On October 21st Dan Severson came into class to talk about the livestock industry in Delaware. He began by talking about farms in general in Delaware. specifically he talked about the size of Delaware farms. Around 40 percent of land in Delaware is farmland and around 98 percent of farms are family-owned, Then he moved onto to talk about the livestock industry in particular. He talked about how Poultry is becoming more popular while other types of meats are becoming less popular. After going in detail about each of the more popular types of meat he shifted to talking about dairy production. Dan compared how production differs between different size farms, one big difference was how the herd size increases for larger farms. At the end, he talked about how marketing and labeling can deceive consumers. He spoke about finding products in the grocery store labeled as non-GMO when the products don’t contain ingredients that could be GMOs.
Livestock Industry Guest Lecture
I really enjoyed Dan Severson’s lecture. He made the lecture intriguing by getting the class involved, as well as he presented a lot of different information that I had not previously known or thought about. It was interesting to be able to talk about all the different aspects of raising certain animals and why some people might prefer to raise one animals vs another. The fact that 98% of Delaware farms are family run really surprised me because this shows that these farms aren’t big corporations and they actually care about the consumer and what they think. One more interesting fact that I learned was the versatility of goats and what can be produced from them. Overall this lecture was very informative and it opened my eyes up to many different trends in the livestock industry that I had not previously considered. Also it was nice to be able to have someone talk about this topic who does not only do this for a living but actually has a few of his own animals that he raises because he was able to throw in person experiences throughout.
Guest Lecturer Dan Severson & Mislabeled Product
On Monday, October 21st, Dan Severson came to the class to talk about predominately livestock in the state of agriculture today. He talked about a wide range of things, such as the normal meat animals (like cows, chickens, and pigs) and more obscure topics in livestock (like bees, and show animals).
An interesting thing was the statistic that he mentioned where the consumption rates of nearly every livestock animal went down except for poultry. This comes to no surprise to me for two reasons. The first being that poultry is arguably the most cost effective form of meat. The second is that poultry is generally viewed to be more lean and healthy, and there has been a recent rise in health consciousness in the western world. The decreases in the other forms of meat are not surprising either, especially the decreases in consumption of veal and lamb. Alongside the rise of health consciousness came a shift in ethical standards with many people switching to vegetarian diets because they view eating animals as unethical. It goes without saying that this shift also put a slight taboo on eating young animals like you would when eating veal and lamb.
For the mislabeled product, I found a jar of peanut butter that was labeled gluten-free and vegan even though peanut butter is naturally gluten-free and vegan. This is just a case of advertising and appealing to a certain group of people through clever use of words. I do not think it’s unethical for companies to do this because they are not lying, however this type of advertising does get a tad bit annoying.
Dan Severson on the Livestock Industry
The class was given a guest lecture on the livestock industry in Delaware and the U.S. Currently, Beef has the highest consumption per capita and 6 million dollars in sales, with cow and calf production, feedlots, stockers, etc. Hogs are in second place, with 2 million dollars in worth, with farrow to finish, where pigs are grown to their harvest weight and slaughtered. Sheep raised are worth 178,000 dollars, normally raised in backyard operations for their wool, hair, and goats are worth 81,000 dollars from direct markets, etc. Dairy cows are worth over 16 million dollars through milk, ice cream, and conventional farming practices. Livestock that is less popular but still used in the U.S. includes bees, bison, alpacas, llamas, rabbits, deer and many more. An important part of the livestock industry is marketing. By knowing the farmer that is raising your meat products and buying local, consumers can get the best quality meats they desire. The topic of organics and farm to table agriculture has become much more popular in recent years because consumers want the healthiest meats they can find, and ways to market can include grass-fed beef that is all-natural with no GMO’s. The future of this industry is to be considered as well. Technology in robotics is improving every day, which makes cultivating these animals much easier for farmers. A problem that is currently being faced is next-generation farming. The livestock and other family-owned farming operations are beginning to die because earlier generations are passing away, while the newer ones are looking elsewhere for work. Climate change is a worry too. Farmers are going to have to provide for a larger population on smaller areas of land when considering the best steps they can take to protect the environment. According to this lecture, the livestock industry has a very labor-intensive workforce that is in need of people to help improve this industry and its productions. Humans need meat after all!
