Land Improvement, Composting Site
Field Day June 16-17
WOOSTER, Ohio The
Ohio Agricultural Research and
Development Center will host
the Land Improvement and
Composting Site Field Day be
ginning Friday, June 16, and
ending in the early afternoon on
Saturday, June 17.
The event is sponsored by the
center’s Ohio Composting and
Manure Management
(OCAMM) program and will ad
dress manure management and
composting issues. The field day
will provide opportunities to
learn more about manure han
dling and composting funda
mentals, including the benefits
of composting and the impor
tance of the new composting
pad to OARDC scientists.
“We don’t really have plans
at this time of continuing the
field day from year to year.
When the Ohio Land Improve
ment Contractor’s Association
chose this site for their annual
field day, we saw an opportunity
to bring together OCAMM
stakeholders to address manure
management issues,” said
OCAMM Coordinator Mary
Wicks.
The proposed composting site
includes a 30,00-square-foot
concrete composting pad with
an adjacent 30,000-square-foot
area for expansion and summer
composting. The concrete pad
has been designed with air ducts
embedded in the pad to enhance
Workshop Set On Agriculture,
Environmental Laws
UNIVERSITY PARK
(Centre Co.) Agricultural
educators and others who help
young farmers understand the
interplay of food production and
environmental protection can
attend a two-day workshop
sponsored by Penn State’s Dick
inson School of Law and College
of Agricultural Sciences.
“Environmental Law and
Regulation Applied to Agricul
ture” is scheduled at Dickin
son’s Agricultural Law Research
and Education Center in Carli
sle June 20-21. The workshop
will highlight how state and fed
eral environmental agencies
manage and monitor agricul
tural activities.
High school vocational agri
culture teachers and educators,
cooperative extension faculty
and staff, and high school sci
ence and government teachers
are encouraged to attend.
John Becker, Penn State pro
fessor of agricultural economics
and one of the workshop’s in
structors, explained that he and
Ag Law Center executive direc
tor Christine Kellett hope to
capitalize on the special role
that vocational agriculture
teachers play in helping young
and older farmers learn about
their industry and the issues
that influence it.
“By virtue of their contacts
with current and future agricul
tural producers, helping these
teachers to understand the
issues will help them teach
many students, who, in turn,
will meet their regulatory re
quirements,” he said. “A similar
multiplication of effort and po
tential impact happens with ex
tension staff.”
The workshop will cover sev
eral topics, including traditional
solutions to environmental prob
lems, right-to-farm laws, state
drying and will provide the ca
pability to produce commercial
grade composts as well as carry
out high-quality research on
smaller composting piles.
A treatment wetlands con
structed adjacent to the com
posting pads will intercept and
treat runoff from the compost
ing area, minimizing the poten
tial for nutrient contamination.
The design calls for a series of
three treatment cells for each
pad located downhill from the
composting area.
Composting addresses two
major concerns that were ex
pressed by an OARDC nutrient
management team led by agri
cultural engineer Ted Short in
1998: (1) manure nutrients are
produced in excess of crop needs
at the Wooster Campus, and (2)
the high volume of liquid
manure from the OARDC dairy
facilities presents the greatest
challenge. The team concluded
that composting provides the
greatest potential for addressing
these concerns and meeting nu
trient balance objectives.
“We expect to have people
with interests in livestock,
manure management, and/or
composting. In addition to edu
cational seminars and tours,
participants will have the oppor
tunity to discuss issues with rep
resentatives from the Natural
Resource Conservation Service,
Ohio Environmental Protection
Agency and Ohio Department of
and federal sources of regula
tory authority, the Clean Water
Act, EPA/USDA Unified Strat
egy For Dealing With Concen
trated Animal Feeding
Operations, regulation of activi
ties taking place on wetlands,
regulation of the sale and use of
pesticides, and food safety
/biotechnology.
