Showing posts with label Ohio State Fair. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ohio State Fair. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Bi-weekly Update (duplicate post)

The past couple of weeks have once again been an absolute whirlwind. Starting my thesis has turned out to be the single greatest writing endeavour of my life and I think I started it none too soon. Besides trying to write about 1,000 words per day, I’ve also been trying to get amendments in for my protocol and other items around. Combine this with the state fair coming into play and there has been a lot of busy rushing going on.

The vegetables are growing well, with the best cantaloupe plants I’ve ever had. We trained the pumpkins to climb this year and the strength in their trailers is amazing! I’ve included a picture of the trainer a few weeks ago which has not totally filled out with leaves and blooms. I’m not sure how well the vines will hold the pumpkins on, but it’s a fun thing to try anyways. Those little wispies that come out from the vine have been reaching out and pulling the vine along every day, strengthening its position on the cage and providing a lot of entertainment for me.

4-H camp was this past week and over all, I think we’re pretty lucky. With all the heat and enough rain to canoe without damming up the creek, it’s really amazing that we were able to run all of our sessions without being cancelled out by rain except by night. Each day was blazingly hot with stifling humidity (heat indexes well over 100), but we made it through and only lost 1 dehydration patient over the week who had to go home to recover from losing too much fluid. On a funny note, we created a video to instruct campers about the 2 biggest problems we had at camp this year and I will plan on getting that posted as soon as I can get ahold of a copy of it.

I’ve got a bunch of different articles open on my browser, so hang tight and I’ll get them all out this week, but with the state fair and my position as a judge, a volunteer, an employee, a researcher, a sibling and a husband – it’s going to be a fast-paced next couple of weeks. Hang in there with me and stay cool and shady from all the hot weather.

Monday, July 26, 2010

State Fair, here we come

As we move into the Ohio State Fair, my posts will again become sparse. It's not that there's not a bunch going on in the ag world that's worth reading about, it's just that I don't have as much time to tell you about it anymore.

How about that weather today, eh? Being out on pig farms, I'm especially grateful for the break in the weather and I bet many other people are too. Now if only the ants could stop making a rush on our apartment and my desk, my arguments with nature would be complete.

For those of you interested in the dairy industry and their fight against Johne's, which is rumored to be more prevalent than previously estimated, here are two suggestions from the ARS about how to reduce transmission on your farm. Of course, this might be old news or simple suggestions, but if you haven't read it before, then that link is for you. (And besides, this is research proving the methods work.)

Don't be surprised about the source or the findings of the study here, but this study claims that the benefits of organic are far overpraised. Who knew? lol.

Also, Cargill announced a new method of reducing sodium in food. With the new sodium craze isn't this just what the public was looking for?

This Scottish institute was awarded a grant to develop parasite vaccines.

Also important, the American Humane Association has approved practices set forth by the Federation of Animal Science Societies.