Guest lecture: Livestock industry in DE
In oct 21, 2019, Mr. Dan Severson, a new castle county extension agent, came to my class and lectured my class about the livestock industry in DE. He told us many features that something we know and something we don’t know of Delaware farms. To be consider as a farm, this land should produce and sell $1,000 or more of agricultural products annually, or those products normally would have been sold annually. There are 2500 farms in Delaware, and economic contribution of agriculture to Delaware’s economy is about $8 billion. Farmers’ age average are 5-60 years old. Most of farms are family farms. It is about 98%. The biggest two war in the history, WWI and WWII, affect the livestock production heavily. Over time, all type of meat, like beef, pork, lamb or goat, consumption is decreased except poultry. Sheep and goat industries play a low role in the livestock industry in the US and Delaware. They are most likely to be raise in smaller herd size and backyard.
Dan Severson: New castle County Delaware livestock
This lecture given by New Castle Count Cooperative Livestock agent, Dan Severson, focused on the livestock portion of Delaware’s agriculture industry. Severson broke down the amount of the beef, pork, goat, chicken that is produced and consumed from Delaware. Additionally, he included the amount of products that come from the different animals. Apparently, the highest amount of livestock that was recorded was cattle, which 225 farms, containing roughly 14,000 cattle in the state of Delaware alone. However, Delaware cattle size does not compare to the amount of cattle livestock contained in the entire US, which is 70 million cattle over the span of 711,000 farms. Switching from direct livestock, Dan Severson shared with the class the trends that are commonly found in the agriculture community, which are # of farms, size of the farm, age of farmer, amount of animals, and diversification. It also seems that as time passes by, there is a growing interest of consumers wanting to know where there food comes from. Unfortunately, that also leads to some individuals sharing false information to people about how their food is processed, especially when it comes to the topics of GMO. However, sometimes stores and some people have ended up mislabeling their product, because they include the GMO free label. The thing is, GMO is mostly used by breeding and not actually injecting something into the food. Another claim is that farmers are putting antibiotics into the products, but since it is illegal to do so, that argument doesn’t hold up. The only registered animal that is allowed to be processed with GMO’s is fish, mainly salmon. Overall, Severson wanted us to know where the food comes from and what actually goes into farming.
GMO Extra Credit
For my GMO research project, I went to the store and found a product called “Outshine: Fruit Bars”. This item is a supposed an all natural popsicle, that used real fruit juice. Its main claim on it’s package is that it’s GMO free. The issue I found with this is that there was another popsicle produced by the same company, which did not also included the GMO free label. The weird thing is that the only difference was it’s flavor being coconut, instead of strawberry. If the strawberry flavored popsicle is supposedly non GMO, then why isn’t the coconut. Artificial flavoring is artificial flavoring, no matter what the flavor is.
Dan Severson Livestock Industry Overview
This guest lecture was very interesting and informal. I’m glad we can have someone like Dan Severson who gets to explain to us about livestock. He is very knowledgeable about not only livestock but about the rest of the agricultural industry. My favorite part of his presentation was a brief part but it’s when he talked about the rising of bee keeping. I’ve only scraped the surfaces about beekeeping and hardly know anything at all. It is a topic that has always intrigued me, it especially does now with the drastically decreasing bee population throughout the world. Knowing that it is a increasing industry it makes me really happy to hear that it shows that people are starting to get the picture that bees are important to this world. Another thing which might make me sound a little dumb is that with show animals I always thought that they were judged on appearance not by the cut of beef or pork. But, it definitely makes sense that they are judged that way and it will change the way I view show animals now when I head up the the Farm show in Harrisburg.
For the Product review I picked All-Natural Biodegradable Kitty Litter. I don’t go to the grocery store to much unless I need things for a specific recipe I am making (which is not an efficient way to go to the store). This product is made by the company The Good Earth on the front of this Litter it says Non-Gmo. It is made of 100% American grown grass which is pretty cool I guess. I don’t think it would make a difference to the cat really if the grass was genetically modified or not. I mean I know my cat wouldn’t care for my cat we use a newspaper thing call yesterdays news its made out of newspaper pellets and its easy to clean and holds smell in pretty well. It also breaks down in water very easily.
