Connections Newsletter: Spring 2020

By Bradford Sherman & Thomas Worley
CFAES/South Centers

Even during this time of unprecedented change and uncertainty, the critical mission of enhancing southern Ohio and assisting people with informed decision-making through responsive research, education, entrepreneurial application, and collaborative partnerships continues to be the guiding priority for all programs at the College’s Piketon campus.

Work across all program areas continues at The Ohio State University South Centers, either with on-site personnel to insure that all facilities and farm operations remain functional and secure or through telecommuting from home, as Ohio and the nation rides out the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Centers began a temporary closure to the public on March 17 in compliance with the guidance provided by university leadership. With only the most critical staff permitted on the premises for keeping fish fed, maintaining perennial crops, and performing facility walk-throughs, it meant that South Centers needed to adapt and change the way it serves clientele.

“In normal times we rely heavily upon delivering our information, training, and counseling through direct, in-person meetings and workshops,” explained South Centers Director Dr. Tom Worley. “These ‘stay at home and work from home’ times have challenged us to be creative and innovative in our methods of delivery and our staff have all risen to the occasion to continue our work in all programs including aquaculture, business development, soil and water, and specialty crops.”

In this issue, you will read several stories outlining how those various programs are working to meet the challenge. Some of our specialists are involved in Ag Madness, a creative virtual Extension workshop teaching platform that invokes the spirit of the NCAA basketball tournament; others are using similar digital tools to either disseminate their knowledge to the public; and our support staff makes certain that it all runs smoothly. Some are continuing to apply for grants to fund current and future research, or helping farmers and food producers continue their critical operations, while our business team members are counseling regional banks, businesses, and industries through the numerous financial assistance programs being rolled out via new federal legislation during this crucial time.

“Video conferences, teleconferences, email, instant messaging and newsletters, blogs and social media posts have kept staff in touch with our clientele, added Worley. “Although business owners and managers have been hard hit by the restrictions placed on them, our counselors have done their best to keep abreast of the economic assistance programs that have been put in place to keep paychecks coming for employees and forgivable loans provided to small and medium size businesses to meet other operating expenses in the short run.”   

Of course, not all work can be performed remotely and a limited number of staff continue to come to the South Centers campus as necessary to perform certain critical tasks. 
For example, the aquaculture staff have maintained all of the yellow perch, bluegill, and largemouth bass that are the primary focus of the aquaculture research and Extension program at South Centers.

Thousands of fish in our 16 ponds as well as fish held in around 260 indoor water-recirculating or flow-thru tanks continue to be fed and their water quality maintained on a daily basis by our research assistants coming on site for a few hours each day. 

“Our field support staff members have also been engaged on-site to the extent necessary to conduct essential spring activity in our plots and field trials of wine grapes, several kinds of berries, hops, and bioenergy crops,” Worley explained.

These are all perennial crops that take several years to establish and thus it is critical that they be maintained during this critical spring period.  All routine operations including fungicide, herbicide and insecticide applications, and pruning and mulching are being performed by our field research assistants in a timely manner.

OSU South Centers staff members look forward to when our operations can return to a more normal, although certainly to be different, way of operating. Until that time comes, we will continue to strive toward delivering on our mission by serving the needs of people within the many communities touched by our programs in any way we can. 

As you will read in the following pages, this experience has taught us new and innovative ways to serve you, which we will be able to carry forward and implement into future programming. Most likely, we will never be the same, but we certainly intend to make the new ways of serving our widely scattered clients a most positive outcome.

By Brad Bapst
SBDC Director

The Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at The Ohio State University South Centers is continuing to serve the needs of businesses in our region.  The safety and well-being of our clients, training attendees, and staff are of utmost importance to us. We are continuing to monitor the evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and with the information and guidance provided by the university, state, and federal government officials, we are taking all necessary precautions to reduce the spread of the virus.  As a result, we are cancelling all in-person events and will be conducting one-on-one advising remotely until further notice. 

We know that the COVID-19 pandemic will present obstacles and challenges to you and your business in the days and weeks ahead, and we want you to know that we remain operational to ensure you receive the business management and technical assistance you have come to expect from us.  We have been continuing to work with clients remotely through telecommuting practices.  We utilize telephone, e-mail, social media, and most recently video conferencing through the Zoom communications platform.