Registration fee for the
course, which is funded in part
by a grant from the U.S. Envi
ronmental Protection Agency, is
$25. Successful completion of
Vegetable Supplemental
Herbicide Labels for 2000
Mike Orzolek,
Department of Horticulture
Penn State
PDA has approved a 24
(c)“Special local Needs” regis
tration for the use of Matrix her
bicide on transplanted tomato in
Pennsylvania.
Matrix (rimsulfuron) from
DuPont will give selective con
trol of certain broad leave weeds
and grasses when applied at 1.0
ounce per acre rate. It is recom
mended that Matrix be tank
mixed with Sencor (metribuzin)
at the rate of 2.0 ounces per acre
as a postemergence application
1-3 days after transplanting
tomato.
If a second flush of weeds
would appear after the initial
application of Matrix/Sencor, a
second application of the Matrix
and Sencor tank mix could be
made 14 to 18 days later at the
1.0 ounce per acre rate. Matrix
applied postemergence will con
trol the following weeds: volun
teer barley, barnyardgrass,
annual bluegrass, foxtails, fall
panicum, quackgrass (4 inches
Natural Resources,” Wicks said.
The event kicks off on Friday
morning at 9 a.m. with a semi
nar series that will last until
noon. The topics will include
manure handling alternatives
and regulations, composting
principles and systems, and
compost siting and runoff treat
ment. Each session should last
about 20 minutes. Friday’s pro
gram is expected to be beneficial
for personnel from regulatory
agencies such as soil and water
conservation districts.
Saturday’s educational semi
nars will begin at 10 a.m. and
end at 2 p.m. They will be
geared more toward the general
public. Topics will cover manure
handling regulations, livestock
industry and expansion in Ohio,
and composting principles and
utilization.
“Visitors can learn the princi
ples of composting and the use
of composting for manure man
agement,” Wicks said.
During the two-day event,
there will be tours and demon
strations from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
on Friday and from 9:30 a.m. to
3 p.m. on Saturday. The tour
topics will include composting
site design and construction,
drain tile installation, the
OARDC Composting Research
Center, windrow composting,
vermicomposting, dead animal
composting, and nutrient man
agement planning.
For more information, call
Mary Wicks at (330) 202-3533.
the workshop and a take-home
exam will earn registrants en
rolled in a graduate-degree pro
gram one credit through Penn
State. High school vocational
agriculture teachers will be
given priority because of limited
space.
For more information, con
tact the Ag Law Center by
phone at (717) 241-3517 or by e
mail at aglaw@psu.edu, or visit
the center’s World Wide Web
site at http://www.dsl.edu/a
giaw.html.
to 8 inches tall), volunteer
wheat, common chickweed,
henbit, kochia, mustards,
pigweeds, Shepherd’s purse, and
wild radish. Matrix applied pos
temergence will also give partial
control of the following weeds:
Canada thistle (small actively
growing thistle), cocklebur,
common lambs- quarters,
ivy leaf raorningglory, hairy
nightshade, common purslane,
common ragweed, Pennsylvania
smartweed, and velvetleaf.
Precautions: Do not apply
Matrix within 45 days to har
vest, do not exceed 3.0 ounces of
Matrix per acre per year, do not
use in Matrix in a spray solution
or spray additive that reduces
water pH below 4.0, and do not
apply Matrix through any type
of irrigation system.
The Pennsylvania Vegetable
Growers Association holds the
registration for the use of Matrix
on tomato in Pennsylvania. To
obtain a label for the use of
Matrix on tomato, contact Bill
Troxell, Pennsylvania Vegetable
Growers’ Association, at (717)
694-3596.
Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion
Receives Grant
HARRISBURG (Dauphin
Co.) Pennsylvania’s dairy
promotion checkoff programs
are on a quest to ensure cold
milk is served in public schools.
