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The post Farmers are Planning For Cotton Harvest as They Plant Cotton appeared first on a colorful adventure.

It has been more than a week since I was making a connecting flight in Minneapolis, I caught CNN and heard about Abercrombie & Fitch not making XL clothes for women. Since then I have seen followup stories and lots of social media posts on it.

My reaction didn’t seem to be reflected in social media much. I saw people talking about not being one of the cool kids if you can’t fit in AF clothes, people talking about girls & their (at times fragile) self-image. I saw lots of outrage directed at the company’s leadership. People saying they will never shop there.

What was (and still is) missing? For me I was missing a reality check… Actually several reality checks.

Is this really news?

I am not too sure how long AF has been at the mall, but I always knew they didn’t have clothes that fit me. Even as a thin high school student, my shoulders were too broad, my hips too wide.

So to me, the fact that they didn’t have clothes larger than a size 10 should not be considered news. My sister shared my disbelief that this was “news” and thought if parents of teens (like her) hadn’t noticed, maybe they were in part upset with themselves. And yet hundreds of stories have been done on the topic in the last week all expressing outrage over something that has been going on and talked about for years.

I know some people will point out the fact that the guy making such reprehensible comments about he only markets to cool kids, kids of a certain size (and I would add a family with a sizable income)…. Well that certainly makes it news. I guess this makes me wonder about the way people judge news value.

How many people were willing to put this into context as “news?” Not nearly enough. I find it amazing since I have a friend who’s family remains under siege in Syria. We have people doing incredible work in their communities, work that if it were more widely celebrated may be duplicated. And then we have this stuff….. This stuff that just doesn’t add any value but drives clicks on the Internet and ratings on TV. But make no mistake, these headlines are not written by journalists!

Who are the cool kids?

I feel safe in saying I was not one of the cool kids, especially if it was judged by name brand clothes. I may have occasionally thought I was one of the cool kids in school somewhere along the line, but I certainly had times where I doubted I could ever be cool. But more than anything, I think I am lucky because my mom tried hard to teach us that being “cool” isn’t the goal we should have.

Granted, we had moments where we may have forgotten, but I feel like my mom did a great job of helping me understand we all have communities – some wear name brand labels, some don’t; some included sports stars and cheerleaders; some may not;  but clothes and labels and titles weren’t the things that brought happiness to folks. And it still doesn’t.

Not Everything Fits Everyone

I have shopped at AF once. I remember the Christmas gift I was buying clearly. It was for someone who is far from materialistic and is incredibly generous. A friend had a certain cologne, it was the one thing on the Christmas list.

Clothes there don’t fit many of my family since we are mostly girls and most of us have not spent much of our lives in sizes 6 & 8. On the other hand, I have adult friends who are too small to buy many clothes in all the stores people like to shop in either. Yes, some of them still buy children’s clothes despite being in their 40s. It sucks and whether businesses choose to do it for marketing reasons and maybe they have jerks as CEOs but its the real world that businesses focus on specific market segments. It’s also the way the world works. Companies don’t make everything everyone would like. Is that news to anyone?

Expect Idiots to Say Dumb Things

I am sorry but in all of the talking and protest I’ve seen (and yes, it is still going on) I haven’t seen too many people just say you need to anticipate running into idiots and jerks in life. Sure, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch has a much more public forum and perhaps he can impact more people but come on.

As people denounced him, I didn’t hear people saying they were glad their children know better. But I have to say that I count on my nieces and nephews to know that the logo on your clothes doesn’t denote coolness. And in fact, my nephew and friends from his wrestling team, etc frequently speak up on the topic of bullying. They don’t want to have anything to do with it and they make sure others know.

I know my nephew has Abercrombie clothes and he has really enjoyed them. He may look at them differently but my hope is he still looks at people the same way — like each one is unique with the potential to be totally awesome, however he needs to also understand they can also be an idiot who does and say ignorant things. My nephew didn’t judge people by their looks before and I don’t think he is about to start…. THAT is what makes him a really cool kid.

Related articles

• Abercrombie & Fitch a Niche Market – & How It Relates to SlowMoneyFarm
• What’s with that Hayden Panettiere cotton commercial?
• Pushing Through the Stopping Point

The post Sticks & Stones May Break My Bones, But Abercrombie Clothes Will Never Fit Me appeared first on a colorful adventure.

As you know, I have been doing the 365 project. And although I stopped posting the photos here without any fanfare, I have done really well capturing every day this year but one with a photo that is representative of the day (the one day I missed featured a whoops). Here’s a collection of thumbnails from the past couple of months that I thought you may like to see before we go on to the photo editing software. You can browse the photos anytime by clicking on the 365 project link in the side bar or going to my page on the 365 project site.

Choosing When to Edit Photos

So looking at all those photos, there are some that are obviously processed or edited. Others are much less obvious. And some were uploaded the exact way I captured them in the camera. it depends on what I think of the photo and whether it conveys what I want it to. Lots of people make the same choices regularly using Instagram, but it is limited in how much you can choose to change. I love Instagram but after a while I was wanting more from my iPhone’s photos.

