Mark Davis was a very unique guest lecture! I did not have any prior knowledge of the Horse Racing Industry whatsoever. I especially did not know the deep roots that the equine industry has in the state of Delaware. I found Mark Davis’s lecture to be fascinating, and fun. I never thought of the horse Racing Industry has an economically beneficial industry. I thought the exact opposite, that people go to the horse races to gamble, and most of the time waste/lose their money. Gaining knowledge about the Horse Racing Industry showed me that many businesses that you overlook, are the backbones of local economies. I did not realize just how influential the horse racing industry is, especially when paired with the casinos. I also enjoyed learning about the regulations. It is comforting to know that the industry works incredibly hard to prevent possible cheating. I did not realize how strict rules and drug tests are administered. They even fine people for different activities! I am happy to have heard Mark Davis speak, he gave me insight to an industry that I was not exposed to before hand!
Category Archives: Ag Business
Social Media
Today’s society depends on and uses technology, especially social media, more than ever before. Some may say even especially in college students. I can admit that I am guilty of sometimes being too wrapped up in my phone and social sites. Therefore, I appreciated Mrs. Walfred’s lecture about social media and its potentially effects on our careers and futures in general. The ease and efficiency of having everything at our fingertips, and being able to post in the blink of an eye makes it simple to upload or post without thoroughly thinking through what the post may actually say about ourselves. Through social media, we create a brand for ourselves that speaks about our ideas, morals, and values before we may even get a chance to say a word. Thanks to Mrs. Walfred’s lecture, the rumors of potential employers checking my social media sites have been confirmed, and I know to keep everything connected to my real, full name professional and consistent. Additionally, which I was unaware of, it is possible to rebuild your brand! Of course when we are younger, the future seems like lightyears away, and we may not consider employers when we are posting a crazy story or picture. However, through blogging, educated commenting, and editing of privacy settings, we can rebuild ourselves online to be the great employee we know we are. Mrs. Walfred’s lecture was helpful and informative, especially at this stage in my life, and I think more college students or even high school students should be made aware of their image.
Delawares Green Industry
After listening to this lecture many students may have developed a green thumb. Mrs. Tracy Wootten and Mrs. Valann Budischak spoke to the class about Delawares green industry.
The Green Industry includes producers, retailers, landscapers, land managers, golf courses and suppliers. Its incredible that horticulture product sales in 2014 were $21,774,000, with Containerized being number one in nursery production at 62.4%. We learned their are two crop groups in the industry including floriculture crops which include bedding/garden plants, cultivated greens, cut flower and potted flowering plants. Nursery crops include broadleaf evergreens, shrubs, Christmas trees and fruit and nut plans.
Delaware Nursery & Landscape Association was a nonprofit organization we learned about that works to advance the common interests of its members and to promote the use and enhance the quality of the products and skills of the green industry.
I found this lecture to be very interesting because it shows how many jobs are tied to the green industry.
Last but not least: University of Delaware’s Research Farm
As a pre-veterinary student I felt as though I knew all there was to know about the amazing research farm we have here on campus. Every semester so far I have had a few classes down on South campus and if I wasn’t directly on the farm for class, I got to smell it! Even though I had seen the dairy farm, Webb farm and the poultry houses prior to this field trip I learned so much about what goes on at each of these facilities. Scott Hopkins, University of Delaware’s farm superintendent, took us around and went in depth about experiments both successes and failures, different classes that are offered on the farm to target non-agriculture students, new technology that’s been included in each facility to help advance research, management practices and so much more! Even though it’s a close runner-up playing with the calves wasn’t my favorite part of this field trip. Scott Hopkins shared a ton of information with us about the research farm and I took a lot away from it that I can’t wait to share with others but if there was one thing overall that I took away from this trip is, there is always more to learn! I went into this field trip thinking I was going to know everything he talked about and I was pleasantly surprised. I found myself amazed with all of the new things I learned about the farm after the field trip was over! 
