Farmers’ Market Workshop - January 31st

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 from 8:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. at the Black River Electric Cooperative in Fredericktown, MO.  Cost is $10 per person.
 

Come Hear Topics About:

• Health Department Regulations
• Conventional and Biological Insect Control
• Educational and Grant Funding Opportunities
• Marketing at Farmers’ Markets
• Building the Soil Organically
• Growing Specialty Crops
• Bring Your Scale to be Re-Certified from 8:30-9:00 a.m.

Great opportunity to introduce your area Farmers’ Market & Welcome New Vendors. Great way to
meet other vendors & share information about growing, produce and markets.

This Workshop is Sponsored by the University of Missouri Extension and the MO Dept of Agriculture. If you have questions, please call 573-238-2420.
 
Registration and $10 Fee Required for Attendance. Lunch will be served. Please let us know of any dietary restrictions.  Please mail registration to:  Bollinger County Extension Center, P.O. Box 19, Marble Hill, Mo 63764

Low Stress Livestock Handling For People and Livestock

Handling livestock can sometimes be stressful for both people and the animals. A lot depends on our attitude, methods, and our understanding of how an animal behaves. Trying to load a balky horse into a trailer, gathering or herding animals in a pasture, or trying to pen or catch animals for treatment can all be stressful situations and even unsafe at times for all involved. But to reduce this stress on the owner and livestock try using low stress livestock handling methods.

The best way to handle livestock is to work in harmony with their natural behavior. Livestock see the world differently than we do. Because they are prey animals, their eyes are shaped differently and are located on the sides of their heads. Livestock have excellent peripheral vision. They have excellent distant vision, though they may have difficulty judging distances. Livestock also have blind spots where they can’t see. A blind spot for horses and cattle is directly behind them. That is why it is extremely important not to approach a horse or cattle from the rear without the animal knowing you are there. They may kick out in a defensive or protective manner and injure the unsuspecting person.

Livestock have a keen sense of hearing and also a good memory. Loud voices and yelling can scare animals more than clanging gates and chains. Animals may not be able to pinpoint where the loud noises are coming from but they are very disturbing to them. All loud noises can frighten animals, even if we understand that the noise should not be an issue. Livestock have long memories. If they are handled roughly in the past they will be more difficult to handle and stress more easily. Try to make animals’ first experiences with a new place, piece of equipment or person a favorable one. An initial experience that is averse can create a permanent fear memory in that animal.

A good livestock handler understands two key principals: flight zone (the “bubble” around an animal that, if invaded, will cause the animal to move away) and the point of balance (the point, usually around the front shoulder, at which pressure in front of that point will cause the animal to stop or back up, and vice versa). When an owner is at the edge of the flight zone and properly balanced, only slight movements are needed to control the animals in a low-stress manner. To make an animal speed up, walk against their direction of travel: to make them slow down, walk with them. As you pass the point of balance, notice how each animal responds to your movement and position. This concept is evident when many times it is easier to lead an animal by the halter if we are walking beside them near the shoulder rather than being ahead of them and trying to pull on the halter to get them to go forward.

A thorough understanding of the behavior of the animals we are working with is the first step towards developing and effective method of handling livestock. A good livestock handler is calm and patient. The golden rule of low-stress handling is slow and quiet resulting in less stress for you and your animals.

Try to use low stress handling methods every time you work with our animals. The idea is to start with low stress handling from birth and throughout the animal’s life. It will be good for them and for you too.

There are many excellent resources on low stress livestock handling methods. Web sites, books, DVDs, are readily available and provide good information for using low stress handling methods for domesticated and wild animals.

Sources: Dr. Temple Grandin, Colorado State University; Steve Cote, NRCS; Ryan Reuter and Kent Shankles, Noble Foundation; eXtension Horse, Susan Schoenian, University of Maryland; Ben Barlett and Janice Swanson, Michigan State University; Heather Larson, South Dakota State University, Ashely Griffin, University of Kentucky, Nebraska Farmer, October 2010.