Guest Speaker Dan Severson: Delawares Livestock Industry
“You are what you eat” (Dan Severson). Dan Severson, a New Castle County Agricultural Agent, discussed with the University of Delaware’s students about Delaware’s Livestock industry, the different types of livestock and the number and size of each type of livestock farm and their comparison to the size of farms across the United States. The livestock industry, unlike many industries, is an industry which includes the raising of animals such as cows, poultry, sheep, and goats for the processing of the animal products for consumers.
Within the state of Delaware, there are 2,500 farms, each contributing the U.S, economy which amounts to 8 million dollars from agricultural products, some of those products being from the livestock industries of beef and dairy cattle, poultry, sheep, and goats; with the poultry industry being the highest. In Delaware, there are 235 beef cattle farms and 14,000 beef cattle, 55 hog farms and 3,500 pigs, 89 farms with sheep and 1758 sheep, and 91 farms with goats and 1201 goats and an exceeding amount of poultry farms and chickens. Essentially, with these numbers in both in the number of farms and animal, Mr. Severson said that they will increase as they are calculated throughout the U.S. making this industry very large and very important in our economy locally and worldwide in the future and current day time. Additionally, from this presentation, many things about the livestock industry can be learned which can help myself and the other students develop a better understanding of the industry itself; and learn something that grabbed my interest which is that Delaware is larger in crop production then the production of livestock but continues to feed 1/3 of the U.S. population with crops and the main livestock producing industry which is poultry.
Dan Severson Guest Lecture
Last Monday, Dan Severson gave a guest lecture on the livestock industry in Delaware. The average annual consumption of beef, pork, lab, goat, and veal has been declining for decades, while the consumption of poultry has been steadily increasing. Food is more affordable in the U.S. than most other countries, with the average American devoting around 9.7% of their household expenditure to buying food.
Of beef cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, diary, and other livestock, beef cattle is the most common in Delaware. Beef cattle in Delaware comprise 14,000 cattle on 235 farms. The second most numerous livestock animals in Delaware are hogs, with 55 farms raising around 6,000 hogs. Approximately 3,000 sheep and goats are raised on 180 Delaware farms. Dairy has shrunk to a mere 21 farms with 4,500 dairy cows. Delaware’s dairy industry is on the decline, with many small family farms trending towards closure. Other livestock raised in Delaware includes bison, alpacas, llamas, rabbits, water buffalo, bees, deer, chicken, turkeys, and emus.
Dan also discussed modern marketing strategies and labeling, such as non GMO, gluten free, organic, antibiotic free, and all natural. Dan finds most of these labels unnecessary, as in the case of salt being labelled gluten free.
Hoober Farm Equipment
I think with the growing use and perhaps reliance on technology that agriculture is encountering, it was really important to visit Hoober Equipment. This field trip allowed students to drive tractors first hand and have a better understanding of auto-steer and GPS coordinates which includes using and locating two points on a map, helping keep tractors/farm equipment in a straight line throughout a field. Combines, designed to efficiently harvest a variety of grain crops, are one of my favorite tractors. The name derives from its combining three separate harvesting operations—reaping, threshing, and winnowing—into a single process.
Delaware Horticulture
Horticulture and greens remains an important agricultural industry, Tracy Wootten—Horticulture Specialist and Valan Budischak—UD Director of Botanic Gardens, discussed its impact. In 2014 alone there were a reported $21 million dollars in horticultural sales, and it continues to trend upward.
DelDOT is the largest landholder in Delaware and the company works towards enhancing the roads with native vegetation to lower driver fatigue, increase the beauty, decrease landscape maintenance, and decreasing emissions from reduced mowing. The railroad industry requires specific rail—plant maintenances as brushes, shrubs, and plants left unkept are the number one fire hazard. One of the biggest industries in Delaware is the Christmas tree industry. Sposato is a Delaware landscape company that remains in the top 100 in the country.
