In September, the Ohio State University South Centers recently celebrated 25 years of extending knowledge, growing southern Ohio, and enhancing lives. There were around 250 people in attendance that day and they enjoyed seeing our facility. Below are a few images highlighting the day of celebration.

Hannah Scott, OCDC Program Manager

740-289-2071 ext 227

scott.1220@osu.edu

Sarah Strausbaugh, Program Assistant

740-289-2071 ext 112

strausbaugh.54@osu.edu

Christie Welch, Direct Marketing Specialist

740-289-2071 ext 234

welch.183@osu.edu

Effects of Temperature on the Expression of Two Ovarian Differentiation-Related Genes foxl2 and cyp19a1a
Zhi-Gang Shen, Nour Eissa, Hong Yao, Zhi-Gang Xie, and Han-Ping Wang*

Exposure to stress induces a series of responses and influences a wide range of biological processes including sex differentiation in fish. The present work investigated the molecular and physiological response to thermal stress throughout the early development stage covering the whole period of sex differentiation of bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus. Larvae were treated using three temperatures, 17, 24, and 32C from 6 to 90 days posthatching (dph) in 30-L round tanks. There is no significant difference of the sex ratio and survival among the three temperature groups in the geographic population used in this study. Two ovarian differentiation-related genes foxl2 and cyp19a1a were detected at 7 dph suggesting that these genes have already played a role prior to sex differentiation. The expression of foxl2 reached the peak and was thermosensitive just prior to the onset of ovarian differentiation at 27 dph. Histological examination displayed that the proliferation of germ cells and ovarian differentiation were delayed at the low-temperature treatment (17C) at 97 dph compared with higher temperatures. In conclusion, the water temperature regulates the sex differentiation of bluegill through modulation of the expression of foxl2 and cyp19a1a. A comparative study of the expression profile of sex differentiation-related genes in species will shed light on the evolution of sex-determination mechanisms and the impact of stress on sex differentiation.

Frontier in Physiology, 2018

Mixed Bacillus Species Enhance the Innate Immune Response and Stress Tolerance in Yellow Perch Subjected to Hypoxia and Air Exposure Stress 
Nour Eissa, Han-Ping Wang*, Hong Yao, and ElSayed Abou-ElGheit 

Stress enhances the disease susceptibility in fish by altering the innate immune responses, which are essential defense mechanisms. The use of probiotics is increasingly popular in the aquaculture industry. Yellow perch is a promising candidate for aquaculture. We investigated the efciency of a mixed Bacillus species in minimizing the potential problems resulting from husbandry practices such as hypoxia and exposure to air in yellow perch. We showed that hypoxia and air exposure conditions induced a signifcant reduction in the early innate immune response (lysozyme activity, interferon-induced-GTP binding protein-Mx1 [mx], interleukin-1β [il1β], serum amyloid-A [saa]), and a substantial increase in cortisol, heat shock protein (Hsp70), glutathione peroxidase (Gpx), superoxide dismutase (Sod1) that associated with a decline in insulin-like growth factor-1 (Igf1). Mixed Bacillus species administration improved the early innate responses, reduced cortisol, Hsp70, Gpx and Sod1, and elevated Igf1 levels. Bacillus species treated group showed faster recovery to reach the baseline levels during 24h compared to untreated group. Therefore, mixed Bacillus species may enhance yellow perch welfare by improving the stress tolerance and early innate immune response to counterbalance the various husbandry stressors. Further studies are warranted to investigate the correlations between the aquaculture practices and disease resistance in yellow perch.

Scientific Reports, 2018

By Alayna DeMartini

PIKETON — Inside cool water-filled fish tanks in southern Ohio, the laws of nature are being defied: Female yellow perch mate with other female yellow perch; male bluegills with other male bluegills.

This might make you wonder, unless, of course, your profession is selective breeding of fish, and your goal is to get them to grow faster. Hanping Wang, who manages The Ohio State University’s Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development, has succeeded in raising faster-growing fish by artificially mating them in a not so typical way.

On average, the resulting offspring reach market size six months faster than bluegills or yellow perch bred out of standard male-female mating. That’s because among yellow perch, females grow quicker than males; among bluegills, males faster than females.

For an Ohio fish farmer, having fish that mature faster than average could be a significant savings in fish food and in time waiting to sell them, said Wang, whose center in Piketon is part of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES). The aim of the center is to spur the state’s aquaculture industry, in part through research on two of the state’s most common fish: yellow perch and bluegill.

Aquaculture, the practice of raising fish in a controlled environment of indoor tanks or outdoor ponds, is slowly growing, but still a relatively small Ohio industry. In 2017, 227 people in the state had permits allowing them to sell seafood. Any advances in farming that make it faster or easier to raise fish or shellfish could prove useful and profitable.

“We’re using the animals’ maximum potential to make them grow faster for human benefit,” Wang said. “We have to do it this way to meet the growing need for food, specifically protein. You need to have a process to produce more animals – more chickens, cows, pigs and fish.”

Creating Larger, Faster-Growing Yellow Perch

Among yellow perch, the females grow 60 to 70 percent faster than the males, and they grow larger than the males. As a result, it makes sense that a breeder would want to produce the fastest-growing female yellow perch. So Wang did exactly that. He mated females to females with the help of grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the state-based Ohio Sea Grant program, which funds research in the Great Lakes and aquaculture.

While they remained females at the chromosome level — possessing the XX chromosome pair as opposed to the XY chromosome pair that typical males have — they still were able to produce sperm. That allowed the females to mate with other female yellow perch. It might sound odd, perhaps, but it worked. The results were “neo-males,” or “pseudo-males,” as Wang calls them.

The offspring produced by the mating of a neo-male with a standard female yellow perch were all females, since there was no Y chromosome in the mix. And the female offspring grew as expected, 60 to 70 percent faster than any female offspring born out of the standard arrangement of a male and female mating with each other.

On average, it takes a farmer 16 months to raise a yellow perch to reach market size. Now it can take as little as 10 months if neo-males are mated with typical female yellow perch, Wang said.

“The farmer saves on labor, saves on feed and saves on space,” he said.

Speeding up bluegill Growth 

With bluegills, the males grow faster and bigger than the females. So, Wang took males and mated them with males through a process similar to what was done with the yellow perch, so they became what Wang calls “neo-females.” The offspring of a neo-female bluegill and a male bluegill were all male fish that could grow to 1 pound, the size needed to sell them, in about a year, cutting three to five months off the typical time needed for them to mature.
Whether bluegills and yellow perch can be made to grow even faster is uncertain.
“We don’t know,” Wang said. “We’re working on that.”

Standard Mating 

Along with mating females with females and males with males, Wang and his colleagues have conducted standard mating with yellow perch to generate the fastest-growing males and the fastest-growing females.
They began with 800 yellow perch, 100 taken from eight states in the Midwest and Northeast, including Ohio. The DNA of the fish was analyzed, then the fish that were related were put in different tanks to prevent the possibility of them mating. Each fish was placed in one of a series of tanks with males and females, and they were allowed to mate as usual, males with females.

From the first round of babies, the scientists selected the 200 fastest-growing male and female fish from each cohort – then those pairs mated, and the same process occured over and over to get genetically improved fish.
Across the three sites, and on average, the improved fish grew 35 percent faster than the unimproved fish, meaning the ones whose parents came together naturally without any special mating arrangements.
Not only do they grow 35 percent faster, they have a higher survival rate, 20 percent higher.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a fish or a tomato or a soybean, if you can shorten the amount of time it takes to grow the item to market size while still maintaining the same nutritional quality, that will just improve the farmer’s profit margin,” said Matthew Smith, an OSU Extension aquaculture specialist. Smith’s main priority is expanding sustainable, profitable fish farms in Ohio. OSU Extension is the outreach arm of CFAES.

Aquaculture can play a critical role as our oceans and Great Lakes are overfished, Smith said. “It’s a way to provide a balance,” he said.

It seems there might be a downside to unnaturally mating fish, but Wang says that’s not the case. The practice of mating females together or males together might be unusual but does not produce problem fish – that is, assuming no relatives are mated with each other, Wang said.

And the good news for fish farmers or aspiring fish farmers is that the neo-male yellow perch, the neo-female bluegill and the yellow perch that were improved to grow faster will eventually be put on the market for fish farmers and for stocking in ponds.
Hanping Wang and his team of researchers completed the genome sequencing of yellow perch and bluegill.(Photo: Ken Chamberlain, CFAES.)
Cracking the Genetic Code of Bluegill and Yellow Perch

Critical to the selective fish breeding program is a key accomplishment of Wang’s research team: Completing genome sequencing of both yellow perch and bluegills.

That may not sound like a huge feat to someone outside the aquaculture world. After all, fish have far fewer genes than humans. But knowing the genetic makeup of these two species makes it possible to see how genes interact with each other and to examine the exact gene that controls economically important traits in the fish, such as the pace of growth and disease resistance.

By changing the genetic makeup of the fish, researchers can select for high disease resistance and larger, faster-growing fish, Wang said.

“We know long term it will have a huge impact.”

Wang has also authored a book on selective fish breeding that will be available this summer.

By: Hanping Wang, PhD, Senior Scientist

Yellow Perch Breeding: A large numbers of neo-male broodstock of yellow perch with a female genotype have been created, using the superior neomale broodstock, fast-growing all-female yellow perch populations have been produced. The large numbers of superior neomale broodstock from this project enable us to produce commercial-scale of all-female monosex yellow perch. Growth performance test of the all-females vs. mixed-sex group in tank system was conducted in Piketon Research Station. By the end of the experiment, all-females grew 26.3% faster than mixed group, and 66.0% faster than males. Larger scale growth performance test of the all-females vs. mixed-sex group will be conducted in 2017.

Bluegill Breeding: A large numbers of neo-female broodstock of bluegill with a male genotype have been created. All-Male or near-all-male bluegill populations have been successfully produced. Results from testing all-male or near-all-male bluegill populations at two locations showed: 1) Weight gain and growth rate of all-male stock were 2.1 times as that of regular stocks; 2) All-male groups had significantly uniformed size and lower coefficient of variation; and 3) Survival of all-male groups was significant higher than that of mixed sex groups due to more uniformed size. A successful creation of genetically male bluegill strains would have a tremendous impact on the sunfish aquaculture industry by increasing growth rate of 30- 35% and saving energy expenditure of 20-30% for sex growth.

Identify the best genetically distinct largemouth bass populations for industry: In 2016-2017, we genotyped 280 additional largemouth bass from 28 wild populations across the United States using eight microsatellite loci. We are conducting experiment to compare growth performance of the identified group vs. Ohio control group in indoor system. The fish were stocked and are being cultured communally in two replicate tanks. As of November, fish from the identified group grew 126.6% faster than control group. An experiment on evaluation of soybean meal as protein source for northern and southern largemouth bass was completed. The results indicated that northern subspecies had superior growth compared to Florida subspecies in current experimental setup. The results provide a valuable base for developing fast-growing largemouth bass broodstocks for industry.

Genetic improvement of SMD utilization rate of Largemouth bass (LMB) : A study on evaluation of growth response of Northern and Southern subspecies to SMD and fishmeal-based diet (FMD) was completed. Four diets were formulated with varying levels of dietary soybean meal 0 (control), 12, 25, and 40%, respectively. The feeding trial with 4 replicates lasted for 12 weeks. Results showed that 1) Northern subspecies grew significantly faster and gained significantly higher body weight than Southern subspecies across the four levels of soybean meal diets; 2) Northern subspecies utilized SMD significantly better than Southern subspecies; 3) Based on the feed efficiency, 12% dietary soybean meal inclusion is optimal for Southern largemouth bass. 25% soybean meal can be used in diet for Northern largemouth bass; 4) The growth of largemouth bass decreased with increasing dietary soybean meal level and no significant differences were observed among the treatments for two subspecies. Diet with 40% soybean meal inclusion is acceptable for juveniles.

Genomic sequence and tool development:  We have completed whole genome sequencing of yellow perch and bluegill. It is the first Percidae and Centrarchidae (sunfish) that have been fully sequenced. Yellow perch belong to the family Percidae including about 200 species in 10 genera. The perch, darter, and their relatives are in this family and well-known species of great economic value include the three species of perch, walleye, sauger and ruffe. Information of the whole genome in these two species makes it possible to see how genes interact with each other, and examine the exact gene that governs economically important traits such as fast-growing and disease resistance. The perch and  sunfish genome sequence data provide useful genetic resource and lay important foundation for discovering molecular mechanism of growth, sex determination and sex control, reproduction related to aquaculture and conservation of wild stocks for over 100 economically and environmentally important percid and sunfish species. We also completed whole genome sequencing of two strains of bluegill to develop SNPs and investigate genomic base of sex determination for developing mono-sex population, and results have been published by a high impact journals SCIENTIFIC REPORT and PLOS ONE.

Promotion of international training and collaborations: Research in aquaculture genetics and breeding at OSU South Centers has produced international impacts and attracted about thirty scientists and international scholars to work in the Aquaculture Research Center and Genetics Lab at Piketon. In 2016-2017, the lab trained three visiting Ph.D. students and post-doctoral researchers, and two new ones are coming this year. They also significantly contributed to the aquaculture program’s success at the OSU South Centers. We organized the 2nd international conference on perch and bass.

By: Hanping Wang, PhD, ABC Program Director/Senior Scientist and Jordan Maxwell, ABC Program Coordinator

The Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development (OCARD) at the OSU South Centers received its second project funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to develop and operate Aquaculture Boot Camp (ABC).  This ABC-2 is a program for training new and beginning aquaculture farmers in production techniques and business development skills in Ohio and adjacent states. OSU is the first aquaculture program to receive this type of project funding from USDA in the country.

Based on ABC-1 students’ feedback, aquaculture team, in collaboration with business team and horticulture team at the OSU South Centers, and in partnership with Ohio Aqauculture Association and University of Wisconsin –Stevens Point, developed the ABC-2 program. The ABC-2 program utilizes a “3-I” (Intensive, Intermediate, Introductory) training and multi-faceted approach, including classroom and hands-on training, paired with industry mentoring to enhance the sustainability of new and beginning aquaculture/aquaponic farmers in the Midwest. A key addition to ABC-2 is the inclusion of aquaponics. This expansion is a direct result of strong interest within Ohio and the North Central Region. Upon completion, participants will have the knowledge and hands-on experience to successfully operate a sustainable aquaculture or aquaponics business. OSU looks forward to seeing the expansion of aquaculture and aquaponics as a result of this program.

Listed below are highlights of ABC-2 accomplishments in the past year:
a) 12 monthly informative educational modules and materials were developed and posted on the ABC-2 website based on 12 Intensive classes.
b) 4 Aquaculture workshops were offered for both the intensive and intermediate ABC students.
c) 1 Aquaculture Bus Tour was offered for introductory, intermediate and intensive ABC students.
d) 2 OAA-ABC Conferences were organized.
e) Several aquaculture/aquaponics newsletters and factsheets were published.
f) An informative ABC-2 website developed.
g) 2 students interested in aquaculture/aquaponics received an ABC-OAA internship and training.
h)  A 6-month and 12-month evaluation data was collected using Wufoo (www.wufoo.com).
i) 27 new farmer students from ABC Intensive class graduated.
j) 200+ additional new/beginning farmers were trained and mentored through ABC Intermediate.
k) 949 additional new and beginning farmers were trained and mentored through ABC Introductory.

We have just started ABC-2 2018 Year-Class with 35 new students recruited for the Intensive class. The group consists of multiple educators, farmers, students, and community leaders. Our staff looks forward to working with this group throughout the year to prepare them for graduation in December of 2018.

For more information about the ABC Program, please contact Dr. Hanping Wang, ABC Program Director/Senior Scientist at wang.900@osu.edu, or Ms. Jordan Maxwell, ABC Program Coordinator at maxwell.411@osu.edu.

By: Matthew A. Smith, Extension Aquaculture Specialist

Approximately 40 people joined Ohio State University’s (OSU) round table to discuss aquaculture in Ohio the Thursday night before the OAA/OCAFS annual meeting in late January 2018. OSU asked several southern region researchers to be present to offer a different perspective to Ohio farmers on aquaculture production in the U.S. over the last few decades. Production experts, Dr. Les Torrans (USDA ARS) and Dr. Craig Tucker (USDA ARS), and aquaculture economist Dr. Carole Engle (Engle-Stone Aquatic$) were active in the conversation. Between these three researchers, they have a combined aquaculture experience of approximately 100 years. With their rich catfish history, the group conversation quickly turned to marketing, perseverance, and cooperatives. Over the last few decades, the United States (US) catfish industry has certainly constricted and is due in part to a substantial increase in feed prices, lower fillet prices, and overall lower demand as a result of cheaper importers. The advice and respect shown by the researchers for those catfish farmers who are actively involved in their marketing plans by going out and talking to their customers and creating a strong bond was evident. They encouraged any fish/shrimp producer seeking to develop or expand their food market to continually to be active marketers by selling themselves, their farm, and their product to their customers to ensure they stand out from the competition. By having a more intimate relationship with their customer base, it was discussed that many are capable of receiving a higher price for their product.

Examples were given of farmers who were able to stay financially stable during economic hardships due to their strong customer base and loyalty to these businesses. In particular, one farm was mentioned for their dedication to their customers and also their customer’s loyalty to that particular farm. This farmer has continually held himself to standards that enable not only the restaurant owner to know who he is but anyone who comes into the establishment. If a restaurant purchases fillets from him, the restaurant is given a framed portrait of the farmer/farm and plaque to hang up in their restaurant. This reveals that the farmer believes in their product and is willing to be potentially criticized (hopefully praised) by the chefs, customers, and anyone else who visits the restaurant and consumes their product. There is no red tape involved. I strongly believe that if Ohio is to develop a strong food fish/shrimp market that farmers will need to develop more active marketing plans that involve improving the general public’s perspective on farming and will occur over time through active communication, high-quality products, and consistent supply. OSU Extension and the OSU CFAES Center for Cooperatives are involved in a recently established Ohio aquaculture steering committee; which is investigating the feasibility of a purchasing cooperative. The OSU South Centers programs are here to help and look forward to seeing aquaculture prosper in Ohio over time.

Perch and bass have worldwide importance as food and recreational fish. Global production of perch and bass is around 1,000,000 ton, with 70% produced in China. The economic value of perch and bass is comparable to cold water species salmons and trout. Aquacultural production of perch and bass is in the early stages of development and expanding rapidly. Therefore, there is much potential for expansion of perch and bass aquaculture.  In perch and bass aquaculture, global collaboration is still in an infant stage when compared to salmons and trout. Particularly, collaboration between China and developed countries, e.g., U.S.A, Europe, and Australia, is insufficient. Even though China ranks first globally in perch and bass production, their aquaculture outreach with research results and information has been mostly limited to Chinese publications.

In order to speed up the advancement of the perch and bass aquaculture industry, establishing an international platform of research and development collaboration is necessary. For this purpose, Dr. Wang in collaboration with Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU), an official partner of OSU, organized the first International Symposium of Perch and Bass at HZAU in Wuhan, China, in September 2013, focusing on the industry development of perch and bass in China and the U.S. In October 2016, Dr. Wang organized the 2nd International Symposium of Perch and Bass at HZAU. Scholars from the United States, China, Spain, Belgium, United Kingdom, Singapore, and Australia attended the Symposium.  As the Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Wang with his colleagues completed a bilingual book “World Perch and Bass Culture: Innovation and Industrialization” based on these two symposiums. The book manuscript has been submitted to a publisher and will be published by the end of 2017.

