Basic Ag Awareness Agriscience Applications By Johnny M

Basic Ag Awareness Agriscience Applications By: Johnny M. Jessup Agriculture Instructor/FFA Advisor

What is Agriscience? The application of scientific principles and new technologies to agriculture.

Agriscience is…… An applied science because it uses principles learned in biology, chemistry, and physics (the basic sciences) in a practical way.

Examples of Agriscience Agronomy Uses biology and chemistry to discover new ways to control weeds in crops. Entomology Uses biology and chemistry to study insect life. Agricultural Engineering Uses physics to develop new machinery.

Agriscience employs…. . The scientific method to solve problems. The steps to the scientific method are…. Identify the problem. Review literature. Form a hypothesis. Prepare a project proposal. Design the experiment. Collect the data. Draw conclusions. Prepare a written report.

What is Agriculture? Activities concerned with the production of plants and animals, and related supplies, services, mechanics, products, processing, and marketing.

USDA refers to agriculture as…. “Agriculture/ Agribusiness and renewable natural resources”. Another definition is food, fiber, and environmental systems.

Why is Agriculture/Agriscience Important? Largest “employer” and the largest source of income in the United States and North Carolina.

Opportunities in Agriculture Agricultural production is supported by many more careers than actually exist in production. Many careers in agriscience products & distribution are needed to grade, transport, process, package, & market agriculture commodities. Many careers for agriculture supplies & services are also important. Projections show that the average size of farms in the U. S. will increase while the number of farms will decrease.

Opportunities in Agriculture Twenty percent of all jobs in the U. S. are agriscience related. In addition to farming, agriscience jobs help support farmers to meet the world’s food & fiber needs. Areas include: Production Processing, products, and distribution Supplies and services.

World Outlook The world population will grow as more people beget more people. More children are surviving to adulthood. More adults are living longer. Population growth will…. Add stress to environmental systems of air, water, soil, and natural resources. Create challenges to meet the demands for food and fiber (clothing and shelter).

Trends for Agriculture/Agriscience Agriculture will always be an essential industry. Increased commercialization of agriculture will continue. New types of farming such as aquaculture (fish farming and farming the sea) will be used as well as traditional farming methods.

Trends for Agriculture/Agriscience An expanded view of agriculture is necessary.

Divisions of Agriculture Agribusiness Agriscience Mechanics Agronomy Animal Science Biotechnology Horticulture Natural Resources

What is Agribusiness? Commercial firms that have developed with or stem out of agriculture.

Agribusiness includes…. Farming Chemical company Fertilizer dealer Seed store Tractor dealer Horticulture Landscape nursery Greenhouse dealer Horticulture supply company

What is Agriscience Mechanics? The application of engineering principles in agricultural settings.

Agriscience Mechanics includes…. The design, operation, maintenance, service, selling, and use of power units, machinery, equipment, structures, and utilities in agriscience.

What is Agronomy? The application of soil and plant sciences to land management and crop production.

Agronomy includes…. Crop Science Soil Science Turfgrass Management Weed Science Range Management

What is Animal Science? The care, management, and production of domestic animals.

Animal Science includes…. Livestock Companion Animals Specialty Animals

What is Biotechnology? The application of living processes to technology. The use of microorganisms, animal cells, plant cells, or components of cells to produce products or carry out processes.

Biotechnology includes…. Genetics Biochemistry Microbiology Toxicology Plant Pathology

What is Horticulture? Involves the producing, marketing fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. (Green Industry) Continues to expand as the standard of living is raised.

Horticulture includes…. Greenhouse Management Nursery Management Landscape Architecture Plant Physiology Integrated Pest Management

What are Renewable Natural Resources? Resources provided by nature that can replace or renew themselves. Important both economically and for posterity’s sake to maintain life. Agriculture & resources management will include pollution control.

Natural Resources - Forestry Timber management for lumber, poles, post, plywood, and etc. is another part of the agricultural industry.