Mislabeled Orange Juice
Following Mr. Serverson’s instructions, I set off to find mislabeled items at my local grocery store. One product in particular that I found to be mislabeled was Sunny D Orange Juice. What makes this orange juice different from freshly squeezed orange juice is that it contains water, high fructose corn syrup, and it contained a mix of several different fruit juices. With that being said, it can be argued that Sunny D Orange Juice isn’t really “Orange Juice”, due to the simple fact of it not being made from real oranges. So whenever you decide to go grocery shopping, and are in the mood for some orange juice; take the time to look at the label. If it contains additives such as: potassium sulfate, corn sugar, or absorbic acid, stay clear of it and make sure you pick an orange juice that wasn’t made from concentrate. For example, Simoly Orange is a good choice because it’s 100% pure squeezed pasteurized orange juice.
Tracy Wootten and Valan Budischak on horticulture in Delaware
During class, we had Tracy Wootten and Valan Budischak come and talk about a lot of the different work being done constantly with horticulture. They spoke about all the different kinds of work that can be done in this field of study and the importance of each job. It was really interesting to hear about all this work that is being done in our community all the time that maybe goes unnoticed but has serious importance. They talked about how horticulture is used for highway and railroad maintenance whether it is to create a better aesthetic, pest and invasive species control, or safety. Water quality was another large industry impacted by horticulture and it makes sense when you learn about it but it seems like something that people don’t usually think about. They also discussed greenhouses and other commercial grow operations for flowers and other plants and all these jobs really broadened my view of what you can do with an Ag degree in the workforce. Hearing Valan Budischak’s path to get where she also goes hand in hand with all the new opportunities their presentation presented. Her graduating in business and working with Black N Decker to then end up in the Ag school here at UD was a great story and shoes how intertwined the industry is with others.
Guest Lecture – Green Industry
On October 16th Tracy Wootten and Valann Budischak came into class to talk about the green industry. There are two different groups of crops in the industry, Floricultural and Nursery. Floricultural crops include potted flower plants, garden plants and foliage plants. Nursery crops include evergreen tress, flowering tress and Christmas trees. Floricultural crops are focused on small decorative plants where as nursery crops are focused on trees. Landscapers use the green industry to get tress and plants to decorate areas. Golf Courses use tress and grass supported by the green industry. Greenhouses are used in the green industry because of how they help control watering, temperature, and diseases.
Understanding Today’s Agriculture, AGRI130 Field Trip #3- Hoober Equipment
On October 12, 2019, Mr. Dave WARRY led the class on a tour of Hoober Equipment. Getting off to a slightly late start, the tour began with a brief outline and background of the business and the employees in the particular branch we visited.
Mr. WARRY began by introducing himself, saying he began working with Precision Agriculture at Hoober’s in 2005. He followed this up, by stating how unusual it is to remain in the business so long, saying people usual spend about 18months in the industry. He says this is due to many factors, but he says there are many potential sources of frustration doing the job, such a people calling at all hours, people forgetting how to use the equipment from season to season, and the vast amount of patience required to deal with a flustered farmer who can’t move their product because of broken and malfunctioning machinery whilst waiting on repairs. Mr. WARRY graduated from Penn State after majoring in Agricultural Systems Management and technology, but after college he went to work on a farm for four years, an experience he viewed equally valuable as college. Agricultural Systems Management was not his first choice however- initially he was studying pre-vet, but saw it as, ‘a lot of work’, only switching his major after taking an Introduction to Agriculture course where the Advisor for Agricultural Systems Management (ASM).
Mr. WARRY said that Hoober’s works with Mr. James ADKINS and his irrigation technology, but each employee specializes in different equipment.
Next, we were introduced to Mr. Charlie IRVIN, who’s been with Hoober’s for a similarly long stretch time, doing service installs and working as the shops tractor and shop repairman for 12.5years.
Hoober’s itself is a family business established in 1941 and has 9 locations throughout PA, MD, DE, and VA. The third generation, Mr. Bud HOOBER is gradually being succeeded by the next generation. Hoober’s values a strong skill set over any degree. They are looking for employees with personality, ‘common sense’, ambition, accountability, and self-motivation. There are opportunities to receive on-the-job training as well as being sent around the country. Mr. WARRY did say that they struggled to find interested potential recruits. He advocates the work with electronics because it offers employees a chance to learn and advance, and is often easier on an aging body than, ‘turning a wrench’ and working solely on mechanics.