University of Delaware’s Research Farm
On November 4th, my class had the privilege of meeting the University of Delaware’s Newark farms superintendent, Scott Hopkins, who led the tour for us. We started the tour with an introduction to the dairy herd that supplies us our beloved UDairy ice cream. Scott Hopkins explained that the dairy herd was the most difficult and time consuming livestock on the farm due to the amount labor, time and research that goes into the herd. I found it really interesting to see how feed studies were conducted on a herd within by the use of ID collars that would sync with a specific feed bin that granted that specific cow access to its feed. This practice helps to conclude that technology plays a major role in livestock production. We then moved onto the poultry section of the farm where he explained to us why there were so many small shed-like houses. These are used for testing immunology and virolity amongst small flocks of birds. I think that this field of research is so fascinating and important, especially since the poultry industry is huge to the Delmarva area. Next, we ventured to Webb Farm where we learned about the beef management practices, equine practices, as well as the sheep practices. Currently, the farm is tracking estrous in the ewes and are monitoring breedings and whether or not the ewes take. They track this by recording which ewes have the color coded chalk on their backs – marking a mounting by the ram – and crossing the presence of chalk with their estrous cycles. Scott was very informational and provided a lot of insight into how much work really goes into running a successful farming operation. He was well versed and had a tremendously wide amount of knowledge. I learned a lot on this trip and I hope to continue learning more about management practices throughout my time here at the University of Delaware
UD farm
On Saturday, last field trip was in UD farm. Scott Hopkins gave us a tour of the UD farm! There are crop fields, livestock industry, greenhouses, and wetland creation site.
We went to visited dairy cows and young dairy cows first. There are milking room, feeding room, and young dairy cow living area. Scott Hopkins did a brief introduction about how milking and feeding progress. The cows were trained to eat in their own food box, which surprised me a lot. 
That way is much easier to check how much they eat and their health situation. Milking room is very clean, which is very important for a livestock industry. There is an anti-bacterial spray in the middle of the milking room for workers use. There are much more cows than what I thought.
In the young cows living area, everyone has their own house and berries around the door of the house to avoid they come out. Those cows just like big dogs. They are very friendly and nice to people. They just like a puppy, like to put everything into their mouth. What a puppy do is chew, but they like suck.
What is more, I think the wetland site is a very peaceful area for people to walk through. It enjoyed this trip a lot!
UD WEBB Farm Field Trip
Saturday’s field trip to Ud’s WEBB Farm was incredibly educational. I learned so much about my University that I did not know about after attending school here for three years. I had heard of Webb Farm before, but I had never been there before. I did not know that we had horses! I am very appreciative of the experience, even though it was a chilly day. I enjoyed seeing the baby cows, and learning about the AG technology that UD utilizes with their dairy cows. I did not realize how technologically advanced our farm is. I loved seeing where the cows get milked, and how the technology identifies each individual cow, and records all of their data automatically. I also was intrigued by the cows feeding system, and how they are trained to go to the same feeder every day. In addition to the dairy cows, we got to learn a lot about how UD maintains their chickens, horses, sheep, and beef cows. We learned a lot of very honest information in regards to farm management, and the challenges that technologic advances can present. We even were given access to view the compost section of the Farm, even though it is not as well developed as they would have liked it to be. As I was taking in the fall colors and scenery on the way to Webb Farm, we were informed that the trees we saw were all planted as a buffer. They are almost all native, and provide a variety of environmental benefits to the landscape surrounding the research farm. I was very happy to hear that, and it gave me a deeper appreciation of the landscape, knowing it’s impact on the environment! 
Webb Farm Field Trip
During the field trip the farm superintendent of University of Delaware, Scott Hopkins, gave the class a tour of the agricultural field’s mechanical devices, identified the poultry houses and how they are used for research, demonstrated another form of research students focus on for dairy cows regarding a controlled ration being fed, explained the high tunnel and it’s purposes in operating as organic even though it is not verified organic, etc…Additionally when we rode the bus to Webb Farm, the research farm for UD students, Mr. Hopkins took us into the equine building and we briefly discussed how the mares could easily stop giving birth if there was the slightest disturbance during this time such as a student talking while waiting. I personally enjoyed the part of the tour where Scott picked up a handful of the ration being fed to the dairy cattle in controlled research classes because it smelled nice- I believe the ration was a cut up hay forage. Next we moved on to the sheep which I felt was the coolest part of the research farm because I’ve taken classes and learned about equine, poultry, beef and dairy cattle, but learned very little about sheep over my time at UD. During this part of the field trip, Mr. Hopkins talked about the male sheep having a device attached to his body that would spray paint on the back end of the females he would mount in order to check if the population was successfully impregnated. I found this interesting because he would change the color of the paint after a number of days which demonstrated if the first round of sperm was a hit or miss- if the first round impregnated the sheep, it would not have the new paint color demonstrating that the first attempt did not work.
