National conference on cover crops and soil health

Greetings from Omaha!  I am here at the National Conference on Cover Crops and Soil Health with 299 other invitees to celebrate the contributions of cover crops towards enhancing soil health. And what an amazing bunch of folks it is!

Intended not only to highlight the latest information on cover crops and soil health practices, but also for participants to discuss the role of industry leaders, government agencies, farm organizations, scientists, and educators in advancing soil health and the use of cover crops, this event has been inspiring, to say the least. Both plenary and breakout sessions have focused on progress and prospects for further conservation advancements and the benefits for farmers and farm industries that are engaged with these practices. I can't express how exciting it is to have discussions with growers, funders, researchers and industry reps about what we love best - cover crops. The passion for furthering understanding of legume cover crops for nitrogen, carbon and overall soil health contributions is evident in every session. Smart folks.

A heartfelt thanks to the Howard Buffet Foundation and to SARE for having the vision to bring everyone together in one place!

Spring break!

I couldn't help being a tree hugger at Doka Estate in Sabanilla, Costa Rica. It's a coffee farm that gives tours and has these rainbow eucalyptuses. I went with a group on a week-long trip to become more educated about food security issues in the country so we could present those challenges in ag classrooms here (here are last year's examples)

Costa Rica depends heavily on exporting its produce, including pineapple, coffee, bananas, and ... cotton? This was one of the only farms in the country, and they produce GE seed for a US company to sell to take advantage of the year round warm weather. Dairy is huge there, with about 90,000 ha of pasture compared to only 45,000 ha of pineapple.  We had lots of great cheese and met lots of very photogenic cows!

Jacob's Days in Namibia

Greetings from Namibia! It has been a hot, speedy and intriguing past month and a half for me in Southern Africa. My studies, under the theme of Nation Building, Globalization and Decolonizing the Mind (interpret that one for yourself), have taken me to Johannesburg and Pretoria South Africa and Windhoek and Swakopmund Namibia. Here we have learned about the apartheid legacy from those who lived it, from the sister of Hector Peterson to the man who named Namibia.

Now to the soil stuff. I am interning with a small NGO named "The Namibian Horticulture Trust" who serve disadvantaged communities throughout Namibia to grow food for themselves in the immediate with long-term plans for sustainable business and ecological models. I work at an orphanage called Hope Village (the panoramic below) where I help tend the veggie tunnels (small tunnels that provide shade and relief from grasshoppers) and implement new projects. We are conducting a somewhat informal test on an organic pesticide called "Agritrap" on aphids and red spider mites. I helped set this up and got compliments from some FAO folks thanks to my write-up skills and experimental design; thanks Grossman Lab! We just put together a small vermicompost site that will help with seedling mixes and hopefully be scaled up for some sales and local training in the subject. We will soon implement a dripline irrigation system and I continue to help write grants for them, mostly to the Finnish Embassy. I have had a lot of fun working with the other gardener, Emmanuel, who has some good hands on knowledge of gardening/farming but no institutional education whereas I am a bit of the inverse of him, making us a good team that can share quite a bit of knowledge between us. I recently gave him the entirety of my lecture material from SSC 427....I hope I don't get sued, but he was very appreciative and has already read halfway through "Building Soils for Better Crops" so hooray for knowledge!

I have found this land to be full of wisdom and intrigue; there are no vivid colors or revolutionary happenings, just rolling desert hills and endless nitrogen fixing acacia trees feeding the landscape. I am impressed with the peace of this country, being the second least dense in the world and having peaceful transitions in government.

Best wishes for NC and the pursuit of all good things,
Jacob

Ciencia con Microbios!!

Amanda Roth ('14) working with Rhizobia cultures in the lab.  Congrats, Amanda!! She was just been accepted into her study abroad program in Valencia, Spain.  This summer she will study Spanish Art History.  Have fun in Spain!

Pretend Science?

We do a lot of real science.  But once in a while we have to do some "pretend science" for a photo shoot.  Our students are so popular that they are featured in magazines and articles all the time. I got a chance to photograph one recent lab photo shoot.  Our lab is very photogenic!

Suzi O'Connell (on the left) - a PhD student in Horticulture and Soil Science - was recently featured in the CALS Student Perspectives for her participation in a study abroad partnership with the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Agriculture in Croatia.  For some amazing photos of her trip to Croatia see:  NCSU Ag goes to Croatia

In the picture above:  Suzi O'Connell, her paparazzi, some actual Congo Red dye used in our petri dishes, and some real-life dirty lab dishes (not pretend)!

Jacob wins first place!

Please join me in congratulating Jacob Rutz, a star undergraduate researcher working in our lab, for being awarded first prize in the undergraduate National Student Research Symposium Poster Competition at the Tri-Societies meetings this week. Way to go, Jacob! Jacob's poster, entitled "Potential Contributions of Legume Cover Crop Root Biomass to Labile Organic Matter Pools," was selected out of many worthy entries. In addition to his first-prize finish, Jacob was also awarded the Cross-Cultural Experience Program award for study abroad, which he will take advantage of in Namibia next semester.  See how happy he looks?  He should be! Jacob is a junior in the Agroecology program here at NCSU.

Jacob's poster!

This was hanging in the 'awards' area of the conference

ASA CSSA SSSA 2012 - here we come

Nearly 4,000 people attended the ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Annual Meetings, Oct. 21-24, Cincinnati, OH and we are proud to be part of them.

 

First dinner at a cute local restaurant, Melt.

Jacob's parents offered the place for us to stay for the entire time.
We were so grateful to stay in such a warm and friendly home. Thank you for the hospitality :)

Lots of people were interested in Matt's oral presentation.
Great talk, Matt!!

Mary presented her work in Malawi.

Erika and her popular poster.

Jacob with his first prize award winning poster.
Congratulations Jacob!!

Suzanne and her poster.

 

The best way to get the day started.
Coffee for the world!

Lunch time. Guess who got yelled at.

Taking a break.

Visit to the Food Shuttle gardens

SSC 428, Service-Learning for Sustainable Soil Management, took our first trip to the student's future teaching sites today, visiting Parrish Manor, as well as the IFFS Farm where students will teach as part of the Young Farmer Training Program. Great trip!

Microbes gasping in the heat

Angel and Oliver conduct a microbial respiration assay on the NCSU Agroecology Education Farm. This demo will be used as part of the CEFS internship program introductory soil science field day this Monday. Oliver and Angel are still smiling, even in 93 degree temps. What a great team! 

Ahoy Matey - Pirates Ahead!

Ahoy Matey! I am marooned at the filming location for the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. (Don't send rescue) Hampstead Estate is located on the north side of Dominica, affectionately called "The Nature Island". Most of the island is rural and mountainous. One of the very few sandy beaches is here. Unfortunately, after soil sampling they make us swim for our rum!

Soil sample site #4 - coconut farm.  I'm working hard - I swear.  

 A pile of coconut husks.  Looks like good compost, huh?

The Lab Goes Wild!

Greetings from the island of Dominica!  The Grossman lab seeks new adventures in the land of pirates!  Tony Kleese of Earth Wise Company invited us to soil sample on a historic coconut farm called Hampstead Estate.  While we here we are evaluating how to integrate cover crops on an organic farm in the tropics.  Mangoes, Pineapples, Bananas, Coconuts, and Rum - Oh My!  It's a rough job..... but somebody has to do it.

 

Calling all soil geeks:  These are Smectite rich soils.  Smectite is associated with the shrink swell clays common in the tropics.  There is no sticking the average soil probe down in there.

Old mango grove on Hampstead Estate.