Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Please see attachment for detailed minutes and state reports. 

A website for this project was established in 2016 at http://www.uky.edu/ccd/sera45. The website was updated in October of 2017 to include a list of facilities and contacts at the participating universities.

 Objective 1: developing research-based production information about crops and systems that have potential to be profitable for small farms

 Activities: The second year of an organic transition project was conducted in 2017 by Iowa State University in collaboration with the University of Kentucky. It investigated the effect of Protek net on winter squash and melon production. Protek nets are three to four times more expensive than typical row covers but have extended shelf life and reduce temperature stress under low tunnels.

 Brad Bergefurd (Ohio State) has been working with John Strang (Kentucky) and Lewis Jett (West Virginia) to establish a tri-state strawberry growers co-op to enable growers to buy supplies at lower costs. They are trying to educate growers about the benefits of a co-op. The region could also benefit from establishment of a regional co-op for hop growers.

 The University of Kentucky, Purdue University and the University of Delaware have been conducting combined watermelon variety trials in an industry-supported project since 2016. SERA 45 participant Wenjing Guan (Purdue) reported in February of 2017 in Purdue’s Vegetable Crops Hotline that seedless watermelon varieties that yielded well in Kentucky, Indiana and Delaware were Talca, Crunchy Red and Wolverine.

 Multiple participants in SERA 45, Krista Jacobsen and Tim Woods (Kentucky), Annette Wszelaki (Tennessee) and Suzanne O’Connell (Georgia) are currently involved in a Southern SARE-funded project, Cover Crops Under Cover: Evaluating Costs, Benefits, and Ecosystem Services of Cover Crops in Year-Round High Tunnel Production. A progress report is available at https://projects.sare.org/project-reports/ls16-272/.

 SERA 45 participants plan to better coordinate variety trials throughout the region. Participants are invited to join radish trials to be conducted in 2018 by the Southeast Vegetable Extension Workers Conference group. The trials will include all types of radishes for spring production, and will involve both high tunnel and field production.

 The group is considering other crops with potential for variety trials to be conducted across states. These include chickpea, watermelon, pumpkin, sweet corn, and Asian vegetables.

 The group intends to conduct high tunnel research that would be valuable to growers in the participating states. Focus areas include:

1. Cover crops in high tunnels
2. Planting dates guidelines for high and low tunnels
3. Fertigation and irrigation in high tunnels, for organic and conventional production.
4. Compost applications in high tunnels and their effect on soils
5. Recommendations for spraying in high tunnels
6. Organic options for high tunnel production

SERA 45 participants were invited to join a project on biodegradable mulch currently involving University of Tennessee participants and Washington State University. Annette Wszelaki of UT indicated the current biodegradable mulch project is at a point where coordinated research with SERA 45 participants in other states would be welcome. This project has potential to receive funding through regional IPM grants.

 The group will explore opportunities for multistate specialty crop block grant proposals, which would include research on multiple crops. Cucumbers would likely be among the crops included in such a proposal. Participants were encouraged to have conversations with their state departments of agriculture before deciding where to submit grant proposals.

 Objective 2: coordinating research and extension activities among participants

 Activities: The University of Kentucky’s Center for Crop Diversification (CCD) has promoted extension activities in the participating states through its website and/or monthly newsletter. These include webinars, conferences, field days and workshops.

 The CCD developed lists of facilities/contacts and resources available at the participating universities to facilitate coordination of activities across the region. This information has been posted on the SERA 45 website at http://www.uky.edu/ccd/content/sera-45-facilities-and-contacts.

 SERA 45 participants from Ohio State, Purdue, Iowa State, Tennessee and West Virginia have reviewed or are reviewing specialty crop fact sheets for the CCD.

Participants from the University of Kentucky and the University of Tennessee plan to collaborate on extension agent trainings, and on online training on specialty crop pricing, using information from UK and UT work on farmers market price reports. UK and UT participants plan to collaborate through Tennessee’s Center for Profitable Agriculture to provide resources and trainings on marketing topics.

 The CCD will pull together information on state level Specialty Crop Block Grants for which SERA 45 participants have received funding during the past five years, and will organize thematic activities in state reports to facilitate collaboration.

 All SERA 45 participants have been added to the email list for the CCD monthly newsletter. The CCD will be proactive in including field days and other activities coming up in the participating states in its newsletter. Links to any regional newsletters not already available on the SERA 45 website will be added.

 The group plans to conduct quarterly conference calls to better coordinate research and extension activities among the participants, in addition to annual face-to-face meetings.

 Objective 3: expanding the activities of the Center for Crop Diversification to include price reports (farmers markets, produce auctions, farm to school, retail) from the participating states

 Activities: Participants from Illinois and Tennessee continued partnering with the Center for Crop Diversification at the University of Kentucky to provide price reports from farmers markets in their states. Illinois also provides price reports from a produce auction. The CCD continues coordinating price reporting from farmers markets and produce auctions around Kentucky, and the CCD website is used to host price reports from all three states. Purdue developed a price reporting system in Indiana in 2017; the Indiana Farmers Market Price Report is available online at https://www.purdue.edu/hla/sites/hortbusiness/price-reports/. Price reports from Kentucky, Illinois, Tennessee, and a link to the Indiana price report, are available on the CCD website at http://www.uky.edu/ccd/pricereports. The CCD is developing Farm to School and retail price reports from Kentucky, and developed publications in 2017 showing pricing trends at Kentucky farmers markets and produce auctions from 2014-2016. The CCD plans to update these three-year reports annually.

 Tennessee’s Center for Profitable Agriculture has an older publication on pricing that SERA 45 participants plan to update collaboratively. Tennessee is also testing an app for price reporters that will streamline the price collecting process. Purdue is working to set up a website to analyze pricing data.

Objective 4: conducting research in the participating states on consumer preferences and marketing channels that are most effective and profitable for small farms

 Activities: UK’s Tim Woods was the lead author on a national survey of Community Supported Agriculture enterprises to determine how the CSA model has evolved over time. This work resulted in a research report published online in April of 2017 by the USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. The report is available at https://www.ams.usda.gov/publications/content/community-supported-agriculture-new-models-changing-markets.

 Tennessee is assessing farmers’ interest in using a new mobile app (the Farm Spotter) designed to help producers connect with restaurants and wholesalers and facilitate transactions between these parties (“The Use of Internet, Mobile Websites and Apps among Specialty Crop Farmers”).

Midwest Fruit Pest Management Guide 2017 https://ag.purdue.edu/hla/Hort/Documents/ID-465.pdf

 Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers 2017 (ID-56). www.btny.purdue.edu/Pubs/ID/ID-56/

 Midwest Vegetable Trial Report for 2016 https://ag.purdue.edu/hla/fruitveg/Pages/mvtr2016.aspx

 Southeastern U.S. 2017 Vegetable Crop Handbook https://extension.tennessee.edu/Giles/Documents/2017 Southeastern Vegetable Crop Handbook.pdf

Timothy Woods, M. Ernst and D. Tropp (2017). Community Supported Agriculture – New Models for Changing Markets. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Marketing Service. https://www.ams.usda.gov/publications/content/community-supported-agriculture-new-models-changing-markets