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Cooperative Extension Covid-19_Farming & Livestock Webpages, University Of Maine Cooperative Extension

Cooperative Extension

Screenshots of various University of Maine Cooperative Extension webpages featuring guidance and resources regarding farming and livestock during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Economics Of On-Farm Rice Drying In Arkansas, Clayton J. Parker, Lanier Nalley

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Globally, rice producers are faced with the temporal problem of deciding the optimal time to harvest rice. When harvested, paddy rice is typically at a harvest moisture content (HMC) between 15% and 22% and subsequently dried by the mill to a moisture content (MC) of 12.5%. Riceland Foods Inc., the largest miller of rice in the world, uses a stair-step pricing model to charge farmers to dry, which can complicate the timing of harvest as producers try to balance the tradeoff of minimizing drying costs by waiting to harvest at lower HMC vs. maintaining higher rice quality typically observed when …

Farm Fresh Food Boxes, Lauren Greco

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

In response to trends that challenge food access, farmer livelihoods and public health, several market and social institutions have pursued the development of alternative food systems (AFS). These attempt to support the production and distribution of foods with important qualities, such as attention to specific growing practices, higher worker standards, superior product quality and taste, support for environmental health and farmer well-being (Valchuis et al. 2015). While there has been some success in these efforts, as evidenced by the growth of farmers’ markets, community supported agriculture programs, and farm-to-institution relationships, growth in direct to consumer markets has flattened in recent …

Payment For Ecosystem Services: Incentives To Support Environmental Quality & Farming In Vermont, Stephen Posner, Taylor Ricketts, Eric Roy

Reports and Policy Briefs

Environmental quality is an ongoing concern in the Lake Champlain Basin. Vermont farmers are in a unique position to manage land in a way that maintains and improves environmental quality. A payment for ecosystem services (PES) program for Vermont would both support the economic vi- ability of Vermont farms and incentivize farmers to improve water quality and soil health. How- ever, conceptual and practical implementation challenges remain.

Memories Of Life On The Farm: Through The Lens Of Pioneer Photographer J. C. Allen, Frederick Whitford, Neal Harmeyer

Purdue University Press Book Previews

John Calvin Allen, professionally known as J. C., worked as a photographer for Purdue University from 1909-1952, and operated his own photography business until his death in 1976. The J. C. Allen photographs represent an historical account of the transition from pioneer practices to scientific methodologies in agriculture and rural communities. During this major transitional period for agriculture, tractors replaced horses, hybrid corn supplanted open-pollinated corn, and soybeans changed from a novelty crop to regular rotation on most farms. During this time, purebred animals with better genetic pedigrees replaced run-of-the-mill livestock, and systematic disease prevention in cattle, swine, and poultry …

Precision Agriculture Gis Technologies For Mississippi, 1st. Edition, Amelia A.A. Fox

College of Agriculture & Life Sciences Publications and Scholarship

Precision agriculture is meant to improve on-farm efficiency in hopes of ultimately increasing profitability while also protecting the environment. However, this difficult process almost always includes the proper management and interpretation of data. Therefore, it is imperative that those individuals involved in making such decisions are educated on these processes. In a data-driven world, this textbook is a great resource for those wanting to learn how to utilize their data in hopes of making better informed on-farm decisions.

2018 Custom Rate Survey, Ryan Larsen, Garrett Nelson, Michael Pace, Lyle Holmgren

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides agricultural producers with current information regarding rates for custom farming operations in Utah.

Conservation Agriculture In The Heartland: Farmer Perceptions Of Soil Health And The Adoption Of Cover Crops, Lillian Clarissa Cobo

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The benefits of cover crops are widely recognized by those interested in conservation agriculture and soil health. These benefits include soil erosion control, nutrient loss reduction, and overall improvement of soil health. However, while these benefits are well-documented, the adoption rate of cover crops in the American Heartland remains astoundingly low. While some studies have attempted to determine the reasons for this low adoption rate, the information relating to how farmer perceptions of soil health impact cover crop adoption is almost nonexistent. Furthermore, there is a clear absence of mixed method studies in the literature relating to this subject. This …

Risk And Return Comparisons Of Pre-Harvest Marketing Strategies, John Leander Turner V