This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about wanting more. In fact, one of the early March photos included enough photo editing that I made the before and after my wordless Wednesday one week so I won’t bother to explain that one. It looks much more like a painting once it was done. But I will point out I shared my love of SnapSeed (an application on my iPhone & iPad) back then. (Thanks again to Jon Baines from the incredible photography community on Google+ for introducing me to several neat photo apps.)

I continue to play with SnapSeed, sometimes to make photos look unique and sometimes to simply make the photo look as vibrant as what I was seeing that the camera may have missed. Here are a few photos that will illustrate some of what I can do on my mobile with a free app.

Adjusting Spot Lighting with SnapSeed

I’d like you to see how you can use Snapseed to make pinpointed lighting changes. So let’s look at the photo I feel I was really lucky to snap of my friend Onur & his daughter meeting an otter at the New Orleans Aquarium.

Here is how my camera saw it. I knew then I had a good photo but I wanted it to be better…. to make it great.

I did a couple of things to the photo.

1. I usually look at the “automatic” adjustment SnapSeed recommends. It usually increases the contrast. 
2. I warmed it up a little bit but adjusting the ambiance and saturation through “tune image” that let me make their skin tones look more like they do without a big huge flash hitting them. 
3. Finally, I wanted to soften that harsh shadow that seemed to separate the two…. it showed it as less intimate than it was. That was done by using “selective adjust” and dropping a plus into that shadow area and upping the brightness there.

Here’s what I got:

What’s funny about all of this? Although the post is about how to edit mobile photos, I took this photo with my expensive Canon. Most of the photos here though were taken with my iPhone. And lots of folks would have edited it with expensive PhotoShop but I have never felt like I need to use it. I had a version of it previously but found it too complicated to use it very often. I really enjoy taking photos and I wanted something easy to use that would help with the basic photo edits I wanted to make. I love that other people enjoy editing photos for hours (an they can get incredible results!) but to me that feels like work. 

Removing Dark Shadows from Faces

I did the same thing in a bigger way this week for a friend who had gotten a photo taken at the ballgame but who was disappointed with how strong the shadows on their faces were. Here’s the before and after photos side-by-side so its easy to see the difference:

So to make this change, what did I do?

• Opened SnapSeed & then opened the photo by using the camera plus icon in the top left corner. 

• Chose the “selective adjust” function, and then put put a “control point” on the area you want to change. To do that you, touch the plus mark in the bottom center of the screen and then touch the area you want to lighten.
• You will get a circle with a “B” in the middle for brightness. If you would rather make pinpoint changes in contrast or saturation, simply move your finger up and down on the screen. 
• Moving your finger left to right will increase that parameter and right to left will decreases that parameter. You can only adjust 100 percent at a time and it will be shown a lot like time on a clock.

• It you want to make a bigger adjustment, just “apply” the adjustment by clicking on the arrow at bottom right. If you do something crazy, you don’t like, take the arrow at the bottom left to go “back.”

Making Creative Changes to Photos

There are several other features on SnapSeed that let you make more creative changes to the photos. And the best way to learn about them is by playing with them. (I think one of the best things is you add the photo to SnapSeed so you aren’t editing the original which means if you mess up and don’t back out of the changes, your original is still fine. Some of the photo editing software I’ve used I found myself actually saving over the original photos.

Here are some of the photos I’ve played around with in the past couple of months both before and after editing:

I really wanted to take awesome photos of Noam Pikelny and the others who played “An Evening of Bluegrass” but I rarely take a real camera fearing I’ll be asked to leave it in the car. Since lots of folks were shooting photo and video, I decided to snap a couple of pictures but as you see the lighting sucked for iPhone photography. With a few switches here and there in SnapSeed though I got an awesome photo! Sadly I don’t remember everything I did to the photo since it was so long ago.

This is a sculpture at work that I walk by frequently. The camera didn’t do the lighting justice, but the “drama” filter on Snapseed helped me take it up a few notches. Added a bit of ambiance and pumped up the saturation some too.

This exit sign is really blah til the “grunge” feature and I got busy!

It was a rainy day when I saw prospective students (and their parents) touring St. Louis University. I used a bit of the “vintage” feature and played with the “Drama” to get the effect of how some of those parents looked — others looked really happy though LOL.

When I posted this edited photo of the St. Louis skyline on Facebook, it got a lot of attention. People loved the photo. But nobody was asking about whether it  was edited or not. The added light and color really helped it look more real.

What do you think?

Do you edit photos? Leave them as is?

I’ve been thinking about sharing more of the kinds of tips on what apps I think help me be more effective on social media. Do you think these sort of tips are useful? If so, is there something in particular you would like to know about?

—————————————————

A couple of things that came to mind after I hit publish:

• To be clear, I got no money from anyone to say nice things. I said them cause I have shared this software with a couple of folks in the past week and they were really interested so I thought others may be too. 
• There are apps for Droid as well as the Apple products so this is inclusive.

Related articles

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• Lessons Learned Through My Blogging Challenge, an A to Z on Agriculture
• P is for Prairie & Growing Pinto Beans on the North Dakota Prairie
• Photo Shoot at the farm
• Free Photo Editing Software to Check Out

The post How to Edit Mobile Photos Quickly & Without Expensive Software appeared first on a colorful adventure.

