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The following projects were selected for funding this year by the Southern SARE Administrative Council because they all demonstrated particular strengths that Southern SARE looks for in Producer Grant projects. The reviewers of Producer Grants use the guidelines in the call for proposals to guide them in their evaluations of all the proposals submitted to the program. The more closely a project follows the guidelines, the better chance it has of being funded. Each of the projects funded this year received a thorough technical review. Then the final review and funding decisions were made by the Southern SARE Administrative Council. No single project is an example of the perfect project; every project has its own strengths and every project can be made a little bit better. But there were certain things that the reviewers noted that stood out in this year's crop of funded projects. Summaries of the proposals with their project numbers and titles can be found below. The reviewers always look for proposals that are well organized like project FS04-178 . If they can easily read the proposal and clearly see what the producer or producer organization wants to do, and how they are going to do it, the reviewers can more easily understand the goals. Reviewers also look for good ways to analyze the data if a project is conducting trials like in the case of FS04-180 . Another thing reviewers always look for is strong letters from cooperators that state what the cooperator intends to do in the project. Reviewers always look to see that the project addresses a serious problem that affects a number of growers or maybe even an industry. This was the case for FS04-180 . Strong outreach is something that is important to a producer grant project. FS04-182 was noted by reviewers as having a strong outreach plan. Sometimes, just a different approach to, for example, creating a value-added product from what you already produce--and for which there is an existing market--results in a good proposal. FS04-185 is a tight project that addresses meeting a proven demand. So, the reviewers don't simply look for projects dealing with particular crops or animals. They look for projects that best meet the goals for sustainable agriculture that are in the call for proposals. We have high hopes for these newly funded projects but it will be a year or two before we know their outcomes and results. To see the results from previously funded and completed producer grant projects, just click on the words: Project Data Base at the top of this page. Here are the 2004 funded Producer Grant projects with summaries from the proposals. | ||||||||||||||||
Good grazing management is a critical need in the South in order to increase the sustainability of livestock farms. This is partially because of the cropping practices over generations that deleted the fertility of the soil (cotton farming as an example) and enhanced soil erosion and partially because of the southern environment that decreases organic matter content of soils. Farmers are now seeing they can build fertility of the soil through increasing organic matter, enhance soil conservation and also decrease purchased farm inputs for a greater economic return through better grazing management. The development of controlled grazing programs is paramount to livestock farm sustainability; unfortunately, we have not had the technical help in this area that we need. We have had to learn as we go by trial and error and learning from our neighbor. Farmers can benefit from other farmers. The Grassroots Grazing Group (GGG), a producer network with approximately 80 members, was originally developed through an EPA sustainable communities challenge grant and has been active in working with farmers on grazing and sustainable livestock management issues. The group conducts monthly pasture walks as well as other activities related to grazing. In their producer grant project, the GGG intends to reach out to neighboring communities to assist in developing grazing operations, conduct an annual conference to bring in speakers to address issues of interest, instruct farmers how to build fences for controlled grazing and hold grazing field days conducted by GGG members. Frank Bostwick
Fewer and fewer small farmers are raising hogs. And many that do have become contract growers. This means that they are subject to the methods and breeds dictated to them by the pork corporations. In today's uncertain economic environment many individuals are not willing to take the economic risk of building large-scale facilities required by the large commercial interests nor are they able to remain competitive using conventional close confinement methods on a small scale. Heritage and rare breed swine, such as Tamworths, are being overlooked as marketable hogs on the premise that their cost of production is not justified. In other words, heritage breeds are not considered as alternative, low cost and profitable options. Further, the majority of hog producers are using animal-unfriendly confinement techniques. This project will compare the profitably of raising Tamworth and Yorkshire hogs in a rotational grazing system and a third group of Yorkshires raised in