• Beginning and new aquaculture/aquaponic farmers with less than 10 years of farming experience.
• Limited-resource beginning aqua-farmers: most aqua-farmers have low levels of farm sales and low household income, as most of them are new and located in rural areas. 
• Next generation farmers: students and those without a family farming history. 
• Other new farmers attempting to diversify their existing farming enterprise.

By Matthew A. Smith, Aquaculture Extension Specialist 

As mentioned in the last Connections Newsletter, Matthew Smith (myself), recently joined Ohio State University as an Aquaculture Program Specialist. After only a few days in my office, I headed off to Milwaukee, Wisconsin for the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center’s (NCRAC) conference and the Wisconsin Aquaculture Association’s annual conference. Since starting with Ohio State, I have had the opportunity to join many committees, advisory councils, panels, and groups which all influence aquaculture production in Ohio. I look forward to representing Ohio State University at these meetings.

One of my favorite successes so far has been the development of Buckeye Aquafarming, a newsletter developed to inform fish farmers, Extension Educators, recreational pond owners, administrators, and legislators about timely aquaculture matters that pertain to Ohio. The first issue featured sustainable aquaponics, aquaculture marketing, and water quality, to name a few. The winter newsletter will include multiple agencies and universities to give Ohio a view of big-picture U.S. aquaculture!

Water quality management is one of the most important concepts to understand as a fish farmer and that is why on August 6^th, 2016 the South Centers will be hosting a water quality workshop to teach those interested. The day will be long but worth it. Topics are diverse and include pond, aquaponic, and recirculating aquaculture system considerations. Limiting stress and fish losses to poor water quality helps put farmers in a better financial position through successful culture to the market date.

Understanding all aspects of an agriculture business is crucial to success, and that’s why I will be discussing a few topics at Farm Science Review this year. Topics include “Sustainable Aquaponics for the Hobbyist” at the Gwynn Conservation Center, “Aquaponics: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” at the Small Farm Center Tent, and “Aquaculture Opportunities for Ohio” at the Small Farm Center Building. for aquaponics education, we will also have a hobby-scale aquaponics display available throughout the Farm Science Review. With aquaponics being a “buzzword” it’s imperative to get out non-biased information to those interested in starting this type of venture.

Education and outreach both to potential and current farmers, as well as the general public has already been successful. Education during tours to administrators, 4-H members, Boy Scouts, middle schools, high schools, and other organizations is proving highly beneficial for the success of our program. Starting in September, the South Centers will be offering free tours of the aquaponics greenhouse and Ohio Center for Aquaculture and Research Development on the last Friday of every month. Interested parties can sign up on our website at http://southcenters.osu.edu/aquaculture/extension.

OSU South Centers Senior Scientist, Dr. Hanping Wang, was invited by the USDA Aqua Genomics/Genetics Coordinator to speak on “Genomics, genetics, and breeding programs in the Midwest” at The National Strategic Planning Workshop for Aquaculture Genomics, Genetics and Breeding,” which was held March 24-25, 2016 in Auburn, Alabama. The workshop brought researchers, government officials and industry leaders together to review the current status in aquaculture genomics, genetics, and breeding and discuss existing problems, future goals, gaps, and application of genome-based strategies for breeding. The topics included traditional selective breeding, genome-based breeding strategies such as marker-assisted selection, genome selection, genome editing, and analysis of associations of phenotypes and genotypes.  A strategic whitepaper is being prepared and will be published based on the workshop.

By: Hanping Wang, PhD, Senior Research Scientist

By: Laura Tiu, PhD, Director Ohio Aquaculture Extension Program

2014 was a banner year for the Aquaculture Extension Program (AEP) as it was the second year of our Aquaculture Boot Camp Project (see accompanying article). The team spent much of the year serving the needs of our Intensive, Intermediate and Introductory aquaculture clients with personal consultation, conferences, workshops, tours, and email and phone support.

In addition to Aquaculture Boot Camp, the Extension Team coordinated three well-attended workshops in 2014. The first, a workshop in Toledo, Ohio, was a collaborative effort with the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center and the Ohio Aquaculture Association. Many of the presentations from that workshop are available here. In April, we partnered with Kentucky State University and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture to conduct an Aquaponics Workshop with a trip to Food Chain in Lexington, KY. In October, the team organized a Recirculation Aquaculture Workshop at the OSU Newark Campus which included a tour of a local RAS system in Frazeysburg, Ohio. The year finished off with an October Bus Tour of Farms to four farms in Ohio and an ethnic market that sells live fish in Columbus, OH.

Aquaculture Specialists presented information at multiple workshops throughout the year including Aquaculture America in Seattle, Washington; Washington, D.C.; and the Farm Science Review. Specialists also traveled to China with the Ohio Soybean Council and the Soy Aquaculture Association, and to Germany with the Ohio Bioproducts Innovation Center to explore their aquaculture industries and explore opportunities for collaboration.

Multiple groups, both local and international (Pakistan, Israel, and Albania), enjoyed tours of the Aquaculture Research Center. Over forty individuals participated in our First Friday Aquaculture Tour program where on the first Friday of each month, participants register to tour the Aquaculture Center and learn first-hand about our research and Extension programs. Two local schools participated in tours and several K-12 teachers attended STEM training on using aquaculture and aquaponics in the classroom.

Aquaponics continues to be a hot topic this year and an aquaponics list serve was created to enhance the flow of information. Additionally, aquaculture and horticulture specialists at the South Centers teamed up to build the Center’s first aquaponics system. So far, we have successfully produced Russian kale, red lettuce and mizuna in the system using both tilapia and yellow perch. Additional research will be conducted in 2015 to further refine the project. Webinars are becoming a growing method of sharing information. We conducted two webinars in 2014 on aquaponics marketing and species selection for aquaponics.

Finally, a series of aquaculture videos was produced and is available on our website, southcenters.osu.edu. For additional information on any of our programs, feel free to visit our website or contact us directly.

By: Estefania James, MS, Program Assistant

After twelve months of hard work and commitment, nineeen Aquaculture Boot Camp (ABC) recruits graduated on December 13, 2014. The Ohio State University South Centers served as the main venue for the training sessions.

The aquaculture boot camp program offered an integrated training with "3-I" levels: Intensive, an in-depth level involving immersion in a year-long hands-on training and mentoring program; Intermediate, a mid-level involving participation in a variety of learning activities; and Introductory, a general level where sharing of information is the goal.

These participants punctually attended ABC sessions the second Saturday of each month to learn the fundamental concepts of aquaculture and business planning to successfully run an aquaculture business.

One of the unique features of this program was learning by doing with the technical guidance of the OSU aquaculture instructors and the Ohio Aquaculture Association mentors. There were many topics covered in the ABC program: species selection, systems selections, species biology, site selection, water quality, fish and fresh water prawn stocking and harvesting, processing, recirculating aquaculture systems, and fish health, among others.

Each training session was followed by an evaluation in order to identify their pre- and post-perceptions of learning. These evaluations helped the instructors to improve and adjust the content for the future classes.

In addition to the monthly session evaluations, mid and final evaluations were conducted to assess the overall performance of the program. The results and the findings of the data collected from the classes of 2013 and 2014 will be published in mid-2015.

Piketon, the ABC headquarters, was not the only training location. These students had the opportunity to visit and meet experienced fish farmers. There were three off-campus training sessions. The first was at Kentucky State University in the Division of Aquaculture. Charlie Shultz was a special instructor for the Aquaponics workshop in April 2014.

In August, the ABC intensive class met Dr. Dave Smith at his aquaculture operation, Freshwater Farms of Ohio, in Urbana to learn about marketing and processing with the collaboration of Angela Caporelli from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.

And finally, in October, boot campers met Steve Van Gorder from Fresh-Culture Systems, Inc. who taught the Recirculating Aquaculture Systems workshop in Newark, Ohio.

One of the greatest lessons learned in boot camp was that both instructors and students learned from each other and sharing was the key element to succeed in the development of their business plans.

Even though we are not offering the ABC intensive class in 2015, there will be three workshops available: The OAA annual meeting in January, an Aquaponics workshop, and a Marketing and Processing workshop. We would like to encourage new and beginning fish farmers who want to learn about the program to visit our website at http://go.osu.edu/abc and sign up in the ABC intermediate program to be informed of new training opportunities and industry updates.

The ABC program was a marvelous success thanks to the teamwork of the Aquaculture, Business Development and OSU South Centers teams, along with the Ohio Aquaculture Association. We also look forward to reapplying for new funds through the USDA to continue working to increase the numbers of new and beginning fish farmers in the State of Ohio.

We appreciate everyone’s effort and dedication. Because of your help, Aquaculture Boot Camp has been an extremely successful program.

(Editor’s Note: The following is the latest in a series of feature stories highlighting The Ohio State University South Centers Staff)
By Bradford Sherman
CFAES/OSU South Centers

Change can be one of life’s wonderful blessings, in that it keeps things fresh and exciting.

Perhaps no one at The Ohio State University South Centers has been going through more exciting life changes lately than Jordan Maxwell. Within the past year, the 24-year-old became a first-time mom, changed jobs, moved into a new home, and now is preparing to welcome a second child into the world.

We’ve all gotten to know Jordan as the Program Coordinator of Aquaculture Boot Camp II (ABC), a position she is still fulfilling through the end of the year, since joining South Centers in 2016. But now, amid all the changes going on in her personal life, she is learning the ropes of a new position as a Research Assistant in the Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Program. 

All of that is fine with Maxwell, who, in fact, credits her employment with OSU as a major catalyst for all the blessings she is experiencing right now.

“Becoming a member of The Ohio State University family here at South Centers has led to many great opportunities,” she said. “It has allowed me to settle down here in the area, start a family, and now I’m blessed to be able to continue my career here in this new position.”

Maxwell interviewed for her new position in July and accepted the job offer in August. This new role came along at just the right time for her, as her temporary appointment with ABC was set to expire in December.
Like the last, her new job is also a term position that will keep her with South Centers for at least another three years. She says she loves the work, the atmosphere, and the people at South Centers, and that she would someday love to move into a permanent role and someday retire as an OSU employee. 

“Working here has allowed me to expand and grow, and the people that you work with really make a difference in how much you love your job. Even though my drive to work is about an hour, it doesn’t seem like it at all, because I enjoy coming here and working so much.”

Before joining OSU, she worked as a fisheries technician at Apple Grove Fish Hatchery in West Virginia.
Maxwell is originally from Beavercreek, which is located near Dayton. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors and engaging in related activities such as hunting, fishing and hiking. It was these interests that led her to pursue an education in natural resources. She earned an associate’s degree from Hocking College and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Rio Grande in Fish and Wildlife Management and Conservation.

It was at Rio Grande that Maxwell met her husband, Coleton, and they now reside in Cadmus at the family farm he recently inherited. They plan on raising cattle and a few crops, alongside their growing family. The couple welcomed their first child, Emersyn, in February of 2018 and are expecting a second daughter who is due to be born in February of 2019.

(Editor’s Note: The following is the latest in a series of feature stories highlighting The Ohio State University South Centers Staff)

By Bradford Sherman
OSU South Centers

Whether it’s the UPS man, fellow employees, familiar faces, or complete strangers, they all have one thing in common when visiting the Research and Extension Building at The Ohio State University South Centers – they are always greeted with a smile and a friendly “hello.”

That is thanks to Sarah Swanson, a Program Assistant who every day staffs the front office as its first point of contact, and greets all comers with a friendly demeanor and helpful disposition.

Swanson has been the smiling face of South Centers, having always been stationed at her familiar spot next to the sliding glass windows, since joining the staff in November 2014. She provides support services to the aquaculture and soil and water teams, assists with running the equipment for the center’s weekly telecasts, updates many parts of the South Centers website, and provides graphics support for all program areas.

Swanson says she enjoys her job at South Centers because of the variety of people she gets to work with, and because every day is a unique challenge.

“The work is different every day,” she explained. “It never gets boring. One day it may be general administrative work, and the next I might get to tap into my creative side through working on video production and graphic design.

“It is also exciting that I get the opportunity to work alongside so many different kinds of talented people. Here at South Centers, we have people representing many different age groups, ethnicities, and are versed in many different professional disciplines.”
Swanson, who is originally from Chillicothe, earned Bachelor of Arts degree from Ohio University – Chillicothe in 2012 and an Associate’s Degree in Graphic Design from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh in 2014.

In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, especially hiking, and engaging in activities related to the arts such as listening to music and photography.

Swanson and her husband, Justin, reside in Chillicothe.

The Ohio State University South Centers was recently awarded funding by the U.S. Economic Development Administration to conduct an incubator expansion feasibility study.

The EDA investment of $28,205 will be used to hire a consultant to complete an analysis and evaluation of a proposed incubator expansion to determine market demand and sustainability over time.

This study will help define the current and future uses and strategies of the Endeavor Center Business incubator.  Completing market research will help us better understand the existing market and anticipated future market potential for business incubation in the region.

The funds for this study are a part of the EDA’s Technical Assistance grant program, which helps local business incubators promote economic development and alleviate unemployment.

“Ohio small businesses support local economies,” said U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio). “This investment ensures the OSU Endeavor Center in Piketon has the resources it needs to help local businesses expand and bring jobs to the area.”
This investment will assist the Endeavor Center to build on strengths, improve weaknesses, capitalize opportunities and identify threats. Financially, the study should provide projections for potential revenue generation and total project cost expectations.

Finally, and most importantly, the study will assist in determining the need to increase business incubator space in our region.

The Feasibility Study will:
•    Complete a market study to help the Endeavor Center understand what types of new spaces should be considered based on the potential for specific start-up companies in the region.
•    Review the Endeavor Center’s financial position and provide suggestions regarding expansion feasibility and current / future cash flow.
•    Review existing client selection policy and processes and provide feedback to strengthen the application process.
•    Review tenant lease or license agreement that enumerates the shared services to be provided; delineates the incubator’s business assistance policy, including the provision of management, technical, and training policies.
•    Review the Endeavor Centers business assistance policy and provide suggestions for new ideas and improvement of existing programs.
•    Review current staffing levels of the Endeavor Center and business programs to ensure client / partner technical needs are being addressed.
•    Develop an incubator performance plan that includes how the incubator will track the success of incubator partners/clients, specifically identifying what performance measurement data the incubator proposes to collect from tenants/partners and for what period of time during and after the service period the data will be collected. This should also include members of any over sight or policy board for the incubator that will be responsible for setting performance goals of the incubator, selecting or approving selections of staff, establishing and reviewing policy, and monitoring performance.

By: Ryan Mapes, Business Development Network Program Leader and Endeavor Center Manager

Endeavor Center

2017 has been another successful year for the OSU Endeavor Center business incubator. The center operated at a 100% occupancy rate for most of the year.  During the year we had a couple partners leave but were fortunate to have new partners ready to come on board to fill the vacated offices.  State Street Laboratories is the latest business to become an Endeavor Center partner.  The Endeavor Center also partnered with the African American Chamber of Commerce to house the minority SBDC that covers the Southern Ohio Region. There has also been much activity and many visitors through the doors this year.  We hosted over 400 training or meeting events with well over 5,000 visitors during 2017.  In summary, there are 18 partner companies that occupy 26 office and light industrial bay spaces.  We also have 4 virtual partners that occupy the building on a part-time basis but do not occupy an office.

SBDC

The Ohio State University South Centers Small Business Development Center (SBDC) is a 9 person team that provides business counseling and training to a 10 county region in Southern Ohio. The Center utilizes a unified delivery model to incorporate resources from other programs affiliated with The Ohio State University South Centers, including the Ohio Cooperative Development Center, Direct Marketing and OSU Extension programs to strengthen service offerings.

The Export Assistance Network (EAN) helps companies to expand globally through counseling in the areas of market research, due diligence, general export education, export readiness assessments, and trade missions. A counselor also continues to specialize in providing opportunities for businesses to increase sales and create jobs through access to international markets as many small companies don’t have the expertise or resources to expand their business into these markets. Individual counselors are recognized each year at the Statewide SBDC conference for extraordinary efforts given throughout the year.  These Peer Recognition Awards are voted on by all counselors around the state. All levels of field staff are eligible for nomination and there are five (5) categories of awards: advocacy, collaboration, innovation, marketing and mentoring. This year two of our counselors brought home individual awards.  Chris Smalley won the Innovation Award for his work with the OSU South Centers Aquaculture Boot Camp program and Melissa Carter won the marketing award for helping clients develop and enhance informational/basic websites, Etsy stores, and social media platforms.

The Small Business Development Center at the OSU South Centers had very successful year providing business consulting to the existing and start-up small businesses in Southern Ohio. Also, Fayette County was added to the South Centers service area in 2017. During fiscal year 2017 the SBDC at the OSU South Centers provided the following assistance:
• Provided consulting to 365 clients of which 271 received 5 or more hours of consulting
• Assisted with starting 26 businesses
• Helped clients obtain $9,626,093 in capital
• Logged 4,484 consulting hours
• Held 18 training events with 324 attendees
• Clients created 113 new jobs and retained 824 jobs
• Recorded $7,000,000 in general sales growth for clients

Manufacturing Extension Partnership

The Ohio State University’s Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence (CDME) was recently awarded a contract from the Ohio Development Services Agency (ODSA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) to support the growth of small and medium sized manufacturing companies in the southeast region of Ohio. CDME is a unit within OSU’s College of Engineering focused on strengthening Ohio’s manufacturing sector.The contract establishes CDME as a Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) affiliate for the State of Ohio in support of Ohio companies. CDME will partner with the Ohio State University South Centers Business Development team to implement services in the Southeast Ohio region.

The MEP at Ohio State will focus on providing value added. CDME has a full-time engineering staff and is led by a team of former entrepreneurs and business owners who have successfully grown manufacturing and product innovation companies. The MEP program has access to CDME’s 40,000 square foot manufacturing space on the main Columbus campus, as well as most of the equipment in the broader Ohio State University landscape.  
 
CDME MEP is primarily focused on new product development, product improvement, innovation, business development, lean manufacturing, and supply chain management.  The program assists companies in the central and southeast Ohio regions in the following manner:
• Providing value-added engineering support for product development and innovation with an emphasis on design for manufacturing.
• Commercialization support and partner opportunities with commercial OEMs.
• Professional program management and industry-friendly contracts.
• Proposal identification and development support for federal, state and commercial funding programs.
• Access to the research capabilities and facilities of The Ohio State University and other State of Ohio research universities and federal laboratories.
• Introduction to support partners in the CDME network (incubators, venture capital, supply chain partners, fortune 100 OEMS, etc).
• Prototyping and small scale manufacturing of new products.
• Access to highly motivated students with experiential learning looking to join innovative manufacturing companies upon graduation.

Training and Programming

The staff of The OSU South Centers Business Development Network continues to engage community organizations and partners to maintain awareness of changing needs in the region and develop solutions to address those needs.  Throughout the year, members of the Business Development Team served as board members for multiple chambers of commerce, county economic development offices, and advisory boards for business organizations to increase awareness of business issues and identify solutions to problems.