A few years ago (2010 to be  exact) the great butter and lard debate launched a fun series of food polls for my blog over the summer. Each weekend I would do a food poll. The poll could be on almost any kind of food — we talked ice cream, favorite Chicago foods, celebrating by eating out or eating in and favorite state fair foods (which I enjoyed several of at the Iowa State Fair!)

I have thought about reviving my food polls a few times before, mainly because I thought it was so fun for me and I found out a lot of things people thought about food. But I recently had something propel me to actually do it rather than think about it. I had a great snack and celebrated it by tweeting! And I love that I had friends who immediately tweeted back.

http://twitter.com/JPlovesCOTTON/status/332598618454372354

Your Favorite Apple

It was an awesome apple…. a Granny Smith apple actually. It was really crisp. It was a bit sweet and a bit tart. But since I had so many folks get involved in sharing the love of apples, I thought I’d find out what the in apple is! This poll is for eating the apple fresh — I realize cooked apples may be different!

Favorite Way to Eat Apples

Now that I have you thinking about apples, how do you like to eat them? What’s you favorite apple food? Feel free to add your favorite way in the poll and if you have a recipe that you think will wow people, put that in the comments!

Who grows our apples?

There are apple farmers in a lot of places. In fact, my mom has some cousins in Tennessee who have an apple orchard. They are kind of distant cousins so I’ve only visited once as a kid but we grew up having an apple tree in our backyard and I’ve seen them in lots of states as you drive around.

One of my agnerd friends, Jeff VanderWerff in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area has a family farm that grows apples for commercial production. He’s done a series of videos that are on YouTube that let you see how they plant a new apple orchard, how they deal with pests, and more. I thought this video about understanding whether frost hurt blooms is a good one cause this spring hasn’t gone too smoothly!

Some of you may already remember I’ve talked about my friend Ben LaCross of northern Michigan being a cherry farmer, well his family has apple orchards too! He did a great Q&A with the Supermarket Guru about his family farm and mentions that they sell through farmstands locally as well as providing things wholesale. I love this video Ben did showing how they handled harvest in 2010 and talking about what’s important in that process.

What other foods do you think should make the series?

I already have some ideas on food polls but you know I’m always open for suggestions! What kinds of food questions do you think I should be asking? Let me know by putting it in the comments! Also give me your other thoughts on apples!

Related articles

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The post Reviving My Series of Food Polls With Apples! Which is your favorite? appeared first on a colorful adventure.

Last weekend I was in Oregon for work. As I headed back to Portland from Salem, I saw a flower farm and decided to get off of the interstate. I didn’t doubleback to that farm, but luckily I caught a sign for another one — it was Brooks Gardens in Brooks, OR (Brooks Gardens website, Brooks Gardens Facebook page and PeonyGrower on Pinterest). I was kind of on a tight schedule, but I had time to wander and soak it up as well as take photos.

Here are a few of the photos I took.

After I wandered around for a while, I had the chance to visit with one of the owners for a while. Terese and friends were resting a bit after a really busy day. We had the chance to talk a bit about what I was doing in the area, what social media efforts the farm has (the photos of what’s blooming on the Facebook page are AWESOME) and she got a chuckle out of my “that’s freaking awesome” reaction to the fact they have about 1,200 varieties of irises. So you know, they do sell bulbs & rootstock through the Brooks Garden website and they also provide all kinds of  planting & care tips.

The post Left Wordless By Visiting a Flower Farm — Lots of Irises & Peonies! appeared first on a colorful adventure.

If you are a fan of Hayden Panettiere, you know the actress has made a name for herself by playing the tomboy daughter of a football coach, a high school cheerleader and hero who can produce fire and a rising star in Nashville who has more than a few personal problems. Well, she is drawing attention to my favorite fiber now as a new spokesperson for Cotton Incorporated.

Have you seen that Hayden Panetierre cotton commercial? The new commercials featuring Panettiere singing her own unique version of the memorable “The Fabric of Our Lives” theme song started airing in April. And if you haven’t seen it, you really should check it out. And to make it really easy for you, I’m embedding the video here!

How is cotton featured in Hayden Paniettiere’s closet?

One of the cool pieces of the advertisements over the past five years has been seeing the different styles the various spokespeople have had. Hayden Paniettiere doesn’t disappoint as you saw in the commercial! She has a wide range of cotton clothing — from clothes that are campfire perfect, to trendy pieces for a night out on the town to something more formal. I mean check out a few of the outfits in these photos.

And a really cool feature on The Fabric of Our Lives site is the ability to check out the pieces in Hayden Panettiere’s closet. You can click on a piece and see where the outfit is from and it even takes you to another video of Paniettiere talking about the piece, how she pairs it with other things in her closet, etc. There’s also a Q&A with her generally talking about clothes, fashion and of course cotton:

How do you feel about cotton as a fabric?

What could be better than cotton? It’s my go-to. I can dress it up and wear it as a form-fitting dress, or dress it down as a soft and comfy tee. I know I’ll be fashionable and comfy either way. When I can look good AND feel good, I’m happy.

via Cotton: The Fabric of Our Lives: Hayden’s Profile.

