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March 2011

• Lying down on the job

• Roller-crimper can aid no-till vegetable system

• Ultraviolet light can boost antioxidants in carrots

• Time to make donuts, sell them at your market

• To preserve sales, control pumpkin pests

• Planting project's days numbered?

• Get farm market advice from jolly old England

Featured Article

Machine makes it easier to pick strawberries

Some strawberry growers in southeastern Pennsylvania had a problem: The picking season in those parts lasts roughly four to six weeks, from mid-May until late June or so, and the strain of constantly bending over for berries gradually takes a toll. They needed to find a way to relieve their - and their workers' - tired backs. Fortunately for them, one of their neighbors had a potential solution. The neighbor was PBZ LLC, the manufacturing arm of Paul B. Zimmerman Inc., a family owned company based in Lancaster County, Pa. Keith Zimmerman, president of PBZ, said the company's solution for its neighboring strawberry growers was a machine called the Picking Assistant. The Picking Assistant eases the physical strain on a worker and protects him from the weather. Both hands are free; he has a better view of what he's doing; he can stay on task longer. In short, the machine makes a picker more efficient, Zimmerman said. "We paid close attention to operator comfort," he said. "The more comfortable you can make operators, the longer they can stick at the task without needing a break."It works like this: The worker lies facedown on the machine,… » Read more

Featured Article

Get farm market advice from jolly old England

Do you feel you've run out of new ideas for your farm market? Have you been a regular on the U.S. and Canadian farm market bus tours, and in some ways feel like you aren't seeing anything new? If that describes you, you may want to bust out of the old ruts and consider joining me in April 2012 on an agritour to jolly old England. Our group will visit farm shoppes, adventure parks, a cookery school, farmers' markets, a coffee shop, a farm restaurant and more, each hand-picked to help you expand your thinking and give you new ideas of ways to grow your business. My first farm tour to England was with the North American Farmers' Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA) in 1998, and I've known since then that I want to return and visit more of the United Kingdom - especially its farms and agribusinesses. Our friends across the pond have been involved in farm-direct marketing for a long time, and many continue as multi-generational farms. They have evolved and developed some interesting ideas not always seen in the United States, and have created ways to attract new customers that are likely applicable… » Read more

All Articles

Roller-crimper can aid no-till vegetable system

Utilizing cover crops is a common practice for many vegetable producers, due to the numerous benefits of reducing soil erosion, scavenging nutrients, suppressing weeds and improving soil structure and organic matter. Planting no-till into killed cover crops has additional benefits of leaving weed-suppressing residues on the soil surface, reducing the number of trips through the field and further reducing soil erosion. Most no-till cropping systems rely primarily on herbicides to kill cover crops, leaving organic growers and those wishing to reduce synthetic pesticide inputs with fewer tools to successfully implement no-till systems. Cover crop roller-crimpers were developed to mechanically kill or suppress cover crops. They have several advantages over mowing, in that fewer trips are required to suppress the cover crop, less energy is used, residues persist longer and the residue is neatly laid in one direction, facilitating planting. Despite the benefits of rolled and… » Read more

Ultraviolet light can boost antioxidants in carrots

Exposing sliced carrots to UV-B, one of the three kinds of ultraviolet light in sunshine, can boost the antioxidant activity of the colorful vegetable. That's according to preliminary studies by USDA research food technologist and research leader Tara H. McHugh. She is with the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), USDA's chief intramural scientific research agency. Found primarily in fruits and vegetables, antioxidants are natural compounds that may reduce risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease. The carrot investigation, conducted by McHugh, postdoctoral associate Wen-Xian Du and others at the ARS Western Regional Research Center in Albany, Calif., suggests that a moderate, 14-second dose of UV-B can boost fresh, sliced carrots' antioxidant capacity about three-fold. The dose is energy-efficient, and does not significantly heat or dry the carrots. Scientists have known for at least a decade that exposing plants to UV-B may cause what's known as abiotic stress.… » Read more

Time to make donuts, sell them at your market

Baked goods are a top draw for farm markets. In addition to opening a new revenue source, adding a bakery will bring in a new set of customers. But where do you start? How much space do you need? What will you serve? What equipment do you need? These are all questions bakery consultant Joy Grose answered during the 2010 Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market EXPO in Grand Rapids, Mich., in December. "As a bakery consultant, I love to design bakeries for farm markets and garden centers," Grose said. "Usually, the client will give me dimensions of a space to work with, and I lay out the needed equipment and floor space. You can plan a bakery for today and know that you can expand in the future." So, what is the most profitable baked good a farm market can add? According to… » Read more

To preserve sales, control pumpkin pests

Pumpkin sales in late September and October are often the key to profitability. As a result, pest management is essential to ensure an adequate supply of pumpkins is available during this critical period. Several insects attack pumpkins in the Midwest. Table 1 shows the frequency and severity of several of these pests. Squash bug The squash bug is usually the most consistent pest of pumpkins in the Midwest, and is relatively difficult to control. Consistent monitoring and early detection is the key to proper management. Adults become active in late April or early May. Adults are about five-eighths of an inch long and gray or black. Eggs use laid-in clusters of up to 20, usually in the angle formed by two veins on the underside of leaves. Newly laid eggs are yellowish but become bronze-colored after a couple of days. Nymphs look much like adults,… » Read more

Planting project’s days numbered?

The Planting Transferability Pilot Project (PTPP) is entering its third year, but its long-term future remains cloudy. PTPP, managed by USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA), allows growers in seven Midwest states to grow certain processing vegetables on their base acres - land normally reserved for federally subsidized program crops like wheat, soybeans and corn. Outside the pilot project, growers who want to grow vegetables (or fruit) on their base acres face the penalty of losing all their federal subsidies - permanently. Growers participating in PTPP, however, only lose federal benefits on the acres planted with vegetables - and only for the years the vegetables are actually there, said David Schweikhardt, a professor in Michigan State University's Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics. PTPP is the result of a compromise in the last Farm Bill - the fruits of a debate that, to a certain… » Read more