Download pdf - Agribusiness section

Wednesday, September 23, 2015 Page 21

A Champion for Citrus is the voice

behind Citrus’ Champion

A Champion for Citrus is the voice

behind Citrus’ Champion

Page 22 Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Agriculture Educationwidespread in Polk

Students learn agriculture at young age and it continues into high school Being at the top of

heap in agriculture in Florida, it was about 25 years ago a program be-tween the Florida Farm Bureau and the Polk County School System started teaching students about it at young age.

This was done for two reasons.

“When I was the executive director (of the Florida Farm Bureau), it seemed the distance between the farm field and dinner table became greater and greater,” said Leah Lauderdale. She did some research into teaching students about what sustains their county, pitched an idea to the board of directors of the farm bureau, and it took off from there.

From that, Agri-Fest was born. Now, the program serves more than 300 teachers and 6,000 Polk County fourth graders with the area’s major agriculture com-modities. Students and their teachers explore interactive exhibits and attend hands-on workshops on citrus, beef cattle, phosphate, beekeeping, horticulture, forestry, aquaculture,

blueberries, and soil and water conservation.

“We not only were go-ing to teach the students where the food comes from but also teach for a career,” Lauderdale said.

For the school district to jump in, that worked easily too.

“As the conversation evolved, it seemed very important to not add to the workload of the teachers, but rather we would partner with the school district and see how this message best fits with their curricu-lum,” she said.

The farm bureau generally sets up the lessons and works with the school district at what the curriculum is to teach them.

Getting businesses on board was also relatively easy, Lauderdale said. And with the help of dozens of volunteers, the Agri-Fest program has taken off, which

Lauderdale thought it would.

“All people who teach are in the industry or a business partner from the agriculture industry,”

said Carole McKenzie, at the Farm Bureau. “We like for the presenters to teach something relative to each commodity. Agriculture careers

integrate a message into that system. Many, many careers that are related to this not the direct farmer … there are fruit brokers and research scientists.”

Though it may not be directly from the Agri-Fest, agriculture education in Polk County continues to grow. There are 17 agriculture academies in Polk and that has a goal of not only teaching about the wide range of agriculture, it works to keep students in Polk County by getting them employed here.

Paul Webb, the Teacher Resource Specialist and Trainer for Agriscience and Public Service Education for the school district said, “We have agriculture programs in every high school in the county,” adding lessons in agriculture go beyond the animals and that is shown every January in the Youth Fair.

“It’s not only animals, our FFA programs are tied to the curriculum in the classes where stu-dents learn leadership, public speakership and commercial opportuni-ties for careers,” he said.

In fact, the indoor portion of the Stuart Center in Bartow during the Youth Convention is reserved for table setting, clothing and for the last few years, there has been a chili contest.

In it local nurseries, veterinarian programs, the citrus industry, Polk

PHOTO BY AL PALMER

Polk County Small Farms Agricultural Agent Mary Beth Henry shows elementary students at Agri-Fest session a giant radish as she explains what small farms bring to Polk County’s agricultural table each year.

PHOTO BY JEFF ROSLOW

David Schiable talks to fourth graders from Ridgeview Academy at the Polk County Agri-Fest about horticulture. The students planted seeds and took them back to school at this workshop.

PHOTO BY JEFF ROSLOW

Isabelle Dumone, from Crystal Lake Elementary, wanted to eat the squeeze orange rather than take a drink from the cup of juice she got from the squeezing. At the citrus demonstration, students made their own orange juice at the Polk County Agri-Fest. ACADEMIES | 23

AGRI-BUSINESS


tractors and ranches offer a wide variety of opportunities.

The academies not only encourage youth to take part in outside activities involving agri-culture, it is encouraged.

Webb said the feedback is important

when it comes to the academies.

“We have to have an advisory board per school per academy that is a combination of of graduates, business partners, the teacher’s former students, parents and administrators,” Webb said.

While the Youth Fair in Polk County is not the only one going on in the state, the Agri-Fest event

held in every year at the Stuart Complex on U.S. 17 in Bartow, may be. While there are similar programs elsewhere, none take on as large an audience as Polk County.

“It does occur in other counties,” McKenzie said. “But everybody does it differently. In Hardee, they go all day long whereas we got a half-day, but it lasted 10 days. They have a lot less

fourth grade students in the class.”

She added, though, there probably is not a bigger one in the state.

And because of the size of the school district and the importance of agri-culture in Polk County, it continues to work on improving itself.

“Polk County has the second largest agricul-ture program in the state (Hillsborough is number 1),” Webb said. “As agriculture changes every day, teachers have to keep current with what’s going on. One recent

change is through the Florida Farm Bureau.”

He said there, students can take tests and earn industry certification in animal science, commu-nications, technical oper-ations and mechanics.

“And a new program that is just beginning statewide – and it’s on a beta test this year – is UAV use.”

In that, students will learn how to use an un-manned aviation vehicle (more commonly known as a drone).

Whether or not the programs Polk have in

place have been working to the degree officials feel it does comes from Lauderdale on her reac-tion when she read the required feedback from teachers and students when she was at the farm bureau in the 1980s.

“So many children are seeing things they’ve never seen. We have these dedicated and committed presenters who love what they do and when I read those comments back from the children, I can live on those kinds of compli-ments for a long time.”

ACADEMIESFROM PAGE 22

PHOTO BY AL PALMER

Students from local elementary schools scour an archeological ‘dig’ at the Stuart Center on U.S. Highway 17 in Bartow as this year’s Agri-Fest kicks off.

PHOTO BY CHRISTINE ROSLOW

The hands were reaching in to feel the growth on the plant at the horticulture display at Agri-Fest. From left is Jonathon Tuck, Cheyanne Pitts, Dylan Barwick and Alex Meeks at the event in 2013.

AGRI-BUSINESS

adno

=32

2050

0


AGRI-BUSINESS

There may not be a new sheriff in town, but there’s a new breed of cattle hitting the Florida market in November. The 90-head Ona White Angus herd, genetically engineered by the University of Florida, will go on the auction block in Arcadia on Nov. 22, said UF representatives.

The Ona herd has been developed over the past 20 years of cross breed-ing of various pheno-types at the range Cattle Research and Education Center says Center Director John Arthington.

“These cattle have es-tablished themselves as a distinct new breed,” he said. They are genetically a black Angus but have a

white hair coat color and dark skin, he explained. This is somewhat similar to the origins of the red Angus breed but with a white phenotype.

The Ona White Angus may be able to provide reproduction and meat quality like the Angus, Arthington explained, “But retains the environ-mental adaptation and longevity of the Zebu.”

The Zebu breeds, like the Brahman, adapt well to tropical and

subtropical environ-ments like that of Central Florida, which makes them ideal for this area.