Why advertise cotton?

I’ve previously written a post on the reasons for the ad campaign on cotton. The ad campaigns for cotton are funded through a commodity program that seeks to increase the marketability of my favorite fiber. And Cotton Inc. comes up with the awesome creative. The ads are funded by cotton farmers and the people who import cotton. The ads are designed to increase awareness in cotton and cotton farmers have an interest in keeping cotton top of mind, especially since the makers of all the synthetic fibers like polyester have big ad budgets, advertising is part of it.

But there are other things to funded through the monies farmers pay into Cotton Inc – research and development of textile processes, cotton production practices, etc which help keep cotton competitive with synthetic fibers in other areas or even help discover new uses.

More Information on Cotton

I love putting information about cotton together for the blog so let me start this section with the various resources here on the blog.

• The cotton category of posts includes pieces of all sorts — news, information, photos, etc. If its about cotton and on this blog, it should have been thrown in this category. Any time you are on the blog and interested in finding this set of posts you can just go all the way to the top of the screen and select cotton and you’ll get that done too. 
• There are also some groupings of posts within that category that help you find something more specifically. 
  • My series of Cotton 101 posts has about 20 posts in it a few of which are highlighted on this Cotton 101 page. Cotton 101 posts are the ones that talk through some of the basics of cotton. I’d love to know what I’m missing! 
  • To better understand about how others think & feel about cotton, I have a series of cotton guest posts. If you’d like to join the series, please read

    What is it that you love about cotton? Please join a series of cottony goodness!

To find our more about Cotton Inc. and the kind of things they put out about cotton clothes and textiles, you can check out:

• Websites for Cotton Inc include the fashion-oriented thefabricofourlives.com,
• There is a Facebook cotton page  (who doesn’t “like” cotton?)
• Fashionable tweets go out from @CottonFashion.
• And great videos are on the CottonFabricofOurLives YouTube Channel.

Related articles

• Top Cotton Blogs You Should be Following
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• Hayden Panettiere Goes Country as New Face of Cotton Campaign – Watch Now

The post What’s with that Hayden Panettiere cotton commercial? appeared first on a colorful adventure.

I have done a few different blogging and social media challenges in the past couple of years, but have to say the A to Z Challenge may have been the toughest! And even though someone has suggested that I should start again with AA and BB, I’m taking a break from the series — at least for now! Please note that I think it could have been done more easily. Experience teaches a lot!

Let me explain some of what I learned and worked through. There were things I did well and things I can improve on assuming I do it next year (and that is a really high rating option). But first, you can see that I get the badge for completion, just like I’m in the scouts!

Think It Through

I guess the first thing I did right in the challenge was I thought it through BEFORE I signed up. I think some people get the urge to sign up without thinking through how likely it is that they will post all 26 posts in a month or looking for ways to make that work. Quite a few people signed up and didn’t do it or gave out midway. Some (like me) ended up going into May before they finished.

Things That Worked Well

I read through some of the tips the team at the A to Z challenge offered they generally seemed to offer you various ways to think it through… ideas to help you complete the blogging challenge successfully. One of the ones that I think helped me most was picking a theme to my A to Z because even having a theme like agriculture sometimes I felt there were so many options for a letter. So to just say I’m doing an A to Z that suits my blog would have been overwhelming. Next year I may even make it a more narrow focus.

I really wanted to keep the quality of my blog posts up. I knew I could write short posts but once I got started, I really found choosing concepts I wanted more people to really understand made the most sense for me. That made me challenge myself more than a necessarily want to. I really researched posts…. provided good solid links. I’m ok with the fact my push for quality and more extensive  content made it hard to get all the posts done on time.

One of the things I felt I was at successful at was engaging other people to help me come up with ideas. I had two people give me complete alphabet suggestions — thanks Thomas & Kim — and wrote them in the comments on my initial post! I regularly asked people for ideas for upcoming letters and there thoughts on what I may have missed in a topic. And I had a lot of photos to pull from!

Improving Next Year

One of the tips I should have paid more attention to and thought through more was getting ahead of the game. I wrote a few posts ahead, but once I got pushed, I failed to get more in the can. I let my cushion slide away and then next thing I knew, I was falling behind — hence the May second completion of the challenge instead of finishing as April did. For next year, assuming I do it again, I think I’d be best off if I wrote one or two posts for each week ahead instead of just starting from A in working ahead.

A Challenge Commenting on Some Blogs

One of the pieces of the challenge that I really enjoyed is how you start from where you are on the list and visit other blogs doing the challenge. I got through close to 100 blogs and found some really cool ones. The biggest drawback is that some of them don’t understand how important it is to set up a good commenting system.

Some of them had too many hoops to jump through, especially when I was reading them on my iPad. It’s important for bloggers to find ways to encourage comments. But some of the blogging systems try to make it hard. Things I think bloggers should avoid include:

• Catchpas or some other kind of word verification to prove you aren’t a machine. Not all work on mobile devices. 
• A requirement that you use a specific social media channel to comment (ie Google+ or Facebook, etc)
• Limited options on how to connect — Giving the option to comment by name and/or URL makes it easier to connect…. it’s a great fallback as sometimes blogspot won’t accept WP credentials.