Other Examples include: Wildlife Water Fish Soils Air

What are Commodities? Agricultural products which are sold. Examples: Milk Corn Wheat Beef Cotton

U. S. Agricultural Commodities #1 State Rankings Beef Dairy Broilers Eggs Turkeys Texas California Georgia Iowa Minnesota

U. S. Agricultural Commodities #1 State Rankings Swine Horses Sheep Fruit Vegetables Iowa Texas California

U. S. Agricultural Commodities #1 State Rankings Cotton Wheat Corn Soybeans Peanuts Texas Kansas Iowa Illinois Georgia

U. S. Agricultural Commodities (Market Value of Products Sold) Total Crops California Total Livestock Texas Total Ag Income California

Top 10 U. S. Ag Commodity Exports #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Soybeans Corn* Wheat Cotton Misc. Hort Products #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 Poultry Meat** Feed Edible Tree Nuts Pork Feed Grain *Consistently ranks in top 5 in U. S. grain exports year after year. **Number 1 meat export as far as tonnage shipped from the U. S.

Top 10 Importers of U. S. Ag Commodities #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 Canada Mexico Japan China South Korea #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 Taiwan United Kingdom Germany The Netherlands Turkey

U. S. Dept of Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns Nebraska

U. S. Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following: Food Safety Inspection Commodity Grading • • Meat Fruit Vegetables Eggs

U. S. Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following: School Lunch Program Food Stamps Agricultural Cooperatives U. S. Forest Service Cooperative Extension Agricultural Marketing

North Carolina Agriculture North Carolina is #1 in the following commodities. Tobacco Sweetpotatoes

North Carolina Agriculture North Carolina is #2 in the following commodities. Hogs Christmas Trees Turkeys

North Carolina Agriculture North Carolina is #3 in the following commodities. Pickles Trout Total Poultry & Eggs

North Carolina Agriculture North Carolina is #4 in the following commodities. Blueberries Broilers Greenhouse/Nursery Strawberries

North Carolina Agriculture North Carolina is #5 in the following commodities. Catfish Peanuts Snap Beans

North Carolina Agriculture North Carolina is ranked in the top 10 nationally in the following commodities. Apples Cotton Grapes Tomatoes Watermelons Total Cash Receipts

North Carolina Agriculture Ranking in Agricultural Income #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 – – – Hogs Broilers Greenhouse & Nursery*** Tobacco Turkeys ***Recently passed tobacco to crack the top 3.

SOURCE OF FARM CASH RECEIPTS, NORTH CAROLINA, 2003 $6, 916, 349, 000

North Carolina Agriculture #1 County by Commodity Hogs Broilers Greenhouse/Nursery Tobacco Turkeys Duplin Wilkes Mecklenburg Pitt Sampson

North Carolina Agriculture #1 County by Commodity Cotton Eggs Cattle Milk Soybeans Northhampton Iredell Robeson

North Carolina Agriculture #1 County by Commodity Corn Christmas Trees Peanuts Sweetpotatoes Wheat Beaufort Ashe Martin Nash Robeson

North Carolina Agriculture Top Ten Counties in Farm Cash Receipts, North Carolina, 2003

North Carolina Agriculture

North Carolina Agriculture Agricultural Research North Carolina has two land grant universities. North Carolina State University (1887) North Carolina A&T State University (1891)

NC Dept of Agriculture Steve Troxler Current Commissioner Guilford County

NC Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following: All agricultural issues Weights & Standards Food & Drugs in North Carolina NC State Fair

NC Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following: Marketing • Farmer’s Markets • Goodness Grows Program Research Stations Structural Pests Veterinarian Program

Professional Agricultural Organizations Allow professionals the opportunity to network, learn, and communicate. Provide trade shows and journals to update members on new methods, products, and technology. Use membership dues to finance commodity advertisement, trade journals, and educational programs for members.

Cooperative Extension Service Located in all 100 counties and the Cherokee Indian Reservation. Provides information for those working in agriculture. Best free source of information for small agricultural businesses. Administers the 4 H program.

Professional Agricultural Associations

Progress in Agriculture Mechanization helps 2% of America’s work force to meet the food & fiber needs of our nation. There has been a reduction from 90% of the nation’s populace involved in farming 200 years ago.