As a breed, Arthington added, “We feel that these cattle can provide significant value to beef production enterprises in the tropical and

subtropical regions of the world, particularly if they are paired with other white phenotype cows.”

He says these breeds are often crossed with English breeds such as Angus to introduce vigor. An offspring hybrid exhibits vigor if its traits

are enhanced as a result of mixing the genetic contributions of its parents.

Angus cattle, the expert said, is known for a low maintenance, adapt-ability, superior milking capabilities and high fertility rates.

The sale will include a mix of cows and bulls, for a total herd of 90 ani-mals. The sale will beheld at the Turner Research and Education Center in Arcadia.

For information, one may contact the center at 863-735-1314.

New breed of cattle to hit market

PHOTO PROVIDED

These Ona White Angus cattle deliver a stark visual contrast to the Black Angus that was their genomic base

PHOTO PROVIDED

Ona White Angus cattle, a new breed developed by the Univer-sity of Florida, will go on the auction block in November

WEST PALM BEACH — A new University of Florida report says employment in the state’s agriculture industry is up.

The analysis found more than 1.5 million people working in Florida’s agriculture, natural resources and food industries in 2013, up 8.7 percent over the previous year.

They collectively generated $148.5 billion in

sales.The UF report shows Palm Beach County with

the largest agricultural industry, with its crops valued at about $1.4 billion. Miami-Dade County was second, with $783 million in crops.

Employment up in Florida agriculture;crops generate $148B

The Associated Press

adno=3217593 adno

=322

1426


AGRI-BUSINESS

Every year, people who live near rural areas see the buses, and some wonder where those farm workers came from and how did they get here.

There is a program called the H-2A program, which permits U.S. employers or U.S. agents who “meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs,” according to the web site at www.uscis.gov, the Official Website of the Department of Homeland Security.

Ellis Hunt Jr. with Hunt Brothers speaks of the advantages of the indus-try using H2A workers instead of domestic workers.

“To me, the biggest benefit is being guaran-teed that your workers are legal and have been approved through home-land security and the government so we know that we have a stable work force,” he said.

There is a cost in-volved, Hunt says.

“We have to pay for their transportation from Mexico to Florida and their transportation back to Mexico, and provide free housing. There’s a lot of expense, but when you have a perishable crop that’s got to be picked, with domestic labor, they can decide it is too hot and head to North Carolina to pick tobac-co,” he added.

“H2A is registered to work with a certain employer through the end of the contract, so you know they will be with you until you finish your harvest,” he said.

In order for a U.S em-ployer or agent to partici-pate in the program, they must apply and there are stipulations.

That employer must offer a job that is consid-ered temporary or sea-sonal (such as in Florida, the citrus picking sea-son), and “demonstrate that there are not enough U.S. workers who are able, willing, qualified and available to do the temporary work.”

They must also, according to the web site, be able to show that the employment of H-2A workers will not nega-tively affect the wages and working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.

An H-2A petition, along with a single valid

temporary labor certi-fication from the U.S. Department of Labor, must be filed.

An ad that recently ran in Sun Coast Media Group Inc. newspapers indicates the scope of the citrus industry in Florida trying to find drivers for workers and workers who are physically able to pick the harvest.

The season runs from around Oct. 1 through June 15, and work on Saturdays may be required and offered on Sundays as well.

Those who drive the workers have to have a valid driver’s license or Federal and Florida Farm Labor Contractor License.

The drivers then take the workers to work in the groves and fields every day, as well as to the grocery store and other commercial establishments for them to do their shopping and every day business.

Drivers also harvest fruit by hand under supervisory instruction. Those who apply to pick citrus must be 18 years or older.

This job is very strenuous.

As described in the H2A ad, “The workers will place a picking sack over their shoulder and carry an 18-foot to 22-foot ladder from the field truck to the particular area of the grove to be harvested. A fully loaded sack weighs between 80 to 100 pounds, depending on the size, condition and variety of fruit. Worker positions ladder against the tree and within reach of the fruit in a leaning position, taking care not to break limbs, damage the tree, knock off fruit, or interfere with other workers, in a secure po-sition to prevent slipping or falling and possible injury to themselves or other workers. Worker will remove the fruit from the tree and place into pick sack. When picking sack is full, take full sack to fruit container located in the grove and drop fruit from pick sack into container.”

Basically, what this

means is that citrus workers must be physi-cally able to handle such strenuous work, not only lifting and transporting the fruit, but being able to climb ladders with the extra weight of the sack.

All of this is outlined in such advertisements for workers so they know what they are getting into.

And the work itself must be done rapidly for at least six hours a day in all kinds of weather.

Tools, supplies, and equipment are provided by the company that hires the worker.

Grove pickers also clean up the groves and are paid in accordance with the scale for grove clean-up. This type of work may include removing ladders, debris, boxes, discarded fruit from fields to cleaning growing areas, pruning, pulling vines and weeds by hand with the hoe, painting trees, repairing and replacing irrigation equipment and main-taining fence lines, according to the ad.

And something people may not know is that the worker “must be able to harvest on the average of one volumetric tub per hour (equivalent to bushel boxes per hour) in grove conditions that are considered good picking.”

Hands for hire,bringing nationals in for ag jobs

PHOTO PROVIDED

PHOTO PROVIDED

A program called the H-2A, permits U.S. employers or U.S. agents who “meet specific regulatory requirements to bring foreign nationals to the United States to fill temporary agricultural jobs,” according to the web site at www.uscis.

adno

=32

1801

8


Captain Citrus’ agricultural rootsUp in the air, “it’s a

plane … it’s a bird,” it’s Captain Citrus!

Fresh from Bartow, Christian Spinosa is the voice of Marvel comic’s newest super hero. Although he doesn’t leap buildings (or citrus trees) in a single bound, the mild-mannered 24-year-old is amazed at his new found stardom.

“Growing up as a kid, I never expected I’d be the voice of a super hero, let alone the voice of a Marvel super hero,” says Spinosa. “It was an awesome experience,” he adds about recording hun-dreds of takes for use in the anima-tion shorts that began in May with the first comic out in June.

When the Florida Department of Citrus partnered with Marvel to create Captain Citrus, Spinosa was handpicked because he sounds like an authentic Floridian.

“I am a fifth-genera-tion Florida farmer,” says Spinosa, a production manager for Dudley Putnam Inc., the fam-ily-owned citrus and beef cattle operation, for whom being a champion for citrus and agriculture is his roots.

“My family has been farming in Polk County for 100 years,” Spinosa, the nephew of Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, says with pride. Although he never received any voice or acting training while attending Bartow High School, Spinosa is juiced up about being the voice heard round the nation.