There were several blogs I visited that even after writing a thorough comment and trying several different ways to connect, I still couldn’t. It was a real bummer as I really enjoy interracting with other bloggers. 

My A to Z on Ag Posts

I kept a running list of my posts on my A is for Agriculture start page. I like how that gave me a central point of contact throughout the challenge even though I knew I wanted to do a roundup post at the end of the challenge too. So here are the letters & some of the photos used during my challenge.

• B is for Borlaug
• C is for Cotton
• D is for Debt (Farm Debt)
• E is for Elevator
• F is for Farmer
• G is for GMO
• H is for Hay
• I is for Irrigation
• J is for Juggling
• K is for Kale
• L is for Loam
• M is for Moo
• N is for Nutrients
• O is for Olives
• P is for Prairie
• Q is for Quality
• R is for Reading
• S is for Seed
• T is for Tillage
• U is for Urban Agriculture
• V is for Viticulture
• W is for Wheat
• X is for Xylem
• Y is for Yams / Sweet Potatoes?
• Z is for Zoonoses

Top Words I Missed

There are some words I really wish I could have done so I think I’ll do some of them in the next month, just not under the pressure of a specific challenge. By limiting everyone’s suggestions to the top three words I missed I will include some of the suggestions with my A to Z in Agriculture adds. I’d love to have help thinking about the most important words… and I realize that one letter or another may need more than one more post.

If you were to tell me three words that I should have included in my series but missed, what would they be?

Related articles

• A to Z Challenge Survivor – my first blogging goals reached
• Why not try a blog challenge to boost your blog?
• Reflections On Blogging from A-Z April Challenge 2013
• Blogging challenge – What I’ll be doing this entire month
• F is for Farmer! – An A to Z Challenge in Agriculture

The post Lessons Learned Through My Blogging Challenge, an A to Z on Agriculture appeared first on a colorful adventure.

The word zoonoses…. seeing that on my screen makes me wonder how many of us giggle at the idea of zoo noses. You know, like an elephant’s trunk or the orangutan’s smooshed up nose? But zoonoses doesn’t have a space and it is a really serious topic for livestock farmers and ranchers. The World Health Organization gives a good definition for it:

A zoonosis is any disease or infection that is naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans. Animals thus play an essential role in maintaining zoonotic infections in nature. Zoonoses may be bacterial, viral, or parasitic, or may involve unconventional agents. As well as being a public health problem, many of the major zoonotic diseases prevent the efficient production of food of animal origin and create obstacles to international trade in animal products.

via WHO | Zoonoses.

When I was searching for Z words in agriculture, I felt sure I’d go with the straightforward zucchini or maybe zero tolerance. Then I stumbled into zoonoses and BAM! I needed to write about that. Well, if I could figure out what to write. Hope I do the subject justice.

My Background with Zoonoses

White House briefing room visit with Seth — now that’s a job!

I tell folks regularly that I love ag but until a few years ago, I had always been a crop person. In the last few years I have learned a lot about livestock and good animal husbandry from friends who farm. But as I looked into z words, zoonoses triggered something in my brain (no worries it isn’t naturally transmissible to those of you reading this blog). I suddenly remembered that a dear friend and one of the best neighbors ever left Mississippi years ago for a job in DC metro with USDA’s APHIS Wildlife Services to work on wildlife diseases. Somehow I had forgotten that all the things Seth took time to teach me about wildlife held some consequences for livestock and people. (I will never forget my first visit to DC after they were there cause I was able to arrange us a great White House tour, including the iconic press room! We all pretended to be giving a briefing…. Seth’s could have been on zoonoses!)

See, Seth took that job as avian flu was a big concern. It was a time when folks like me who love to travel around the world were being more cautious. Extra shots for various things didn’t seem as big of a deal and we wished there were shots for avian flu. We also weren’t sure whether we could get medicines while traveling in other world areas so before we went to the airport, we’d get prescriptions and held onto them. Well Seth was one of the front line forces in monitoring diseases that may move with wildlife migration, how those animals could cause problems for farms and ranches and potentially on us as people.

As I looked around for resources online, I actually found some research Seth compiled on feral hogs.  So the wild pigs that run around…. if you aren’t familiar with them, count yourself lucky. Those are some mean sons of guns. In the Delta, I heard of people being chased up a tree by the darn things! Well Seth and some colleagues wrote a paper about a program they had to monitor feral pigs, diseases carried and their proximity to livestock, etc. It is the kind of thing I never had thought of until Seth took that job. What’s cool as I looked though the info, it seems Seth and the experts agree that the US has a vigilant program that has done well staying on top of these potential threats.

Emerging Zoonotic Diseases

Thinking about what the potential issues are, I found the WHO website interesting as it explained:

Emerging zoonotic diseases have potentially serious human health and economic impacts and their current upwards trends are likely to continue.

Examples are avian influenza, Bovine Spongiform Encephalitis (BSE) and the Nipah virus. Some of the “lingering” zoonoses are re-emerging in some regions, although they seem to attract less public awareness. Brucellosis, dog rabies and parasitic diseases such as cysticercosis/taeniasis and echinococcosis/hydatidosis for example.