Zoom meetings have enabled our SBDC team to share current updates concerning the CARES Act SBA loan programs to southern Ohio businesses.  Our team is currently participating in several weekly Zoom meetings with various chambers of commerce in our service area.  We provide the latest information on the SBA programs and resources to help companies survive this challenging economic situation.  We also continue to update businesses with the latest information through our Facebook page.

Our team of certified business advisors are here to support you and your business. Your health, well-being, and business success are our top priorities. Moving forward, the SBDC is preparing to provide additional resources in the coming months in an effort to assist businesses in the recovery process from the pandemic-induced economic disaster.  

To reach us please call 740-289-2071 or visit us online at southcenters.osu.edu/business.

By Hannah Scott
Center for Cooperatives

The impacts of the COVID-19 public health emergency are vast and varied. While we recognize and thank the many people who continue to do the essential jobs of feeding, moving, and caring for America in person, many Americans are now working, learning, and connecting online.

Everyday tasks like work meetings, classes, grocery shopping, religious services, doctor appointments, hangouts with friends, and more, have moved online. But what happens when you don’t have reliable internet access at home? Millions of rural Americans faced this question long before the current public health crisis and in our current context, the broadband divide between urban and rural America has become more pronounced than ever. 

Connected Nation Ohio, an organization that studies and provides resources for rural broadband connection, estimates that approximately 710,000 Ohioans do not have internet access at home. That does not include people who have internet access that is unreliable or prohibitively slow. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that almost 30 million Americans are “unable to reap the benefits of the digital age.” In 2017, the Interagency Task Force on Agriculture and Rural Prosperity recognized the expansion of high-speed, high-capacity internet as a key infrastructure priority in rural America. Beth Ford, Chief Executive Officer of Land O’ Lakes, one of the nation’s largest farmer-owned cooperatives, has highlighted the far-reaching effects of the problem and called for significant infrastructure investments in broadband, reminding people that, “there is a shared destiny between urban and rural America.” 

Cooperatives are not new to problem-solving on behalf of rural Americans. According to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, in the mid-1930’s as many as 90% of rural homes lacked electricity. By 1953, more than 90% of America’s farms had electricity. This transformation was the result of the rapid growth of rural electric cooperatives, which currently provide electricity to 56% of the nation’s landmass and over 20 million member-owners. Co-ops are owned and controlled by their users and provide services to member-owners at cost. Today, nearly 100 rural electric cooperatives are investing in infrastructure to bring high speed internet to their member-owners. 

In some communities, the cooperative model is being explored anew to determine whether a community-owned enterprise can help close the broadband gap. Groups are coming together to assess whether they can form cooperatives to invest in the infrastructure to connect their homes and businesses to broadband service providers. The enterprises would be controlled by community members through an elected board of directors.

Community members in Washington County, Ohio have begun exploring options for a community-owned broadband enterprise. David Brown, who is leading the Southeast Ohio Broadband Cooperative Exploratory group along with additional volunteers from the community, explains, “Most areas have no broadband access at all and rely on slow, expensive and unreliable technologies like cellular hotspots and satellite internet.” 

After conversations with elected leaders, local economic developers, and others, the group surveyed the community about their current broadband access and interest in joining a broadband co-op. They started engaging with community members via a Facebook group where they share updates and information. The group has over 1,000 members after just three weeks. While they have a lot of work ahead to develop their co-op, David Brown shares that the group’s vision is to, “bring affordable, reliable broadband access to rural areas in SE Ohio that will create economic opportunities, connect communities and encourage members to be a part of the solution to a problem that has long plagued the area.”  

When exploring a cooperative model in any industry, it is vital to explore the feasibility of an enterprise and to develop robust business plans. At the same time, organizers should educate their potential members on the co-op model and help them understand their role in a newly formed business. The College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences Center for Cooperatives at Ohio State has been assisting new and emerging cooperatives since 2001, helping groups understand the co-op model, explore the feasibility of a new co-op, develop the business plans and structure for a new enterprise, and more. 