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes risk and returns associated with pre-harvest corn grain marketing strategies for the state of Arkansas. Farming is characterized by a volatile environment. Numerous risks are taken by producers in order to provide commodities that are bought and sold by various parties in the supply chain. Price, yield, and production costs vary daily and can have large variation between years. Risk and Return Comparisons of Pre-harvest Marketing Strategies examines the effectiveness of using pre-harvest marketing strategies to enhance returns and to mitigate inherent price risk in the Memphis cash corn market. Thirteen strategies are compared to the October …

Agrarian Politics And The American Tradition, Jeff Taylor

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Agrarianism is a political philosophy and way of life known and prac­ticed among peoples of diverse nationalities and religions. While having ancient, medieval, and early-modern roots, agrarian politics blossomed most dramatically in America, during both its colonial and republican periods. Notable spokesmen for American agrarianism include Thomas Jefferson, William Jennings Bryan, and Robert La Follette. It has been in steady decline for the past century as cosmopolitan and centralizing forc­es have displaced tradition and smallness of scale. Still, there have been natural voices lamenting losses in the face of"progress": Distributists and Southern Agrarians, the Counterculture and the Green Party, Wendell …

The Use Of Smart Devices For The Detection Of Aflatoxin In Ground Corn Feeds, Gil Nonato C. Santos, Mary Gillian Santos, Karen Doniza, James Salveo L. Olarve

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

Aflatoxins are toxic and carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced predominantly by two fungal species: Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus (Gourama, H., & Bullerman, L., 1995). These fungal species are contaminants of food crops as well as animal feeds, and are responsible for aflatoxin contamination of these agricultural products. The toxicity and potency of aflatoxins make them the primary health hazard as well as responsible for losses associated with contaminations of processed foods and feeds (Gourama, H., & Bullerman, L., 1995). Determination of aflatoxins concentration in food crops and animal feeds is thus very important for Food Safety Regulatory Agencies (FRSA) to …

Hester, Lanny Ray, 1950-2015 (Fa 1120), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project FA 1120. Student folk studies project titled: "Traditional Farming Methods & Tools," which includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of traditional farming using horses or mules in Warren County, Kentucky. Sheets may include a description of the traditional tack or implement, photo, informant's name, and text classification.

Mansfield, Sherry R. And Bruce Greene (Fa 1112), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1112. Student folk studies project titled: “Just a Man—Captain William Hicks” which includes an interview of C. Jeff Hicks, the son of Confederate Captain William Hicks. The interview includes a description of the life of the son and his father while living in Barren County, Kentucky and Sumner County, Tennessee.

The Future Of Food In Blade Runner 2049, Diarmuid Cawley

Other resources

The science fiction genre has always been a hotbed for questions about the existence of life and what it means to be human. Food, like water and oxygen, is necessary to sustain life, but also is a key indicator of culture. One of the things that fascinates us about science fiction is how an imagined future culture might look. Blade Runner 2049, although not centred around food, interweaves food and agriculture into a dystopian narrative on evolution and a bio-engineered labour force, while asking us what it means to have memories and to be human.

Starks, Rick (Fa 1052), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1052. Paper titled “Early Farm Tools and Implements” in which Rick Starks visits the Penns Chapel community, a rural hamlet located near Bowling Green, to witness how residents use traditional farming equipment such as plows, wagons, and mills to create sustainable and cooperative environments.

Sutherland, David And Linda C. White (Fa 1044), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1044. Paper titled “From Mountain to Flatland: A Study of Two Homesteads” written by David Sutherland and Linda White. The authors attempt to compare two homesteads—one found in Pickett County, Tennessee, and the other in Simpson County, Kentucky—by exploring the family histories, topographical influences, and architectural styles of each location. The paper also includes photographs of informants, their farms, grave markers, aerial maps, and other personal ephemera.