Many factors lead to the emergence of zoonotic diseases. Environmental changes, human and animal demography, pathogen changes and changes in farming practice are a few of them. Social and cultural factors such as food habits and religious beliefs play a role too.

via WHO | Emerging zoonoses.

Preventing Problems with Zoonoses

Like I said above, vigilance seems to be a key factor in US disease prevention efforts. Ryan Goodman wrote a little about one of the disease issues that was being watched in Arkansas.

It’s of great importance for us to spread the word about the spread of trichomoniasis in Arkansas cattle herds. I learned of the issue at a recent Livestock Marketing Association meeting and plans to act by the state Vet’s office. As described in the news reports, if an infected bull breeds cows, the cows can abort 40 days after mating, and carry the disease until cleared. However, the bull will carry the disease for life, requiring his removal from the production system. This early term abortion can reduce a cattleman’s 90% calf crop to 50% within one year. For someone who only gets one paycheck annually (selling calf crop), that’s a HUGE shot in the bank account. Many small producers in the state cannot suffer these losses. This underlines the importance for Arkansas cattle producers to test newly purchased bulls before introducing into the herd, and stopping trich in its tracks before it costs our industry thousands. via A Steer, is a Bull, is a Cow: Cattle Production Gets Trichy | Agriculture Proud.

Glad to see that’s not one we have to be concerned about movement but it shows how close farmers and ranchers need to monitor their herds. Val Wagner had a real problem with deer a couple of winters in a row. They not only monitored it on the farm but got fish & game involved when the numbers seemed problematic. Val wrote:

So, you see, we’re in a tough spot. If we don’t feed the deer, they will get sick and die. But may expose our cows to all sorts of unwanted stuff.

If we feed the deer, they won’t leave, and could still get sick and die. And we will still have exposure to whatever it is they are carrying.

We have already spent money on buying panels to place all around our feed, such as the silage that we cut and the freshly-ground hay. Game and Fish suggest that we space our hay stacks closer together, but our insurance insists that our hay stays further apart. I personally don’t believe that where our hay is located would make much difference to this large number of animals.

The amount of money that has been lost through the hay and feed that has been destroyed is almost nauseating. But the danger to the health of our herd is what has us the most concerned. We are doing all we can to protect our livestock, but it would be nice if there was a better system in place to assist producers that come across these issues.

via Ever increasing problem | Wag’n Tales.

And I remember what all I went through when I visited my friend Chris Chinn’s farm. When we went to the barns, we had to disinfect our boots before we could go in and then had to wrap them in a sleeve.

Antibiotics are just one of the tools we have in our tool box; we don’t rely on them as part of our daily care plan.  On our farm, we work hard to prevent problems from occurring, that’s why we are so strict about protecting our hogs’ environment.  We wash and disinfect our barns on a routine basis for prevention.  (Plus, we like working in a clean barn too.)  Our sow barns are washed weekly (these barns house the adult females that will give birth to piglets).  And each sow (a sow is an adult female that has given birth before) is bathed before going to the farrowing barn where they will give birth.  Our gilts are also bathed before farrowing – a gilt is a female hog that has not given birth before.  We do this to prevent infection during the birthing process and it also relaxes the sow or gilt and helps keep them comfortable.  We also wash and sanitize our nursery barns and finisher barns before every new group of pigs arrive to the barn.

via There Is No Health Insurance for Pigs | chrischinn.

My friend Seth tells me there is nothing for farmers or consumers to be afraid of and awareness plans and programs are scucessful like the one with feral pigs. Since Seth is certain wildlife and agriculture are able to coexist and even thrive side-by-side, I am too!

And the A to Z Challenge is a wrap!

It is done! 26 posts, each on a word within agriculture that starts with specific letter of the alphabet! I know, it was to have wrapped up in April and I got a couple of days behind, but I stuck it out and have ended up being proud of all my posts — I don’t feel like any of them were slapped together just to get it done (though I must admit I considered that a couple of times! LOL. Have you seen the other letters? You can see the other posts in this series by clicking on the logo at right and reviewing the letters, or by browsing the A to Z ag tag archives. 

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The post Z is for Zoonoses — Zoonoses Isn’t Something Farmers Can Laugh About appeared first on a colorful adventure.

William Kornegay

I met Will Kornegay through social media and love that he offered to help me with my “S” post. See, Will grows sweet potatoes and was willing to help me out. But I have worked in the seed business for 15 years and really felt that I had to say S is for Seed. BUT I LOVE sweet potatoes. Ask the folks in the company’s cafeteria…. Yes, I have begged to have them put sweet potato tots on the menu as a treat and they handcuts sweet potato fries that I love! I also think a baked sweet potato is something to get all excited about. And I remember with a big smile the day each year when a truck would deliver sweet potatoes to our office from a customer in Louisiana. So I had to find a way to get Will’s offer to fruition. Enter Y is for yams…. or are they sweet potatoes?