“It’s a great feeling knowing that I’m going to be the voice of some-body going to schools and educating children about the importance of eating and drinking fruits and vegetables,” says Spinosa. “Being the voice of a superhero has been nothing but exciting. As a boy I grew up watching the Avengers and now being an avenger as the voice of Captain Citrus as been a humbling experience. Not everyone has an opportunity to be a super hero. More importantly it has been a great experience being able to share my passion for agriculture and citrus. Over the last six months I have been able to

participate in multiple media opportunities as Captain Citrus where I spoke on how Captain Citrus is going through schools across the nation and showing the impor-tance of a citrus diet and explains where our food comes from. Knowing I have had that kind of influence on a local and

nation-al level has been a hum-bling experi-ence.”

As chair for the Polk County Young

Farmers and Ranchers committee as well as president of the Florida Young Farmer and Rancher, Spinosa shares his enthusiasm and passion for agriculture with young growers as well as young fans of comic superheroes.

“When I’m not being the voice of Captain Citrus, I am sharing my passion for agriculture through my involvement with Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers. Through that involvement, I have been able to meet with legis-lators, other agriculture producers and traveled across the state seeing different agriculture operations.”

Captain Citrus is “John Polk,” a Central Florida citrus grower with the power to channel the energy from the sun through pods on his hands. After joining the Avengers superheroes Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk and oth-ers, the battle is not all about fighting evil-doers. The comics and videos are distributed online and in schools across the country.

“Since we first launched the Captain Citrus program in September 2014, there have been more than 800 stories published by media on six continents, allowing us to reach children and families around the globe with a message of nutrition and the values of Florida’s Citrus industry,” says David Steele, director of public relations at the Florida Department

of Citrus. “Animating Captain Citrus enables us to extend our reach even further through the power of digital and social media.”

Captain Citrus also takes on one of the in-dustry’s most dangerous villains, citrus greening.

“While there is not yet a cure, growers are employing a wide range of methods to prevent or slow the spread of greening and to restore the productivity of trees

that have been affect-ed,” says Steele. “At the same time, scientists are working to provide additional solutions with many ongoing research projects aimed solely at greening.”

As for future goals, Spinosa hopes to contin-ue to serve as the voice for Captain Citrus and represent Captain Citrus in more media coverage. “I believe it is important to continue focusing on the importance of citrus

and agriculture to our children. I also think it’s neat that the Department of Citrus chose to use a grower as the voice for Captain Citrus and I am honored to be that grower and look forward

to any more voice overs or appearances Captain Citrus makes.”

For more informa-tion on Captain Citrus and to read all three comic books, visit www.CaptainCitrus.com.

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Christian Spinosa is a fifth-generation farmer.

“Growing up as a kid, I never expected I’d be the voice of a

super hero, let alone the voice of a Marvel

super hero,”says Spinosa.

AGRI-BUSINESS


AGRI-BUSINESS

Fort Meade Middle/Senior High School students all learn their three basic Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Other students are able to learn various other basic R’s such as crop rotation, cattle rustling, and tractor repairs.

Its Agrowtechnology Academy is one of several agriculture-based career academies within the county that help students gain valuable life and career skills in order to prepare them for life outside of school, especially within their rural community.

Having opened in 2013, the academy teaches a broad range of material covering agriculture and agri-culture-based science, or agriscience, ranging from crops to livestock to mechanics.

Through the academy, students can learn how to raise cattle, how to grow a crop, how to pro-tect against crop failures and insect infestations, and even how to repair farm equipment.

Classes and work-shops are held within the facility on campus across the street from the main school. The facility includes a building for classrooms and workshops, along with acres of land for cattle and crops, and a barn to shelter livestock.

The academy seeks to prepare students for the real world, especially within their local rural community, by providing them with agriculture certification, with which they can use to further their future careers in agriculture, or otherwise utilize in professions outside of the profession.

“The goal for this academy is to get them prepared for the real world, whether it is agriculture or any other industry,” Head Teacher Brandon Collier said.

Fort Meade has the fewest college-bound high school graduates countywide, with only 20 percent seeking college after graduation, accord-ing to recent figures.

As such, this career academy provides an op-portunity for high school students to receive career training to help increase their chances of employment following graduation, with training specially aimed at the local rural agricultural industry.

With so many children growing up within a rural community, and very few going to college after graduation, some may feel tempted to think that

nothing they learn in school will matter in the real world; as such, the academy helps to correct such thinking by apply-ing what they learn with the world around them.

The curriculum helps combine the basic subject matter that they otherwise receive within their regular schooling along with the practical skills-based training within the academy, helping to combine the intellectual with the practical in order to prepare them for their future careers.

“We always try to bring it back to real life, whether it is running the numbers or writing professionally.” Collier said. “We try to get them into this program and get them interested in agriculture, but we still try to get them hooked on reading and writing and math.”

What skills they have obtained within the academy they have easily applied in their surrounding community through projects and local events.

Academy students have participated in school fundraisers such as the pie and cake auc-tion last November for the alumni organization, along with other local charitable activities. For instance, last year, they collaborated with other students to build gates for several local parks.

Whatever may be asked of them, the students are more than willing to take the skills they have learned within the academy and apply them to real life with volunteer work and after school activity.

“If I need help, if I made a phone call for kids to help clean some-thing up this afternoon, I would have as many participants as I needed,” Collier said. “The kids are eager to be a part of it, and that is what makes it not only rewarding for me, but also rewarding for the kids through their hard work and achievements.”

Graduating from the academy requires passing the agricultural certification exam. The academy has seen a modicum of success, with four to five students having passed as of last year.

Of course, for faculty

and staff, overall success is measured within how much of a desire stu-dents have to apply what they have learned to their lives — and in that regard, the academy has proven quite successful.

“This is a rewarding experience getting to see the students and their participation in the academy, and seeing their efforts and their works,” Collier said.

Even for students not necessarily interested in going into agriculture, both the academy and the local chapter of Future Farmer’s of America offer oppor-tunities to build char-acter and exercise their leadership skills which are equally applicable to other career choices.

Overall, one aspect that all students can glean from the program is the camaraderie and companionship that they have from their fellow students, helping them to improve their leader-ship, cooperation, and teamwork skills.

“They are like lifelong friends in this program,” Collier said of the students. “Many of the kids in this program have several friends with smaller classes, and some of these kids did grow up together, and they have friends here, and when they graduate, they will have lifelong friends, because it is the friendship aspect of that with the academics and the knowledge.”

The academy main-tains high expectations to bring in more stu-dents, and judging by

their success thus far within the past two years, those expectation seem to be easily reachable.