Integrating Fisheries And Agricultural Programs For Food Security, Brendan Fisher, Robin Naidoo, John Guernier, Kiersten Johnson, Daniel Mullins, Dorcas Robinson, Edward H. Allison

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Background: Despite the connections between terrestrial and marine/freshwater livelihood strategies that we see in coastal regions across the world, the contribution of wild fisheries and fish farming is seldom considered in analyses of the global food system and is consequently underrepresented in major food security and nutrition policy initiatives. Understanding the degree to which farmers also consume fish, and how fishers also grow crops, would help to inform more resilient food security interventions. Results: By compiling a dataset for 123,730 households across 6781 sampling clusters in 12 highly food-insecure countries, we find that between 10 and 45% of the population …

Meat For Missoula: Educating Our Youth On Sustainable Meat Production Practices, Amelia R G Liberatore

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In autumn 2016, a controversy arose when a student group, Advocates for Animals, took up a campaign against three meat pigs at the PEAS Farm due to strong views about animal consumption. Pigs serve as a central piece of food source education to hundreds of Missoula children who visit the farm every year. Unfortunately, the controversy overshadowed the educational purpose of exposing children to sustainable meat production practices. Moreover, access to the PEAS Farm and good food education is not available to all local children. I wondered whether education was accessible elsewhere. Unfortunately, child-appropriate, culturally relevant food literature is scarce. …

Technical Assistance And Farming At The Rural-Urban Interface: A Study Of Farmer Utilization And Related Attitudes, Elijah Massey

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The rural-urban interface (RUI) is a complex landscape impacted by a variety of social and economic processes. Substantial U.S. agricultural production occurs at the RUI despite non-farm development pressure. Notably, at a time when U.S. farming is increasingly dominated by a shrinking number of large scale operations, RUI agricultural production occurs primarily on small and medium farms. Importantly, RUI farms exhibit greater diversity in terms of operator demographics, production type, and marketing channels, than their large-scale counterparts.

A critical resource in the persistence of diverse RUI farms is Technical Assistance (TA). While TA is provided by a number of different …

Farm Work Injuries Among A Cohort Of Children In Kentucky, Usa, Steven R. Browning, Susan C. Westneat, Deborah B. Reed

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Children residing on farms with livestock may be at an increased risk for work-related injuries, compared to children who work on other commodity farms. This study characterizes children's work tasks on Kentucky farms and assesses whether children who work on beef cattle farms are at an increased risk for farm work injuries. The results of a cohort study of children aged 5-18 years (N=999 at baseline) working on family farms in Kentucky, followed for two consecutive years after an initial enumeration five years previously, found that 70% of the children were involved in animal-related chores. Across all age groups, children …

Martha And Her Help: A Different Kind Of Relationship, Victoria E. Krus

Martha McMillan Research Papers

In nineteenth century America, middle-class families often had domestic servants in their home. Domestic service looked different in various parts of the country and at different points in the century, but a common theme of racial tension and class struggle defined servant/employer relationships throughout the hundred year period. In Ohio, Martha McMillan recorded the events on her family’s farm in a series of journals from 1867 up until her death in 1913. Thousands of pages portray the day-to-day events of a farmer’s wife, her children, and her relationship with farm employees. In contrast to nineteenth-century employer/employed attitudes and practices, Martha …

Factors Of Profitable Field Crop Selection, Jacob Thomas Briscoe

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Methods of crop selection are varied, depending on a variety of factors, including resources, climate, soil type, and potential marketability of the crop. This study utilizes a theoretical farm of one thousand farmable acres to estimate the costs and returns as well as the resources associated with cultivating, planting, irrigating, harvesting and selling the crop products. The theoretical farm is situated in southwest Idaho in any of the counties of Ada, Canyon, Elmore, Owyhee and Payette. The crops grown are typical of the area; the crops examined are field corn (Zea mays), alfalfa (Medicago sativa) and …

Entrepreneurs' Perceived Factors Of Success And Barriers-To-Entry For Small Business And Farm Operations In Rural Paraguay, Braden J. Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Both agriculture and nonagriculture activities are important for Paraguay's economy and its rural development plan. Ensuring opportunity for successful enterprise creation and expansion will facilitate new business entrance, while also growing rural economies. Past research has identified many factors that contribute highly to business and farm operation success, though little information exists about the perceptions of would-be entrepreneurs.

