducted to define carbon sequestered by this crop over time into the soil. As a baseline, 100 soil cores were taken and analyzed at the time of planting. Yield will be assessed after a 2-year establishment period. An analysis of harvest logistics was developed to adequately account for energy inputs and outputs in the system. In the sustainable/organic project, yield and labor data were collected for all aspects of the UK Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Project beginning in March 2011. These data were used to develop structure for an ecological model designed to examine energy inputs and outputs in sustainable and organic specialty crops production systems. Data include energy and labor inputs of the CSA, as well as yields and nutritional information. Two undergraduate students were trained in ecological modeling and data collection through fieldwork and research associated with the project. In the novel new crops project, five varieties of hops (Chinook, Mt. Hood, Nugget, Newport and Cascade) were planted in Quicksand, KY on June 1, 2011. The first harvest is scheduled for late September. Construction began on a solar greenhouse, and a strip tillage experiment began in 2011; both are being tested as novel production systems. The latter work consists of 8 treatments arranged in a factorial design with tillage (plasticulture or strip tillage) being one factor, production system (organic vs. conventional) another factor, and irrigation regime (drought vs. well-watered) being the last factor. PARTICIPANTS: Robert Houtz is the principal investigator on the project. Principal investigators and co-principal investigators on specific research projects are Seth DeBolt, Mike Montross, S. Ray Smith, Tim Coolong, Mark Williams, and Krista Jacobsen. Others who work on the project are research farm technicians Ryan Hays and Lucas Hanks, research analyst Jozsef Stork, Center coordinator Christy Cassady, extension associates Miranda Hileman and Cheryl Kaiser, engineer associate William Adams, and freelance agricultural economist Matt Ernst. This project involves the training and professional development of one graduate student and 6 undergraduate students. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences of this project are extension agents in horticulture and agriculture and natural resources, and farmers seeking information about the production and marketing of bioenergy crops and hops, as well as organic/sustainable production systems. The average size of Kentucky farms is much smaller than the national average, and more than half of Kentucky farms have sales of less than $10,000 per year. Many Kentucky farmers were highly dependent on tobacco as a primary source of income, and as Kentucky tobacco production fell, alternative enterprises became essential to the survival of many family farms in the state. This project is targeting farmers looking for alternative crops to replace lost income from tobacco, and farmers looking to enhance their enterprises by improving production and marketing techniques. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Not relevant to this project.
Impacts
Interest in alternative crops has risen as tobacco income has fallen in KY ($784 million in 1999 to $331 million in 2010). This project is designed to develop and deliver KY farmers the knowledge they need to assess new crop opportunities. KY has enormous potential for sustainable biomass-based energy production. A shift toward using abandoned agricultural or nutritionally depleted land for production of non-food crops to produce energy, rather than using corn, is the choice for second-generation biomass industries. KY has one of the highest proportions of arable marginal lands in the U.S. at about 20%. Supporting an integrated biofuels and bioproducts industry will enhance revenue and value-added processing income for farmers and foresters. Research to define carbon sequestered by Miscanthus over time into the soil is currently underexplored; it may have equal or greater value to the above ground portion of the plant, which will be used for energy synthesis. An analysis of harvest logistics reveals that intensification of yield will enhance efficiency of the bioenergy farming system as opposed to expansion. As for organic research, increased acreage in organic production nationwide is aligned with an increase in direct marketing of organic products through CSAs, farmers markets, etc. KY ranks in the top 10 states with the fastest direct market growth. There has been little systemic study of the economic, environmental and social benefits direct markets are touted to produce. This project is using the model CSA system at the university as a case study for diversified organic vegetable production. This study will be used to create a conceptual model for direct-marketed vegetable systems representative of the scale and types of operations used across KY. The results could have a significant positive impact on grower acceptance of organic agriculture. Meanwhile, potential novel new crops and production systems include hops, strip tillage and solar greenhouses. Hops have potential for marketing to microbreweries, and also for value-added products; however, no research on hops had been done before in KY, so there is a need to develop a production system. Solar greenhouses and strip tillage offer growers new options that can be more economical and environmentally friendly than other systems. Solar greenhouses can extend the growing season and save on heating costs. Strip tillage can reduce erosion and protect water quality. In other states, strip tillage has been shown to improve seed germination, drainage and aeration, while reducing the effects of compaction. Plots established as part of the novel new crops project showed differences in water use efficiency between conventional and organic systems. Overall, the Center facilitates packaging of information from its research and other sources for dissemination. Expected outcomes/impacts will be an increase in knowledge among farmers and Extension agents about production and marketing systems for new crops. This should allow farmers to make informed decisions about which crops to try, and how to market them. Anticipated benefits include greater profitability for KY farmers.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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