The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement allows the U.S and countries that border the pacific a way to sell food goods with less taxes and tariffs. The partnership could make the cost of food cheaper as well as increase the profitability of farmers. some concerns about the agreement are about income inequality and some fear that companies will take advantage of workers and lower their wages because their goods would be cheaper. concerns have also risen about how the agreement could have an impact on Asia’s environment
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Irrigation systems with James Atkins
James Atkins guest lectured our class on irrigation systems and the different types of systems. He also explained the precision Ag side of irrigation systems that run on GPS. I found it interesting how center pivot irrigation systems can compensate the flow of water when it reaches a certain area in a field. He also showed how the use of drones can show what parts of a field receives too much or too little water and how that data can be transferred to the watering system to fix the water regulation. I found the presentation interesting and I learned a lot about how technology can be used to help save water and money for farmers.
UD Ag Research Center Trip
At the UD research farm I was able to see the diverse studies that take place there . Studies on dairy cattle, bees, and horses are just a few of the animals that are on the farm. Along with livestock research UD also studies in green houses and horticulture and have nice facilities. the Farm also has woodland acreage for wildlife studies which is what I found really interesting. visiting the research farm was really fun and I enjoyed seeing what they do there
Cartanza Chicken Farm
Our first field trip was to Georgie Cartanza’s farm which is one of Delaware’s organic chicken operations. On the trip Georgie told us some of the differences between organic and non organic poultry production. Some of the main differences is the organic feed that comes from Argentina and Turkey as well as the chicken houses layout. Organic chicken houses have windows installed along with wooden structures that chickens can climb on they also give chickens the ability to go outside into a fenced in area. She also explained some some of the technology that is used in the chicken houses that is used to regulate temperature, humidity, and feed and water the chickens. Over all the the field trip was very informative and it was very interesting to see what its like to be a poultry producer.
Hoobers Field Trip
On our third field trip to Hoobers we were able to see how and why precision Ag is is used. Hoobers sells precision Ag equipment from trackers to yield generating systems. During the field trip we where shown how drones are being implemented for recording data in crops with the use of semi infrared cameras which may play a huge roll in Ag in the future. We also had the chance to drive a tractor and see how a GPS is used to plant crops and increase the crop yield for farmers. While driving the tractor we where shown how the computer system can drive the tractor on its own as well. The trip was very informative and I found it very interesting on how the use of drones is now being used in Ag.