By Gary Gao
Professor and Extension Specialist

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been turning our world upside down, we have been working hard to find new and innovative ways to help all citizens in Ohio.  During these past two months, we have answered many questions from growers and gardeners, produced news releases, taught online classes using Zoom, developed fact sheets on new crops, and continued our research projects.  

Personally, I have watched many instructional videos, read quite a few articles, and contacted some of my colleagues with The Ohio State University and other land grant universities.  Because it appears that COVID-19 will be with us for a while longer, we will need to develop new ways to develop and deliver our educational resources.

Existing Resources
Midwest Home Fruit Production Guide (OSU Extension Bulletin #940)
This guide, now in its third printing, is an excellent resource for home gardeners, master gardener volunteers, gardener center employees, and new fruit growers.  

There is currently a surge in fruit and vegetable production in home gardens.  Many new farmers want to grow fruit crops in order to diversify their operations.  More and more row crop growers are looking for ways to utilize their land more efficiently.  The Midwest Home Fruit Production Guide will be an excellent reference for many. I am very happy to report that more than 5,000 copies have been sold since 2009.  Visit extensionpubs.osu.edu/midwest-home-fruit-production-guide to purchase a copy. 

Midwest Blueberry Production Guide
This regional publication, to which I was a key contributor, was published in 2003 by The University of Kentucky and included contributions from several within The Ohio State University.  This guide was designed with commercial growers in mind,  but also includes useful information for home gardeners.  You can download a digital copy of this bulletin by visiting www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ID/ID210/ID210.pdf.

What is not included in the bulletin is how to grow blueberries in containers, because that has not yet been produced. Research Assistant Ryan Slaughter and I have been conducting research trials with container blueberries and once the social restrictions are lifted, you are welcome to visit us at OSU South Centers to see how it is done. 

Online Training Courses
Specialists such as myself have done a few online classes through Zoom or WebEx. Little did I know that this was the only way our training classes would be offered during the COVID-19 pandemic. I have a feeling that the online training method will become even more prevalent as we move forward.  When I first started with OSU Extension back in 1994, I embraced technology, but it has taken more time to get used to new technology as I haven gotten older.  On April 16, I taught a class on edible landscaping for Greene County Extension.  More than 130 people participated in this training and learned new and useful information.  It was a wonderful experience for me!  By the time this newsletter publishes, I will have likely conducted three more online classes.  I suppose it is possible to teach an old dog new tricks. As we look at this pandemic and beyond, we may need to develop better online training classes and offer even more comprehensive training programs for continuing education.

You may have seen some of my YouTube videos.  While they will not be winning academy awards any time soon, I am hopeful that growers and gardeners can learn a few things from our videos.  As we challenge ourselves to get better at these new technologies, our instructional videos and webinars should be getting better and better. 

Research Projects
While it is true that COVID-19 has caused many disruptions with our research projects, our research support staff members have managed to finish the critical tasks for our funded projects.  Ryan Slaughter is a key member of our fruit Extension and research team and was instrumental in accomplishing our critical tasks. We will be finishing our brambles, hardy fig, and hardy kiwi projects this year. We have been particularly impressed by the hardy kiwi cultivar known as Hardy Chicago or Chicago Hardy.  It is important to grow hardy kiwis in a high tunnel for an earlier harvest and higher yields.

We are also on course to wrap up our Laser Guided Intelligent Sprayer project, which was fund by USDA NIFA in 2020.  Our Viticulture Extension research funded through Ohio Grape Industries Program will end on June 30.  We will work hard to help our grape growers survive this difficult period.  
Fruit Pruning School on March 12, 2020

We were able to host our Fruit Pruning School on March 12, 2020 at OSU South Centers in Piketon and it was a huge success.  We tried both hands-on training, indoor presentation and a Zoom live streaming.  Instead of just the usual berry crops, we added apple, peach, cherry, and hardy kiwi to our lineup this year.

In response to the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association (OMA), Ohio Hospital Association (OHA), Ohio Manufacturing Extension Program (Ohio MEP), nursing homes, and JobsOhio have joined forces through the Ohio Manufacturing Alliance to Fight COVID-19. 