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events George Washington In 1785, he became the first American to own mules. Also introduced agricultural concepts such as terracing, crop rotation, and the use of cover crops.

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Eli Whitney Invented the cotton gin in 1793. Turned cotton into an usable product by removing cottonseed from the cotton fiber.

Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Thomas Jefferson In 1814, Jefferson had his moldboard plow cast in iron. Was a marked improvement over the inefficient European plow.

Thomas Jefferson’s Plow

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Cyrus Mc. Cormick Invented the grain reaper in 1834 to save labor in cutting wheat, oats, and similar crops. Later a threshing machine was added and it became known as a combine.

Cyrus Mc. Cormick’s Reaper

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events John Deere In 1837, improved the iron plow by inventing the steel moldboard plow. Need caused by tough prairie soils.

John Deere’s Plow

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Edmund W. Quincy Invented the mechanical corn picker in 1850. Anna Baldwin Changed the dairy industry in 1878 by inventing a milking machine to replace hand milking.

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Joseph Glidden Invented barbed wire in 1874. Used for livestock fencing. Tamed the west by allowing ranches with fixed boundaries to be established.

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Booker T. Washington Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Advocate of vocational education/skills development. The school was later given land-grant status.

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events George Washington Carver Director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute in early 1900’s. Found new uses for soybeans, peanuts, and sweetpotatoes. Diversified southern agriculture.

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events John Froelich Invented the 1 st gasoline powered tractor that could go forwards and backwards in 1892. His Waterloo Tractor Company was later bought out by the John Deere Co. in 1918.

John Froelich’s Tractor

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Benjamin Holt Invented the traction system found on modern day tanks and bulldozers. Company went one to become Caterpillar Inc. This is where tractors get their name.

Benjamin Holt’s Tractor

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events Harry Ferguson Invented the 3 point hitching system on tractors. Met with Henry Ford in 1938 and had the famous “Handshake Agreement”.

“The Handshake Agreement”

Ferguson Insignia on a Ford Tractor

Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events In 1954, the tractor finally surpasses the mule as the main source of agricultural power.

Improving Life through Agriscience Soybeans Known as the “Yellow Jewell” to the Chinese. World’s most important source for vegetable oil. Provide basic materials for hundreds of products. Used as major food source in China in the form of tofu.

Improving Life through Agriscience Baked Potatoes USDA developed the pest resistant variety of potato called the Bel. Rus. A superior baking variety. Bred to grow well in New England.

Improving Life through Agriscience Aerosols Developed by the U. S. military to create a “bug bomb” to combat malaria. Present day pressurized cans originated from that early research.

Improving Life through Agriscience Beltsville Small White Turkey A 8 -10 lb. turkey developed by USDA researchers. Need arose when American families decreased in size and 30 lb. turkeys became too much.

Improving Life through Agriscience The Green Revolution Process whereby many countries became self sufficient in food production in the 1960 s by using improved crop varieties and practices.

Improving Life through Agriscience The Green Industry The modern horticulture industry with emphasis on turf and landscape plants.

Improving Life through Agriscience Cultivated Blueberries Blueberry industry launched when highquality, large-fruited blueberries were developed. Blueberries had to be picked from the wild before this development.

Improving Life through Agriscience Nutritional Values Detergent chemical methods were developed to analyze nutritional value of feed stuffs. Procedures now widely used in both human & animal nutrition.

Improving Life through Agriscience Biological Attractants Chemicals only produce short term results. Traps created to capture large numbers of insect populations for integrated pest management programs.

Recent Breakthroughs in Agriscience Mastitis Reduced Human Nutrition Fire-Ant Control Coccidiosis Control Exotic Flowers Satellites & Nitrogen -Gas Lasers Sugar Beet & Rice Hybrids

Agriscience and the Future The average American farmer produces enough food and fiber for 128 people. As the world’s population increases, it will require a more sophisticated agriscience industry to keep pace with demand.

Agriscience and the Future The science of food production, processing, and distribution will require: College graduates to fill roles as scientists, engineers, and other professionals. USDA reported an increased demand for graduates from agricultural colleges in the 90 s.

Designed By: Johnny M. Jessup, FFA Advisor Hobbton High School