(By Steve Tonn, University of Nebraska - Lincoln Extension Educator)

Webinar Tonight - Assessing the Economics of Crop Choices on a Start-up Market Farm

NOTE:  This is one of those webinars you don't want to miss. If you do, remember they are archived and can be viewed at the OLC (online learning community).

The Missouri Beginning Farmers Program will continue in 2012 with its monthly webinars. January will begin with two webinars on "Assessing the Economics of Crop Choices on a Start-up Market Farm" with Eric and Joanna Reuter of Chert Hollow Farm. Chert Hollow Farm has been certified organic since 2009. They minimize off-farm inputs and rely heavily on low-overhead, low-impact, non-mechanized methods as they work to integrate their diversified operation. The Reuter's sell their products through a farmers' market, on-farm sales, CSA and restaurants.

When: Monday January 9th, 7-8:30 pm
To join the meeting: http://univmissouri.adobeconnect.com/r4j3g8echub/ and sign in as a guest

When: Monday January 16th, 7-8:30 pm
To join the meeting: http://univmissouri.adobeconnect.com/r35toikn7k7/ and sign in as a guest

Understanding Good Agricultural Practices - Jan 26

The 2012 Growing Growers Workshop Series will kick off with "Understanding Good Agricultural Practices" on January 26. Contact the Platte County MU Extension Office to register.  The workshop fee is $15/person and is due prior to the registration deadline on January 20.

The Platte County University of Missouri Extension Center is located at 11724 NW Plaza Circle, Kansas City, MO 64153. The workshop will take place January 26, 2012 from 3:30-6:00 pm.

Increasingly, fresh fruit and vegetable producers are being asked whether or not they have a food safety plan on their farm to reduce the threat of food borne illness in the food supply. Additionally, the Food Safety Modernization Act may require some producers to certify their operations by seeking third-party audits of their food safety plans. This workshop will help producers understand what Good Agricultural Practices really are, what it takes to prepare for an audit, and how to develop an on-farm food safety plan.

Agenda
3:30-4:30 An Introduction to Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) with Jennifer Smith, K-State Research & Extension Horticulture Agent, Douglas County - Find out how water management, employee activity, manure management, and post-harvest handling can affect the potential of microbial contamination of food.

4:30-5:00 Implementing GAPs on the Farm with Marlin Bates, University of Missouri Extension Horticulture Specialist, West-Central MO - You don't have to seek certification to implement Gaps on your farm. Whether or not you intend to seek certification, documentation will play a big role in implementing GAPs. We'll discuss common policies and standard operating procedures for the farm.

5:00-5:15 Break

5:15-6:00 The Food Safety Plan with Marlin Bates, University of Missouri Extension Horticulture Specialist, West-Central MO - We'll review some resources and look at common structures of food safety plans.

Good Agriculture Practices (GAP)

With all we are hearing in the news about contaminated foods, especially the one on canteloup from a farm in Colorado, farmers should begin reading up on Good Agriculture Practices.

The USDA’s Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) program for fresh fruits and vegetable producers is a voluntary, third-party verification program. Buyers know that GAPs-certified farms are meeting guidelines set forth by the FDA to reduce the potential of microbial contamination of the food supply. Interest in GAPs certification continues to increase, especially because laws from the Food Safety Modernization Act may require certain producers to seek third-party audits. Additionally, many wholesale buyers are requiring producers to provide evidence that they have passed such an audit on their farms.  Farmers market vendors, Community-Supported Agriculture, U-Pick and other direct-to-consumer producers are also seeking GAPs certification as a way to communicate their commitment to safe food to their customers.

However, GAPs can be implemented on any fresh fruit/vegetable farm, regardless of the farmer’s intent to be audited. Protecting the food supply from microbial contamination is a responsibility that we all bear. While we can’t eliminate the potential of this sort of contamination, there are some great principles in the Good Agriculture Practices protocol that all producers can easily implement in their operations.

A good resource to learn more about GAPs is from Cornell University.