Pennsylvania Dairy Promotion
Program, American Dairy Asso
ciation & Dairy Council Mid
East, American Dairy Associa
tion/Dairy Council Middle At
lantic and the American Dairy
Association, Inc. were collec
tively awarded a $92,500 match
ing grant for the year 2000 from
the Pennsylvania Department ol
Agriculture to apply to this goal.
“The school lunch program is
a win-win situation for our
farmers and our students,” said
Debra Summerall, PDPP spok
esperson. “Milk on the school
meal line provides students an
excellent source of calcium,
needed for building strong bones
during adolescence, and farmers
a demand for their product.
However, if not served under 40
degrees, students will bypass the
calcium and eight other nu
trients essential for good health
that are found in milk for a less
nutritional beverage.”
In an effort to increase milk
consumption in school, organ
izations have continued to work
closely with school food service
in Pennsylvania through “The
Dairy Difference: Meeting the
Needs of Pennsylvania School
Children,” an active plan that
includes four important areas
“Operation Cold Milk,” Choco
late Milk Marketing Promotion,
Food Safety and Quality and
School Food Service Advisory
Council.
“Operation Cold Milk” is
proactive approach to solving
the warm milk problem in
schools. Pennsylvania’s dairy
farmer-funded programs will
use the grant to provide one of
the following, depending on the
respective territory in which the
school is located: a serving line
milk cooler, a Curton milk
cooler curtain, an ice barrel for
milk, cooler wraps or funds
toward the purchase of a new
full-size milk cooler.
“Milk on the serving line will
only be purchased and con
sumed if it is cold,” explained
Joyce Abercrombie, ADADC
Mid East director of school pro
grams. “Our studies show that
60 percent of children who don’t
currently drink milk at school
would drink milk if it were
colder. The cold bags and other
non-electric coolers offer an
ideal alternate serving solu
tion.”
Placement of the coolers and
ice barrels will also offer the op
portunity for students to pur
chase milk at multiple sites in
the school setting. The net effect
is that children will receive the
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calcium they need to increase
bone development, while in
creasing the sales of milk at
school a win-win situation for
students and farmers.
Complementing “Operation
Cold Milk,” a chocolate milk
marketing promotion will be in
stituted this spring with a por
tion of the PDA grant. “The
marketing project will serve as a
catalyst to change behavior and
entice children to purchase
chocolate milk,” Abercrombie
explained. “This will positively
impact school sales.”
Staff from all regions will re
inforce food safety and quality
techniques through Serving it
Safe training workshops. These
workshops will key in on dairy
handling to insure a quality
product is presented on the
lunch line to students.
In addition, school food ser
vice directors will have access to
the Cold is Cool! Milk Handling
Workshop Video Kit. To build
on these principles, Milk Tem
perature Quality Assurance pro
gram materials will be provided
free of charge to directors by re
quest. These materials include
digital thermometers and data
recording sheets for tracking
milk temperature. The audits
will aid in determining which
school will receive the non
electric milk coolers, electric
coolers and milk curtain Cur
trons.
According to Carolyn
Weaver, nutrition education
specialist for ADA/DC Middle
Atlantic, school food service
staff learned through the pro
gram the importance of moni
toring milk temperatures
throughout the day.
“The only way to guarantee
that the milk is cold is to check
the temperature when it arrives
at the school and at the begin
ning of each lunch period,”
Weaver said. “The bottom line
is that students will not drink
milk that is not ice cold. The
milk temperature kits provide
the tools and incentive to main
tain optimal quality.”
Rounding out school fund ser
vice focus enabled by the grant,
the School Food Service Advi
sory Council, created in the
1998-99 school year with fund
ing from PDA, will be continued
during the 1999-2000 school
year to identify key issues affect
ing school lunch programs. This
council contains past and cur
rent presidents of the Pennsyl
vania School Foodservice
Association, an American
School Foodservice Association
executive board member and
foundation member, representa
tives from PDA and the Penn
sylvania Department of
Education and other prominent
school food service directors in
Pennsylvania.
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