a traditional, confinement, commercial establishment. The producers hope to show that Tamworths, and perhaps Yorkshires, raised sustainably can yield a similar or greater profit than hogs raised in confinement. If the results of our research are positive, they hope to encourage small farmers to raise heritage breed hogs using sustainable, animal-friendly agricultural methods. Producing small numbers of heritage breed hogs profitably frees limited-resource farmers from having to sign on with commercial hog producers. Over a two year period, the growers will raise three different brood sow groups; Tamworth sows raised in a rotational grazing system, Yorkshire sows raised in a rotational grazing system and Yorkshire sows raised by a commercial producer in confinement. Taking the appropriate measurements and using statistical analysis, they will compare average weaned weight per pig for each group, determine each pig's respective market average price per pound, and the final net profit gained from each sow in each of the three groups. Darin Buse
Honeybees are vital to agriculture and the Varroa mite is killing them. The production of many southern agricultural crops are dependent on honeybees for pollination. Chemical treatment protocols used to control the mite are becoming less effective since mites have become resistant to these treatments. And due to the residual chemicals in the honey, United States honey has been banned from import by the European Union. A sustainable alternative way of controlling Varoa mites is needed. This project's goal is to test the efficacy of a Varroa mite control system in a rigorously controlled procedure. They will test the precise application of food-grade mineral oil within the hive, and the use of an open bottom (screened) hive of simple design. The application of mineral oil in a well-defined procedure will create a chemically free hive environment to which Varroa mites cannot build a resistance and will simultaneously reduce mite populations to a sustainable level. A minute trace of mineral oil contacting the mites appears to inhibit their ability to attach themselves to the bees. When the mites attempt to move to another bee host (as a part of their reproductive cycle) and cannot attach themselves to that host, they fall through and out of the hive through the screened bottom board. Controlling mite populations in this manner will increase the viability of the bee colony and simultaneously reduce costs to the beekeeper. This method will be applied to test hives and directly compared to control hives. They will measure and record the number of mites, bees, and hive production against control hives on a regular basis and directly evaluate the improvement, efficacy, efficiency and viability of the new treatment. Rather than attempt to totally eradicate the Varroa mite, they will evaluate if a reduction in the mite population can be obtained to a level below which the honey bee hive is demonstrably sustainable, vibrant and viable. Billy M. Davis
FS04-181 Selection of Hygienic Honey Bee Queens Resistant to Tracheal Mites The honey bee tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi, was introduced into the United States in 1987 and is now a widespread parasite throughout North America. Infestations of colonies of honey bees by tracheal mites dramatically increase bee mortality as well as severely reduce the productivity of honey bee colonies. Tracheal mites affect the ability of honey bees to survive through the winter and can be a major cause of colony loss in the South. Effective chemical treatments are available to control levels of tracheal mites in bee colonies. Beekeepers are constantly faced with the need to introduce more and more chemicals into their colonies to combat resistance to treatment. This not only adds to the cost of producing honey bee products, placing the American commercial beekeeper in a competitively unfavorable position, but also increases the likelihood that unwanted chemicals find their way into these products and the environment. The mechanism of resistance to tracheal mites is not known but may be related to honey bee-grooming behavior that inhibits transfer of mites from old to young bees. The spread of diseases and parasitic mites poses a major threat to the adequate pollination of our crop lands by honey bees. Pollination by honey bees is responsible for 15 to 30% of the food production in the United States. The number of managed honey bee colonies in the United States plummeted from 5.9 million in the late 1940s to 4.3 million in 1985 and 2.7 million in 1995. The goal of this project is the development of tracheal mite-resistant stocks of hygienic honey bees. Ample evidence exists from the studies cited above that genetic resistance to tracheal mites in honey bees is present. A stable genetic stock of honey bees that express tracheal mite resistance would be a cost effective and environmentally friendly means of combating this pest. However, in order for tracheal mite-resistant, hygienic queens to be attractive to beekeepers, they will also need to have other favorable behavioral characteristics for honey bees in the South. Among the latter, honey production, brood production, swarming and supercedure (queen