Innovation in Ag

To be innovative in the field of agriculture is to be willing to learn new methods and employ new devices in our daily operations.  It requires us to be willing to change the way we do things as farmers.

Innovative agriculture was the subject of a workshop I attended this week that was put on by the county conservation district.  It was a well-attended meeting that brought farmers together for a day of educational sessions to discuss new ideas for the farm industry.  As the lead-off speaker and the new agricultural coordinator for Berks County, I pointed out that innovation is not a new concept for the farm community.  We have, by necessity, adapted and adopted technology in our industry over the centuries.  In the past one hundred years, however, the transformation in the way farming is done has been an extreme makeover!

On the day’s agenda were speakers who shared the latest information on technologies to harness solar energy.  Mother Nature always partnered with farmers in the photosynthesis phenomenon that occurs in farm fields, but adapting solar panels to farm buildings will allow us to capture the sun’s power and put it to work generating electricity.  This idea can have broad application in agriculture’s future and the economic stability of our operations.  Our barns and farmstead buildings are ideal locations for these new tools of the trade.

I was pleased to see so many traditional farmers in attendance, willing to learn about new ways to handle manure and till the land.  A panel of three women provided a female perspective on farming in the 21^st century.  The entire day was stacked with informative discussions, ranging from the history of agriculture to the future profitability of farming.

The workshop sponsors and other exhibitors stayed busy all day answering questions and dialoguing with workshop participants.  A local talk show radio personality was broadcasting live from a corner of the commercial exhibit area, giving participants an opportunity to comment on farming and the idea of innovation for today’s agricultural industry.  It was a wonderful opportunity to share with the thousands of listeners the story about modern agriculture and its creative farmers.

Several call-ins reflected the growing concern by the general public on the future of the agricultural industry.  A few listeners took time to call the radio station to applaud on-going efforts to save farmland and family farms.  A few callers expressed concerns about environmental issues.  One person who was listening to the broadcast actually got in her car and came to the workshop armed with her camera.  She had just photographed a farmer’s barnyard where livestock were standing in mud and manure.  A stream flowed through the fenced-in area, posing challenges for the farmer in preventing pollution and providing an observant environmentalist with a lot to talk about.

While I pointed out the fact that several inches of rain had fallen the previous evening and that frozen ground did not allow the surface water to be absorbed, thereby increasing surface runoff, it was still difficult to avoid commenting on the obvious pollution that was occurring on that farm.  I explained that the Clean Streams Law and the Nutrient Management Act applied to agriculture operations and were written to prevent environmental mishaps caused by sediment and manure flowing into creeks and rivers.  I also explained how Mother Nature sometimes creates challenges with unusual weather events.

The citizen watchdog explained that this farmer’s barnyard always looked like the picture she took, saving her a thousand words to communicate the sloppy stewardship.  I tried to find a positive spot, suggesting the grassed field adjacent to the barnyard was the farmer’s method of filtering the runoff.  She pointed out this was a neighbor’s field.  She also explained she had grown up on a farm and understood agriculture, but she could not agree with the management on this farm.

I called on the professionals from the Conservation District and the Natural Resource Conservation Service to listen to this person’s story and look at her digital camera shots.  Their jobs are to help farmers find solutions to these environmental challenges.  If the problem persists, it is also their job to see that the laws to protect water quality in the Commonwealth are enforced.

Sometimes the solutions to water quality issues aren’t easy to adapt to Pennsylvania’s historic farmsteads where buildings are located adjacent to streams.  For early settlers, this was their innovative way of providing essential drinking water supplies for their family’s livestock.  Over the centuries, these same barns have seen a growing number of animals housed within their walls and congregating in the barnyards.  Even though they no longer rely exclusively on streams for livestock water needs, having installed wells and waterlines in the 20^th Century, our old barns remain located where they were raised.  Farmers in the 21^st Century are dealing with building decisions of the past and wrestling with pollution remedies for the future.

Innovation in agriculture has resulted in technologies we now take for granted as everyday tools.  Artificial insemination, no-till farming, plows, tractors, combines, soil testing, feed testing, and the list goes on.  As farmers accepted these modern ideas, we prospered and were able to expand our operations.  Life became a bit easier.  But there are always new challenges on the horizon to command the attention of researchers and future innovators.

Today’s agriculturalists are building on the choices pioneers made in the past and creating new opportunities for farmers in the future.  As we blend the old with the new, we need to be aware that 98 % of the population is counting on us to make the right decisions for the health of our industry and the environment as we continue to be innovative farmers.

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