Week Nine with Extension by Simala Wright

The prize from the commodity classic.

We began our professional development with a discussion on Regenerative Agriculture

on a Global Scale for People and the plant by Dr. Rattan Lal. Dr. Lal is a Distinguished Professor

of Soil Science at the College of Food, Agriculture, and Environmental Sciences at Ohio State

University. Speaking at the Future Harvest conference 2023, Dr. Lal says that there are soils that

have already gone extinct, and we will not get them back. The manner of how soils were treated

in early history was due to limited knowledge as compare to now. Another contributory factor is

food production and food waste. Mechanization have increased food production. This increase

required lots of energy and carbon. The carbon ends up in the ozone, the food waste in landfills

and produce methane gas which enters the ozone. Though there has been an increase in food

production, Dr. Lal indicated that 1 in 8 people are food insecure, and 1 in 4 people are

malnourished. With these challenges, we should thinking about how balance the need for

survival and the environmental changes we are experiencing. What we should be thinking about

is saving what we have now.

The guest lecturer for this week was Mr. Steven E. Darcey from Prince George's County

Soil Conservation District. According to Mr. Darcey soil health is around these principles;

minimizing disturbance, maximizing biodiversity, maximizing soil cover, and maximizing living

roots. Because of science, we have a better understanding of the importance of soil health.

Though science has improve our knowledge and understanding, there is an active resistance to

accepting the science.

AAR with the farmers in the cover crop program.

The following day, the three amigos, Sarah, Haley, and I met at Wicomico County

extension office to with about 10 farmers in the cover crop program to conduct an after action

review (AAR) of the program for the past twelve months. After the AAR, we proceeded to Mr.

John Swaine’s farm for the field day. More people joined so as to receive credit for nutrient

management. There were two groups formed and Sarah took her group to the compact soil, and

Haley took her group to the tilled soil. They conducted a soil resistance/compaction test using

penetrometer, solubility and runoff test of both soil, and infiltration test using the double ring

infiltrometer. In between both demonstration, I performed the active organic carbon soil test

on both soils.

Interns at Commodity Classic

This week saw all interns attending the commodity classic in Queens Anne County. We

had no expectation but to attend and mingle with the attendees. We arrived just to find out we

were participants of the fair, and joined right in. I met Mr. Richard Wilkins from the Soy beans

Association whom I had chatted with the day before about cover crops. We chatted for about 20

minutes and hope to meet again soon. The classic was a very good and informative event until

the end. The keynote speaker of the event ruined the event for me with his diatribe, vitriol, and

contradictory statements. After the keynote address, there was a drawing for a Yeti cooler, and I

won it.


I met with Haley, Emily, and Alison at Lower Eastern Shore Research Education Center

(LESREC) to count bugs in the squash field, and would later transition to the blackberry field to

kill the weeds. We were successful with the squash but had to pause on the blackberries because

the farm manager had put down some weed spray earlier which interfere with the goal of the

weed eating machine. So Haley and I when over to the Wright’s farm where the watermelons are

growing. We laid out within each treatment the area for the study while the rest is for Mr.

Wright.

Haley Harvesting Squash

The Somerset County fair arrived and it was fun. There were vendors, animals, and

machines for the kids and general public. Taking into consideration the attention span, the kids

enjoyed having their face painted, coloring, and fixing some art work for their amusement.

Conducting Active Organic Soil Test during field day.

Somerset County Fair.