Next we looked at the black Angus beef cattle in which Mr. Hopkins talked about the factors that come into consideration when he decides whether or not to cull a cow. For instance, if a cow decides it no longer wanted to mother a calf, he would remind this cow of it’s protective instinct to protect the cow, as a second chance before considering culling. Also, he briefly mentioned why the bulls were castrated before slaughter and why this was important for a consumer point of view. The reason being that a bull produces testosterone and when the bull is being slaughtered for it’s meat, the stress is shown in the meat because testosterone is produced which causes the color of the meat to turn into a dark blood red color, which is not favorable to consumers when they purchase the final product. I also learned that UDairy Creamery sells the meat that was raised on Webb farm, which is pretty cool because consumers of this generation care about factors such as how their food was raised by the farmer and what went into the process of making their product. Overall, this was a fun field trip and I learned a little more about how the animals are raised than I knew before.
Mark Lynas and the Enlightenment of GMO’s
Listening to Mark Lynas’s speech on GMO’s I was enlightened on the many misconceptions on them. In fact, Mark Lynas believed his whole life how bad and unnatural GMO’s are to the planet, he acquired data and fact checking and afterwards completely changed. Lynas opened his mind to the reality of how much we need engineered science to improve our crop yield and to also help the population strive. I find it very interesting how many people find it so unnatural and look to substitutions like organic instead, which is far worse than farming with GMO’s. While consuming crops that are organic, it can create a risk factoring death, where it doesn’t protect people from any diseases. Not to mention the lower crop yield it takes on, which takes away from GMO farming. Having a lot of people farm GMO, helps regulate nitrogen and leads to fixing the worlds problem with nitrogen pollution. Before watching this video, I also thought GMO’s were unnatural and feared them. After watching this video, I see how wrong I am to view GMO’s as unnatural when we humans need them to thrive for future generations and especially if we plan on having roughly nine to ten billion people on this Earth by 2050, then a good start would be to push biotechnology like GMO’s. Overall many people believe in a lot of misconceptions about the unnatural laws of Genetically Modified Organisms, and we should take ways to educate people on the idea.
How much do you know about GMOs?
“We need to produce more food not just to keep up with population but because poverty is gradually being eradicated, along with the widespread malnutrition, that still today means close to 800 million people go to bed hungry each night.” Mark Lynas’ talk was packed full of facts and knowledge about Genetically Modified Organisms are beneficial to us. Out of all the things he said, this statement resonated with me the most. The issue of world hunger has always been the reason I’m for the use of Genetically Modified Organisms in production. It amazed me that so many countries like Africa and India, who are overpopulated, had a different opinion. Why wouldn’t you want to use a technique that could bring us closer to solving world hunger? I don’t think it’s because they don’t care about those in food deserts. The lack of education is the real problem.
Mark Lynas is the perfect example. After doing a lot of research into GMOs he changed his viewpoint from defaming GMOs to being a gigantic proponent for them and the positive changes they can bring to our world. If we could find ways to bring that education to those countries and even to those in our country, I think we would find a lot of people changing their views. After watching this video, I asked my roommate what her opinion was on GMOs, she said “I don’t know that much about them but aren’t they bad? Doesn’t that mean they’re putting chemicals on our food?” This just shows the impact our media and society has on the uneducated. She knows nothing about Genetically Modified Organisms but because of the labeling she sees on groceries or commercials she sees on TV she just assumed they were bad. I wish everyone was required to watch Mark Lynas’ speech, even if they don’t agree with him by the end at least they have had a chance to see both sides and form their own opinion. Lynas’ speech was passionate and intrigued my interest in being a part of educating others in hopes that one day we can lower the number of those going to bed hungry each night.
New High-Technology for Agriculture
If you want to understand how agriculture works today, you need to learn about the technologies they are using. Where we go for this trip is Hoober company, they have all kinds of equipment using for agriculture, the variety of tractors, combines, drone, sprayers. Humans create technology and somehow they rely on it because technology brings much convenient and easy life for us. Since some of the farmlands are huge, drones give a big help. They can fly all over farm fields. Instead of walking through the field and check in person, we can check the health of crops through the phone. The most impressive tractor in my mind is the one with the sprayer on both sides. The sprayers are birds’ wings set on both sides of the tractor. These tractors are huge and modern looking. The Tractors can be set for an automatic drive. Very easy for us to use. Each of them cost 100,000 dollars, which is a lot of money to invest. However, it may save money for farmers for rest of life, since there will be fewer labors and time are required.