“I would like to see more students, to engage more students for the

academy part, because I can see them utilizing the certification they get out in the real world for a real world situation,” Collier said. “I’ve seen a lot of the students,

several new ones this year, when they came in, they were excited about what they had heard from their friends, and they wanted to be involved in it.”

Welcome to Agrowtechnology Academy

PHOTO PROVIDED

The Fort Meade academy class.

PHOTO PROVIDED

A Fort Meade student takes a test at showing not everything is getting outdoors for agriculutral education.


AGRI-BUSINESS

While orange growers and scientists struggle to find ways to salvage Florida’s orange crops, some are looking at alternatives to replace their dying groves. Who thought that peaches, blueberries, pomegran-ates and olives could eventually replace that symbolic fruit? But it could and is happening.

There are dozens of acres of peaches and blueberries in Polk County as well as dozens of other counties state-wide. With help from the University of Florida these alternative groves are becoming common-place. As an example, one just has to drive on Gandy Cemetery Road just east of Bartow to see rows and rows of peach trees. Across Peace Creek off U.S. 17 there are acres of blueberries.

And one of the newest crops slipping into Florida’s eventual mar-ketplace is olives. Lykes Bros., a powerhouse grower in Lake Wales, has a 10-acre grove in Camp Mack that reports say experienced a good

bloom early this spring which is a harbinger of good yields, says the Florida Olive Council.

Repeated attempts to reach Lykes’ Special Project Manager John Gose to comment on their trial grove were unsuccessful.

Groves in DeLeon and near Gainesville reported good growth and “aggres-sive bloom,” according to council reports. The council explains that ol-ive trees don’t blossom or produce fruit until they are at least four years old and the groves men-tioned are just reaching that benchmark.

Some of Florida’s other more unorthodox crops are also getting a closer look for alternate uses. Now many Florida eucalyptus and sugar cane farmers are looking at their crops for a broad

new market. Biomass for electricity generating facilities.

In Lake Placid, BP is cultivating 1,700 acres of high-fiber, low-sugar cane and elephant grass in preparation for one of the country’s first commercial scale cellu-losic bio fuels facilities, they said. The company officials also said they are expecting to plant another 2,000 acres this fall in advance of devel-opment of the 36-million gallon plant.

In neighboring Highlands County, U.S. Envirofuels is growing 1,000 acres of sugar cane seed and plans to plant more this fall to raise a commercial crop this year. It also plans to build a bio-refinery there to produce bio fuels that can be blended with gasoline.

Meanwhile, in Bowling Green, Mosaic is dipping its does into the bio fuels marketplace with 25 acres of eucalyptus planted on reclaimed land.

“At Mosaic we are always looking at ways

to expand agriculture from these types of soils (reclaimed land),” said Land Utilization Manager Tom Pospichal. He is optimistic, he says, since the first five acres planted some five years ago are thriving.

Lykes also has long-term contracts with BP for bio fuel projects in Highlands County, but the acreage is spread

between Lake Placid and Okeechobee. The joint project involves the growing of eucalyptus and sugar cane with some elephant grass and sorghum thrown in in test plots.

The sugar cane is a breed that was discarded by sugar producers because it doesn’t produce enough sugar to be marketable.

While there is so much to still be seen in the trial and error process of new Florida crops, agriculture industry experts feel that “the state has great potential” to add further still to its already diverse agriculture portfolio.

So, before long Florida may surrender citrus as its signature and we’ll see something new on our license plates.

Other crops being looked atin light of citrus woes

Olives, peaches, blueberries others becoming more common

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Eucalyptus trees can grow to enormous heights and quickly rejuvenate making them an optimal crop for Florida growers specializing in bio fuel crops

These olives were some developed by the University of Florida that can adapt to Florida growing conditions

adno=3217708

adno

=32

2158

1


AGRI-BUSINESS

According to Danielle Nierenberg, with the FoodTank organization, agriculture accounts for approximately 70 percent of freshwater withdraw-als from lakes, rivers, and aquifers. Globally, food production will need to increase 70 percent by 2050.

Thus ecological inten-sification of agriculture — achievement of high yields through increas-ingly relying on ecosys-tem services instead of external inputs — will be critical to meeting these goals; water is the top consideration, not just globally, but more directly, here in Polk County, which is home to much of the state’s citrus crop, as well as other agricultural products and livestock.

Thus the need for the creation of a regional water development planning cooperative. According to Mianne Nelson, director of com-munications director for the Polk County Board of Commissioners, more than 90 percent of all the public water supply in Polk County comes from

the aquifer system. “As our communities

continue to grow, there is a need to identify new sustainable water resources to meet in-creased demand,” Nelson stated in a recent news release. That demand throughout the heartland (which also includes Highland and Hardee counties), will be not only to accommodate for the projected growth in population-wise, as well as for business and industry, but also to keep Polk County’s agricultur-al industries viable; while predominantly citrus, it also includes other crops as well as livestock and poultry.

According to a draft proposal assembled for the creation of a regional water planning cooperative, the total of agricultural acreage, both citrus and non-citrus,

is expected to grow on average to 1.55 percent from 2010 (170,008 acres) to 2035 (172,643 acres). The demand for water in 2010 will climb 2.45 percent, from 180.746 million gallons per day to 185.179 mgd).

However, agriculture is perhaps doing more than its fair share of conserv-ing water.

“Typically, people in agriculture respect natu-ral resources and water. They realize it’s a limited supply,” said citriculturist Fred Bohde, who added using the most efficient methods to control

water demand is also an imperative, because water is expensive; also, he said, too much water can damage a crop just as seriously as too little water usage.

Bohde also pointed out that the total number of acreage statewide has de-clined nearly 50 percent, mostly because of two reasons, development and citrus greening. The latter is a disease that de-stroys orange trees. But returning to water usage, Bohde said numerous advances in technology have made for wiser water usage.

“Years ago citrus groves were irrigated by transporting water,” he said. Thanks to tech-nology, the amount of water needed has been drastically reduced. “In the 1970s and ‘80s, the

use of microsprinkler irrigation was invented. This probably saved 30 to 40 percent in the cost of purchasing water, and re-duced almost 50 percent of actual water used.”

Agriculture doing its part to conserve water

PHOTO PROVIDED

There may be a need to increase food production by 70 percent by 2050.

Reach over 18,000

homes by

Advertising here.

Call 863-533-4183

adno

=32

2157

4


AGRI-BUSINESS

NEW YORK—It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s a drone.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved a fleet of 324 commercial drones -- the largest fleet ever OK’d at one time.

Measure, the company that owns the drones, said in its petition to the FAA that the drones would be used for “aerial data acquisition.”

According to the FAA, commercial drones are commonly used in movie making, “precision

agriculture” and real estate photography.