University of Rio Grande - The OSU-Rio Collaboration is a multi-project partnership between the OSU South Centers and the University of Rio Grande.  The primary objective is to provide educational TV programming covering many different topics that promote Small Businesses, Business Support Organizations, programs at The Ohio State University South Centers, and Educational Programs at the University of Rio Grande / Rio Grande Community College. A member of the Business Development Network also serves as adjunct faculty to provide instruction for both online and on campus business courses.

Lumber Grading School  - Over a dozen loggers from Ohio and abroad gathered at OSU South Centers to participate in a course designed to give them a better understanding and develop their skills in the timber industry. The five-day Lumber Grading Short Course/Flex Day Course was instructed by a National Hardwood Lumber Association National Inspector.  The course began on October 2nd and finished on October 6th. The course was sponsored by OSU South Centers South Centers, Ohio Forestry Association, Inc., and the National Hardwood Lumber Association.

From Dream to Reality- This course is a five-week business program that meets twice a week designed to provide an opportunity to learn a variety of skills needed to own and operate a business. This course is offered two times per year through a partnership with the Pike Community Action Agency.

Agricultural Development and Young Farmer Programs- The SBDC works continues to work closely with the Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development Foundation to provide assistance  annually to  agribusinesses and next generation farmers to diversify from tobacco production into a profitable venture. The SBDC provides assists area farmers with writing business plans for projects that will be submitted to SOACDF for potential grant funding. This past year, there were 73 Ag Development applicants and 25 Young Farmer applicants. You can view details and deadlines about the program at http://www.soacdf.net/.

Chillicothe Veterans Affairs Medical Center - The SBDC has partnered with the Chillicothe Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center’s Office of Rehabilitative Services to establish an entrepreneurship program for veterans. The program is divided into three two-hour classes and occurred quarterly. The classes focus on business feasibility and entrepreneurship readiness, business plan components, marketing and operations. The veterans who have successfully completed this course have either already started or are in process of starting their own business.

By Ryan Mapes, Endeavor Center Manager and Business Development Network Program Leader

Open since 2005, the Ohio State University Endeavor Center, a 27,000 square foot mixed-used business incubator, has come to be recognized as a community leader in economic development as well as a business training and networking hub. The facility has a 2-part mission:

First, to provide four tangible advantages to new and emerging businesses poised for rapid growth; professional office space in flexible configurations, access to advanced technology, networking opportunities with other small businesses, and access to expert business counseling on a free and timely basis. Second, the center seeks to be a positive and visible example of how small businesses successfully navigate the difficult issues faced by all growing small businesses.

Meeting rooms at the Endeavor Center support the dual-purpose mission by providing partners and the business community access to technology and learning space. The OSU Endeavor Center has a number of rentable meeting spaces in a variety of sizes and technology accommodations. The largest room available is classroom 160, with approximately 1,200 square feet and accommodating up to 72 persons seated at tables.  Classroom 165 is approximately 800 square feet and accommodates up to 20 persons seated at tables. Both rooms have a built-in projector and screen, large whiteboard, audio system, large screen TV and CD/DVD combo. Conference room 112 is great for smaller meetings and will seat up to 12 persons in a boardroom style setting. Portable projection units service this room and it has a large whiteboard for use. There is also a 16-unit computer lab with projector available for lease. All classrooms can be rented for ½ or whole days and catering is available.

If you are interested in renting one of our excellent classrooms or in exploring the opportunity to conduct your business from our facility, please call 740-289-1605. We think you will discover the OSU Endeavor Center and its staff have a lot to offer your growing business!

Small business Development Center

The SBDC at the OSU South Centers recently was awarded additional funding from the Ohio Development Services (ODSA) and the Small Business Administration (SBA). Innovation Challenge Grant funding opportunities were made available to SBDCs across the state to further enhance the offerings the SBDCs provide to their client base. Local needs were identified and a proposal was developed, submitted and successfully funded to secure resources to assist the staff in meeting the needs of the local business community. This funding will increase levels of staff knowledge through professional certifications, learning software, and trainings. It will also provide access to consultants to assist in exploring opportunities to grow local industries in Southern Ohio. 

Human resource issues affect all industries in Southern Ohio. This funding will enable the SBDC to secure Business & Legal Resource (BLR) software to help businesses in the region to simplify compliance with state and federal legal requirements. BLR is the leading provider of employment, safety, and environmental compliance solutions. Employers know that they can count on BLR’s industry-leading compliance and training resources to keep them out of legal trouble, avoid fines and save money. This will afford the SBDC with the opportunity to help grow established businesses that may not have the capacity to handle common HR problems without assistance.

The forest and wood industry is a major driver in Southern Ohio’s economy. The SBDC and the Ohio Cooperative Development Center are exploring the opportunity of developing a cooperative business model which will construct and operate a wood drying kiln. This facility can be utilized by members of the cooperative to add value to their existing market lumber products. The Challenge Grant helped the SBDC secure funds to hire industry consultants to complete multiple designs for the kiln operation based on the data gathered from a previous survey and follow-up visits with potential users. Additionally, funds will be used to consult with attorneys specializing in the co-op model to assist with the development and vetting of the cooperative’s structure. This additional funding will help support the efforts of this project moving forward. The deliverables from this proposal will be used to complete the feasibility report for the operation, to develop the cooperative’s legal structure, and to provide information to potential co-op members. Industry consultants with expertise in kiln build out and operation and attorneys with expertise in agricultural cooperatives will provide consultations to the project team and potential members of the co-op.

2016 was an exciting year at the Ohio Cooperative Development Center (OCDC) at The Ohio State University South Centers! The center continued its mission of rural economic development by providing education and assisting cooperative businesses across Ohio and West Virginia.

Cooperative Education Across the Region

OCDC provides education on the cooperative business model and business development that not only increases awareness of the business model, but helps groups who are exploring the start-up of a co-op business to make informed decisions.

Throughout 2016, OCDC provided a number of educational sessions at events like the West Virginia Small Farm Conference, the Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association Annual Congress, the Ohio Aquaculture Association Annual Conference, and the West Virginia Agricultural Innovation Showcases in Huntington and Moorefield. Specialists with OCDC lead programs for high school agricultural science students from Portsmouth and Piketon, Ohio, and presented to business students at the University of Rio Grande.

Technical Assistance

In order to support the development of rural businesses, OCDC counselors provide technical assistance in a number of areas including feasibility analysis, business planning, cooperative formation counseling, and financial planning, among others. In 2016, OCDC counselors worked with a variety of clients who were forming new cooperatives or existing cooperatives that were working to improve their businesses.

For example, OCDC staff provided support to the Southern Ohio Growers Cooperative (SOGC) to explore the cooperative business model, legally incorporate a new business, and build financial projections for the 2016. The co-op was up and running for the 2016 growing season, marketing a variety of pumpkins to retailers across the state and helping member farms increase their revenue!

Ohio and West Virginia Food Hub Network

OCDC continued convening and facilitating the successful Ohio and West Virginia Food Hub Network throughout 2016, bringing together food hub managers, directors, developers, and technical assistance providers for peer learning and networking. The network met quarterly and included sessions focused on financing, quality and process controls, and institutional markets. Multiple network meetings throughout the year included tours of operating businesses, including produce aggregation and distribution businesses and local food grocers. The tours of operational facilities gave participants the chance to observe working facilities, learn from employees about how produce is sourced from growers, protocols for aggregating and distributing products, as well as the importance of quality and safety control throughout the supply chain. OCDC was pleased to partner with the West Virginia Food and Farm Coalition and the Value Chain Cluster Initiative to host the August 2016 network meeting.

Building OCDC’s Capacity

OCDC is committed to building the center’s capacity for technical assistance in order to enhance the support available to Ohio and West Virginia’s new and emerging cooperatives. In October, OCDC took a large step forward toward increasing capacity by welcoming a new staff member!

Ivory Harlow is a Program Specialist working to provide technical assistance and educational programming to rural businesses in the region. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Strayer University and earned a Master of Arts from Ohio Christian University. Ms. Harlow is a veteran of the United States Air Force, where she served as a medical material logistics journeyman. She is a graduate of Syracuse University Whitman School of Management’s Veteran Women Igniting the Spirit of Entrepreneurship (V-WISE) program, and Entrepreneur Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV) at the Trulaske College of Business, University of Missouri. Ivory has a background in agriculture and business development. She is the owner of Dickie Bird Farm LLC in Ross County, Ohio. She writes Farm Forward, a weekly agriculture column for Farm and Dairy Newspaper.

OCDC Recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

On October 3, 2016, the Ohio Cooperative Development Center was recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development with an Award of Excellence. The award was granted, “In honor of nearly two decades of steadfast promotion and support of co-ops, leading to the success of innumerable rural and agricultural-based businesses in the Buckeye state.” Sam Rikkers, Administrator of USDA Rural Development’s Rural Business Cooperative Service presented the award to OCDC staff along with Tony Logan, Director of USDA Rural Development in Ohio. The two visited Piketon to help kick off Co-op Month 2016 and to announce awards for USDA’s Rural Cooperative Development Grant (RCDG). As a recipient of an award through the grant program for the upcoming year, OCDC received funds to support business assistance throughout the region, focusing particularly on businesses in agriculture, forest and wood products, transportation, and energy. 

Dr. Thomas Worley, Director of the OSU South Centers named the University of Rio Grande & Rio Grande Community College (URG/RGCC) the 2016 OSU South Centers Supporter of the Year. This award was presented to Dr. Michelle Johnston, President of URG/RGCC at the 25th Anniversary Celebration at the OSU South Centers on September 15, 2016.

This award recognized the strong commitment and collaborative efforts between the two Universities. Through their contribution of time, resources, ideas and collaborative efforts, The University of Rio Grande & Rio Grande Community College has been providing support and direction, as well as enhancing the overall quality of the OSU South Centers.

“I am honored to receive this award,” Johnston said. “Our partnership with OSU South Centers contributes to our efforts to serve our communities and provide our students with quality learning environments to help them succeed.”

Dr. Worley stated, “Dr. Michelle Johnston has become a very strong supporter and advocate of OSU South Centers during her time as President at University of Rio Grande. Our collaborative work in business development and in broadcasting has blossomed under her leadership. Her participation as a host of her own show is a tribute to her commitment to our shared efforts. I am very confident that we will continue to find ways to collaborate as we work to serve the residents of Southern Ohio.”

The OSU South Centers contracted with URG/RGCC in July 2009. At that time, the primary emphasis was in providing experiential learning formats to both MBA and undergraduate students enrolled in the Emerson E. Evans College of Business, as well as to work with students enrolled in other educational Programs. The OSU-RIO Collaboration is the “nickname” to the contracted agreement between The Ohio State University South Centers and URG/RGCC.  

Since that time, URG/RGCC has become a very strong collaborator with a number of our programs at The Ohio State University South Centers. As a result of initial collaboration, one major joint program has had a significant effect on both of our universities. Our OSU-RIO broadcasts on television, radio, and live-streaming programs on the web have allowed both universities to promote joint educational programs to clients, students, small businesses, and interested viewers in Southern Ohio, across the State of Ohio, and beyond. 

It was recognized by administration and staff from both universities that increased content, viewership, and a more concerted effort with the broadcasts would result in better visibility of educational and research programs both at the University of Rio Grande and The Ohio State University South Centers.

Some program highlights include:

•  Over 60,000 viewers and listeners have touched at least one YouTube or internet radio program.

•  Listeners or viewers from 178 Countries have tuned in to at least one of the broadcasts. 

•  Tallies show that approximately 350 listeners/viewers each week touch one of the archived educational broadcasts.

•  Several students under tutelage of Mike Thompson have tried their hand at RIO RADIO – a daily and weekly radio show.

•  Both administrations and key personnel from both universities host different shows on educational and informational subjects.

The University of Rio Grande & Rio Grande Community College and The Ohio State University South Centers have shared resources in promoting programs that enhance clients, students, and businesses throughout the areas each serves. This working collaboration has demonstrated a well-defined effort while providing needed information to its perspective clients, students, and community members. Please visit the link below to explore some of the various shows. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrv0SYonHCbXs1WgoOHa6mw

By Ryan Mapes, Endeavor Center Manager

The Endeavor Center continues to have a very successful year. We have been operating at a 100% occupancy rate for 2016. North Wind Construction Services LLC was the latest business to become an Endeavor Center partner. There has been much activity and many visitors through the doors this past quarter, hosting over 80 training or meeting events during the months of April, May and June.

Below is a list of Endeavor Center Partners:                                                                                                          

·   Adams Wealth Management

·   Boston Government Services

·   Alliant

·   CRC Technologies

·   EHI Consultants

·   EC Government Services

·   Hukari Ascendent

·   InSolves

·   InSolves Manufacturing

·   Navarro Research

·   North Wind Construction Services

·   Probatum Technology

·   Professional Project Services

·   Steve McCain and Associates

·   SAA Solutions

·   Swift and Staley

·   Visiting Angels Home Health

·   Wastren

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at the OSU South Centers was recently successful in obtaining Ohio Development Services Agency funding for another two-year period, 2017 and 2018. We will continue to provide business consulting to the existing and start-up small businesses in our coverage area. Through the first three three quarters of fiscal year 2016, the SBDC at the OSU South Centers has assisted 245 clients and helped create 15 new businesses. Our clients have obtained $6,247,395 of capital, increased sales by $915,000, have created over 60 jobs, and have retained another 746.

Recently our SBDC has worked on a wide variety of projects. We received additional SBA funding to have detailed marketing projects completed for SBDC clients. This project was completed in partnership with the University of Rio Grande in which students from Dr. Wesley Theone’s marketing class completed market research and developed  comprehensive  Marketing Plans for three different SBDC clients including a coffee wholesaler, a beef processing plant, and a co-packing facility.

Another project we are currently working with is the Agricultural Development and Young Farmer grant application through Southern Ohio Agricultural Development Foundation (SOACDF). This is a program where our SBDC counselors work closely with area farmers to develop business plans for projects that will be submitted to SOACDF for potential grant funding. You can see details and deadlines about the program at http://www.soacdf.net/.

The OSU-RIO Collaboration TV/RADIO broadcasts are multi-media (Radio, TV, YouTube and Live Internet Streaming) educational shows with a host of topics that promote Small Businesses, business support organizations, programs at The Ohio State University South Centers, and educational programs at the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College. These shows air on Wednesday afternoons from the Radio and TV Studio at the University of Rio Grande. Guests include a variety of people representing educational, business development, community and organizational programs. The mission of these collaborative TV/RADIO broadcasts is twofold, first is to be an educational learning lab and second is to be a promotional tool for educational programs at the University of Rio Grande/Rio Grande Community College and the business and agricultural programs of The Ohio State University South Centers. 

In January 2012, the shows began simulcasting with the Rio Grande Educational Channel 17 TV station. This public access TV Program broadcasts under the Time Warner Cable System using one of their Public Educational Channels. Viewers from four southern Ohio counties can view broadcast shows live as well as listen on the Internet Blog-Talk Radio. All completed broadcast shows are also uploaded onto YouTube, with all shows archived on Blog-Talk radio and YouTube video channels for viewing and listening again. According to statistics of YouTube and Internet Radio, over 178 countries and over 55,000 people have listened or viewed to one of the archived shows.

With the success of the University of Rio Grande partnership, the SBDC had the opportunity to obtain grant funds to initiate a live streaming radio and TV broadcast  international media channel to be located at the OSU South Centers. Emphasis is on small businesses, supportive small business organizations and agricultural programs. Training events covering a wide variety of business related topics also be recorded and archived on YouTube as well as the data recording platform used by the Ohio SBDC.

Be sure to visit our weekly Blog and stay up-to-date with the OSU South Centers business development network at https://u.osu.edu/osubusinessdevelopmentnetwork/.

By Joy Bauman
Center for Cooperatives Program Coordinator

The CFAES Center for Cooperatives team has been working with the Agriculture Business Management students at the Ohio Valley Career and Technical Center in Adams County, Ohio to form a student-operated cooperative to manage the school’s 300-acre farm. The farm is a learning laboratory, providing valuable opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience managing and operating a farm. 

The students and Mr. Luke Rhonemus, the Farm Business Management program instructor and FFA advisor, have developed a relationship with the OSU South Centers staff over the past few years, starting with Joy Bauman who is currently a program coordinator with the Center for Cooperatives. Joy assisted the program in developing a working business plan for the school farm when Mr. Rhonemus first became the OVCTC Agriculture Business Management instructor in August 2016. Joy conducted farm business planning workshops and provided guidance to the students as they developed their farm business plan, which enabled the school farm to receive a $25,000 agriculture development grant from the Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development Foundation for infrastructure improvements and equipment purchases. At that time, the school farm comprised just over 100 acres. 

Recently, the district purchased an additional 200 acres to allow the students to expand the farm operation. Presently, the students raise beef cattle, meat goats, market hogs, corn, soybeans, and hay. For many years, tobacco was raised on the school farm, but presently, the students only raise tobacco seedlings in the program’s greenhouse to be sold as transplants. In addition, the students manage 300 taps for maple syrup production. The students sell the syrup, as well as freezer pork and hay.
Mr. Rhonemus, who is in his 17th year of teaching high school agriculture and is a lifelong farmer himself, wanted the students to get as much practical experience as possible, including making management decisions, hands-on production, and marketing. 

The CFAES Center for Cooperatives staff members have been working with the students to develop a student-operated farm cooperative using the worker-owner cooperative model. The students learned about agricultural cooperatives and cooperative principles through lessons taught by Hannah Scott, Joy Bauman, and Ivory Harlow. Staff members used Co-op Mastery, the Center’s online cooperative educational platform, along with its companion workbook to help the students develop their cooperative’s bylaws and to begin the business planning for the cooperative.

Students can become members of the farm cooperative by paying a membership fee or by working six hours on the farm. The cooperative members can choose to be affiliated with one or more of the farm production and management committee areas, including livestock, crops, specialty products, and ag mechanics. Each committee recently elected two representatives to the cooperative board of directors to make business and management decisions for the farm. 
“This will give the students hands-on experience with running a business, particularly a cooperative, and serving on a board of directors,” said Bauman. Meanwhile, all of the student co-op members have the potential to earn money and/or receive farm products based on their personal share of the work contributed to the co-op.

Bauman explained that being a farm co-op member and working on the school farm can be part of a student’s FFA Supervised Agricultural Experience project and help them meet the qualifications to earn their State and American FFA Degrees. The student members of the cooperative keep track of their hours spent working for the farm cooperative in the FFA’s online record-keeping system. At the end of the fiscal year, if the farm makes any profit and the board decides to return a portion of the profit to the members, patronage (surplus profit) can be returned to cooperative members to share in the profits or products from the farm, based proportionally on the time invested by individual members. But first, the student-managers must make sure that adequate resources remain to keep the operation going.

“Much like real-life farming, there is no guaranteed profit,” Mr. Rhonemus told his students. There is a chance that no patronage will be returned if the board determines that there are insufficient resources to do so at the end of the cooperative’s fiscal year. As with any farm or business operation, there is risk involved. “For our students, that primary risk is their time investment,” Mr. Rhonemus explained.

The students in the Agriculture Business Management and Ag Mechanics programs at the OVCTC have always worked on the school farm, caring for livestock and crops as well as working on equipment and performing routine maintenance. By forming a student cooperative to operate the farm, the students get to be involved on a new level. “We really do care about the management decisions we make and how that relates to the farm’s profitability, because that will determine how much each of our members financially benefit,” said junior, Kamden Crum, one of the co-op members. “It’s helping us to really see how important it is to operate our farm efficiently,” said senior, Jaycee Baldwin, another student member.
Bauman has enjoyed working with the OVCTC students and instructors. “Having students learn about the cooperative business structure, along with hands-on management of an agricultural cooperative just adds to the vast amount of practical experience the students receive in the OVCTC ag programs,” she concluded.

