One of the most interesting lectures from our Delaware Agriculture class was on 10/24/16 when Tracy Wootten and Valann Budischak visited and enlighten us about Delaware’s booming green industry.  But first, Tracy and Val gave us their personal backstories of how they chose successful careers and, indeed, ones they had a passion for, which was very inspiring.  After they explained the paths they carved for their individual success, I was surprised to learn about the huge impact the horticulture industry has on the economy, bringing in over 21 million dollars nationally per year.  This significant amount of economic flow can be attributed to multiple assets of the green industry, including the producers and retailers of horticulture, landscaping, land managers, golf courses, as well as equipment suppliers.  Tracy and Val then further explained the types of plants you would find in a nursery and a floriculture crop production operation.  Nursery crops are trees like evergreens, shade trees, shrubs, indoor fruit and nut trees, and even Christmas trees.  Whereas floriculture crops are garden plants, cultivated greens, flowers, and foliage plants.  The green industry is a growing and imprtant aspect of the large and plentiful Delaware agriculture community.  I learned a great deal from Tracy and Val’s lecture and I am very thankful they took the time to share their knowledge and experiences with me.

Our next field trip was to Hoober’s in Middletown, Delaware. While we were there, we got a tour of their shop and got to see a tractor that was taken apart and learned a little about the mechanics of it. We got to see a demonstration with a drone. If the signal had stopped or the battery of the drone was dying it knew exactly when and where to come back to without having to tell it to come back. You have to take a test to be able to fly a drone and there are also rules/regulations you have to follow. I didn’t realize farmer’s used drones to help monitor their crops.  It was really exciting to drive a tractor with the guidance system.  When I first got in I was really surprised with how quite it was. I assumed that because it was such a big piece of equipment that I would have to swing wide to turn but the tractor could turn on a dime.  I had driven tractors before but nothing of that size or with that type of technology, it was a great experience.

The second field trip was to Fifer’s Orchard. I really enjoyed seeing that it was a family run business. I was excited to hear about their CSA program, it’s a very good way to get their name out and promote what they’re doing at Fifer’s. We learned how they planted their apple fields, they have a program that you can basically map out like google maps and put it into the system and the machine will follow and plant where you marked within a few inches. I would have thought since they were an orchard that their most popular products would be apples but it was actually sweet corn and pumpkins. We got to see how they sorted their apples, too. As they come in a picture is taken of each individual apple then the system moves it to the group that it fits best into(based on color), then you have the workers take one last look at them as they are packaging them to make sure that they are in the best shape before being shipped out.