Part of the work done at Hoober’s includes troubleshooting, which according to Mr. WARRY, takes very little time, and is done with charts and by computer. Other ventures include a technology field lab and class tours like ours.
Hoober’s deals in agricultural, lawn&garden equipment, and construction equipment with automated technology. Much of Hoober’s competition strives to sell programing tools for whatever technology they’re promoting- Hoober’s programming works across brands, for any equipment they carry. The Tractor Supply Co., while very close by, is not a source of competition, as they only sell small parts- like hitches & chains- and animal feed- products that compliment what Hoober’s sells.
Automated steering is one of the most popular feature and it is used to prevent operator fatigue that often sets in a different points of a farmers 18hour day- the technology will keep the equipment running straight down the rows of a field, working at peak efficiency. Heated cabs, stereos, heated seats, and raised seating are among some of the modern-day features in the latest pieces of automated machinery. When the computerized technology was tested against a conventional, non-autonomous piece of equipment, the drivers were required to take eight hour time-outs, operating only 30minutes at a time, according to test regulations set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
The equipment Hoober’s carries is expensive. Some of that expense is simply due to the brand name. Mr. WARRY told use that John Deere is always expensive, even when purchasing the brands signature yellow and green paint. He cautioned us that John Deere equipment purchased at stores like Lowes & Home Depot is cheaper than buying directly from a company dealership, and that those cheaper pieces of equipment are often made of cheaper materials that will not last as long. Other brands we saw included Cub Cadet and CASE among others. Regardless of the brand, when purchasing a $400, 000 tractor vs. a $1, 000 lawnmower, the cost of repairs can quickly exceed the original price.
A stop in the back office revealed multiple shelves packed with service manuals- some as much as 50 years old, and still used regularly. Though the floor might have been pressure-washed before we arrive, the 25-year-old building is due for an update, with new lighting and shrubbery planned for the interior and exterior, respectively. Even with the desire to do some, ‘sprucing up’, Mr. WARRY said one of the best upgrades to the building, was the addition of AC, which made the working environment much more pleasant.
In the shop and ‘Combine Productivity Clinic’ massive repair jobs are underway on equally massive piece of machinery. Brand new tractors shipped to the Port of Delaware arrived with damage received in-transit- required $100, 000-worth of repairs incurred from a rough sea journey.
The expense is understandable when the sheer power of the equipment is compared with that of a ‘standard’ tractor- the first machine we looked at, with 20, 000lbs/ft of torque, a 50, 000gal load of manure, and capable of pulling 70, 000lbs all together, was still able to reach up to 42mph, when a factory-quality tractor may only go 38-40mph. That said, the machine would have significantly less horsepower running with natural gas. Mr. WARRY projects methane from digested animal waste and electric battery technology with hydrogen fuel cells will be the way of the future.
Even with some of the mechanics shortcoming, the data for agronomy and electronics is still making great strides. Automated dairies that record the amount of milk gathered and don’t require farms to manually latch each pump to a cows udder. Center pivot irrigation systems can be calibrated to the unique needs of different cultivars or even different varieties like corn. Every three days, satellite images come in with up to 3ft(1m.) resolution, 30-40ft wide in infrared, near infrared, and color- data that allows farmers to almost distinguish individual plants. In addition to the aerial views supplies by satellites, drones- currently in-vogue for scouting real estate- are now being used to evaluate irrigation, weeds, and nutrient application. Mr. WARRY assures us that drone don’t replace agronomists- people are still needed to use the information they provide- drones just help farmers know where to look and address problems.
Hoober’s own connectivity network includes way stations all the way out to Ohio, with 1-1.5in. horizontal and vertical GPS accuracy, allowing its autonomous software to autocorrect and re-calculate paths with great precision.
One of the machines we spent a great deal of time going over was the Quadtrac. This particular machine had been stuck in the Delaware River/ocean, submerged with water well over the cab. While Mr. WARRY repeatedly reminded us this piece of equipment was not, in fact, a submarine, he did tout it’s capacity to do a large amount of work- more than a bulldozer and dump truck combined. Initially running after being fished out of the drink, the saltwater burnt the Quadtrac’s starters and batteries. When fully operation, the powerhouse machine can travel 24mph on it’s treads with horse power ranging from 470hp up to 620hp, making it a go-to for beach reclamation and recovery, pushing sand on the dunes. They are favored by the Delaware Dept. of natural Resources and Environmental Control(DNREC). The Quadtrac cost about $480, 000, but will cost the customer $1mil for repairs and having ht mechanics re-tuned.