By Ivory Harlow
Program Specialist, CFAES Center for Cooperatives

On June 1st, 2018, the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Center for Cooperatives, based at the OSU South Centers, launched Co-op Mastery: Beyond Cooperatives 101.

Co-op Mastery is an engaging, online cooperative course for a variety of co-op stakeholders, including steering committee members of new and emerging co-ops, students of co-ops, and new co-op board members or employees. 

“Co-op Mastery curriculum focuses on mid-level knowledge about the cooperative business model,” said Center for Cooperatives Program Manager, Hannah Scott.  “Training modules build on existing fundamental materials by providing an in-depth look at governance, finance, taxation and other areas not typically covered by courses in fundamentals, yet challenging topics for stakeholders.”

The training features eight modules which include video interviews with numerous leaders in the cooperative movement: 
•    Logan County Electric Cooperative General Manager Rick Petty discusses cooperative principles and various functions of cooperatives. 
•    Dennis Bolling, retired President and CEO of United Producers, Inc., shares the benefits that cooperatives provide to members. 
•    Mid-America Cooperative Counsel Executive Director Rod Kelsay discusses effective education and training for a co-op’s Board of Directors.
•    Ohio State University Extension Educator Dr. Chris Bruynis gives insight to key factors that contribute to a cooperative’s success.
•    Nationwide’s VP of Sponsor Relations Devin Fuhrman shares the story of Nationwide’s history as a mutual cooperative company.
•    Agricultural attorney Carolyn Eselgroth of Barrett, Easterday, Cunningham and Eselgroth, LLP addresses legal considerations when forming a cooperative business.
•    Co-Bank Senior Relationship Manager Gary Weidenborner leads users through an interactive financial document exercise. 
•    Dr. David Hahn, Professor Emeritus at the Ohio State University, explains cooperative taxation.

During the first 30 days the program was live and available to the public, Co-op Mastery directly impacted 268 individuals, through website visitors and cooperative education workshops taught by Center staff in Ohio and West Virginia. Workshop participants also received Co-op Mastery workbooks, a 48-page compilation of activities and examples, to supplement their online learning.
Co-op Mastery is a valuable digital tool for cooperative education. Microfarmers in northwest Ohio have used Co-op Mastery to learn about co-op governance. Co-op Mastery workbook business and financial worksheets help simplify the business planning process for farmers exploring the formation of a co-op. 

In July 2018, Program Manager Hannah Scott and Specialist Ivory Harlow presented Co-op Mastery as a tool for cooperative developers and educators at the 2018 Association of Cooperative Educators Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Attendees from across North America learned how to utilize Co-op Mastery as a digital tool for cooperative education and development.

Co-op Mastery: Beyond Cooperatives 101 was made possible by a Cooperative Education Grant from the CHS Foundation. The training is free and can be accessed online at 
go.osu.edu/coopmastery.

To request a workshop or more information, visit go.osu.edu/cooperatives or contact the Center for Cooperatives at osucooperatives@osu.edu or 740-289-2071 ext. 111.

By: Ivory Harlow Cooperative Development Specialist, CFAES Center for Cooperatives

Among draft horses, Belgians are reputed to be the strongest and most capable. A single Belgian draft horse can tow 8,000 pounds. More impressive is what two can do together; a team of two draft horses doesn’t just double- but triples pulling power to 24,000 lbs!

Like a team of draft horses, The CFAES Center for Cooperatives combined forces with industry, government and association partners to achieve great things in 2017. Collaboration created greater impact through cooperative education, technical and development assistance for stakeholders and students of cooperatives.

The Center teamed up with the Mid-Ohio Foodbank to share best practices with the Ohio and West Virginia Food Hub Network. Director of Food Resource Development, Mike Frank, led network participants on a tour, describing how the Foodbank has overcome challenges associated with the aggregation, storage and distribution of fresh food. The Network left with practical actions to improve their food hubs’ operational efficiency.

Collaboration between the Center for Cooperatives and the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development provided valuable information to local ag producers looking to diversify or enhance their operations.   A Value-Added Producer Grant informational session with key speakers from the USDA was hosted at the OSU South Centers, offering local producers an opportunity to ask questions and get answers from USDA grant experts.

The Center for Cooperatives worked closely with the Central Appalachia Cooperative Development Group to start Unity Coffee and Teahouse, the first worker-owned cooperative business in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Five Baristas and a coffee roaster created the co-op with a shared vision to foster a commUnity that supports workers, customers and local residents. Unity Coffee and Teahouse opened for business in January 2018.

The Mid-America Cooperative Council (MACC) brought together cooperative developers from across the Midwest to facilitate communication and coordination of co-op educational resources. The Center met with counterparts from Kentucky, Indiana and northeast Ohio at United Producers, Inc. headquarters in Columbus for a two-day roundtable. Developers discussed programming, goals and alignment. The Center identified opportunities to boost educational programming and technical assistance in the region by sharing knowledge and pooling resources.

The Center facilitated cooperative education for visiting scholars in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics over their stay in the United States, including an educational tour of agricultural cooperatives at the Farm Science Review. Scholars visited with representatives from Ohio’s Electric Cooperatives, Farm Credit, Heritage Cooperative, Dairy Farmers of America and COBA/Select Sires. The scholars returned to Ukraine motivated to share their newfound knowledge of agricultural cooperatives with students at their respective universities.

The Center connected with local vocational schools and FFA to build students’ awareness of careers in agricultural cooperatives. The Center hosted students at OSU South Centers, visited Ohio Valley Career & Technical Center FFA and served on an Ag Career panel in Ross County.

The Center worked with the Ohio State University CFAES Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics instructors to facilitate an undergraduate class project. Students interviewed cooperative leaders and created multimedia presentations sharing what they learned about the cooperative model.

Collaboration with partners created a great impact in 2017. The CFAES Center for Cooperatives intends to increase our horse power in 2018. We look forward to partnering with the Ohio Farm Bureau to provide cooperative education to the next generation of leaders at the AgriPOWER Institute and the Young Agricultural Professionals Winter Leadership Experience. The Center will forge new relationships with growers, producers and marketers at the annual Ohio Produce Network conference, the Ohio Association of Meat Processors conference, and the 14^th Annual West Virginia Small Farm Conference. Together, the Center and partners are resolved to drive forward the cooperative movement in the region and beyond.

By Ivory Harlow, Ohio Cooperative Development Center Program Specialist

Pumpkins are the third largest fresh market vegetable produced in Ohio. More than 7,000 acres across the state are dedicated to pumpkin production. According to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, consumer demand for specialty pumpkins has grown steadily in recent years, and future growth is forecasted. The thriving market for pumpkins provides Ohio growers an opportunity to sell locally grown pumpkins at a premium price. 

Brad Bergefurd, horticulture specialist at the Ohio State University (OSU) South Centers, has conducted pumpkin research since 1998. His research identifies top-performing pumpkin cultivars with highly marketable traits and tolerance to plant diseases and pests. His reputation for helping farmers grow superior vegetables means Bergefurd often fields questions – from growers and buyers alike – about pumpkins, produce and fresh vegetable marketing.

In 2015, Brad received calls from regional buyers seeking pumpkins. “I was being contacted by larger buyers. I talked to local growers who I have consulted with for years and who had shared their interest in expanding to wholesale markets; but they did not have large enough acreage to do it on their own. I pitched the idea of a marketing co-op, and invited them to OSU South Centers to meet with Ohio Cooperative Development Center (OCDC) Program Manager Hannah Scott.”

A group of eight growers attended the meeting to explore how cooperatives benefit members. OCDC provided co-op education, assisted with business and financial planning, and guided the group through federal and state business filing procedures to legally form the Southern Ohio Growers Cooperative.

OSU South Centers provides comprehensive resources

The development and success of the Southern Ohio Growers Cooperative was a team effort. Several departments: horticulture, cooperatives, business and marketing, contributed to the project during start-up and continue to provide ongoing assistance.

Brad Bergefurd, whose horticulture research and connections initially brought the group together, continues to serve members with relevant pumpkin research. This year his research focuses on powdery mildew, a persistent problem for pumpkin growers in Ohio. Brad lends a helping hand to co-op members with cultivar selection, pest and disease problems control, and production questions.

The Ohio Cooperative Development Center provides ongoing technical assistance to the co-op. OCDC delivered board of director training, and helped members put a marketing agreement in place for the 2017 season. Hannah Scott assisted Southern Ohio Growers Cooperative members to develop end-of-year financial statements. “One of my proudest moments was seeing the co-op share first-year profits back with members,” Hannah Scott says. “That revenue would not have happened without the co-op.”

Chris Smalley, Small Business Development Specialist, helped the group forecast finances and production costs. Program Manager of Direct Marketing Christie Welch assisted members with their initial marketing plan, and to identify additional markets for expansion.

In 2016, Southern Ohio Growers Cooperative delivered over 500 bins of pumpkins to regional retailers. The co-op’s goals for the future include building a reputation for quality, increasing the volume of pumpkins and adding additional fresh produce offerings. OSU South Centers is here to help the Southern Ohio Growers Cooperative achieve their goals by providing comprehensive resources through collaborative partnerships.

By: Ryan Mapes, Endeavor Center Manager

The OSU Endeavor Center manager and staff of the affiliated programs at the Ohio State University South Centers continually engage community organizations to maintain awareness of changing needs in the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem and develop solutions to combat negative impact to the economy while promoting the regions resources and talents of the region. 2014 was once again a successful year for the Ohio State University Endeavor Center, its programs and its partners. Open since 2005, the 27,000 square foot business incubator has come to be recognized as a community leader in economic development, business training, and technological excellence.

Endeavor Center business programs and partners had another successful year. The technical assistance programs affiliated with or housed within The Endeavor Center include a Small Business Development Center, an International Development Center, the Ohio Cooperative Development Center and the Manufacturing Extension Partnership. All of these programs provide technical expertise and guidance to the small businesses housed in the incubator. In partnership with the Endeavor Center, the region’s Small Business Development Center was chosen as the top performing SBDC within six states by the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). Partners proceeded to work on several projects at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion facility. The Endeavor Center facility housed eighteen individual businesses which filled twenty-seven office spaces throughout the year and operating at more than 100% of its original occupancy capability. In the last five years of operation, the Ohio State University Endeavor Center and its business partners have:

• Created more than 1,300 high-skill, high-wage jobs, adding more than 115 million dollars of direct economic activity to the local community.

• In cooperation with the Small Business Development Center of Ohio, sponsored or conducted 320 business workshops, training sessions and seminars with nearly 5,300 attendees – business owners, prospective entrepreneurs and ambitious employees seeking to improve the profitability of their businesses so they can grow and provide additional employment opportunities for those in the community.

In August, a partnership was formed with Community Action of Pike County to combat potential federal budget induced layoffs at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion facility. Community Action Committee of Pike County received funding to create a temporary transition center to provide technical assistance for employees facing layoffs. In short time, the transition center was up and running in the Endeavor Center.

Also in 2014, the OSU Endeavor Center was chosen as The Ohio State University’s nominee for the national C. Peter McGrath Community Outreach and Engagement Award. In October, the OSU South Centers director, Tom Worley, and Endeavor Center manager, Ryan Mapes, attended the national outreach and engagement award presentation in Edmonton, Alberta to learn more about the award process. The Endeavor Center staff is currently working with staff on main campus to prepare the presentation for the 2015 national award process.

By Gary Gao, PhD, Extension Specialist and Associate Professor

As a part of Gary Gao’s new specialty crop block grant, he travelled to the University of Florida in Gainesville to meet with professors Rebecca Darnell and Jeff Williamson. Together, they had a multi-year and multi-state USDA-SCRI grant to work on grafted blueberry trees.  Dr. Darnell was the PI of the project.  She showed Gary their grafted blueberry trees that were designed to improve harvest efficiency.  Southern highbush blueberry cultivars were grafted on the sparkleberry, Vaccinium arboretum in their study.

Dr. Jeff Williamson was one of the co-PIs of the project.  He showed Gary some of the advanced selections of sparkleberry plants.  It was very interesting to see the wide range of plant heights and forms.  Although the USDA project ended a couple of years ago, the blueberry tree project will continue, many thanks to some of the new state specialty crop grants that Drs. Darnell and Williamson have received.  

Gary Gao also reached out to Dr. Wei Qing Yang of Oregon State University for help.  Dr. Yang was able to send Gary Gao some sparkleberry plants from his rootstock selection program.  He is in the process of patenting several of his selections.  Hopefully, Gary Gao and his team will be able to find a few good selections for growers in Ohio.

Gary Gao and Ryan Slaughter would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the Ohio Department of Agriculture and the USDA for a new specialty crop block grant.  The grant will support a two-year study on grafted blueberry trees and evaluation of processing blueberry cultivars.

By Gary Gao, Ph.D., Extension Specialist and Associate Professor; Ryan Slaughter, Research Assistant; and Michael Daniels, Formerly Student Intern, OSU South Centers

Our container fruit production plot has finally been set up and ready for your viewing pleasure after several months of learning, planning, and hard work. Since we are not necessarily nursery production experts, we reached out to a few people before we decided on the specifics of our container fruit production plot. We toured Dr. Altland’s research facilities in Wooster, Ohio.  Both Dr. Altland and his assistant Dan Troyer welcomed us with open arms.  We are very grateful for all of the excellent information from them.  Our container production is on drip irrigation and is supported by a very strong trellis system. 

If you would like to bring a group to tour our research plots in Piketon, Ohio, please let Gary (Gao.2@osu.edu) or Ryan (Slaugher.71@osu.edu) know.  Fridays are typically the best days for tours like this.  Gary or Ryan can share what we have learned.  We planted blackberries, blueberries and raspberries so far, and may add other fruit crops.

The main objectives of this study are to:

1. Explore the techniques and practices of container fruit production;

2. Explore an effective way to produce blueberries where soil acidification is not feasible;

3. Provide an effective method of winter protection for blackberries;

4. Extend the fruit harvest season by “forcing” early or later blooms and fruit ripening;

5. Help farmers diversify their farming operations.

There may be other benefits from this project. We use aged pine fines as our substrate for our container fruit production. Pine barks are the byproducts of paper industry. In southern Ohio, timber industry is a significant source of cash receipts for many landowners. Using byproducts of the timber industry can help everyone!   

Since soils on many hilly areas are not ideally suited for fruit production, high density berry production in containers might be a good option. Stay tuned for more information. Pay us a visit, if you can’t wait!

We showcased our berry container production plot at our 2016 Super Berry, Container Fruit Production and Wine Grape Field Night on July 7. With the weather turning out to be much better than we had anticipated, it was a good turnout for the field night.

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Dave Daniels, Director of Ohio Department of Agriculture, and Ms. Lori Panda, a senior program manager at Ohio Department of Agriculture for a specialty crop block grant. We also thank the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service for the Special Crop Block Grant Program. 

By Dr. Gary Gao
Ph.D., Associate Professor and Extension Specialist OSU South Centers 
and Ricardo Medina
Visiting Scholar OSU South Centers and Ph.D. Student, University of São Paulo

If you have time to stop by the greenhouses behind Howlett Hall on the CFAES campus of The Ohio State University, you will likely see a compartment of raspberry plants under some pink/purple LED lights.  The project is being conducted by the visiting scholar Ricardo Medina of Universidade de São Paulo in Brazil, and is a joint project of Dr. Gary Gao’s fruit production systems research and Dr. Chieri Kubota’s controlled environment research.

Below is the brief summary of Medina’s Research Project:

Low temperatures and limited amounts of sunlight during autumn and winter time can be limiting factors for raspberry production in higher latitudes, especially inside greenhouses where the transmittance of light can be very low. 
Usually, plants in the field lose their leaves and go through dormancy; since many chilling hours are necessary for the buds to overcome dormancy, their harvest period is concentrated in summer, when the prices paid for the fruit are the lowest. 
The experiment consists of growing raspberries in greenhouse conditions, using containers with substrates and intercanopy LED lights as supplemental lighting. With the warm temperature inside the greenhouse and the supplemental light provided by LED light bars, it is expected that the plants will not go through dormancy. 

The experiment has three different treatments considering the light intensity including: two layers of LED interlighting bars, a single layer of LED interlighting bar, and no artificial light. In addition, two cultivars with different fruiting habits are being tested. Plants will be tested for growth rate, harvest period, yield, and fruit quality in terms of marketable parameters, but also nutritional quality such as phenolic compounds content and antioxidant activities.

Medina got a chance to sit in on Dr. Chieri Kubota’s Lecture on Controlled Environment.  He also showcased his research project to the students of HCS 3200.  

Here is the summary by Medina:

The lecture presented by Dr. Chieri Kubota was addressed to the HCS 3200 – Horticultural Science class. Dr. Kubota was introduced to the students by Dr. Wendy Klooster at 10 a.m. and started her presentation focusing on controlled environment production systems, such as greenhouse (GH) and indoor production. She brought the key components required for each system and did some comparisons between those systems and the open field method for lettuce production, with data on spacing, yield, energy spent, total cost, and cost per unit produced – ending in a conclusion that indoor farming and greenhouse production can have an initial cost higher than open field, but due to a higher yield (units of lettuce head per area), the final cost per unit represents no more than 15% of increase compared to the open field system. This small increase in the cost may be overcome by a higher selling price when well-advertised that the product comes from controlled environment production, being a pesticide-free product (when that is the case).

The manipulation of the environment was presented by Dr. Kubota in many aspects including hydroponics systems, management of light quantity and quality, and CO2 concentration. The light quality can be manipulated using LED lights, where you can deliver to plants the exact wavelengths combination you want, once LED lights are a monochromatic source of light. Combinations of red and blue lights have been studied for many leafy greens, and more recently, for tomatoes and other crops. Other advantages of LED lights include less heat emission and the higher light use efficiency, with a better conversion of energy consumption to energy use in photosynthesis. Also, the CO2 can be manipulated to enhance tomato production up to 20% and leafy greens up to 50% when increasing CO2 content from 400 ppm (current air concentration) to 800 – 1,000 ppm.

Dr. Kubota gave some examples of successful greenhouse and indoor farming in Ohio, New ork City, Boston, and Tokyo. She also discussed future applications in controlled environment production with the use of drones and image recognition for real-time data collection in terms of the nutritional, pathological, and physiological status of the crop. She concluded her presentation willing a better interaction in between companies as well as academia, and suggests an open communication platform to share knowledge and technologies for indoor and greenhouse controlled environment production.

Following the presentation, a tour with students was conducted by Dr. Kubota, Mark Kroggel, and Medina at the Howlett greenhouse facilities. The tour began with strawberry production in a soilless system, where Kroggel explained how they grow strawberries using trophy and substrate, with supplemental LED lights over the canopy of the plants. The students asked questions about cultivars, sunlight radiation, disposition, and spacing of the trophies. 
The tour continued to the greenhouse where a raspberry production system is being tested. There, Medina explained to the students his project, consisting of growing raspberries in containers using intercanopy LED lights to make plants avoid dormancy, and the effects of the system in the plant growth, harvest period, yield, and fruit quality in terms of marketable parameters and nutritional quality. Students asked questions about plant dormancy, light treatments applied, and comparison to the traditional raspberry production system. This project is part of Dr. Gary Gao’s small fruit projects in collaboration with Dr. Kubota. 