Measure provides its services to companies in several industries includ-ing agriculture, disaster relief and insurance, infrastructure and ener-gy. The company says its drones can be used to

monitor pipelines and aid in search and rescue operations.

Among the companies using Measure’s drones are Boeing, IBM, UPS, the American Red Cross and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Measure compared

the use of drones to satellites. With drones, the company said, visual images are better and the data is collected in real time.

The FAA has approved over 1,000 commercial drone requests.

Measure’s approval far exceeds the others; the company said the next largest was for a fleet of about 20 drones.

Measure said it is the first Washington, D.C.-based company to get FAA approval to use drones commercially.

FAA approves fleet of 324 commercial dronesBy AHIZA GARCIA

The AssociATed Press

CORDOVA, Md. (AP) — Mike Geske wants a drone.

Watching a flying demonstration on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the Missouri farm-er envisions using an unmanned aerial vehicle to monitor the irrigation pipes on his farm — a job he now pays three men to do.

“The savings on labor and fuel would just be phenomenal,” Geske says, watching as a small white drone hovers over a nearby corn field and transmits detailed pictures of the growing stalks to an iPad.

Nearby, farmer Chip Bowling tries his hand at flying one of the drones. Bowling, president of the National Corn Growers Association, says he would like to buy one for his Maryland farm to help him scout out which individual fields need extra spraying.

Another farmer, Bobby Hutchison, says he is hoping the man he hires weekly to walk his fields and observe his crops gets a drone, to make the

process more efficient and accurate.

“I see it very similar to how I saw the computer when it first started,” says Hutchison, 64. “It was a no-brainer.”

Farmers are eager for the technology.

The small, relatively inexpensive vehicles could replace humans in a variety of ways around large farms: transmitting detailed information about crops to combines and sprayers, directing them very precisely to problem spots and cut-ting down on the amount of water and chemicals that a farmer needs to use in those areas.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade group, says agricul-ture could account for 80 percent of all commercial drone use.

Agricultural use of drones is about to take off after being grounded for years by the lack of federal guidelines. The Federal Aviation Administration has approved more than 50 exemptions for farm-re-lated operations since January.

Companies with those exemptions say business has grown, helped by quick advances in the technology.

Bret Chilcott of Kansas-based AgEagle, which sells unmanned aerial vehicles and the software to help operate them, says his company took its first orders last year. Now it has a backlog of several hundred orders. He says the technology has transformed the market during that short period.

“Last year users had to land their aircraft and then take the data to the computer,” he says. “Now the data appears on your iPad or hand-held device a few minutes after flight.”

That data could be pictures, 3-D images of plants, thermal readings of crops or animals or other observations that a drone could make while in the air. Information that in the past took days to collect — or could not have been collected at all — can be gathered now in minutes or hours and, in some cases, integrated with separate data collected from

other high-tech farm machinery.

Chilcott is optimistic that the technology to scout out problem spots so precisely will be transformative because farmers can limit spray-ing just to those places.

“In five years we won’t have to blanket a field with chemicals,” he says.

Still, most farmers cannot legally fly the vehicles yet.

The FAA is working on rules that would allow the drones to be used regularly for business while main-taining certain safety and privacy standards. An FAA proposal this year would allow flight of the vehicles as long as they weigh less than 55 pounds, stay within the operator’s sight and fly during the daytime,

among other restrictions. Operators would have to pass an FAA test of aeronautical knowledge and a Transportation Security Administration background check.

Thomas Haun of North Carolina-based PrecisionHawk, another company with an exemp-tion, says it is unclear what the business will look like eventually. Farmers may hire services that have un-manned aerial vehicles or every farm may get its own drone. Most likely, it will be a combination.

Haun says the pro-posed rules are appro-priate. “It’s pretty spot on for where the technology is right now,” he says.

Some people have concerns about the guidelines. Pilots of crop dusters and other planes

that operate around farms are concerned the rules do not go far enough to ensure safety.

“We can’t see them,” says Andrew Moore of the National Agricultural Aviation Association. His group advocated for the unmanned vehicles to include tracking systems or lights to help airplanes figure out where they are, but that was not includ-ed in the proposal.

The rules could pose some challenges for the eager farmers, too.

Geske may not be able to use drones efficiently to monitor all the irriga-tion pipes on his 2,100 acre Missouri farm if he has to keep them within sight. He’s still interested, though. The men he hires now use a lot of fuel and their trucks tear up his land and roads.

Farmers eager for drones, but most can’t legally fly them

By MARY CLARE JALONICKAssociATed Press

AP PHOTO

InA DJI Phantom 3 drone is flown by Matthew Creger, marketing director for Intelligent UAS, during a drone demonstration at a farm and winery on potential use for board members of the National Corn Growers in Cordova, Md.

AP PHOTO

A hexacopter drone is flown by Doug Bennett, senior technician and operator for Intelligent UAS, during a drone demonstration at a farm and winery on potential use for board members of the National Corn Growers in Cordova, Md. adno=3217594


AGRI-BUSINESS

Fighting for citrusCHMA is coordinating pesticide spraying to battle citrus disease In real life, people

often strive to find their inner “chi,” a kind of revitalizing peace and energy.

For Florida citrus growers, it’s all about finding their “chee-ma.”

That’s the slang for one of the growing efforts to fight citrus greening, which has reduced orange grove acreage by more than 25 percent in the state in just the last decade.

The program is actu-ally called Citrus Health Management Areas, a coordinated effort of growers, state officials, and even representa-tives from the United States Department of Agriculture. Simply put, growers are now more than ever making efforts to coordinate pesticide spraying in neighboring groves to to better fight the insect that spreads the disease.

“I liken it to spray-ing for mosquitoes,”’ said Steve Farr, who

coordinates one of the CHMA’s in Highlands County for Ben Hill Griffin Inc. “You don’t just spray the yard, you spray the whole area. And aerial applications are more effective than ground applications.”

This year’s rainy season has made the coordina-tion particularly import-ant since the Asian citrus psyllid can “hang out” in a grove that isn’t being sprayed until the pesti-cide wears off in treated areas. Wet weather can wash away pesticides in a little as two days.

The program actually began in 2007, with just seven CHMA’s state wide. Now, there are 52.

As part of the program, almost 90 state and

federal “scouts” survey 6,000 one-square mile blocks of citrus every three weeks to provide real-time data. The re-sults are then put online to help plan the next coordinate spray.

According to the University of Florida, data show that growers

who coordinate some-times see no psyllid’s in their testing block, while those who don’t coordi-nate can find hundreds per block. On line, the blocks don’t identify who the grove owners are, but local growers know and can apply peer pressure to get them to sign on.