Mark Lynas Lecture
After listening to the Mark Lynas lecture about his change of thought on GMOs I strongly believe everyone involved in the GMO controversy should listen to his explanation and new thoughts on GMOs. I am in full support of the use of GMOs and agree with Mark Lynas change in approach. I respected how Mr. Lynas first took the time to explain why he was against GMOs in the first place and I believe many people have the same thinking processes as he did when he first heard of the use of GMOs. He explained how he thought GMOs were just being used by a big American corporation with not much thought and that it would go horribly wrong in the long run. He then explained how he had actually never done research in the field till later and then discovered that GMOs were a necessity for humankind and the growing population. Mark Lynas makes a very strong case for his change of heart by evaluating how he first approached the situation and then how he learned more about all the benefits of GMOs. Throughout his lecture he explains all of the reasons he now supports the use of GMOs including that GMO crops actually need less chemicals, it was benefiting farmers instead of big companies and finally he explained how it is actually a safer and more precise way of growing crops. I believe many people who are against the use of GMOs have not done research in the field and assume right away its bad like Mark Lynas did at the beginning of his career. I want to spread the knowledge of GMOs being safe and a necessity to farming with the growing population. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing Mark Lynas lecture and am happy to see someone who was against GMOs spreading his new-found knowledge and supporting them.
Hoobers Inc Field Trip Experience
The picute above is my classmates and myself on one of the tractors we were able to opperate
Being able to understand todays agriculture and how we get our food from farms to markets is an unbelieveable experience. The technology we have today, helps us further agriculture along with being able to feed over seven billion people! One of the main ways that agriculture has become easier for farmers is GPS systems. WIth this power farmers are able to use drones to scope out either the issues that are in their crop so they can make adjustments for the next set of crops. While at Hoobers we got the opportunity to see two different drones. One of the drones had the power to fly over an hour and has differnt cameras to show drout in crops! The other drone was able to fly for about thirty minutes but was able to fly by the users phone. The technologyg used today is not only invested in drones; tractors have the capibility to have automatic stearing and can be positioned by satalites to keep in a very precise line and cause little to no errors with the spacing in the crops!Technology is beyong incredibe and will continue to grow and imrpove the world around us.
Hoober Inc. Field Trip
Going to Hoober was a tremendous educational experience where we got to look at what precision in agriculture truly gets involved with. We learned how important technology is and how much technology has changed throughout the years. It’s crazy to think that we have gone from human steering with a blind eye to a more accurate read with GPS steering. Some combines even come with automatic steering, making it virtually possible for a farmer to just push a button from their desk on a home computer and the tractor will go all by itself in the field, essentially allowing farmers to have an efficient farm. Seeing the drone fly up in the air and cover a lot of ground was amazing and to hear that they not only detect problems with crop growth and deficiency in nutrients but to are able to spray for pesticides which takes less time and management. Using a drone and new automatic sprayers for spraying pesticides also increases safety precautions, where the newer models with GPS will automatically shut off, not overlapping pesticides. Getting to ride the tractor, was amazing, not only for fulfilling a goal of mine in taking Agricultural classes but grasping the complete perspective of farming and to see how technology impacts a farmer’s profit. Overall, Hoober Farms gave us an educational impact by teaching us how farmers greatly need technology. If farmers did not have the opportunity to fly a drone around their property learning things like plant nutrition, growth patterns and possible shortages on their farm they would need more laborers, making their business less efficiency, causing them to produce a lower income. 
Ed Kee’s Guest Lecture on Iowa and California Agriculture
Mr. Kee gave a very insightful guest lecture on Iowa and California agriculture, which are the two biggest agricultural states in the U.S. Iowa is number one for corn, soybean, pork, and egg production. 85% of Iowa’s landmass is used for agriculture, about 30.5 million acres, with 87,500 farmers! 92% of Iowa’s cash farm income comes from corn, soybeans, pork, and beef. Iowa grows about 13 million acres of corn, about 2.5 billion bushels.Iowa grows about 9.8 million acres of soybeans, about 553,7 million bushels. They produce 968 million dozen of eggs, and raise 20.9 million hogs, 32% of the nations pork production. The owner of Stine Seeds is located in Iowa, which is the largest family owned seed company. Harry Stine developed the soybean genetics that accounts for 63% of seed in North and South America. Iowa is also recognized for its hand in ethanol production and the 15% that is now incorporated into gasoline. California is the biggest agricultural producer ranking first in Milk & cream, almonds, grapes, lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, flowers, walnuts, and hay. California’s biggest problem is water, which they get from snowmelt. Farmers have to grow crops that will at least return the cost of water. They export 26% of their ag products, valued at about 21 billion. California is the 10th largest general economy in the world. They can produce strawberries 9-10 months out of the year, where most states have a very short growing period. 95% of processed tomato products come from California, where they have mixed breeds to create a crop that can be mechanically harvested. It is unbelievable how much knowledge Mr. Kee possess about agriculture and how much he has impacted Delaware agriculture during his time as the vegetable extension agent and as Delaware’s Secretary of Agriculture.