The last greenhouse visited was the teaching greenhouse, where undergrad students can learn how to grow leafy greens, vining crops, and have the opportunity to understand different hydroponics systems. 

Acknowledgements:  We would like to than Dr. Abhay Thosar, a senior Plant Specialist of Horticulture LED for Signify (signify.com/en-us) in United States and Canada for the generous donation of LED lights used in the study.  Their global brands are Philips (lighting.philips.com/main/products/horticulture/language-selector) and Interact (interact-lighting.com/global) Stay tuned for more exciting results from this project! Please visit southcenters.osu.edu/horticulture/fruits for more information on Dr. Gary Gao’s research projects and extensive activities.

By Gary Gao, PhD
Extension Specialist and Associate Professor OSU South Centers

Dr. Gary Gao, co-leader of the Center for Specialty Crops at OSU South Centers, is very happy to announce that Dr. Pengfei Wang and Mr. Ricardo Bordignon Medina have joined the fruit research and extension team.

Dr. Wang is an associate professor of pomology at the College of Horticulture of Shanxi Agricultural University in Taigu, Shanxi, China, where he has been conducting breeding research on Chinese dwarf cherries and also teaches pomology classes.
He received his PhD, MS, and BS from Shanxi Agricultural University and has many years of knowledge and experience working in fruit science.  

Dr. Wang will be involved in all of the fruit research projects at South Centers with a focus on on blueberries, elderberries, and wine grapes.
Medina is currently a PhD candidate of Plant Physiology and biochemistry at University of São Paulo, Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil. 

He also brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in fruit science to the fruit program.  Medina received a MS in Horticulture, working on blueberries for his MS research.  He also received his BS in agronomic engineering and studied citrus at the University of Florida.  

Medina will conduct several research projects on raspberries while he is at The Ohio State University.  He first found Gao while searching for raspberry research and extension programs in the United States.  He has also done quite a bit of extension work in Brazil.  He organized workshops for commercial growers and students.

“I am very excited to have both as members of our team,” said Gao. “Both Dr. Wang and Mr. Medina will be staying with us for one year.”

Medina was borne in Campinas, São Paulo. He likes many sports including basketball, football (soccer), and volleyball.  He also likes plants, fruits, and travel and has two brothers and two sisters.

Dr. Wang is married and has two daughters. 

By Brad Bergefurd
Horticulture Specialist

Ohio hops growers experienced continued strong market demand in 2017 for locally grown hops, with many reporting being sold out before the end of 2017, and the demand is not likely to decline soon with almost 300 breweries operating (or soon to be) in Ohio.

The Ohio State University South Centers, in cooperation with the Ohio Hop Growers Guild for the fifth year in a row, held another sold-out Ohio Hops Conference and Trade Show at the OSU South Centers at Piketon on March 23 and 24. The goal of the event was to help new and experienced growers learn the newest hop production techniques, and network with over 200 hop growers in attendance, as well as 20 hop industry vendors and exhibitors, who showcased the latest in hop technology and innovations.

This year’s Conference included an Ohio brewers panel, whose members either currently are, or are interested in, purchasing Ohio-grown hops.  These brewers included A Butcher and a Brewer from Cleveland and the Portsmouth Brewing Company from Portsmouth. The panel included a tasting of Ohio beers brewed with state-grown ingredients.  

For the first time, we incorporated a bus tour to southern Ohio hop farms, which included the only certified organic hop farm in Ohio and a tour of a newly constructed and operating hop processing, drying, pelletizing, and packaging operation in Georgetown.  Attendees were able to tour the hop fields of these growers and gain knowledge from them on various techniques for growing this specialty crop.  

The event also featured hop experts with Ohio State University Extension, OARDC and OSU South Centers, University of Kentucky, Michigan, and other agriculture industry professionals.  Attendees also participated in hands-on field training and activities in the hop yards at the South Centers. These trainings included drip irrigation design, trellis construction, mobile drying, mechanical harvesting, and fertigation techniques. 

For more information on the Ohio Hops program and the 2019 Ohio Hop Conference, contact Brad Bergefurd at 740-289-2071, ext.136 or bergefurd.1@osu.edu, or Charissa Gardner at 740-289-2071, ext. 132 gardner.1148@osu.edu.

By: Brad Bergefurd, Extension Horticulture Specialist

Ohio Craft Brewers asked Brad Bergefurd if farmers in Ohio grew hops as they were seeking local suppliers of fresh hops to expand the diversity of locally produced brews using Ohio hops. These new brews include high value Wet-hopped harvest ales never produced in the past. Seeing this agriculture opportunity for Ohio, as a project PI and co-PI, Horticulture Extension Specialist Brad Bergefurd acquired Ohio Department of Agriculture and USDA Specialty Crop Block grant funding partnering with faculty in the Departments of Entomology and Plant Pathology to develop an Ohio hops education and research program, “Hop Production to Enhance Economic Opportunities for Ohio Farmers & Brewers”. The project allowed the OSU South Centers Specialty Crops Team to conduct field research and educational programming and three locations throughout Ohio.

Partnering with 14 County Ag/NR Educators, Bergefurd and the Specialty Crops Team have taught over 2,000 landowners at regional programs and authored 5 technical reports and fact sheets on the potential of growing hops as a specialty crop for Ohio’s $13.2 billion craft brewing industry. Working with the USDA Cooperative Development Center to form a hop growers association (Ohio Hop Growers Guild, OHGG.org).

As of fall 2017, 72 Ohio farmers report having planted about200 acres of hops, up from 4 acres in 2011, with an estimated annual farm gate crop sales value of $10 million. With this new local Ohio hop supply, Ohio breweries have begun using Ohio grown hops to produce a high-valued seasonal Wet-hopped Harvest Ale using wet hop cones delivered to Ohio breweries within hours of being picked by local hop growers. Harvest ales are an impossibly aromatic and bright IPA brew bursting with fresh pine, melon and citrus notes. Fresh hops are a high value specialty crop which demands a price premium 4x dried hop market value. Ohio brewers are now producing fresh-hopped Ohio ales using locally grown hops with an annual estimated retail value of over $5 million.

By Brad Bergefurd, Extension Educator, Agriculture and Natural Resources

Thanks to support from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, USDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, and the Ohio Vegetable and Small Fruit Research and Development Program that funded research exploring season extension production techniques, Ohio strawberry growers are profiting from adopting strawberry production technology based on research at the OSU South Centers.

Southern Ohio strawberry growers, south of I-70 and down to the Ohio River reported some of the best harvests in 2017 they can recall, achieving yields of almost 2 quarts per plant on some farms.

Strawberry market demand continues to grow and be strong in Ohio. Consumer demand at local farmers markets and farm markets continues to out-pace production. Consumer interest in “Pick-Your-Own” also continues to grow with most of this market demand peaking on weekends, for this is a form of “Agritainment” that families are wanting to experience. This weekend-only interest does make it necessary to have alternative weekday options to market strawberries. Demand is also strong for Ohio-grown strawberries at Ohio produce auctions and direct marketing to Ohio wholesaler buyers with many wholesale markets establishing “Buy Local” marketing campaigns to fulfill demand for local produce. Retail prices for the 2017 season ranged from $4 to $6 a quart pre-picked and $2.20 to $2.50 a pound for pick-your-own berries. The reported wholesale prices ranged from $2.25 to $3.85 a quart. Retail and wholesale prices are up from 2016, but growers report no consumer complaints.

Season extension production techniques continue to be explored and adopted to fulfill individual farm market demands. Though matted row production continues to be the main method, plasticulture production has been widely adopted to compliment the matted row system by providing a 3- to 4-week earlier harvest, which then leads into the later matted row harvest allowing farms to capture the consumer demand and a longer season with up to 12 weeks of cash flow. Ohio research continues and some farms are adopting greenhouse, high tunnel and/or summer day-neutral production to capture even more of the strong market demand. Growers that are harvesting and marketing day-neutral varieties through the summer and fall months are reporting great market demand and retail prices of $5 to $6 a pint. This summer production has complimented diversified farms that also produce and market summer-time fruit and vegetables. Growers who have adopted greenhouse and tunnel production for later harvest report the biggest issue being management of the Spotted Wing Drosophila and achieving economically feasible yields to cover the increased costs and management of these protected production systems. University and on-farm research is being performed to continue to refine these potential production systems for Ohio.

Weather was either the Ohio strawberry grower’s friend or foe in 2017. The very mild winter resulted in very little to no reported winter damage to plasticulture strawberry plants, that never go 100% dormant and are more prone to freeze damage than matted row. Weather was the southern Ohio grower’s friend when the spring warmed up earlier than normal, resulting in earlier bloom and harvest beginning the last two weeks in April, some of the earliest reported harvest dates ever. Spring frosts and freezing temperatures had to be managed some with row covers and sprinkler irrigation, but there were not many sleepless nights. Throughout harvest, rainfall was heavy in some areas resulting in some flooding making it difficult to get timely and frequent fungicide applications made. Some southern farms reported Botrytis outbreaks toward the tail end of harvest, due to rains during late bloom, or they would have picked even longer. There were also isolated reports of Leather Rot especially in northern areas where rainfall amounts were much heavier during initial bloom and lasted throughout the bloom period, resulting in field flooding and ponding and major crop damage and loss for some farms, especially in Northeast Ohio.    

Mechanical harvest aids are being adopted by more and more Ohio farms to increase harvest labor efficiency and increase the speed of harvest. Those that have adopted these harvest aids are reporting major savings in labor costs, as they are able to perform timely harvests with less labor. There also is continued research in mechanical harvesting techniques by Ohio engineering companies who showcased prototypes of mechanical harvesting robots at this year’s Strawberry Field Night held at the OSU Piketon Research & Extension Center in May and at several strawberry farms throughout Ohio. To keep up with market demand, mechanical harvesting options will need to be explored as seasonal labor becomes harder to find.  

The 2018 harvest season is looking good so far with high quality strawberry tips arriving from Canada and Nova Scotia the end of July showing no reported signs of disease or quality issues at this point. There were some 7- to 10-day delays in shipments from these northern Canada and Nova Scotia nurseries due to cool temperatures that delayed harvest of runner tips. The weather throughout August was great for on-farm and plug plant propagation by nurseries that have started growing plug plants for this growing market. There was not an overabundance of plug plants, because most nurseries plant on a pre-order basis, which made it difficult for growers that had not pre-ordered plants to find the plants they needed, resulting in them having to decrease acreage. Plant propagation nurseries reported an increase in plant orders. September weather allowed for timely planting of plasticulture strawberries with great plant stands and growth being reported. So far September and October weather has been a “Carolina” type of fall so flower bud initiation and branch crown development has been good so far.

A tri-state strawberry growers cooperative, including Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia farms continues to be researched with a core group of growers forming a steering committee in 2016 to explore the feasibility of forming a cooperative and/or association. This committee meets several times a year in conjunction with strawberry field days or conferences. If you are interested in what this cooperative may be able to do for your operation, contact founding member Danny VanMeter at VanMeter Family Farm 164 Old Peonia Loop Rd., Clarkson, KY 42726, Phone: 270-963-2320 or Brad Bergefurd at 740-289-2071 Ext. 136 or Dr. John Strang at University of Kentucky Dept. of Horticulture, N-318 Ag. Sci. Bldg. North, Lexington, KY 40546-0091 Phone: 859-257-5685 or Email: jstrang@uky.edu.

By Brad Bergefurd, Extension Horticulture Specialist

In 1994 the Piketon Research & Extension Center began high tunnel research on tomato and berry crops. Since that time over 3,000 high tunnels have been adopted by fruit and vegetable growers as a way to extend the harvest season. However, continuous cropping of high tunnels with specialty crops is resulting in reduced yields and quality of tomato crops. Partnering with Dr. Sally Miller of the OSU/OARDC Plant Pathology Department and her Vegetable Pathology Lab, USDA funding was received in 2016 to conduct on-farm research that explores soil-borne disease control methods.

Partnering with the Zimmerman family who owns Spring Valley Farm in Cynthiana, Ohio, this on-farm research trial was established in 2016 to conduct research and outreach programs to reduce the impact of soilborne diseases on production of locally grown, high-value vegetable crops. Two disease management strategies, anaerobic soil disinfestation and grafting, are being  optimized for Ohio farms and farmers are being educated on these technologies through specially designed workshops and trainings. Data being collected form this study is being used to develop a new soil diagnostic testing service to identify key soilborne diseases.

By Gary Gao, Ph.D., Extension Small Fruit Specialist and Associate Professor, OSU South Centers

Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture and Crop Science

Ryan Slaughter, Research Assistant, OSU South Centers

2016 was a busy and productive year for our specialty fruit crops horticulture program area. We conducted Extension and outreach programs for commercial fruit growers, revised fact sheets for consumers, conducted applied research projects, received new grants, and participated in international activities.

Extension Outreach:

Three key educational programs were offered at OSU South Centers in Piketon. They were the Ohio Super Berry and Wine Grape Workshop in March, Ohio Super Berry, Container Fruit Production and Wine Grape Field Night in July, and Wine Grape Analysis Work in December. Our research and demonstration plots were featured at all of these programs in addition to classroom presentations and field demonstrations by Gary Gao, Patrick Pierquet, Dong Qin, Ryan Slaughter, and Todd Steiner.

We also offered numerous tours of our research plots to students, new and existing growers, our colleagues at The Ohio State University and several other universities. Our group also participated in the 25^th year celebration of OSU South Centers in Piketon.

Dr. Gary Gao served on the planning committee for the 2016 Ohio Grape and Wine Conference in Dublin.  The program drew an excellent attendance in 2016 and evaluations were very positive.         

Dr. Gary Gao spoke at the OPGMA Congress, OEFFA Conference, Beech Creek Garden Symposium, Southwest Ohio Specialty Fruit and Vegetable School, Master Gardener volunteer training schools, and Farm Science Review in 2016. He also made several presentations in Chinawhich are highlighted in the International activities section.     

Dr. Gary Gao and Ryan Slaughter also updated and revised Extension fact sheets. 

The following revised fact sheets are now available on Ohioline:

Growing Apples in the Home Orchard - http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1401

Growing Peaches and Nectarines in the Home Landscape - http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1406

Raspberries for the Home Fruit Planting - http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1421

Growing Grapes in the Home Fruit Planting - http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1423

Growing Strawberries in the Home Garden - http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1424

Pruning Blueberry Bushes in the Home Garden - http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1430

Pruning Erect Blackberries in the Home Garden - http://ohioline.osu.edu/factsheet/hyg-1431

Research Projects:

Dr. Gary Gao and Ryan Slaughter had several on-going research projects at OSU South Centers in Piketon in 2016.  They were: Super Berry for Farm Diversification and Season Extension, Wine Cultivar Trial and Winter Protection, Container Fruit Production, and Chemigation for Pest Management.  Dr. Gao is also a Co-Principle Investigator of a multimillion dollar national USDA Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) project with Dr. Heping Zhu of USDA in Wooster and Dr. Peter Ling of OARDC/OSU, along with other faculty members at The Ohio State University and several land grant universities in the U.S.  

In 2016, Dr. Gary Gao and Ryan Slaughter received a new specialty crop block grant from USDA through ODA to work on grafted blueberry “trees,” new processing blueberry cultivars and fertility management of blueberries.  The project started in November, 2016.  Stay tuned for more information.

Dr. Gary Gao along with several researchers at OSU South Centers received an OARDC equipment grant in 2016. With the help of several cooperators, supporters, and our director Dr. Tom Worley, we were able to purchase a ThermoFisher Ultimate 3000 UHPLC ultra high performance liquid chromatography system and a MSQ single quadrupole mass spectrometer. This new system will greatly enhance the research capacity of all research areas at OSU South Centers.

By: Brad Bergefurd, Extension Educator Horticulture /Agriculture and Natural Resources 

Statewide interest purchasing local malting barley and hops by Ohio brewers has Ohio State University moving ahead with research and educational programming on these crops. Ohio commercial beer manufacturers and craft brewers send an estimated $36 million out of Ohio annually by purchasing hops and malting barley from west coast farmers. To help keep some of that economic activity within the state, the Ohio State University has developed a hop and malting barley research and education program focused on production and marketing. Dr. Mary Gardiner of the OSU Entomology Department, Brad Bergefurd of OSU South Centers and OSU Extension Scioto County, and Dr. Sally Miller of the OSU Department of Plant Pathology are the Principle Investigators of the Ohio hops research and industry development program.

Agricultural statistics records indicate that in 1871, barley was planted on 81,000 acres in Ohio, producing approximately two million bushels total. Today, barley production ranks well below other small grains in Ohio with only 6,000 acres planted in 2014 compared to 620,000 acres of wheat. Most of the barley grain cultivated today is a six-row feed winter barley variety used for livestock feed on-farm or sold at local elevators. Of the 6,000 acres of barley, less than 50 acres in 2015 were estimated to be of the malting barley variety in demand by craft brewers.

Dr. Eric Stockinger of the Ohio State University Horticulture and Crop Science Department began growing and testing  malting barley in the 2008–2009 growing season cultivation of malting type barleys at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster and throughout northern Ohio. In 2013, Bergefurd and Gardiner partnered with Stockinger to expand this malting barley research into southern Ohio and began evaluating malting barley in southern Ohio at the Piketon Research and Extension Center, exploring both fall and spring planted varieties.  

The hop and malting barley projects are allowing Ohio State researchers and educators to develop sustainable production practices directly related to Ohio growing conditions that will develop these Ohio industries. Data collected from the field research trials allows us to educate growers about production, pest management practices, and marketing strategies to help them generate farm profits from these highly sought after crops. The research is evaluating new cultivars, innovative production techniques, insect and disease control methods, harvesting, processing, and marketing techniques that can be adopted by Ohio farmers.  The research will allow Ohio's beer manufacturers to spend their money in Ohio by purchasing Ohio-grown hops and malting barley and ultimately help create Ohio jobs, allowing Ohio growers to diversify into a high-value specialty crop. Preliminary research results indicate hops and malting barley can be successfully grown and marketed  throughout Ohio and are adaptable to most Ohio soil types.

The OSU South Centers Horticulture program conducted several hops and malting barley educational programs and field days in 2015, reaching over 2,000 people interested in learning more about the hop and malting barley research that is being conducted by the Ohio State University. These events included monthly first Friday educational tours at both the Piketon and Wooster research locations, three Hops Field Days held at the Wooster, Piketon and Bowling Green research sites and the 2^nd annual Hops and Craftbrewers Conference in Wooster with over 350 in attendance.  An Ohio Hop Farm tour was conducted in partnership with the Ohio Hop Growers Guild, OHGG.org, where over 500 people participated in all-day tours of ten commercial hop farms throughout Ohio. Hops workshop were also taught in two of Ohio’s Extension EERA regions in partnership with Extension Educators in those areas for new and interested hop farmers. 

For more information on the Ohio Hops and malting barley research and industry development program, visit our Ohio Hops Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OhioHops or the OSU South Centers website http://southcenters.osu.edu/horticulture/other-specialties/hops for more information. If you would like to be added to the Ohio Hops email list serve to  receive Ohio hop updates and information, contact Brad Bergefurd, Bergefurd.1@osu.edu or call the OSU South Centers 1-800-860-7232 or 740-289-2071 extension #132.