replacement by the colony) tendencies, and temperament are the most important. One of the problems that has emerged with the development of honey bee stocks resistant to the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor, is variable expression of desirable behavioral characteristics. Thus, it will be important to identify and establish genetic stock that have favorable performance attributes for honey bees used in the Southern states along with resistance to parasitic mites and displaying hygienic behavior. Specifically, the objectives of this project are to develop honey bee queen stock that is genetically resistant to tracheal mites, Varroa mites, AFB; and perhaps, the African small hive beetle; to evaluate under standard beekeeping field settings the reduction in pesticide and antibiotic usage provided by genetically resistant queens. The goal of breeding mite resistant bees is to develop stock that have a significantly lower dependence upon chemical treatments for survival. Although the Baton Rouge Bee lab has derived some lines with tracheal mite resistance, these have not been optimized for hygienic behavior or other desirable behavioral characteristics. The initial goal of the queen breeding program is to identify four queen lines that express tracheal mite resistance, hygienic behavior, optimum brood and honey production, and gentleness. The need to have four queen lines is to minimize inbreeding problems by incorporating genetic variability into the breeding program. The breeding design will use a closed-population format in order to derive bees with the desired traits while maintaining genetic variability. The closed-population design can be accomplished by isolation or artificial insemination. With the exception of a few locations, breeding isolation is very difficult to achieve. Thus, instrumental insemination will be used to fertilize each of two queen lines with a pool of semen obtained from the same respective queen lines. Once tracheal mite resistance and hygienic behavior are confirmed in the progeny, field-testing under typical beekeeping settings will commence in the second year. This will be accomplished by enrolling three beekeepers from Tennessee, Kentucky, and/or Alabama in this study. These beekeepers will requeen 10 of their colonies with the resistant queens using 5 colonies for each of two resistant queens. The latter colonies will not receive treatment with chemical acaricides unless the level of Varroa populations necessitates medication. Sheets of sticky paper that fit into a bottom board of the hive are used to determine the number of Varroa present in a hive. The sticky board is covered with a piece of 8-mesh hardware cloth so that the bees will not come into contact with the sticky coating and be caught themselves. Delaplane and Hood (1997) have stated that bottom board inserts are the best survey method for making treatment decisions. For the Southeast, they have estimated a treatment threshold ranging from 59-187 mites on overnight sticky boards. This range represents 3100 to 4200 total Varroa mites in a colony. Treatment for Varroa will use Varroa-specific medications such as Apistan. In addition, collaborating beekeepers may choose to use biotechnical control methods for Varroa that include screened bottom boards. Whether or not screened bottom boards are used should not introduce a significant bias to the results since the efficacy of the latter in controlling Varroa may only attain 10%. Colonies with resistant queens will not be treated for tracheal mites during the course of the field trial. In late fall, coded samples of frozen adult bees from the participant's colonies will be shipped to Backwood Apiaries in order to determine the presence and levels of tracheal mites. Beekeepers can then treat for tracheal mites if infestation levels based on the latter counts warrant treatment. Colonies managed by the beekeeper that do not receive tracheal mite-resistant, hygienic queens will be managed as he/she would have done normally in the past. Participants will also provide data on levels of Varroa infestation, incidence if any of AFB and the small hive beetle, whether screened bottom boards were used, and overall colony performance such as brood and honey production, gentleness, and swarming tendencies. However, honey production and swarming tendencies will predominantly reflect the preexisting characteristics of the recipient colony since requeening with resistant queens will not occur until late spring. The honey flow will be in progress at this time, which is also when swarming is most common. Following requeening, it will take approximately six weeks before the characteristics of the colony reflect the genetics of the resistant queen. The applicant does not believe that a clear indication of the honey production and swarming characteristics of colonies with resistant queens is a serious drawback. The genetic stock that will be used for the development of resistant queens has been selected over many years for optimal performance behavior. The main goal of the field trial is to show the collaborating beekeepers that queens with tracheal mite-resistant and hygienic behavior genetic traits substantially reduce pesticide and antibiotic dependencies. Backwood Apiaries will also requeen 10 of its colonies using 5 colonies for each resistant queen line. In addition, the colonies at Backwood Apiaries will be monitored periodically for the presence and levels of tracheal mites. Edwin Holcombe