This collaborative effort is currently engaged with Ohio manufacturers to see which companies have interest in repurposing their manufacturing operations to produce some of the most in-demand products in the fight against COVID-19, especially PPE (personal protective equipment).

The full Alliance website can be found at repurposingproject.com. 

More information on PPE and additional frequently asked questions can be found at manufacturingsuccess.org/ppe-faq.

By Christie Welch
Direct Marketing Program Manager

The impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic has swiftly changed our world. Who could have anticipated the shutdown of America, more or less within a 24-hour period?  While this pandemic has changed many things, one thing has not – farmers are still farming. 

With the manner in which they market their products to consumers having changed, The Ohio State University’s Direct Food and Agricultural Marketing Team has been there to help producers source the information they need.

Over the past month, our team has heard from many local food producers needing questions answered and factual information to determine how to operate their businesses in the current environment of social distancing and the stay-at-home order.

One of the first steps we took was to collaborate with the OSU Produce Safety team on a number of webinars as part of the AgMadness Tournament of Education. Dr. Sanja Ilic and Dr. Melanie Ivey conducted three webinars on produce safety in light of COVID-19; these webinars provided the fact-based information our producers were seeking.  

Secondly, we developed a COVID-19 working group consisting of OSU educators and researchers and many additional organizations that serve Ohio’s local food producers including Ohio Farmers Market Network (OFMN), Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), Ohio Farm Bureau Federation (OFBF), and Ohio Produce Growers and Marketers Association (OPGMA).  This working group came together to help identify producers’ needs, resources to help meet those needs, and to address additional concerns that may be forthcoming related to COVID-19. This working group has met weekly, collaborating to assist our local food producers with accessing needed resources.

With the high demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), we worked to identify suppliers that could provide access to these items.  Collaborating with this working group and the Ohio Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), we were able to share information on where producers could look to access PPE. One source is Ohio’s distilleries.  Many of them have begun producing hand sanitizer, which is not only needed by frontline works and first responders, but also by our local food producers. MEP developed an exchange where businesses that have these items can be listed, and those needing this equipment can more easily find these sources.  You can view the exchange at repurposingproject.sharetribe.com

We also worked to provide information on managing farm and farmers markets in a manner that still allows consumers access to Ohio’s locally produced foods, while at the same time maintaining social distancing and no or low contact purchasing. We offered a webinar on drive-thru farmers markets, how to use online platforms to sell locally produced foods to consumers, and expansion of the senior farmers market nutrition program in Ohio.  All are available for viewing at southcenters.osu.edu/direct-marketing/covid-19-webinars-and-resources 

Throughout all of this learning, sharing, and identifying concerns, we are hearing from our local food producers that consumer demand is high. While the way in which consumers can access locally produced foods has changed, our farmers are still farming, our consumers and still demanding it, and we will get through this together.

By Dr. Rafiq Islam
SWBR Program Leader

Jordan Maxwell, one of the researchers in the Soil, Water, and Bioenergy Resources Program at The Ohio State University South Centers, participated in the 2020 World Aquaculture Society America Conference held February 10-12 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

She delivered a pair of presentations at the conference. One poster presentation was titled “Aquaponic System Impacts on Lettuce Yield and Quality” and disseminated our research findings of green leafy lettuce grown in a deep water culture aquaponic system using Nile tilapia and compared that data to a replicated hydroponics system. 

Our results indicated the lettuce production and quality was significantly higher in the aquaponic system compared to the traditional hydroponic system. 

She also gave an oral presentation titled “Building Educational Capacity Through Collaborative Aquaponics Extension Education,” an overview of the Ohio State University South Center’s history of collecting research data, demonstrating, and transferring unbiased research-based aquaponics knowledge to expand educational outreach capacity. 

Additionally, her collaborative research was part of a presentation delivered by Shib Pattadar, “Is Fish Quality Healthier in Aquaponics?” which was presented as part of the Aquaculture Engineering Society session. The goal was to evaluate whether the fish produced in U.S. aquaponics systems are as healthy and nutritionally enriched as imported fish.