By: Brad Bergefurd, MS, Horticulture Specialist and Extension Educator

Urban food hub organized and formed in 2014

A food hub to strengthen the local food system and increase access to healthy food in the Cincinnati area was formed in 2014 with support from the OSU South Centers Horticulture program, the OSU Direct Marketing Team and the Ohio Cooperative Development Center. The goals of the food hub are to increase organic vegetable production, sustain the food hub effort by developing and organizing training for farmers, and by creating family sustaining jobs in Greater Cincinnati. This effort began with the development of an incubator urban farm in April 2012, with an additional 100 acre farm leased and cultivated in 2014. In 2014, the incubator farm employed 20 people and 400 families purchased shares for a weekly Community Supported Agriculture Harvest box program. Our Harvest Cooperative aggregates produce, and supplies various retail and wholesale outlets. Our Harvest Cooperative is partnering with Cincinnati State’s newly launched Sustainable Agriculture Management Program which was spun off from the Specialty Crop Apprenticeship Training program started by OSU South Centers in 2013 where students come to the urban farm weekly for their practicum.

$100,000 Specialty Crop Block Grant received to explore new hop processing, plant propagation and production techniques

Thanks to a grant from the Ohio Department of Agriculture, the State of Ohio, and the United States Department of Agriculture, Ohio hop research and Extension education have increased. Brad Bergefurd as the projects Principle Investigator, and co-Investigators Mary Gardiner of the Department of Entomology and Sally Miller of the Department of Plant Pathology are leading this hops project to further support the growth of the expanding Ohio hops industry and craft brewing industry. Ohio’s brewing industry is booming! Legislation in 2013 allows Ohio’s craft brewers to invest more money into their breweries, increasing the demand for Ohio-grown hops. Over 140 licensed Ohio beer manufacturers and thousands of home brewers send an estimated $30 million in hops purchases and related jobs out of Ohio by purchasing the flowers of the hop plant, called hop cones or "hops" from out-of-state. Hops are a main ingredient in beer manufacturing, providing a bitterness that balances the sweetness of the malt sugars and a refreshing finish. Based on the increased interest from brewers in buying Ohio grown hops, Ohio farmers are investing in hops production. This project is providing the research based production guidelines for insect and disease management, irrigation and fertilization needed to produce Ohio hops in an ecological and economically sustainable manner. Further, Ohio growers are left without economical methods for post-harvest processing of hops that suit brewers’ needs and meets food safety guidelines. These are the critical priorities being addressed to move the hops industry forward. This project is expanding Ohio’s specialty crops research in hop production and is providing education and research focused on addressing Ohio hop production and processing issues that are impacting profitability of Ohio hop farmers, including plant nursery production, pest management, processing technology and grower education.

Horticulture program receives grant to conduct a three-year high tunnel training program

From field research the OSU South Centers began in 1996 and continues today, Ohio has faced an explosion of high tunnel production by mostly new producers due to conservation program incentives and an uptick in local foods and urban agriculture. High tunnels are a way to extend the season for fruit and vegetable crops. There is continued need for education at the beginner and advanced levels of pest management and production. Grafting techniques that add horticultural diversity and combat soil borne diseases, plus the introduction of a new fact sheet series on tomatoes has been incorporated into a three-year high tunnel training initiative, part of an $886,643 USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant. Brad Bergefurd is a co-principle investigator on this project.

Ohio has a huge demand for integrated pest management (IPM) training regarding high tunnels, with a mix of hundreds of existing seasoned operators needing advanced training, and a recent influx of almost 300 new growers requiring basic training due to the popularity of the Natural Resources Conservation Service EQIP High Tunnel initiative. The university-based and on-farm based training program that began at Piketon in April 2014 is for new and advanced growers, Extension Educators and Specialists who want to learn about high tunnel IPM and production management. This training program is comprised of a combination of on-site educational modules and experiential "in-tunnel" learning showing practical application.

Over 350 attend first annual Ohio Hop Growers Conference

We organized and taught the 1st annual Ohio Hop Growers Conference in Wooster, OH at the OSU OARDC campus on February 13th, 2014. With over 350 attendees, this workshop was a huge success! Brad Bergefurd was the Conference Moderator for the day-long conference and began the day with an overview of the hops industry in Ohio and the opportunities for Ohio farmers to grow for the ever-expanding Ohio Craft Brewing Industry. Other educators for the day (and topics) included: Andy Pax (beginner’s advice from an established grower), Chelsea Smith (pests and beneficial arthropods), USDA Farm service agency, Fulya Gurel (diseases and virus control and management in hops), Jason Channels (Ohio Department of Agriculture: food safety regulations and requirements for hops processing and sale), Dan Kamburoff (Irrigation design, setup, operation, fertigation and management for hops) and Eric Stockinger (Malting barley research and production opportunities in Ohio). A post-conference craft brewery tour was conducted at JAFB brewery in Wooster. The second annual Ohio Hop Conference will be held in partnership with the Ohio Craft Brewers Annual Conference on February 5 and 6, 2015 at the OARDC campus.

Brad Bergefurd, Horticulture Specialist and Extension Educator Agriculture & Natural Resources

Email: Bergefurd.1@osu.edu

Phone: 740-289-2071 ext. 136

Thom Harker, Research Assistant

Email: harker.4@osu.edu

Phone: 740-289-2071 ext. 177

Wayne Lewis, Farm Manager

Email: lewis.34@osu.edu

Phone: 740-289-2071 ext. 135

Charissa McGlothin, Program Assistant

Email: mcglothin.4@osu.edu

Phone: 740-289-2071 ext. 132

Chelsea Smith, Research Assistant

Email: smith.7231@osu.edu

Phone: 330-202-3555 ext. 2560

By: Brad Bergefurd, MS, Horticulture Specialist and Extension Educator

Thanks to a grant from the Ohio Vegetable and Small Fruit Research and Development Program, the Ohio State University South Centers Horticulture program has been researching pumpkin crops for over 20 years. This pumpkin research and extension program has explored new production methods that have been implemented on Ohio farms to add to the profitability of Ohio pumpkin enterprises. Pumpkins, gourds and winter squash are a big cash crop for Ohio. Ohio ranks third in pumpkin production in the United States, harvesting over 10 million pumpkins off of 6,100 acres, and generating over 15 million dollars in 2013.

One area of on-going research is the evaluation of new pumpkin germplasm or varieties that are in the testing stages or that will be soon entering the market. OSU South Centers have tested new selections to see how they perform under Ohio growing conditions and if they have the traits necessary for the wholesale and retail fall crops market, which, according to the National Retailers Association, is the second most decorated season of the year--second only to the Christmas holiday season. To view the results of pumpkin research performed in Ohio, visit our web site at: southcenters.osu.edu/horticulture/vegetables/pumpkins.

By Ryan Mapes, Endeavor Center Manager and Business Development Network Program Leader

To showcase October’s National Manufacturing Month, local high school seniors along with staff members from the OSU South Centers Business Development Network, recently, toured the Speyside Bourbon Cooperage, Inc. manufacturing facility in Jackson, Ohio.

Speyside produces barrels for bourbon distilleries across the United States. While the company has been in business since 1947, they began production at the Jackson facility in 2016. Much of the raw materials used to produce the barrels are processed within a 30-mile radius of Jackson. The tour highlighted the process of converting the raw wood materials into barrels through CNC machining and modern manufacturing.

National Manufacturing Month helps highlight the value of manufacturing to the economy and the opportunity available for highly-skilled workers and careers.

Eastern High School seniors from Pike County participated in the tour to highlight local careers available in the manufacturing industry after graduation. “Not only did these students get to tour a manufacturing facility in the region, they also learned career opportunities in manufacturing as well as some required skills needed to enter the workforce,” Mick Whitt, Manufacturing Specialist with the OSU South Centers stated during the tour.

This tour also kicked off a new collaboration for the Southeastern Ohio Region. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) serving 22 southern and southeastern counties will be housed at the OSU South Centers in conjunction with the Ohio State University’s Center for Design and Manufacturing Excellence within the College of Engineering. The MEP program will focus on providing value-added manufacturing consulting services to manufacturers throughout the region. Some services include market development, new product innovation, supply chain development, and strategic growth planning.

Additional tours introducing high school students to manufacturers in the Southeastern Ohio Region are being planned throughout the coming year.

By Christie Welch
Direct Food & Agricultural Marketing Specialist

Local food producers came together in Brown and Cuyahoga Counties this past month to explore new market channels for their locally produced foods.  Many food producers get in to this enterprise because they really enjoy the production aspects of the business.  However, there are also many local food producers whose knowledge of the various market channels is limited.

To assist these local food producers in increasing their knowledge and overcoming barriers to entering different market channels, the OSUE Direct Food & Agricultural Marketing Team partnered with local OSU Extension offices for an in-depth workshop to share best practices when exploring the various market channels.

During the MarketReady training, local foods producers learned research-based best practices for exploring sales to restaurants, grocers, direct-to-consumers, and via wholesale markets.  And while all of these market channels are seeking to purchase locally produced foods, producers must take the time to match their products, capacities, and skills with each of the market channels in order to be successful. While many are familiar with selling their products direct-to-consumers through farm and farmers’ markets, there are additional opportunities to sell to restaurants, grocers, and wholesalers.  Each channel requires different business functions.  MarketReady provides education on these differences and how producers can be successful in developing the proper business functions for the various market channels.

The producers remarked that the training was “very informative” and they like “the different expertise of each of the speakers.”  

During the Cuyahoga County training, The Grocery’s owner, Rachael Kingsbury, shared information with the participants on how she procures local foods for her business.  She shared best practices that she experiences with her current suppliers. The Grocery offers locally produced foods, prepared foods, and catering services.  Attendees indicated they really appreciated the “real world” examples that were shared during the trainings.

At the OSUE Brown County training, Dr. Tim Woods of the University of Kentucky, Department of Agriculture Economics and the creator of the MarketReady program, joined the group to co-present the materials and share information about the research conducted when developing the MarketReady Program.  Joined by Dr. Woods was Alex Butler, also of the University of Kentucky and the Center for Crop Diversification, who shared information on insurance requirements for the various market channels. 

Also in attendance in Brown County were the participants of the USDA FAS Ukraine Agricultural Economics Faculty Exchange Program.  These visiting scholars will take the knowledge gained back to their home country and adapt the program to assist their local food producers. One of the Ukrainian faculty commented, “it was nice discussing practical solutions to solve the sales problems of farmers.”
If you would like more information about the MarketReady Program, which is currently being offered in 17 states, you can go to southcenters.osu.edu/marketing/overview-programs/marketready.

By Christie Welch
Direct Marketing Program Specialist

Ohio farmers’ markets are thriving and many of them accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits (SNAP); formerly known as the federal food stamp program.

In Ohio there are currently 224 farmers’ markets and farm markets that accept SNAP benefits.  This represents a 128.6% increase since 2012.  While this has helped food insecure individuals access fresh, locally produced foods, farmers’ markets are at risk of losing this ability.

On July 2, 2018 Novo Dia Group, Inc. announced it would shut down the Mobile Market + Application.  Novo Dia Group developed the Mobile Market + application for iPhones that allows farmers’ markets the ability to accept SNAP benefits wirelessly via iPhones, iPods, and iPads.  According to the Farmers Market Coalition, “Novo Dia Group is the largest supplier of SNAP payment processing equipment to farmers markets in the country. Over 1,700 (or 40%) of farmers markets and farmers that accept SNAP nationwide are currently customers.” This ability is critical for farmers’ markets that are typically held in open air locations that lack access to land-line telephones and electricity.  If the Mobile Market + app is no longer available, farmers’ markets will have few options. SNAP benefits in Ohio are administered by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and are known as the Ohio Direction Card. And while ODJFS offers access to wired terminals for Ohio farmers’ markets, due to the nature of where farmers’ markets, operate wired equipment is typically not feasible. 

Once Novo Dia Group made their announcement about the shutdown of the Mobile Market + app, farmers’ market supporters around the country began looking for solutions.  On July 19 the National Association of Farmers’ Market Nutrition Programs announced it would provide funding to keep the Mobile Market + app functional for an additional 30 days in hopes a more permanent solution could be identified.  And while this news was welcomed by farmers’ markets, it was a temporary solution.

Then on July 27th New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced, “an agreement has been reached with Novo Dia Group to enable SNAP recipients to continue to use their benefits at farmers markets across the state, and *nationwide* through the rest of the farmers market season.”  In a press release of that day, the Governor went on to say, “This agreement also lays the groundwork for other states that rely on cellular-based transactions at farmers’ markets to continue their services as well.” You can read the full press release here: governor.ny.gov/news/governor-cuomo-announces-plan-protect-snap-recipients-access-farmers-markets.

On August 2, 2018 Novo Dia Group provided a Frequently Asked Questions list on their website, mailchi.mp/novodiagroup/mobile-market-status-2160213?e=529d05a582.  To help farmers’ markets across the country remain up to date on the fate of Mobile Market + application and/or other solutions that may become available the Farmers Market Coalition has created a webpage dedicated to providing the most current information available.  You can find the information at: farmersmarketcoalition.org/novo-dia-group-shutdown-info-page-now-live.

The OSU Extension Direct Food and Agricultural Marketing Team is following the situation closely and providing updates via our Facebook pages, @OhioDirectMarketing, and @OhioFarmersMarkets.  If you have questions or concerns about your local farmers’ markets’ ability to continue to accept SNAP benefit wirelessly, please contact Christie Welch via email to: 
welch.183@osu.edu.  We will provide additional information or assistance as it become available.

By: Christie Welch, Program Manager and Team Leader

Direct Food & Ag Marketing Team focus:

The team is focused on providing training, education, and technical assistance to Ohio’s food producers and marketers. The goal of this assistance is to help these small businesses increase their effectiveness and thereby their profitability. This should translate to healthier farms, food producers, and the communities where they reside and increase access for consumers to locally produced foods.

In 2017 the team provided many trainings and educational presentations throughout Ohio.  Highlights of these include:

• MarketReady – A one day workshop that helps local food producers explore various market channels; direct to consumers, direct to restaurants, direct to wholesale, and direct to institutions. The workshop focuses on the main business functions for each of these market channels.  The training was delivered in conjunction with OSUE Cuyahoga County to 26 participants. An attendee said about the training that, “all subjects and speakers were very informative, meeting and talking with fellow growers-always a plus.” Another said they valued, “learning how to connect and strengthen customer relationships through demographics, their needs and offering products through direct sales.” In addition to the collaboration between Amanda Osborne of OSUE Cuyahoga County and the Direct Marketing Team, Ivory Harlow of the Center for Cooperatives shared information about cooperative development with the attendees.

• The Direct Marketing Team continues to collaborate with the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s Ohio Proud Program. Team members supported two Ohio Proud Food Summits held in Columbus, and Wellington. The regional summits bring local food producers together with local food buyers. As a result, local food producers enter new markets and increase access to their locally produced foods.

• Collaborated with the Ohio Proud Program to offer best marketing practices to Ohio Proud Partners – Columbus and Piketon and Milan; approximately 75 individuals attended.

• Partnered with the OSU Resource and Ag Law Program and Wright & Moore Law, LPP to host the first annual Ohio AgritourismReady conference. More than 75 individuals attended the conference and learn how to grow their agritourism enterprises, how to manage liability, best marketing practices, and much more.  The conference was so well received that we are currently planning the second annual AgritourismReady conference which will be held March 10, 2018 in Piketon, OH.

• Online video presentation to Heritage Ohio on how to have a successful farmers’ market in your community to 50 members of Heritage Ohio. According to their website, As Ohio’s official historic preservation and Main Street organization, Heritage Ohio fosters economic development and sustainability through preservation of historic buildings, revitalization of downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts, and promotion of cultural tourism.

• Presented at three regional meetings (Toledo, Dayton, and Marion) of the Ohio Travel Association to make connections with local visitors’ bureaus and tourism organizations with Ohio Agritourism operators for the benefit of both groups. Association members have a better understanding of agritourism enterprises in Ohio and how they can be included in county tourism promotions to help attract visitors to their counties.

• Was invited to present Facebook Basics and Using Social Media to Market Your Business to the Ohio State Beekeepers Association conference. This annual conference attracts nearly 400 attendees of which 100 attended these two presentations.

• Team members Rob Leeds, OSU Extension Delaware County and Eric Barrett, OSU Extension Delaware County presented - Managing Your Online Presence and Customer Service in Social Media and the Digital World at the 2017 North American Farm Direct Marketing Association (NAFDMA) Annual Convention, in February in Mystic, Connecticut.

In addition team members presented a variety of marketing trainings throughout Ohio including; Best Marketing Practices, Identifying Your Target Market, Getting MarketReady, How to Develop a Marketing Plan, Farmers’ Markets Basics, Connecting with Your Customers, and Value Added Opportunities among others.

The team also rebranded and updated the Maps & Apps curriculum, now DeviceReady – Managing Your Online Presence.  The inaugural presentation of DeviceReady was held in conjunction with the Small Business Development Center at Columbus State Community College. The program was so well received it is being offered again on April 17, 2018 for CSCC and on April 24, 2018 for the Ohio State Beekeepers Association members.

Team members published two factsheets; Selling Eggs in Ohio: Marketing and Regulations and Maps, Apps and Mobile Media Marketing both of which are available via Ohioline.

Team members Eric Barrett, Peggy Hall and Emily Adams completed a project with others across campus, entitled, “Removing Barriers to the Direct Marketing of Farm Foods in Ohio,” as part of an OSU Cares Grant. The project surveyed farmers’ market managers and health departments, and gained input from farmers around Ohio. Four themes were evident that need addressed in Ohio. The project team will work with ODA, ODH and others in Ohio to review the results and to make plans for reducing barriers to entry in the coming year.

By Christie Welch, Direct Agricultural Marketing Specialist

On April 5, 2017 nearly 70 individuals gathered for the Ohio AgritourismReady Conference in Waldo, Ohio.  The attendees where there to learn about Ohio’s new agritourism law, liability management, profitability, adding an activity to an agritourism operation, and more.  The attendees heard from industry experts, extension educators, and agritourism operators. 

The first such event held in Ohio, the workshop was sponsored by OSU Extension’s Agriculture & Resource Law Program, the OSU Extension Direct Agricultural Marketing Program, and Wright & Moore Law Company LPA.  Guest speakers included Ben King, Risk Management Consultant with Nationwide Insurance, Ryan Conklin, Attorney with Wright & Moore Co., and representatives from Richwood Marketing.   

This one-day workshop was designed to assist Ohio’s agritourism operators to ensure they have the necessary information to effectively manage risks, market their enterprises, and better manage their agritourism business.  The event allowed agritourism operators the opportunity to learn from experts and peers in an effort to increase the profitability of Ohio’s agritourism operations.

One attendee said it was “Nice to have concrete examples with people who do this.  Would like more examples of tips they implement to make it easier for tours/teachers,” referring to a breakout session that focused on school tours and working with teachers.  Another attendee referred to the breakout session on Adding an Activity to Your Agritourism Operation, “Good brainstorming of potential issues and things I haven’t thought of.”  This session was led by Eric Barrett and Rob Leeds, OSU Extension Educators and members of the OSUE Direct Ag Marketing Team. 