Meet Will of Ham Produce Company

Will was born and raised in North Carolina.  He graduated from North Carolina State University with a degree in business management and has been with Ham Produce Company for a couple of years now. He describes the company saying:

Ham Farms () has been farming since 1975.  As one of the largest grower, packer, shippers of sweet potatoes in the United States, we maintain a year round supply of product for our customers all over the world.  (we export to Canada and the UK)  We grow over 8,000 acres of sweet potatoes in NC, FL, and Georgia.  We have controlled atmosphere storage capacity for over 13 million bushels of sweet potatoes and other produce products.  Overall, we grow 15,000 of total crops each year.

My Q&A with Will

Why do people get sweet potatoes & yams confused? What are the differences & the similarities?

What is marketed in the United States as “yams” are really a variety of sweet potato, grown in the South. A true yam is a starchy edible root of the Dioscorea genus, and is generally imported to America from the Caribbean. It is rough and scaly and very low in beta carotene.

“Yams,” as the industry and general public perceives them, are actually sweet potatoes with a vivid orange color and a soft moist consistency when cooked. They tend to have a sweeter flavor. Other varieties of sweet potatoes are lighter skinned and have a firmer, drier texture when cooked. Sweet potatoes are smooth with skins that can vary in color, depending on the variety, from pale yellow to deep purple to vivid orange. Flesh colors can range from light yellow to pink, red, purple or orange.

So where did all of the confusion come from? Many years ago when orange flesh sweet potatoes were introduced into the southern United States, producers and shippers desired to distinguish them from the more traditional white flesh types.  Many newcomers to America saw the sweet potatoes and referred to them as yams due to the similarities that were seen from between the sweet potatoes and their native “yam”.  The African word “nyami” referring to the starchy, edible root of the Dioscorea genus of plants was adopted in its English form, “yam”.

Yams in the United States are actually sweet potatoes with relatively moist texture and orange flesh. Although the terms are generally used interchangeably, the US Department of Agriculture requires that the label “yam” always be accompanied by “sweet potato.”

If you want to see if you can get this down right, you can take the sweet potato or yam quiz!

Are they grown in similar geographies or different?

Sweet potatoes and yams are grown in different geographies.  Yams grow in tropical climates, primarily in South America, Africa, and the Caribbean.  Sweet potatoes potatoes can be grown where there is a long frost-free period with warm temperatures in the growing season. Most cultivars require a minimum frost-free period of 100-125 days, with a minimum average daily temperature of 77 degrees. Sweet potatoes also require almost an inch of water per week uniformly distributed throughout the growing season for highest yields.  These conditions are primarily found in the southern US.

Since sweet potatoes are grown in several southern states, what makes those areas similar? What kind of soils are best, the type of season that is best, etc.?

Sweet potatoes are grown primarily in the southern US because the conditions of the climate and the lands geographical makeup are somewhat similar.  Sweet potatoes are grown in sandy, loamy soils, and the season is dependent on the climate conditions mentioned above.  In each of these regions, there is one growing season each year.  Sweet potatoes are a storage crop, which means that they are grown, harvested, and stored throughout the year.  March – October is the average growing cycle for a crop of sweet potatoes from start to finish.  They are then stored to be packed for production until the next crop is harvested.

Here’s how we do it at Ham Farms:

“Each year, our qualified staff soil sample every field during the winter months. This will allow us to make proper fertilization decisions for the upcoming crop.

As a NC Certified Seed Producer, Ham Farms cultivates micropropgated, elite plants in our greenhouses. These plants are transplanted into our fields and roots harvested will become seed stock for the following year’s crop. Using certified seed will ensure a healthy, disease-free crop that is more uniform.

In early March, our seed stock will be bedded in the field. These beds will produce our sprouts or slips for transplanting in May. Precision transplanters are used for planting, to ensure slips are spaced uniformly in rows. Transplanting will usually conclude before the end of June.

Our staff will work diligently after transplant to ensure that fields are cultivated regularly in order to control the emergence of weeds. Sampling of fields and harvest planning will begin in July, as roots will have grown to a marketable size within 90 to 120 days.

During harvest, field rows are turned up using a modified disk which uncovers the sweet potatoes. Roots are hand harvested and graded in the fields. The roots are then transferred into bulk containers and transported to one of our controlled atmosphere storage facilities for curing.

The curing process takes between 4 to 7 days. Curing heals cuts and reduces decay and shrinkage in storage because it allows the periderm to thicken and to reform. Curing also converts some starches to sugars, enhancing the sweet potatoes’ natural flavor.”

What do you rotate sweet potatoes with?

We rotate our sweet potatoes with several crops, mainly soybeans, wheat, cotton, cabbage, peppers, and other the vegetable crops that we grow.

Do you guys plant other crops? Do most farmers?

Ham Farms plants a variety of crops.  As mentioned above, we grow wheat, beans, cotton, and cabbage.  We also grow squash, onions, carrots, peppers, and watermelons.

Farmers choose to plant the crops they plant for many different reasons.  Most farmers plant multiple crops.  Crop rotation is a major motivating factor.  Many farmers will choose to specialize in growing a crop or a few specific crops, and will use other crops to aid in their crop rotation.

For most crops you can see the crop mature, that doesn’t seem as easy with tubers, how do you know sweet potatoes are ready to be harvested?