FS04-182 Control of Internal Parasites in Goats with Rotational Grazing of Sericea Lespedeza's The Appalachian region of Kentucky supports an under utilized livestock forage base as a result of decades of surface mining. The economies of many communities in this area have been devastated by the loss of burley tobacco income. Meat goat production could help supplement this loss of tobacco income. Kentucky's number one goat health problem is internal parasites. Widespread herd infections together with drug resistance may eliminate goat production in Kentucky if integrated methods of pasture management are not incorporated into the present deworming protocol. Southwestern U.S. environments mimic the natural habitat of the goat. Such climates are characterized by low annual rainfall, sparse vegetation, and scrub-tree browse conditions. Kentucky's humid environment insures the productivity of grasses, forbs and browse plants but at the same time increase the threat of internal parasite development throughout the season. The incidence of gastro-intestinal parasites and development of parasite resistance to almost all anthelmintics is an obstacle to overall in the sustainability of meat goat production. Preliminary research suggests that a combination of rotational grazing and forage species selection could reduce dependence on commercial de-wormer products reducing cost and death loss to producers. Sericea Lespedeza is a warm-season legume that is commonly used in surface mine reclamation due to the ease of establishment on disturbed, low fertility, drought prone soils. There is evidence to suggest that the combination of a higher grazing height and tannin (alkaloid) content of sericea lespedeza will reduce internal parasite numbers in goats. Rotational grazing allowing for a 30 day pasture recovery period could also reduce exposure to internal parasites. Two meat goat producers in Knox County, Kentucky will be selected to measure the affect of rotationally grazing sericea lespedeza on internal parasites. Maps of each farm will be developed using GIS/GPS technologies. Pasture fields will be subdivided into 2.0 acre grazing units using temporary fencing. On each farm, goats will be divided into two groups. One group will graze a sericea lespedeza dominate forage and the other group will graze a cool-season grass/legume mixed forage. Goats will rotate to a new grazing unit every 14-30 days. Individual nanny and kid weights will be recorded every 30 days, body condition scores (BCS) and fecal samples collected to monitor internal parasite egg populations. Wayne Kirby
FS04-183 Sustainable Hair Sheep Silvopastoral System One of the challenges in sustainable agriculture is to strengthen the ability to grow food within healthy natural ecosystems. One way is by adapting sustainable agricultural practices to lands which are abundantly available, but which are unsuitable for using standard agricultural practices. Rocky, steep mixed secondary and tertiary hardwood forests have shallow soil. Conventional agriculture is not possible in much of this terrain, which is on the western end of the Ozark Mountains Bioregion, and characterized by highly erodable hills. This type of land is suitable for restoration to productive use by integrating a sustainable silvopasture grazing system using hair sheep as a compatible hardy domestic breed somewhat comparable to deer in their grazing habits. If successful, this research will prove that unfarmable lands can be placed into extensive production which is both sustainable and regenerative and it will establish some guidelines for stocking and vegetation management. This will be accomplished without the use of heavy machines for planting and harvesting, and without the use of chemical herbicides. It is anticipated that this study may provide insights into extensive-style range forage production as being economical in labor and cost and being long-term sustainable. The hypothesis is that at a 50 percent annual usage rate, grazed areas will reseed and autofertilize; regenerate sustainably if stocking rate or carrying capacity is properly determined. Once the divisions are mapped, this project will constitute a research test area used to determine the carrying capacity for Dorper-cross hair sheep in the Ozarks foothills bioregion. This is an optimality project about integrating permaculture, sustainable, successional and regenerative systems and techniques. Human labor inputs will be quantified in the economic analysis. A control group of sheep will be pastured in a good intensive prairie, and 191 head of sheep ranging from 70 to 110 pounds will be studied to discover optimal extensive pasturing conditions. All sheep will be provided outside of grant funds. These sheep are very hardy, and slight variations will be significant findings. If remarkable detrimental effects are discerned (to the sheep or ecosystem) because of any of the conditions, then adjustments will be made. Sheep will be checked using a standard condition