Overall, the participants indicated the information presented was very helpful and would recommend having such a workshop annually.  There are also plans to hold a similar event in the southern part of the state for those agritourism operators that were unable to attend the April 5th event.

If you would like more information about this or upcoming workshops, check out the OSUE Direct Agricultural Marketing Program’s website at southcenters.osu.edu/marketing or contact Christie Welch, Direct Ag Marketing Specialist via email to welch.183@osu.edu. 

By Ivory Harlow, Cooperative Development Specialist

Friends of Ohio’s cooperatives joined the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences and OSU Extension to celebrate the newly established CFAES Center for Cooperatives at the Nationwide & Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center on October 18th, 2017.

The celebration commemorated the 2017 National Cooperative Month of October. The event also coincided with Ohio Cooperative Week designated by Governor John Kasich as October 15-21, 2017 in a Resolution presented to Mid-America Cooperative Council Executive Director Rod Kelsay at the event.

Dr. Graham Cochran, CFAES Senior Administrative Officer, welcomed cooperative leaders from United Producers, Select Sires, Nationwide, the Ohio Farm Bureau, and others to the event, and shared the college’s commitment to organizational development and workforce preparation. Associate Dean and Director of OSU Extension Dr. Roger Rennekamp highlighted the importance of cooperatives and how the Center will be part of the overall network of OSU Extension programming to reach stakeholders in all 88 counties of Ohio. Dr. Tom Worley, Director of the new Center, announced the University has been awarded a Rural Cooperative Development Grant totaling approximately $200,0000 to improve rural areas of Ohio and West Virginia through the development of cooperatives and other mutually-owned businesses. Debbie Rausch, from the Ohio office of USDA Rural Development spoke to the group, highlighting the College’s 18 years of USDA cooperative development efforts.

Along with Worley, Dr. Ani Katchova is leading research programs for the Center and Hannah Scott is serving as leader of Extension and outreach activities. Programming for the Center will occur within and link all major mission areas of CFAES, including teaching, research and Extension. This integration is expected to extend knowledge to emerging and established agricultural cooperatives and support rural economic development. Furthermore, the Center will provide students and agricultural professionals with more interdisciplinary training and research opportunities.

“The CFAES Center for Cooperatives is expected to be comprehensive and bring together all three mission areas of the College - teaching, research, and Extension. We are very pleased to be well positioned to serve the wider cooperatives community in Ohio through the combined faculty and staff resources of the Center,” OSU South Centers Director Tom Worley said.

The Center maintains staff based in Piketon, Ohio and also has faculty presence on the Columbus campus. It will integrate the College’s current activities and operations that support cooperative business development, engage directly with long-established cooperatives, and provide cooperative education both in the classroom and via Extension and outreach programs.

By Hannah Scott, OCDC Program Manager

A group of farmers in Preston County, West Virginia is working together to get local food into local schools. The Preston County Growers Co-op recently incorporated as a cooperative business with five member-farms that produce a variety of foods from lettuce to potatoes to eggs and beyond.

Some of the co-op’s growers have been working together for a few years to supply local schools with produce, but recently decided to formalize as a cooperative that is owned and controlled by their farmer-members.  Within the cooperative model, members coordinate their production and marketing, selling to schools and other institutions as a single business and sharing profits with members.

The process of formalizing the co-op was supported by a number of organizations, including West Virginia University Extension, the Value Chain Cluster Initiative, West Virginia Farm to School, and the Ohio Cooperative Development Center.  The Ohio Cooperative Development Center (OCDC) worked with the growers to help them learn more about the co-op model, including the benefits of the business model, how money can move through a co-op, and the process of forming a co-op in West Virginia. OCDC also assisted the group with reviews of their foundational documents, including bylaws, membership applications, and membership agreements.  

Learn more about the Preston Growers Co-op in this article in The Preston County News & Journal.

Submitted by Brad Bapst
SBDC Director

The Ohio State University South Centers Small Business Development Center (SBDC) provides business counseling and training to a 10-county region in Southern Ohio. Primary services the SBDC provides include business planning, financial packaging and lending, marketing assistance, and goods and services exporting to other countries. The Center utilizes a unified delivery model to incorporate resources from other programs affiliated with The Ohio State University South Centers, including the Ohio Cooperative Development Center, Direct Marketing, and OSU Extension programs to strengthen service offerings.

SBDCs offer no-cost, one-on-one, long-term professional business advising, low-cost training, and other specialized services. The SBDC program is one of our nation’s largest small business assistance programs within the Federal government, made up of a unique mix of SBA Federal funds, state and local governments, and private sector resources.   SBDCs are often hosted by leading universities and state economic development agencies, and are funded in part through a partnership with the Small Business Administration.

The Small Business Development Center at OSU South Centers had a very successful year providing business consulting to existing and start-up small businesses in Southern Ohio. During fiscal year 2018, the SBDC at OSU South Centers provided the following assistance:
• Provided consulting to 334 clients, of which 229 received five or more hours of consulting
• Assisted with starting 25 businesses
• Helped clients obtain $10,214,900 in capital
• Logged 4,323 consulting hours
• Held 19 training events with 344 attendees
• SBDC Clients created 106 new jobs and retained 532 jobs
• Recorded $4,944,400 in general sales growth for clients 

The staff at OSU South Centers SBDC continues to engage community organizations to maintain awareness of changing needs of entrepreneurs in the region and develop solutions to combat any negative impact to the economy.  Counselors volunteered time to serve as board members on several chambers of commerce, on a regional board established to support economic development, and as members of advisory boards for business organizations to increase awareness of business issues and identify solutions to problems.

The SBDC continues to work with the Southern Ohio Agricultural and Community Development Foundation in assisting area farmers interested in applying for the Ag Development Grant and the Young Farmer Grant programs. This is a program where our SBDC counselors work closely with area farmers to write business plans for projects that will be submitted to SOACDF for potential grant funding to assist with their project. This year, we assisted 33 individuals explore, complete, and submit applications for these programs. You can see details and deadlines about the program at soacdf.net.

By Dr. Rafiq Islam
Soil, Water, & BioEnergy Program Leader

The Ohio State University is actively involved in capacity building of the research, education, and Extension activities at the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences-Jiamusi located in the Peoples Republic of China. 

Dr. Rafiq Islam and Ken Ford (Fayette County Extension Educator) from The Ohio State University; Drs. Ismail Dweikat and Oscar Rodriguez from University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and Drs. Sougata Bardhan and Safiullah Pathan from University of Missouri and Lincoln University-Missouri visited China at the invitation of the Heilongjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences during August-October of 2018. 

Dr. Islam led the visit. All of the experts from the United States delivered professional presentations on climate change and crop productivity, corn and soybean breeding, soil amendments, bio-fertilization, and Extension outreach activities.
Based on their acquired experience with Chinese agricultural management practices, Dr. Islam and others have developed an applied research and Extension outreach coordination with scientists at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences–Jiamusi Branch in 2014. As a part of their effort, they have established a long-term applied research project entitled “Tillage and Cropping Systems Impact on Soil health and Agroecosystem Services.” 

Several of the OSU Extension Educators, scientists, and faculty members visited the Chinese academy to further strengthen the bridge of collaboration. Likewise, several exchange scientists and students from the Chinese academy visited The Ohio State University to acquire science-based knowledge on 21st century climate-smart agriculture.

By Dr. Rafiq Islam
Soil, Water, & BioEnergy Program Leader

Dr. Sergiy Lavrenko, an assistant professor with the Department of Agriculture, Faculty of Agronomy at Kherson State Agricultural University in Kherson, Ukraine has completed his two-month fellowship in our Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program at The Ohio State University. 

He came to South Centers as one of the visiting scholars sponsored by the Civilian Research Defense Foundation-Ohio State University US-Ukraine Competitive Research Program for his professional development to teach and conduct research and disseminate information on climate-smart agriculture.

During his two-month fellowship period at The Ohio State University, he played a significant role in our program’s teaching, research, and Extension activities. He was actively involved in lab and field research and learned several new techniques to collect, process, and analyze biological, chemical, and physical indicators of soil quality associated with enhanced ecosystem services under climate-smart agriculture.

He is a very responsible and highly motivated individual who worked hard to fulfill his training program goal. We were very impressed with his research work and educational activities.

By Rafiq Islam, PhD
Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources Program

Several members of our Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program staff and The Ohio State University Extension educators recently organized a field day on “Hands-on Soil Health” for farmers and two-day “Advanced Soil Health Systems” workshops for USDA-NRCS personnel in Indiana.

The field day and workshops were held in Wenning Farms, Greensburg, and Brocksmith Farms, Vincennes, Indiana, respectively from July 24 to 26, 2018.

On the first day (Field day), topics covered included: “What Insects where? Analysis of pit fall trap (insect trap) contents from fields in a soil health management system vs. conventionally tilled/managed fields”; “How healthy is my soil? In-field use of OSU Soil Health Test Kits to measure CEC, Active carbon, Aggregate stability, and other key assessments of soil health and function”; “What is working? What is in the plots? Reports on Wenning’s current experimental plot work”; and “What can I change? How different cropping practices can positively (or negatively) affect soil health and function?”

Dr. Rafiq Islam and Alan Sundermeier from The Ohio State University, Barry Fisher from USDA-NRCS National Soil Health Division, Stephanie McLain from USDA-NRCS Indiana State Soil Health Program, 

Joe Rorick from Conservation Cropping Systems Initiative, and Roger Wenning, Host and Soil Health Farmer of the Wenning Farms, spoke to the farmers and demonstrated several soil health field tests.

On the second and third day (Advanced soil health systems) workshop, the training provided opportunities to build applied soil health systems knowledge and skills. In-Field Soil Health Assessment Worksheet, Pit Fall Trap Assessments, Soil Health Test Kits - CEC, Active Carbon, Aggregate Stability, Rainfall Simulator - Getting full use of the demo, and Soil Health Test Kit for Interpretation of Results and Management suggestions to improve soil health. Topics are selected based upon training needs and current cropping concerns. Target audience for this training included ICP staff, farmer-mentors, agronomists, and other Ag professionals who have completed Core Trainings and/or previously attended Advanced Soil Health Systems Trainings. 

More than 100 people including farmers, educators, consultants, state and federal personnel, students, and non-profit personnel attended the field day and workshop. The participating educators received CCA credit for their professional development. Dr. Yogi Raut attended both field day and workshop to demonstrate the soil health test kit.

Vinayak Shedekar
Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources Program

The Second International Conference on Food and Agriculture was held at Dhanbad, Jharkhand (India) during March 29-31, 2018.

Dr. Vinayak Shedekar, Research Associate-II with the Soil, Water, and BioEnergy Resources (SWBR) Program was among the three Ohio State University delegates who organized a 2-day special session on “Climate-smart Agriculture” (CSA). Dr. Bryan Mark, State Climatologist of Ohio and Dr. Asmita Murumkar, Post-doctoral Researcher in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering joined Shedekar. 

The session featured talks from experts, educators, and representatives from non-profit organizations relating to the development of climate-smart agricultural systems, tools, crops, and communities. 

The speakers presented topics such as role of youth in climate change adaptation, climate change assessment, and climate-smart technologies, among others. The session kicked off with Dr. Bryan Mark’s presentation that highlighted the framework for climate change assessment, adaptation, and mitigation in USA and India. Dr. Asmita Murumkar delivered a talk on assessing climate change impacts. Vinayak presented use of decision tools for climate-smart agriculture. Two presentations on developing climate-smart crops were another highlight of the session. 

Dr. Ismail Dweikat, Professor in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, presented his research on developing drought tolerant crops in response to changing climate. The presentation highlighted sorghum and pearl millet as alternative crops that can be grown in deficit-irrigated or water scarce regions. 

The CSA session concluded with an expert panel question-answer session, which ranged from scientific queries to extension and outreach related questions.

By Rafiq Islam and Wayne Lewis
Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources Program

Recently, OSU South Centers farm manager Wayne Lewis and Dr. Rafiq Islam visited Ukraine to establish a long-term CLIMATE-SMART agricultural research experiment. 

The goal of our research is to develop climate-smart agricultural management practices based on novel and holistic approaches of crop diversification (rotation and cover crops) with plant stress alleviator (salicylic acid) under continuous no-till that helps improve soil quality, water- and nutrient-use efficiency, reduced greenhouse gas emission, and economic crop productivity with enhanced agroecosystem services. 

Soil, crop, water, greenhouse gas emission, input, and climatic and economic data will be collected and analyzed to deliver the project outcomes and outputs. Proven traditional and electronic outlets will be used for outreaching Ukrainian clientele (both educators and farmers) to show agriculture is not the problem, but a part of the environmental solution.

The project was funded though the Civilian Research Defense Foundation under US-Ukraine Research Collaboration. Rafiq Islam the US Principal Investigator and Dr. Natalia Didenko is the Ukrainian Principal Investigator for the project. 
The Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources Program is conducting the field research in conjunction with scientists from the Institute of Water Resources and Land Management (Ministry of Agriculture), Institute of Irrigated Agriculture, Askaniya State Agricultural Experimental Station, and Brylivske state farm. Professor Vozhehova R. Anatoliivna (Director), Dr. Maliarchuk M. Petrovich (Main Scientific Researcher), Maliarchuk A. Sergiivna (Senior Researcher), and Biliaeva I. Mykolaivna (Department Head) from the Institute of Irrigated Agriculture; Melnik Andrej (Chief Agronomist), Nadia Reznichenko (Scientific Secretary), Vira Konavalova (Junior Scientist), Natalia Galchenko (Director), Victor Naydenov (Director), Oleksandr Knyazev (Chief of Laboratory of Agrotechnology), Tetyana Levenec (Junior Scientist), and Sergij Roj (Junior Scientist) from the Askaniya State Agricultural Experimental Station; and Cherevychnyj Yurij (Head of the Research Fields) and Kiberlenko Ivan (Director) of the state farm Brylivske, will be working with us as members of the team.

As part of the research activities, both Rafiq Islam and Wayne Lewis delivered presentations and conducted interactive discussions on no-till system, mono-cropping with corn or soybeans, corn-soybean-wheat cropping diversity with summer and winter cover crop blends maintain soil moisture, control weeds, provide home-grown nitrogen, reduce soil compaction, and improve soil quality. They also discussed the effects of salicylic acid on improving the drought tolerance capacity of crops. Both demonstrated to their Ukrainian collaborators how to measure compaction, soil pH, moisture content, and soil quality in the field using simple equipment and the OSU Soil Quality Field Test Kit. 

Finally, the field experiment was established to test 2 tillage systems x 2 cover crops x 2 salicylic acid treatments with three replications on 45 acres of irrigated lands at the “Askaniya” State Agricultural Experimental Station and state farm “Brylivske” under in Kherson Oblast, Southern Ukraine.

By Yogendra Raut 
Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources Program

While high-input conventional agriculture produces greater amounts of food, feed, energy, and fiber in developed countries, subsistence agriculture in Africa is one of the factors responsible for chronic food shortages. Current practices in both situations are associated with soil health degradation and food insecurity, and contribute to diminished agroecosystem services.

As the threats of climate change are constantly increasing, and in fact, its impact has already shown devastating effects in Africa. The looming prospect of reduced agroecosystem services demands a knowledge-based solution to support sustainable agriculture in Africa.

In light of some of the management practices for developing sustainable agriculture in Africa, Drs. Yogendra Raut, Vinayak Shedekar and Rafiq Islam visited Burkina Faso, West Africa in February and March 2018. Dr. Alimata A. Bandaogo, a Research Scientist from the Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA) and a former USDA-FAS Borlaug Fellow (mentored by Rafiq Islam) facilitated our visit to Burkina Faso. 
We organized two workshops jointly organized by The Ohio State University, INERA, and USDA-FAS Norman Borlaug Fellowship Program; first in Bobo-Dioulasso on February 27  and the second in Ouagadougou (Capital of Burkina Faso) on March 1.  Opening remarks were made by the Director-General of INERA-Burkina Faso and a briefing about INERA mission by Drs. Ouedraogo Ibrahima (Regional Director) and Alima Bandaogo, respectively. 

The overall methodology of the workshops was based on participatory action research.  Interactive presentations were delivered at each workshop highlighting: Rethinking agriculture in the 21st century, Sustainable agriculture decision tools, Soil health test and interpretation, and Forage/pasture and animal grazing – challenges and opportunities in Burkina Faso. Several demonstrations of the soil health test/soil organic matter (SOM) calculator were performed. A participatory brain storming session was conducted at both locations to identify current agricultural problems in Burkina Faso, which were: lack of knowledge of delivery systems (Extension), climate-change and soil quality management practices, water quality and irrigation, and availability of suitable equipment. About 30 participants from INERA, local government, private companies, international donor agency (JICA), and farmers’ representatives at each location participated in the workshops.

By: Rafiq Islam, PhD, Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program Director

Several program specialists and scientists at the Ohio State University (OSU) South Centers have received USDA-Capacity Building, NCR-SARE Partnership, and CRDF US-Ukraine collaborative research grants in recent months.

The Ohio State University joined in a collaborative partnership with Central State University (CSU) through a project ($592,493) funded by the USDA National Institutes for Food and Agriculture under the 1890 Land Grant Institution Capacity Building Program. Rafiq Islam, Brad Bergefurd, and Matthew Smith are the OSU investigators, who will help to guide CSU’s capacity building to provide academic education, conduct applied research, and disseminate Extension outreach on water chemistry of aquaponics production system over a 3-year period. Both CSU and OSU will jointly disseminate findings from the study to urban youth, and disadvantaged farmers, environmentalists, and other stakeholders.

Rafiq Islam and Natalia Didenko (a former USDA-FAS Borlaug fellow from Ukraine) received a 1-year collaborative grant proposal funding ($107,000) from the CRDF Global* 2017 U.S.-Ukraine Agricultural Research Competition. The goal of the project is to develop suitable agricultural management practices based on novel and holistic approaches of crop diversification with plant stress alleviator (salicylic acid - aspirin) under continuous no-till that help to improve soil quality, water- and nutrient-use efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emission, and increase economic crop productivity with enhanced agroecosystem services.

The research team members from the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation, Kyiv, the Institute of Irrigated Agriculture, Kherson State Agrarian University, Dnipro State Agrarian University, and The Ohio State University. Funding for year one of this project will help to establish the test plots for what is hoped to be a long-term effort to identify the most promising agronomic combinations to maintain and/or improve soil health and agroecosystem services in dry conditions in Ukraine.

Proven traditional and electronic outlets will be used for outreaching Ukrainian clientele to show agriculture is not the problem, but a part of the environmental solution.

Rafiq Islam and Vinayak Shedekar in collaboration with Alan Sundermeier from The Ohio State University Extension - Wood County has received a collaborative grant funding ($29,980) from the USDA NCR-SARE Partnership Program. The goal of the project is to develop soil health testing, interpretations, management recommendations for farmers by the team of soil scientists, and extension educators. Farmers growing grain and vegetable crops in Ohio, and representing a wide range of practices such as no-till, conventional tillage, cover crop, and crop rotations will be reached by the program.

*CRDF Global is an independent non-profit that was originally named the U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation for the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (CRDF) and was funded by the U.S. Government under the Freedom Support Act.