This is done by field testing.  Provided that growing conditions and climate have cooperated; sweet potatoes are mature between 90-120 days.  Once the crop hits 90 days, our farm managers will turn up hills as a sample to see what the condition of the crop is.  Random sampling will give a good idea of each field’s makeup, size profile, and readiness for harvesting.  Once they crop appears to be ready the harvest plan is put into action.  Ham Farms grows over 8,000 acres of sweet potatoes.  Strategy and planning play a very large role in the planting/harvesting process.

What’s your favorite way to have sweet potatoes? Any recipe or cooking tips you want to offer?

Personally, I like sweet potatoes cut up and grilled as fries.    You can also check out a bunch of recipes on the North Carolina Sweet Potatoes website.

Another Passion Will Has

I love how people pursue multiple paths these days! Will founded the AGrow Life as an agricultural marketing company aimed to connect AG professionals, and to educate consumers about the process that goes behind the products they purchase and consume.  This website went live Monday, and will hopefully be a great resource for anyone who has an interest in the industry.  Will has big goals for the company and hope to integrate several resources and tools into the mix that will be beneficial to both farmers, retailers, and consumers alike. He also has a Facebook page for The AGrow Life, AGrow_Life on Twitter and an Instagram feed so you can see photos. 

This Brings Us to Z! The Zed!

I can’t believe it! One more post to go and I’ll finish my A to Z on agriculture! So what will Z be for? Have you seen the other letters? You can see the other posts in this series by clicking on the logo at right and reviewing the letters, or by browsing the A to Z ag tag archives. Yes, we are in the final days of April so I’m chugging along on the alphabet train!  Got ideas for me?

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The post Y is for Yams or Are They Sweet Potatoes? What’s the Difference Anyway? appeared first on a colorful adventure.

When I started this, the fascination was about how I could find an X-word for my A to Z on agriculture. I took time and searched around a bit and the appendix of my trusty Cotton Physiology Handbook showed me this wouldn’t be too hard. But I have to admit, I don’t use xylem in everyday ag conversations.

What is a xylem?

Plants have vascular systems just like people, but for plants, rather than moving blood through arteries and veins, plants (like my beloved cotton) move water, nutrients and energy. The xylem is the part of the system that pulls water and nutrients up.  So with that, let me step back a little bit.

Understanding Plant Vascular Systems

A leaf’s vascular system diagram from Dr. Mike Farabee, Estrella Mountain Community College

The primary components of the vascular system of plants are really the way to transport critical pieces around in a plant. so the vascular system on sprouts would be really small and the vascular system of a sequoia would be big. These systems are designed to transport nutrients, water, and sugars around the plant. The website Biology4Kids.com has a great page (yes, I like the simple language it has compared to my cotton bible. Sorry if that disappoints) called Plants: Xylem and Phloem where the vascular system is described as:

It all starts with a top and a bottom. Logically, it makes sense. Trees and other vascular plants have a top and a bottom. The top has a trunk, branches, leaves, or needles. The bottom is a system of roots. Each needs the other to survive. The roots hold the plant steady and grab moisture and nutrients from the soil. The top is in the light, conducting photosynthesis and helping the plant reproduce. You have to connect the two parts. That’s where xylem and phloem come in.

The Xylem Provides the Supply of Water & Minerals

pulled from the Cotton Foundation’s physiology manual — click to access the book online

The roots of a plant are what help the plant reach water and nutrients. They help absorb  the critical components for nourishment. As that stuff gets into the plant, the xylem takes over. The Biology4kids page says:

The xylem of a plant is the system of tubes and transport cells that circulates water and dissolved minerals. As a plant, you have roots to help you absorb water. If your leaves need water and they are 100 feet above the ground, it is time to put the xylem into action! Xylem is made of vessels that are connected end to end for the maximum speed to move water around. They also have a secondary function of support. When someone cuts an old tree down, they reveal a set of rings. Those rings are the remains of old xylem tissue, one ring for every year the tree was alive.

I wish I could find some old photos I took when I was in the field with one of the company’s soybean breeders because the photos showed a disease that shut down the vascular system, basically starving the plant. No they were awesome pics, but they came to mind. LOL.

Phloem Moves Sugars/Energy

Phytosynthesis is a process we all learned about in grade school. It’s the way plants convert sunshine into energy. Again, Biology4Kids basic explanation of phloem makes this understandable.

Most plants have green leaves, where the photosynthesis happens. When those sugars are made, they need to be given to every cell in the plant for energy. Enter phloem. The phloem cells are laid out end-to-end throughout the entire plant, transporting the sugars and other molecules created by the plant. Phloem is always alive. Xylem tissue dies after one year and then develops anew (rings in the tree trunk). What is the best way to think about phloem? Think about sap coming out of a tree. That dripping sap usually comes from the phloem.

Two to Go! Y and Z are for?

There are just two letters left on in my A to Z on agriculture! So what will Y and Z be for? Have you seen the other 23 letters? You can see the other posts in this series by clicking on the logo at right and reviewing the letters, or by browsing the A to Z ag tag archives. Yes, we are in the final days of April so I’m chugging along on the alphabet train!  Got ideas for me?

Related articles

• Why Are Plants Green?
• S is for Seed – It All Starts with a Seed
• How does our farm decide what to plant?

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