Citrus economist Ariel Singerman of UF’s Citrus Research and Education Center said that by using the CHMA with higher yields, the benefit was, on average $1,218 per acre more compared to CHMA with lower yields.

James Tansey, who works for the Southwest

Florida Research and Education Center, is an-other who has seen the benefit. “There’s an over-all trend of depression of psyllid populations and that’s mainly due to the CHMA captains,” he said, praising the volunteers to oversee their respective blocks.

LAKE ALFRED — For the first time in years, Florida citrus growers are juiced at the prospect of getting a new defense against citrus greening, the bacterial disease slowly killing their trees, perhaps as early as spring.

Florida citrus growers are hoping state and federal regulators will approve an emergency exemption for use of three bactericides against the deadly citrus green-ing disease.

The bactericides have been used successfully for decades to fight bacterial infections on pear and apple trees and

other crops.Early results from grove

field trials have shown the three compounds ef-fective in reducing levels of greening bacteria in some trees.

Florida’s citrus pro-duction has experienced a decline of about 60 percent since the first case of greening was confirmed in 2005.

Embattled citrus growershave hope for 3 bacteria killers

The Associated Press

PHOTO PROVIDED

Florida citrus growers are hoping state and federal regulators will approve an emergency exemp-tion for use of three bactericides against the deadly citrus greening disease.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Citrus Health Management Areas, a coordinated effort of growers, state officials, and even representatives from the United States Department of Agriculture.

Reach over 18,000 homes by

Advertising here.

Call 863-533-4183

adno

=32

2114

2


AGRI-BUSINESS

Essay: No single philosophy can guide the way we farm

There’s an unbreach-able divide between ad-vocates of modern con-ventional agriculture and, essentially,

everyone else, from the mainstream (organic, local, anti-GMO) to the less-so (biodynamics, permaculture, agrofor-estry). The parties are entrenched, the tone is partisan. But I think we ought to be able to get

along, because all hard-core ad-

vocates of this or that food philoso-phy have

two

things in common: They’re paying atten-tion, and they’re wrong.

It’s great that they’re paying attention, because most people sure aren’t, and we’re not going to get much traction toward improv-ing our food supply if nobody cares. So that’s good. Being wrong, though, isn’t so good. And they’re wrong for the simple reason that food and philosophy don’t mix.

Here’s why. Food is a constant tug-of-war between people and

planet. We can’t feed ourselves without

doing environ-mental harm.

“Agriculture costs us no matter what,” says

Rattan Lal, direc-tor of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University. “Every option has trade-offs.”

Food production takes a toll, and neither maximizing the food nor minimizing the toll is a workable response. No one principle can reliably tell us how to make those trade-offs, because every situation is different.

Which doesn’t mean there are no good ideas. Take organic agricul-ture, based on the idea of building soil health. Everyone - literally, everyone - agrees that building soil

health is important. But if you take that idea and build a system around it, a system with rules and prohibitions and certifications, you take away the flexibility to make case-by-case calls. Heavy use of chemical fertilizers can lead to water-polluting runoff, but that doesn’t mean the best alter-native is no chemical fertilizers at all.

By the same token, the Green Revolution, the period from the 1940s to the 1960s when new crop varieties and advances in irrigation and fertilization trans-formed agriculture,

TAMAR HASPEL Special to the

WaShington poSt

FARM | 33


AGRI-BUSINESS

was responsible for astonishing increases in yields. But, according to Lal, “The Green Revolution never talked about the quality of the soil. It was seed, fertilizer and irrigation. The quality of the soil in which those inputs were made wasn’t talked about.” And that heavy use of chemical fertilizers is one of the consequences.

I think it’s worthwhile to take a look at the good and the bad aspects of the kinds of agricultural approaches that attract the most attention:

• Organic has a lot to like - the focus on soil health, the use of manure for fertilization, the emphasis on com-posting and biodiversity. There are also some minimum standards for animal comfort and well-being. But the idea that fertilizers and pesticides should be chosen for their “naturalness” rather than their intrinsic toxicity makes no agricultural sense. And the federal requirement that any animal given an-tibiotics be removed from the organic system is troubling, as it gives farmers a financial disincentive to treat sick live-stock and plays into unsubstantiated fears that any antibiotic use in livestock puts human health at risk. Yields are also consistently 10 to 20 percent lower than conventional-farming yields, and prices are higher.

Locally grown food gives consumers - and kids - a place to go to visit a farm and meet a farmer, or a pig. Although I don’t know of any research measuring whether farmers markets help foster a sense of community, customers often say they do.

Delicate produce that doesn’t travel well, such as strawberries and tomatoes, can go straight from field to market. But farms that grow a diverse product line, which many farmers-mar-ket-style farms do, generally aren’t as efficient, both because they don’t get the benefits of specialization (expertise, equipment and soil optimization) and because most climates and soil types aren’t suited to a wide variety of crops. Although the distance food travels from grower to consumer is cut, “food miles” generally account for only about 10 percent of the environmental impact of food production, and that’s easily made up in increased efficiency from growing at a larger scale, in a more hospitable area. So, for example, a Maryland-grown cucumber comes from a system that produces, on average, 7,800 pounds per acre. In Florida, they get 26,000 pounds per acre. No wonder local food is often more expensive.

• Anti-GMO doesn’t have much on the plus side. The most serious problem associated with GMOs is the weeds that have developed a resistance to the herbicide glyphosate, and the anti-GMO movement prefers to fixate on that and ignore the many beneficial genetic modifications, such as disease resistance, which is hugely avantageous for papayas and, potentially, for other plants.

It’s certainly true that genetic mod-ification has contributed to the wide-spread planting of just a few staples (corn and soy, primarily), as the com-panies that develop the technologies have sought to recoup their investment by modifying the most widely grown

crops, but that’s true of all agricultural technologies; an industrialized system is not a friend to biodiversity. As those technologies become more widely adopted (and go off patent), other crops will start to see the benefits (and the pipeline is full of interesting, exciting, planet- and people-friendly GM innovations). Often, wholesale opposition to GMOs is based primarily on the argument that we don’t yet know enough about them, when in fact we know a great deal. Rejection is simply not a constructive approach to our food system.

• Conventional agriculture is the source of almost everything we eat, and its pluses and minuses are the mirror image of organic’s. It produces huge amounts of food efficiently and afford-ably, but the system has been charac-terized by soil degradation, pollution and heavy dependence on chemicals. Farmers and companies that develop products for them are putting a great deal of effort into mitigating or even re-versing those problems, but there’s no question that they still exist. A focus on just a few crops also limits biodiversity, but the resulting specialization makes for astonishing yields. Animals are kept in crowded conditions that don’t allow them to express natural behaviors.

Bottom line: There’s no one way to feed the world. Yet the public conversa-tion about agriculture seems to break down along philosophical lines, and not always civilly.