By Dr. Rafiq Islam, Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program Director

Recently, Drs. Tom Worley, Director of the OSU South Centers and Rafiq Islam, Borlaug mentor have visited Ukraine to meet the USDA-Borlaug mentee, Dr. Natalia Didenko. Dr. Didenko organized and managed the mentor follow-up trip very professionally based on the skills she acquired during her Borlaug fellowship period at the Ohio State University in 2016. As part of our program schedule, we visited (1) Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation, National Academy of Agrarian Sciences in Kyiv, Ukraine; (2) Agro-ecology and Forestry Research Institute in Zhytomyr; (3) Kherson State Agrarian University, Kherson; (4) Institute of Irrigated Agriculture, Kherson; and (5) Dnipro State Agrarian and Economic University, Dnipro.

We met Director Dr. Romashchenko Mykhailo and his division specialists at the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation. They discussed accelerated salinity and degraded soil quality, droughts, and soil compaction issues in response to climate change effects. In response, Dr. Tom Worley delivered a presentation on Ohio State University and South Centers for possible research, academic and extension and outreach collaboration to address some of the issues raised by the director and specialists. Dr. Rafiq Islam also gave a research and Extension presentation on sustainable management of soil quality and water resources in response to climate change effects on Ukraine.

We were accompanied by Dr. Didenko to visit Kherson State Agrarian University and Institute of Irrigated Agriculture in southern Ukraine. We met Rector Dr. Yuriy Kryylov, deans, and senior professors to discuss collaborative research and Extension outreach on sustainable soil and water management practices in the Kherson region.

As part of our program, we visited several private farms (e.g. Freedom Farm International) as well as State farms (Askaniyskoe). We met a pioneer no-till farmer (Stefanov) in Kherson, who is currently managing 12,000 ha lands (30,000 acres) with no-till, cover crops and crop rotation for the last 12 years to improve soil health, reduced soil compaction and minimize water-use for irrigation. Visiting that farm was amazing to see the results being achieveable using sustainable agriculture methods.

By the initiation of Drs. Natalia Didenko and Iryna Volovyk, Chief of International Affairs Dept., Dnipro State Agrarian and Economic University), we met Rector Anatoly S. Kobets, vice-rectors, deans, several professors, and international program officials of the Dnipro State Agrarian and Economic University and discussed collaboration. Later, Professors Olexandr Mironov and Mykola Kharytonov from Soil and Ecology Dept. of the Dnipro State Agrarian and Economic University took us to visit reclaimed and abandoned mine-lands currently under phytoremediation process to generate bio-feedstock production for energy. With Professor Olexandr Mironov, we also visited “Agro Soyuz” one of the largest private Ag-enterprises in Dnipro, who promotes no-till and cover crops use in Ukraine.

Throughout our visit, we had several discussions with our Ukrainian counterparts to develop academic courses, conduct applied research, and initiate Extension outreach programs with their specialists. We also discussed initiation of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Ohio State University. Accordingly, Dr. Tom Worley signed the MOU with the Institute of Water Problems and Land Reclamation institute, as the MOU was approved by the OSU Office of International Programs earlier.

Currently, we are working to develop a “Visiting scholar exchange program” to bring scientists from several universities and institutes in Ukraine to work in Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program of The Ohio State University South Centers, starting May 2018.

Dr. Alima Arzouma Bandaogo, a new USDA-FAS Borlaug visiting scholar from Burkina Faso in West Africa has recently joined our Soil, Water and, Bioenergy Resources Program. Currently, she is employed at the National Institute of Environment and Agronomic Research as a senior Soil Scientist since 2014. Alima has focused her research on integrated soil fertility management because accelerated soil degradation is one of the major problems that is affecting smallholder farmers in Africa, including Burkina Faso. Agriculture in Burkina Faso is characterized by minimum investment, poor crop yields, and low farm income as the soils are poor quality with low soil organic matter and nutrient contents, especially nitrogen and phosphorus. Almost 85% of the population in Burkina Faso is involved in agriculture for growing rice, corn, sorghum, and millet as staple food crops.

Alima received the highly competitive prestigious USDA-FAS Borlaug fellowship to work in the Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program of The Ohio State University South Centers for her professional development under the mentorship of Dr. Rafiq Islam. Her training focus is to acquire science-based knowledge to address integrated soil fertility management practices for economic crop production in Burkina Faso under climate change effects. She is eager to learn more about new soil and crop analytical techniques, soil quality, cover crops and nutrient recycling, crop rotation and tillage systems, greenhouse gas emissions, field experiments, sampling procedures and multivariate statistics, manuscript and grant writing techniques.

Since her arrival in September to the United States, she has attended the World Food Prize Award Conference in Des Moines, Iowa in October 2017. As part of her research achievement, she has delivered a scientific presentation at the American Society of Agronomy /Crop Science Society of America/Soil Science Society of America Annual International Meeting in Tampa, Florida in October 2017. Moreover, she has been selected as one of the invited scholars to deliver a poster presentation at the International Scholar J-1 Research Exposition on November 17, 2017, at The Ohio State University President’s Office. She will attend and participate at the Licking County Field Day on November 16, 2017 and the Ohio No-Till Conference on December 6, 2017 in Plain City to learn more about no-till farming, crop rotation, cover crops, and nutrient and manure management practices.

By Rafiq Islam, PhD, Soil Program Director

The Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources (SWBR) Program of the OSU South Centers, in conjunction with International Programs in Agriculture (IPA) and USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS), hosted six delegates from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture under the Crop Rotation and Soil Quality Monitoring and Detection sector of the US-China Scientific and Cooperative Exchange Program (SCEP). Dr. Rafiq Islam was the primary trainer and principal investigator of the Crop Rotation and Soil Quality Monitoring and Detection project. The program was coordinated by Beau Ingle, Program Manager of the OSU International Programs in Agriculture. The SCEP delegation was led by Dr. Yuguo Liu, Deputy Director-General of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture’s Farmland Quality Monitoring and Protection Center. 

As maintaining a healthy and productive soil is the foundation of sustainable agriculture, the goal of the project was to expose senior officials from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture to the layered cross-sectors of the U.S. agricultural system for interaction and understanding, supporting and strengthening the Chinese agricultural sector in preserving and improving farmlands.

As part of the SCEP, the delegates visited the U.S. Capitol Building, Supreme Court Building, Library of Congress, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). They met officials from USDA-Foreign Agricultural Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Washington, DC. In addition, they visited several national labs and programs at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service facilities in Beltsville, Maryland to understand the importance of publicly funded agricultural research in priority areas of crop production, soil quality monitoring, and sustainable agriculture.

At OSU, the SCEP participants had a series of meetings with the Vice President for Agricultural Administration and Dean, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, and leadership from Ohio State University Extension to learn more about the land-grant university system, Ohio agriculture, and OSU Extension services. Mike Estadt, Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Educator in Pickaway County, led a very productive meeting between the Chinese delegation and Pickaway County Extension, Soil and Water Conservation District, NRCS personnel, and representatives from local farm and banking communities. They were really impressed with the mission and vision of the OSU and the national 4-H programs.

To know and learn more about state agricultural programs, the SCEP fellows visited the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) to meet Director David Daniels and ODA administrators from the Division of Soil and Water Conservation, Division of Plant Health, and Office of Farmland Preservation.

The SCEP delegates visited OSU South Centers to learn about nationally and internationally collaborative applied research and Extension programs of Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources, especially with the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Heilongjiang Province (Jiamusi branch). As part of the SCEP schedule, the delegates toured several showcase farms in Ohio, including the Brandt Family Farm (Fairfield County), John Fulton farm (Pickaway County), and Aaron Lemaster farm (Jackson County) to discuss and learn more on sustainable agricultural practices such as no-till, crop rotation, cover crop blends, soil health and field test, compaction and drainage.

We believe that the Chinese SCEP participants had a good understanding of how OSU Extension facilitates and delivers the exchange of science-based knowledge and tools between agricultural producers and other agricultural and natural resources stakeholders as it pertains to the promotion of conservation and the protection of farmlands.

By Vinayak Shedekar, PhD, Soil Research Associate

The OSU Extension Healthy Soil Healthy Environment signature program has launched a new monthly video series through the OSU South Centers’ live streaming service. This monthly series aims to educate farmers, youth and the general public about the importance and management of soil health. The hosts are Alan Sundermeier, Agriculture and Natural Resources Educator, Wood County Extension and Vinayak Shedekar, Research Associate at OSU South Centers. The series will feature farmers and experts on various topics surrounding soil health as guests.

One of the recent guests, Dr. Steve Culman, OSU Soil Fertility Specialist spoke about making sense of soil health testing. In another episode Jim Hoorman, regional soil health specialist with the Northeast Region NRCS-Soil Health Division of NRCS, explained the role of cover crops in soil health management. He also discussed topics such as selection, mixing, planting times, and seeding/planting equipment for cover crops. The “Soil Health Series” will air live on OSU South Centers live stream available at: www.youtube.com/southcenters at 10 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month. Past episodes are available to view at: soilhealth.osu.edu/video. Contact Vinayak Shedekar (shedekar.1@osu.edu) for any queries or more information.

By Yogendra (Yogi) Raut, PhD, Soil Research Associate
The information provided in this report is based on a visit March 14-17, 2017 at University of Illinois Extension, Chicago. This meeting was sponsored by the NIFA-North Central IPM Centers and Great Lakes Urban Agriculture IPM Working Group that includes The Ohio State University Research Foundation, The University Director’s Fund, and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE).  There were almost thirty participants attending this meeting from Ohio and Illinois.  Each participant was requested to have two oral presentations; one status report and two about the future strategies about the problems and issues with Urban Agriculture Farming. Each day, an educational tour was scheduled visiting successful urban farming operations in the area to discuss one-on-one about the problems and issues pertaining to the operation, maintenance, and marketing aspects of the system.  The objective of the meeting was to synthesize issues, problems, and learn about successes as well as measures to resolve some of the issues facing urban agriculture to guide future planning, monitoring, and evaluation systems. 

While environmental advocacy groups are protesting urbanization and real estate development mainly because of shrinking farmland, and when the efforts are being made in favor of using these urban lands for agricultural purposes, they go hand-in-hand and serve the interest of both these groups.  Urban agriculture can be defined as the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around the village, town, or city. Urban agriculture can successfully incorporate several components.  As suggested by the subject matter specialist during the meeting, these components must be cautiously undertaken on a small scale at the outset to be on the safe side financially.  However, most of the sites we visited had over several million dollars invested, indicating that Chicago has successfully developed several urban agriculture enterprises.  

Components of Urban Agriculture

• Aquaculture: The farming of finfish, shellfish and other aquatic animals has become big business during the past 20 years.  Recent developments include production of aquatic plants, and fish/plant integrated systems.
• Aquaponics: A combination of fish and plant production using aquaculture and hydroponics systems, aquaponics is moving from the realm of experimental to commercial.
• Hydroponics: It is an enterprise growing plants in a nutrient solution root medium, is a growing area of commercial food production and also is used for home food production by hobbyists.
• Livestock Production: Grass-based livestock systems for meat and dairy production (i.e., grass-to-glass production system), raising free-range chickens and turkeys and pasturing hogs have become viable alternatives for U.S. farmers, as reported by the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association  (APPPA).  The system concept is based on biodynamics, an ancient practice developed in 1920s.
• Horticulture: Vegetable and fruit production
• Beekeeping: well-known to all of us
• Vermiculture: A practice of using earthworms for making compost.  Hundreds of small farms across the country are raising poultry on pasture, producing high quality meat and eggs and improving profitability because of low feed costs.  However, productivity on these farms is typically limited by seasonal climate and waste management. In most U.S. climates, the chickens can be outdoors only in spring and summer, creating indoor production challenges during cooler months.  At the same time, red worm composting, or vermiculture, has been shown to be an effective way to break down organic materials. The worms can eat 50 to 100% of their body weight in decaying wastes per day.  A combination of pastured poultry and vermiculture provides a synergistic effect in the integrated small scale farming system; the worms providing a natural digester of chicken manure and a source of food for the chickens.
• Fundamental and Key Resources: Based on level of investment, energy and capital (i.e., fixed and liquid) are found be the key fundamental resources.  Depending on the locality, the level of investment, and personal suitability, the following energy alternatives can be chosen.

Needs: 

• Education and Research: As long as urban agriculture is limited to small garden scale, the need of research and education is somewhat limited.  However, once the individual acquired basic understating and moved toward an urban agricultural farming system, the education and research sector becomes inevitable. The Chicago Urban Agriculture Meeting 2017 envisaged the need of this sector more than before.  The policy makers (i.e. Federal, States, and Municipalities including cities) need to rethink and reshape understanding about urban agricultural farming systems since there may be multiple areas of research and education systems including needs assessment, program/planning, monitoring and evaluation.
• Subject Matter Specialists: Programs in urban agriculture are being guided by the Extension Educator personnel. Despite their knowledge, creativeness, and receptiveness, they disclosed the need for more subject matter specialists in the urban agriculture network, especially entomologists, pathologists, and soil scientists.

Potential impact of urban agriculture:  It is an emerging enterprise which would be a win-win situation for both environmental advocacy and urbanization and real estate development groups.  It is also envisaged to have a multiple positive impacts on social, health, economic, and environmental issues in urban areas.

By Dr. Rafiq Islam, Soil Program Director

Since 2002, the Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources Program at the Ohio State University South Centers has developed a graduate research and educational collaboration with numerous universities across several continents. Currently, two graduate students are visiting scholars working in the Soil, Water and Bioenergy resources Program on their Ph.D. research work. Heba Said Ali El Desouky El Abd, Assistant Lecturer, Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Egypt is funded by the Government of Egypt for a 2-year research scholarship. Emmanuel Amoakwah, Research Scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) - Soil Research Institute, Kwadaso – Kumasi, Ghana, is funded by USDA Norman E. Borlaug Leadership Enhancement in Agriculture Program (LEAP).

Heba is working on her Ph.D. thesis work entitled “Plants Response to Nano- and Chelated Nutrients” under the supervision of Professor Hosny Mohamed Abd-El Daym, Plant Physiology, Botany Dept., Faculty of Agriculture, Benha University, Egypt (principal supervisor) and Rafiq Islam, Program Director, Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources at The Ohio State University South Centers, Ohio, USA (host supervisor). Her research work focuses on using iron-based nanotechnology (nano-fertilizer) on the physiological processes, growth and yield of greenhouse grown tomato and cucumber production, compared with conventional and chelated Fe fertilizers. So far, she has generated tremendously high quality data to observe that precision technology such as Nanotechnology is far superior to the conventional systems to modify the plant root, stem, and leaf cell structures to improve water and nutrient uptake by plants and consequently, increase plant growth and economic yields. Some of her research slides on modified plant cell structures and fruit quality are shown below:

Photo 1: Chemical iron fertilizer effects on tomato stem cell

Photo 2: Nano iron fertilizer effects on tomato stem cell

Photo 3: Conventional iron fertilization (7), chelated iron fertilizer (8) and nano iron fertilizer (9) effects on tomato fruits  

Photo 4: Heba Said Ali El Desouky El Abd

Emmanuel Amoakwah, a Ph.D. student in the Dept. of Soil Science, University of Cape Coast, Ghana is funded by the USDA-Borlaug LEAP program for a 10-month scholarship to complement his Ph.D. research work in Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources. This is his second time to visit and study at OSU South Centers. The first time, he came in 2013 as a USDA-Borlaug short-term scholar to learn more about newly developed lab and field research techniques. That work experience he acquired at the OSU South Centers persuaded him to enroll in the Ph.D. program at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. His Ph.D. research study is titled “Biochar Effects on Nutrient Recycling, Mitigation of Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Crop Productivity.” Specific objectives of his research are to: (1) Characterize physico-chemical characteristics of biochar, (2) Determine the effects of biochar greenhouse gas emissions, (3) Measure the effects of biochar on soil quality, and (4) Determine the effects of biochar on crop productivity. Some progress of his work is illustrated below.

By Yogendra Raut, Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources

Five research presentations were made at the American Society of Agronomy/Crop Science Society of America/Soil Science Society of America International meetings by Rafiq Islam, Yogendra Raut, and Vinayak S. Shedekar in Phoenix AZ, November 6 to 9, 2016.

The OSU Soil Organic Matter Calculator - a Decision Tool to Manage Soil Health was presented by Vinayak S. Shedekar with Rafiq Islam, Randall Reeder, and Jerry Grigar (USDA-NRCS Michigan) as co-authors.  This presentation in the Graduate Student Competition was selected for second prize based on intellectual quality and merit. This is a simplified version of the computer model designed as a user-friendly decision support system to be used by producers to manage their farm operations and farm profitability. This is free software and can be downloaded from the Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources program website go.osu.edu/somcalculator.

Yogendra Raut delivered a scientific presentation entitled “Bioenergy Production and Carbon Sequestration Dynamics under Conservation Reserve Program Management System” based on his Ph.D. thesis work with Drs. Warren Dick and Vinayak Shedekar, as co-authors. The long-term study has shown that harvesting of aboveground biomass from Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land would be a win-win situation in terms of bioenergy feedstock production, carbon credit and improved soil quality.

Rafiq Islam delivered three presentations, two on soil quality and one on soil organic matter quality and storage.  His first presentation, “Soil Organic Matter Quality and Storage under Different Land-Use Systems Following Primary Deciduous Forest Conversion” featured USDA-Borlaug scholar Emmanuel Amoakwah from Ghana as the primary author. The study showed that the temporal land-use changes at the OSU South Centers Research farm at Piketon affect the land quality in terms of carbon source and sink. He delivered the second presentation entitled “Evaluating Anthrone Reactive Carbon as a Measure of Soil Quality” as a new approach based on soil health core indicator properties functionally associated with soil quality that are largely controlled by labile organic carbon in soil.

Rafiq delivered his third presentation during the Soil Health Assessment and Management session on “A New Active Carbon Test to Evaluate Agricultural Soil Health Globally.” This is a modified version of the earlier soil quality test, based on active carbon. In general, the earlier procedure is suitable for mineral soils and not consistently desirable for soils with high carbon content, mine reclaimed soil, muck soil, Ca-rich soil, Fe- and Al-rich red soils, and submerged or rice soils. This new soil quality test can be successfully used to measure soil quality of various soils on a global scale.

Drs. Tom Worley, Larry Brown and Rafiq Islam, along with Alan Sundermeier from Ohio State University visited the People’s Republic of China at the invitation of the Chinese National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Heilongjiang and Jiamusi Branches). The Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources program at the Ohio State University South Centers has established and coordinated research, education and extension activities with the administration and scientists of the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences – Jiamusi Branch in 2014. Dr. Worley, Director of the Oho State University South Centers, accompanied by Rafiq Islam and Alan Sundermeier to further strengthen the bridge of collaboration.

They visited Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and discussed future on collaboration possibilities to develop exchange scientists and students to conduct applied research and educational programs on 21st century sustainable agricultural management practices with especial reference to climate mitigation and adaptation. 

Rafiq Islam and Wayne Lewis visited the Peoples Republic of China at the invitation of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (Heilongjiang and Jiamusi Branches) from July 18 to 29, 2015. Rafiq Islam, the program director for Soil, Water and Bioenergy Resources at OSU South Centers, established an agricultural research, education and extension collaboration with the scientists at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Agricultural Sciences – Jiamusi Branch in 2014. Wayne Lewis, the Farm Manager of the OSU South Centers, accompanied him to further bridge the collaboration. Dr. Larry Brown at the OSU Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, facilitated our collaborative research and educational trip to China.