method on a scale of 1 to 5, and checked for weight, worms, physical behavior and corporal body condition, and pasture conditions will be noted. Land will be established into ten zones along natural terraces, ravines, elevations and soil types to form natural permaculture lines. Trees in the fencerow which should be thinned or must be cut, will be valued as if traded for labor or sold for firewood on the local market. This practice will be analyzed for sustainability. Zoning dividers will sometimes be used to get sheep to water, and transportation to and from the sheep yard for weight and measurement, treatment and sorting. Zones will be used as a rotational grazing method, and in certain instances to oblige the sheep to browse. In addition to depicting understory vegetation management, browsing will be analyzed as a method of introducing a high-tannin diet for suppression of haemonchus contortus (the barberpole worm), which is frequently found in sheep in lush pasture situations. Another method of controlling barberpole worms will be evaluated-low stocking rates in large acreage. Before the second year, zones will be timber cruised for evaluation. A series of patch burns will be used to release seed for grass in about 25 percent of the zones. Patch burn size will vary by terrain, such that quality timber areas will not need frequent burns, whereas scrubby areas will be burned more often. Any high quality oak which is selection logged will be analyzed for value-added alternatives. Brother Joseph-Marie Owen
FS04-184 Edamame Variety Trials for the Local Fresh Market Edamame, green soybeans that are eaten as a vegetable, are eaten in my rural community in early August of each year. Consumed mainly as a snack, edamame is an excellent source of protein. It is also gaining popularity as an alternative to traditional sources of protein. For local consumption and sale at the farmers market, growers typically harvest the immature beans from fields planted for agronomic production. The growers are not familiar with varieties that are better suited for consumption as a green vegetable. Although edamame are produced the same way as regular soybeans, there is no information available on which varieties grow best in this area. The objective of this producer proposal is to conduct an edamame variety trial using ten (10) varieties to determine: 1) marketable yield for each variety and 2) the number of days after planting to reach maturity (green stage). The results from this on-farm test will help growers decide which varieties of edamame are more appropriate for production and the marketable yield for each. Each edamame variety will be grown on well drained soil, under irrigation, and follow the standard production practices for agronomic soybeans as prescribed by the Clemson Extension Service guidelines to ensure a good plant stand. Seeds will be inoculated with the Bradyrhizobium japonicum strain. Weeds will be controlled with a pre-emergence herbicide. The plots will be monitored for early detection of diseases and/or insects. If necessary, appropriate measures will be taken to prevent crop losses. Harvesting will begin when the soybean pods have reached the mature green stage and when the pods are 90 percent filled. The edamame will be hand harvested and hand graded. Grading criteria will include pod color, number of seeds per pod, and pod quality (blemishes). Data collection will include 1) the number of days required for each variety to reach the mature green stage; 2) total yield; 3) marketable yield; and 4) weekly photographs of the variety trial. Carolyn A. Prince
Due to low commodity prices for raw milk, dairy farms are rapidly going out of business. Without price supports, there is no way a small dairy can survive selling at the base commodity level. After years of financial problems, my dairy is down to only 25 milking cows. In order to survive, my farm operation must adapt and change with the times. Rather than sell out to developers, I have chosen to become a small scale manufacturer of cheese to serve the Hispanic market in my area. I believe this opportunity can be shared with many small dairies in the southeastern United States. This winter I will construct a sanitary cheese production building on my farm. I have reviewed the regulatory requirements and have designed a building where I can produce up to 100 pounds of pasteurized queso blanco (white cheese) per day that is fresher, cheaper, and better tasting than the competition. A n advantage of this soft white cheese that it is not aged and can be sold immediately upon production. Therefore the cash turnover will be quick and my operating capital will not be tied up in cheese in the process of aging. There is a requirement that this cheese be pasteurized to be legally sold. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture is initiating a farmstead cheese pasteurizer lender program. They have also recently completed a survey of more than 60 Hispanic grocers in western North Carolina. This survey has found that the average wholesale price of this cheese is approximately $3.85 per pound. Stores buy the cheese by the case and most sell several cases per week. Tom Shore |
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