There’s a better way. Want to fix our food system? Ditch the philosophy. No more unifying principle. Call off the dogma. Instead, think small.

The best way to tackle the tug-of-war between people and planet is to aim to improve agriculture in ways that benefit both. “There are ways to grow more food, mitigate climate change and improve the environment,” says Lal. “They’re win-win-win strategies.”

Take cover cropping, the practice of planting a field with a crop that won’t be harvested but whose job is to de-crease erosion and runoff, and to help boost soil quality. Cover-cropped fields that are then planted with corn and soy often have higher yields than their non-cover-cropped counterparts.

Planting cover crops is one of what Lal calls the four pillars of conservation agriculture, and the other three - leav-ing crop residue in the field, practicing integrated nutrient management, and not plowing - also have the potential to benefit both crop and planet. So can managed grazing of livestock, the incorporation of trees (agroforestry) and increased planting of legumes.

Technology also brings win-win tools. Bt cotton, a genetically engineered type that has a built-in pesticide, has increased yields and decreased the need for sprayed insecticide. Precise new tools allow farmers to divide fields into small sections and custom-fertilize each section according to its needs, which can help maximize yields and reduce run-off.

Lal points out that even specific strategies aren’t one-size-fits-all: “In Ohio, we can grow a cover crop in the off-season, but in Nigeria, where I used to grow a cover crop, it would take half the year, and you lose a season.” Lose a season, and you lose an entire crop. “Conservation agriculture, organic, agroforestry,” says Lal, “they all have places where they work and places

where they fail. There are 300,000 soil types. It’s impossible to have one sys-tem that works for all of these, not to mention climates and socio-economic situations.”

Just to make it harder, those strate-gies also have to work for the farmer. Activists, policy-makers and journalists can opine all they want, but it’s farmers who decide whether to use cover crops, or invest in new tools for precision fertilizing, or go organic. And even if a strategy does both increase food and decrease harm, we can’t expect farmers to implement it if they have to take a financial hit to do it.

Which could explain why I’ve found that farmers are less dogmatic than the rest of us. All the farmers I’ve ever

talked to are happy to explain why they make the decisions they do but are quick to admit there are lots of ways to do it differently. Nobody knows the shortcomings of the organic standard, or GMO corn, or no-till, better than the farmer who has put it into practice. But the farther you get from the farm, the louder the voices get.

The appeal of ideas like organic and local is understandable, and there are lots of good reasons to feed yourself and your family that way. It’s when those ideas are used to paint the world’s agricultural landscape in black-and-white that the trouble starts. The solutions to the problem of feeding people and protecting the planet are endlessly and irredeemably gray.

FARMFROM PAGE 32

Reach over 18,000

homes by

Advertising here.

Call 863-533-4183

PHOTO PROVIDED

Here are some good and bad aspects of the kinds of agricultural approaches that attract the most attention.

SUPPORTING THEAGRICULTURAL

COMMUNITY FOR OVER 40 YEARS.

Locally-Owned & Operated byTerry Portis & Virgil McInvale

• 24 HOUR ON SITE TIRE SERVICE AVAILABLE• WHERE CUSTOMERS ARE TREATED LIKE FAMILY• FULL-SERVICE AUTOMOTIVE & TIRE STORE• NOW OFFERING THE INDUSTRY’S STRONGEST WARRANTY PACKAGE

www.bigttire.net1109 W. Main St. • Avon Park (Located on W. Main Street & Hwy 27)

863-452-2031 adno

=322

0743


AGRI-BUSINESS

OctoberLandscaping with

Ornamental Grasses, Lunch & Learn Workshop

Friday, Oct. 9, noon-1 p.m. Lakeland Police Dept. Community Room, 219 N. Massachusetts Ave., Lakeland

Ornamental grasses can be showstoppers in your fall landscape. Learn what grasses do well in Central Florida and how you can incorporate them into your landscape. Seating is limited, includes lunch.

Fall Plant Sale & Flutterby Lane Grand Opening

Saturday, Oct. 10, 8 a.m.-1 p.m.

City of Lakeland Nursery ( Use entrance to Oak Hill Burial Park), 4620 US Highway 98 S., Lakeland

The Polk County Master Gardeners present their fall plant sale at the City of Lakeland Nursery and the Grand Opening of Flutterby Lane, the Florida-Friendly Landscaping Demonstration Garden on the Fort Fraser Trail. Purchase unusual and hard-to-find plants from the Master Gardeners and tour the newest demonstration garden. http://polkmas-tergardener.com or (863) 519-1041. Rain or shine.

Garden TourSecond Saturday of each

month, Oct. 10, 9 a.m.-10:30 a.m. UF/IFAS Extension Polk County, 1702 U.S. Hwy 17/98 S., Bartow

Ask questions, get garden-ing tips & ideas, learn how to garden in Central Florida. Meet at the Paul Anderson Gazebo at 9 a.m. Sign up for the garden tour here.

Ask a Master Gardener at the Lake Wales Farmer’s Market

Second Saturday of each month, Oct. 10, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Downtown Lake Wales

Visit with a Master Gardener from UF/IFAS Extension. Get gardening advice, ask insect and disease questions and get free liter-ature at our informational booth.

Ask a Master Gardener at the Lakeland Farmer’s Market

Third Saturday of each month, Oct. 17, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., 200 N. Kentucky Ave., Lakeland


Ask a Master Gardener at the Winter Haven Farmer’s Market

Fourth Saturday of each month, Oct. 24, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. New Trailhead Park, Downtown Winter Haven

Get gardening advice, ask insect and disease questions and get free literature at our informational booth.

Bat Talk and Bat Box Workshop at Bok Tower Gardens

Saturday, Oct. 24, 1 p.m. lecture, 2-5 p.m. building a bat box workshop. Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

Free lecture with garden admission. Reservations required for bat box building workshop, call 863-676-1408. Cost is $150 and includes all supplies. Learn all about bats and how they fit into our local ecosystems. As popular critters in horror movies and creepy stories, bats have gotten a bad reputa-tion. Program presented by Shannon Carnevale, Natural Resources and Conservation Agent, UF/IFAS Extension Polk County.

Composting Lunch & Learn at Bok Tower Gardens

Wednesday, Oct. 28, noon-1:30 p.m. Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

Free program with garden admission. Reservations, call 863-676-1408.

Learn how to turn your kitchen scraps and yard waste into garden gold. Composting is easy to do and be taught everything you need to start a successful compost pile in your yard.