This study analyzes perceptions and characteristics of young, would-be entrepreneurs and agriculture producers in rural Paraguay to better understand their views of business/farm success and hurdle factors. Results suggest that increased experience, education and business exposure will decrease perceptions of many barrier …

Everyday Farm Life In The Moxee Valley 1915-1950: Historical Ethnography, Terri Towner

All Master's Theses

This study collected oral histories of those who lived or worked in the Moxee Valley, within the greater Yakima Valley of Washington State from 1915-1950. It documents and records the historical and cultural processes of farm life and its evolution for people living in this foremost hop-growing region of the United States. The larger goal is to characterize the community and social processes for use as primary source documentation to create historically accurate programs at the Gendron Hop Ranch-Living History Farm near Moxee. Nineteen participants were interviewed. Topics addressed in the study include farming in the Valley, the household, roles …

Using Precision Agriculture Field Data To Evaluate Combine Harvesting Efficiency, Justin Carroll

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Soybean crops must be harvested during a limited time period using expensive combines and associated equipment. Maximizing combine field efficiency, the ratio of the actual harvesting capacity to theoretical harvesting capacity, is an important objective of machinery managers. Spatial and temporal yield data from a 2012 CaseIH 8120 Axial-Flow combine equipped with a 30-foot MacDon D-65 Draper header and the Case-IH Advanced Farming System (AFS) yield monitoring system were used to examine field efficiency when harvesting soybean in three Arkansas Delta irrigated soybean fields during the 2015 season. Time efficiencies (TE) in the three fields ranged from 72.9 to 85.8% …

Managing Precision Dairy Farming Technologies, Barbara Alice Wadsworth, Amanda Stone, Lauren M. Mayo, Nicky Tsai, Jeffrey M. Bewley

Agriculture and Natural Resources Publications

Precision dairy farming is the use of technologies to measure physiological, behavioral, and production indicators of individual animals to improve management strategies and farm performance. These systems have the potential to detect disease and estrus and to evaluate cow comfort by monitoring activity, feeding time, lying time, mounting activity, real-time location, reticulorumen pH, rumination time, and body temperature.

The data provided by a precision dairy farming device is only valuable if it records the data properly for the right cow and is used by the producer. This factsheet will describe problems that researchers at the University of Kentucky have experienced …

Insomniac Of The Soil: A Collection Of Poetry And Essays, Sarah E. Golibart

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

“Insomniac of the Soil” is a homage to a landscape that has deeply informed Sarah Golibart's life and her artistic voice – the tidewater flatlands of Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay peninsula where her family lives and where Golibart has worked on farms since high school. Both her poems and essays are earthy, imagistic, and grounded – quite literally – in the soil as well as in a sensibility of ecological ethics and sustainability. “Insomniac of the Soil” is also a love song to the fervent and fallow cycles of the soil.

The Change In Farming: A Review, Neil Sandell

RadioDoc Review

The protagonist of the CBC documentary, The Change in Farming, is an 89-year-old farmer, called Henry. We learn that his grandson, Adam, has been recording Henry’s reminiscences about farming as a way of preserving his family heritage. The program was produced in 1998 by Adam Goddard, a 25-year-old musician and composer, in collaboration with veteran CBC producer, Steve Wadhams.

Adam is more hunter-gather than farmer. He collects found sound, an artist alert to its musical possibilities. He is composing a work using Henry’s speech. We hear the elder’s reaction. And then, in an indispensable coda, the two of them …

Matching Missions: Hunger Relief Programs And Impact Of Food Donation Partners In Northwest Arkansas, Amy May West

Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2012 and 2013, Arkansas ranked first in the nation in food insecurity in both categories of “low food secure” (21.2%) and “very low food secure” (8.4%) (Lilley, 2013; Coleman- Jensen, 2014). In order to help address food insecurity in NWA, The Cobblestone Project developed a hunger relief donation partner, The Farm. (Cobblestone Project, 2013). In spring 2014, The Farm partnered with University of Arkansas to: • Better understand the demographics and need of hunger relief organizations • Calculate the impact of donations to hunger relief organizations • Assess satisfaction of donations from The Farm to hunger relief organizations • …

Factors Influencing Farmers' Utilization Of Auto-Guidance Technology In Northern Utah, Thomas A. Bleazard

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Few studies have documented the use of auto-guidance technologies in the western United States. This study sought to discover farmers’ training preferences and what drives adoption of auto-guidance systems in northern Utah. A presentation of auto-guidance systems was made to crop school attendees. Afterwards an auto-guidance simulator was used to demonstrate to participants how these systems worked and let them engage in an experiential learning experience with laptops. A survey was administered to collect information on farmers’ training preferences and use of auto-guidance technologies. Results of the survey showed that farmers have a large interest in learning about auto-guidance technologies, …