New Potential Pest Raises Big Stink

NOTE: I have blogged about this before making sure you were aware of the brown marmorated stink bug and now it appears it is closer than we thought.  Also a St. Clair County vegetable producer found 2 on her front porch which she identified as the brown marmorated stink bug but they have yet to be identified by an entomologist.

A new stinkier stinkbug may hitchhike into Missouri this year to destroy crops and upset homeowners, says a University of Missouri Extension entomologist.

The brown marmorated stink bug, a pest found in 33 states mostly to the east and south, will likely be found for the first time this year in Missouri, says Wayne Bailey of the MU Plant Sciences Division.

Dead specimens were found in Columbia in a stored travel trailer from the East Coast. Live stink bugs were found at the end of the growing season at an Interstate-70 rest stop near Kansas City, Kans.

The new stink bug destroys fruit, vegetable and field crops.

However, homeowners may be the first to detect the pest, Bailey says. It invades homes, as well as injuring crops.

"A crushed marmorated stink bug can be quite repugnant," Bailey said. "The smell makes some people sick and some have had to vacate their homes for a few hours.

"The stink bug invasion might make ladybug home intrusions seem like nothing," he adds. Like the ladybug, the stink bug enters homes in large numbers seeking over- wintering sites. Stink bugs are winter hardy however they seek warm place to live."

First found in Pennsylvania in 1998, the pest has spread slowly. Starting in the Mid-Atlantic States, stink bugs are now working their way through the Midwest.

The stink bug probably came in cargo from China or a neighboring country, Bailey says. It travels as a stowaway.

The new stink bug has become a problem for truck farms and orchards. As it moved west it gained an appetite for corn and soybeans.

The marmorated stink bug joins local stink bugs that already attack crops. "It is a juice-sucking insect that heads for the developing fruit or pods," Bailey said. "It can shrivel all of the kernels on an ear of corn. Heaviest crop damage has been on soybeans, a concern to Missouri farmers."

All stink bugs are difficult to control with pesticides, Bailey says. They don't eat foliage, but pierce the plant to suck juices.

The new pest has proven more resistant to control. However, more insecticides are becoming available for use on the various host crops, Bailey adds.

Truck farmers have found that insect netting offers one method of control on fruits and vegetables.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture are working on finding biological controls. "The most likely control will be from wasps that attack the eggs," Bailey says.

In the United States, the pest has not been as prolific as in China. There it has five or six generations in a crop season. Here, the pest has one generation a year. It is not a prolific egg layer.

The adult insect grows to about three-fourths of an inch in length. The shield-shaped body has alternating black and white triangles on the back edge of the wings. White bands are shown on the pair of long antennae and the hind legs. The distinguishing feature is a white underbelly. Common stink bugs have brown or green undersides, Bailey says.

When disturbed, the bug emits a powerful odor. "If one is attacked, the other stink bugs around it emit the defensive odor. Inside a house, that odor can be repulsive," Bailey says.

For crop farmers, the new insect will require weekly scouting of fields. As pod feeders, stink bugs can be quite destructive, Bailey adds.

If by chance to happen across the insect, please contact your local county extension office.
(by Duane Daily, Senior Writer, MU Cooperative Media Group)

Food Safety for Local Growers

Consumers value fresh and local, but above all, they want to trust in the quality and safety of the products they buy. That’s why the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), the trade organization supporting the fresh produce supply chain, Schnucks Markets and Sysco Corporation have joined forces to develop and deliver a series of one-day programs uniquely-tailored to help local growers explore the challenges of implementing a company food safety plan, meet the requirements of restaurant and retail outlets, and above all, protect your business and bottom line.

Through hands-on demonstrations and discussions with experts, you will leave with the tools you need to build your own customized food safety program, based upon your specific business model.

Date: Thursday January 19, 2011
Location: 3850 Mueller Road, St. Charles, Missouri
Registration: 8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Cost: $35.00 per person
Food Safety Training: 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
For Agenda & Registration Information contact: Michelle Lewis