NovemberGarden TourSecond Saturday of each

month, Nov. 8, 9-10:30 a.m. UF/IFAS Extension Polk County, 1702 U.S. Hwy 17/98 South, Bartow



Second Saturday of each month, Nov. 8, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Downtown Lake Wales


Growing & Cooking with Herbs Workshop

Tuesday, Nov. 10, 10 a.m.-noon

Lakeland Public Library, 100 Lake Morton Drive, Lakeland. Learn how to grow and cook with the herbs that can be grown in Central Florida yards. The Florida-Friendly Landscaping program will teach you how to grow herbs and Whitney Fung, UF/IFAS Extension Polk County Family Consumer Science Agent will present a cooking segment using those herbs. Seating is limited.

Creating a Rain Garden, Lunch & Learn Workshop

Friday, Nov. 13, noon-1 p.m.

Lakeland Police Dept.

Community Room, 219 N. Massachusetts Ave. Lakeland. In this workshop learn you how to determine the best location for your rain garden and how to choose appropri-ate plants. Seating is limited, includes lunch.

Hypertufa Workshop at Bok Tower Gardens

Saturday, Nov. 14, 1-3 p.m. Olmstead House, Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

$15 per participant in-cludes supplies. Reservations required, only 20 spots available. Reservations, 863-676-1408.

Using a mix of cement, peat moss and vermiculite/perlite, participants will take home a piece of art that is sure to be the highlight of your garden. This workshop will get messy, so be sure to wear old clothes.


Third Saturday of each month, Nov. 15, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. 200 N. Kentucky Ave., Lakeland


Growing Herbs Lunch & Learn at Bok Tower Gardens

Wednesday, Nov. 18, noon-1:30 p.m. Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

Free program with garden admission. Reservations, 863-676-1408.

This program is an over-view of herbs that can be grown in central Florida, with tips for successful herb gardening.

Selecting Shrubs for Your Landscape Workshop

Friday, Nov. 20, 10-11:30 a.m. Winter Haven Public Library, 325 Avenue A NW, Winter Haven

Learn how to select shrubs to fit the site conditions in your yard. Workshop attend-ees will receive a Florida-Friendly plant guide. Free and registration is limited.

Ask a Master Gardener at the Winter Haven Farmer’s

MarketFourth Saturday of each

month, Nov. 22, 8:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m. New Trailhead Park, Downtown Winter Haven


DecemberHoliday Color in the

Landscape, Lunch & Learn Workshop

Friday, Dec. 11, noon-1 p.m.

Lakeland Police Dept. Community Room, 219 N. Massachusetts Ave. Lakeland

Learn how to have a colorful holiday landscape. Seating is limited, includes lunch. Workshop provided by the City of Lakeland Water Utilities and UF/IFAS Extension Polk County’s Florida-Friendly Landscaping program.

Garden TourSecond Saturday of each

month, Dec. 13, 9-10:30 a.m. UF/IFAS Extension Polk County, 1702 U.S. Hwy 17/98 South, Bartow



Second Saturday of each month, Dec. 13, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Downtown Lake Wales



Third Saturday of each month, Dec. 20, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. 200 N. Kentucky Ave., Lakeland


Ask a Master Gardener at the Winter Haven Farmer’s Market

Fourth Saturday of each month, Dec. 27, 8:30

a.m.-3:00 p.m. New Trailhead Park, Downtown Winter Haven.

Visit with a Master Gardener from UF/IFAS Extension. Get gardening advice, ask insect and

disease questions and get free literature at our informa-tional booth.

January Creating a Rain Garden

WorkshopFriday, Jan. 15, 10 a.m.-

11:30 a.m. Winter Haven Public Library, 325 Avenue A NW, Winter Haven

In this workshop learn determine the best location for your rain garden and how to choose the appropriate plants for it. Registration is limited.

Top 10 Tips for Your Landscape Design, Lunch & Learn at Bok Tower Gardens

Wednesday, Jan. 20, noon-1:30 p.m. Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

Free program with garden admission. Reservations 863-676-1408.

UF/IFAS Master Gardeners will teach you the top 10 tips for success when designing a landscape.

February World Wetlands Day at Bok

Tower GardensTuesday, February 2, 10

a.m.-noonBok Tower Gardens, 1151

Tower Blvd., Lake WalesFree program with garden

admission. Reservations, call 863-676-1408.

Optional up close tour of window by the pond. Closed toed shoes recommended.

MarchLandscaping with Edibles

Lunch & Learn at Bok Tower Gardens

Wednesday, March 16, noon-1:30 p.m. Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

Reservations, call 863-676-1408.

Incorporating edible plants into your landscape can be fun, easy and beautiful. Learn what edible plants you can

Agriculture Calendar

CALENDAR | 35


AGRI-BUSINESS

use to bring interest to an ornamental landscape as well as enjoy in your kitchen.

April Night Hike at Bok Tower

GardensFriday, April 22, 7-9 p.m. Bok

Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

$5 per participant. Adults & children ages 10 and up. Reservations required, maxi-mum 25. Call 863-676-1408.

Unravel the mysteries of nighttime sights and sounds as you discover the Gardens after the sun goes down. Watch for nocturnal animals, the glow of spider eyes and more while listening to the creatures of the night. We will be hiking without flashlights but don’t worry; we’ll have the moon to

guide us. This tour is appro-priate for all levels of hiking experience but participants should be comfortable walking on uneven terrain. Please bring any medical emergency supplies that may be needed on an outdoor adventure, such as Epi-pens, with you. Closed-toe shoes are required and sneakers or light hiking boots are recommended.

10th Annual Backyard GardenFest & Plant Sale

Saturday, April 23, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. UF/IFAS Extension Polk County, 1702 U.S. Hwy 17 S., Bartow

“Know and Grow” gardening workshops, Florida-Friendly design assistance and free soil pH testing will be avail-able. Purchase native plants, butterfly plants, herbs and edibles, fruit trees, rain barrels, books, garden art and more. For information call 863-519-1041 or visit http://

polkmastergardener.com.

May Create a Container Garden

for Mom at Bok Tower GardensSaturday, May 7, 1-3 p.m.

Alexander Classroom, Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales

$15 per person; Reservations required. Reservations 863-676-1408.

Make your mom a per-sonalized Mother’s Day gift — something bright, pretty and handmade. Give her a container garden.

Worm Farming Lunch & Learn at Bok Tower Gardens

Wednesday, May 11, noon-1:30 p.m. Bok Tower Gardens, 1151 Tower Blvd., Lake Wales. 863-676-1408.

Learn about worms, their need for bedding, what they eat, a little anatomy, and recy-cling advantages. Make a mini worm farm to take home.

CALENDARFROM PAGE 34

Reach over 18,000 homes

by

Advertising here.

Call 863-533-4183

adno

=32

1895

2

Page 36 Wednesday, September 23, 2015 ad

no=

3220

503