Certain costs of repairs can be mitigated if the customer chooses the right features and tools for the job and puts the proper care and maintenance into his/her equipment. With the Quadtrac, the Rubber-on-rubber treads generates heat, so dirt and sand are a good lubricant for those moving parts. If a customer decides to upgrade to chrome over steel, this upgrade can prevent significant wear that would usually occur in just 2-3years. 1 (relatively) small chrome part, can cost $8, 000.
Using all this precision machinery, it can cost a farmer over $1mil just to complete a harvest. Hoober ‘s provides expertise & technical support- for a $120, 000 service fee. 
Next, after a brief safety-scare- while standing in the ‘Combine Clinic’ where the mere tires of the machinery dwarfed us, workers were servicing a machine off to the side, over our heads- we headed out of the shop to allow those employees to work. Our next stop was a small field of grass where we would be able to drive three pieces of equipment- but not before learning a bit about them. A brief discussion before the highly anticipated interactive portion of the trip- almost like grace before a meal…
First there was the Sprayer– a 120ft. Class 4 vehicle costing around $430, 000. It’s great width prevents greater damage to small grain crops like soybeans that aren’t planted in rows. Equipped with 72 nozzles, each is powered by it’s own computer. The droplets sizes emitted from the sprayer are adjusted through pulsing pressure changes from the nozzles. Regulations are in place to keep the pressure, ‘on target’ to avoid spraying private property & gardens. With the Sprayer’s electrified network, any application of nitrogen is prone to mess up any one of the 72 computers onboard. Mr. WARRY said that due to the info.-input overload of having each computer sending it’s own date, Hoober’s is going to do an $18, 000 re-tool on a 12-row sprayer, using just seven computers for a batch of nozzles using a new company’s technology.
Next up, we saw the Planter. This machine was not one we go to drive, but we went through a run-down of its features too. It cost around $150, 000- $180, 000- one of the cheapest pieces of equipment we spoke on today. The seed is sucked into numerous individual planters by a vacuum. The Planter is able to change its seeding rate and use markers to mark the rows, via satellite imagery and overlaying maps. Seeds are planted using hydraulic downforce– how hard the see is placed into the ground. This machine can plant and fertilize seed. There is also a no-till setting with which the machine parts the organic matter in a V-shape before depositing a seed and packing the soil over top.
The talk concluded and, instead of unfolding our hands, the Sprayer was folded into a much more compact, easier-to-drive setting. During this transition, Prof. ISAACS reminded us of the $150mil cost of taking an idea to the construction phase- all the changes and improvements to each iteration of the equipment that had to be tested and approved before making it to market. One student asked what type of equipment might cut costs for the farmer. Mr. WARRY said it depends, but a $60-70, 000 piece of machinery could be combined with an $11, 000 planter, then stripped and fit with electronics and computers, an do an acceptable job when compared with a top-line model.
During my ride in the one of the machines- the older of two CASE tractors, I was able to have some of my questions answered too. I learned that Hoober’s does rent some equipment and there are places to go for that, but usually a farmer will invest in their own. I also learned that new farm equipment may also come with failsafes to prevent damage from improper use- for example, when the Sprayer was being folded, Prof. ISAACS mentioned that if the sections were folded out of sequence they could crumple the components or even come through the cab! Lastly, in response to what Mr. WARRY had mentioned about the technology component of precision agriculture being easier on older bodies, I asked about accessibility for farm equipment- a thought that came to me simply because I am shorter and climbing into the cabs, though not impossible, was a bit daunting. Mr. ISAACS told me such a program exists- it’s call AgrAbility. He told me that they make entering the cab much easier, but unlike other services that make custom vans from the ground up, there are no, ‘custom cabs’ because tractors cannot deviate from there factory default specs like that.
The trip concluded with a class picture and free Hoober ball caps and snapbacks for everyone.