Tag Archives: Suwannee CARES

Your Land Grant Partner

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April 2025 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter 

dr angleBy J. Scott Angle
[email protected]
@IFAS_VP

Levy County Farm Bureau board member Aaron Lane is among the first to know about fertilizer innovations and how they work on his farm because of his partnership with UF/IFAS.

UF/IFAS scientists Mark Warren, Shivendra Kumar and Bob Hochmuth take what they see in the lab or on their research fields and test it on Lane’s farm to see if it works in the real world.

On Lane’s farm they’ve run trials on cool season forages, controlled release fertilizer for watermelon and Bermudagrass, forage herbicides, Bermudagrass variety establishment, and drip fertigation fertilizer uniformity.

The innovation that farmer and scientist pursue together keep farmers in business. And it’s key to reducing annual nitrogen use to help meet water quality goals for the Suwannee Valley.

Every year UF/IFAS and the Farm Bureau celebrate the gains we’re making toward that goal, one farm at a time, at Suwannee CARES, a celebration at the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center—Suwannee Valley (NFREC-SV). The event highlights producers for their unpaid environmental stewardship as they make a living feeding Florida and the nation.

Please join me, Warren, Lane and hundreds of your fellow Farm Bureau members on May 1 for this year’s Suwannee CARES event. Register here.

Lane is a past honoree. The trials have helped him stay profitable and served as a model for how other Suwannee Valley farmers can meet water quality goals. The on-farm trials can show where innovations result in savings for farmers, and where the costs aren’t worth it.

In the ongoing trial of controlled release fertilizer on hay at Lane’s farm, so far the costs aren’t worth it. Lane suspected as much beforehand. A season’s worth of data reaffirmed that. But it also set the stage for trying a lower-cost fertilizer to see if scientist and farmer can make it pencil out at harvest time.

The reason Lane was even willing to explore this on 10 acres of his land was that he trusts Levy County Extension Director Warren. For six years Warren has given him answers to his questions instantly or said eight magic words that reaffirm his honesty and trustworthiness: “I don’t know, but I can find out.”

Warren doesn’t ask Lane to pay the costs of the field trial – Lane is already taking a risk with his land. Thanks to best management practices cost share and incentive programs from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Suwannee River Water Management District, the additional cost of the new fertilizer and the time and effort of the UF/IFAS scientific team is covered.

But for Lane, on-farm trials still mean giving scientists access to his land, allowing them to collect data that represents trade secrets, coordinating his operation so as not to interfere with the research, and risking a reduced yield. That’s a harder bargain to make with a scientist who’s a stranger.

Neither of us can do this alone. We need to be scientific partners. Warren and Lane exemplify the mutual trust on which that partnership is based.

J. Scott Angle is the University of Florida’s Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).

 

 

Your Land Grant Partner

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June 2024 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter

By Rob Gilbert
[email protected]
@IFAS_VP

Florida agriculture has a recipe for profitable farming that protects water quality. The ingredients include science, financial incentives, and encouragement from peers.

We’re fortunate in Florida to have a great partnership to supply you with all of the above.

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) develops the science. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) makes water-friendly farming less costly. The Florida Farm Bureau Federation (FFBF) encourages you to adopt controlled release fertilizer, cover cropping and more – and highlights farmers who embrace these innovations.

There are many more partners, but these three represent the academia-government-industry partnership on which the land-grant mission is based.

At the recent Suwannee CARES event, we celebrated another dozen farmers who are doing it right. They got plaques, applause, and photos with FFBF President Jeb Smith.

They also cruised a midway that offered everything from pork sliders to roasted PBJs.

UF/IFAS hosted the party at its North Florida Research and Education Center—Suwannee Valley. FFBF identified the honorees and helped bring together 700 people to celebrate environmental stewardship. Kathy Mears, chief of staff to the commissioner of agriculture, and West Gregory, who leads the FDACS Office of Agricultural Water Policy, attended to show their support.

Even with state statute as his marching orders to implement BMPs, Gregory says the key to widespread adoption is not to force them on farmers but to help them figure out how to implement them effectively and profitably.

His office defrays costs for new equipment, supplies or techniques with direct funding or through the Farm Bureau, the water management districts, or UF/IFAS.

FDACS also supports some of the science. It funds the work of UF/IFAS researchers who validate the effectiveness of existing practices and discover new ways to grow more food with fewer inputs. I’m thankful to FDACS for supporting work on carrots, corn, and watermelon at the UF/IFAS research farm in Live Oak.

None of us could do this individually. In recent years we at UF/IFAS have deployed researchers across the state to update nutrient rate recommendations that in some cases are a generation old. FDACS, sometimes through the Suwannee River Water Management District, has invested more than $17 million in the past decade to help farmers buy soil moisture sensors and air seeders. Farm Bureau finds exemplary producers who inspire others to commit to BMPs.

So, while we celebrate the farmers who are getting it right, we also celebrate the academia-government-industry recipe we’ve relied upon to implement the land-grant mission for 150 years.

Rob Gilbert is the University of Florida’s interim senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).

Your Land Grant Partner

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April 2024 FloridAgriculture eNewsletter

By Rob Gilbert
[email protected]
@IFAS_VP

Vivek Sharma has grant money, soil moisture probes, a lab, brilliant graduate students, and the full backing of a UF/IFAS faculty appointment to figure out how to get maximum yield with minimal environmental impact.

Gilchrist County Farm Bureau board member BJ Wilkerson he’ll have about 40 harvests in his lifetime and a young daughter interested in farming to figure out the same thing.

Sharma develops the science that underpins best management practices. Wilkerson makes changes to his practices based on observation, and thanks, to UF/IFAS, increasingly based on consultation with his daughter.

Sharma and the Wilkersons’ combined expertise has developed a better understanding of what works for corn. Their partnership exemplifies UF/IFAS and Florida Farm Bureau’s decades-long cooperation.

We even jointly throw a party to highlight the farmers who demonstrate their environmental stewardship through best management practices, or BMPs. The Farm Bureau funds Suwannee CARES, and UF/IFAS hosts an awards night – this year on May 2 – at its North Florida Research and Education Center—Suwannee Valley (NFREC-SV) in Live Oak.

Improving water quality is one of Florida’s greatest challenges, but because of the partnership between UF/IFAS and the Florida Farm Bureau, it can also be one of our greatest scientific, environmental, and agricultural successes.

The Wilkerson family was recognized at Suwannee CARES in 2022 as one of those successes. And they’re looking to achieve even more with Sharma, NFREC-SV assistant center director Bob Hochmuth and Gilchrist County agriculture and natural resources Extension agent Tyler Pittman.

Hochmuth has run watermelon trials on Wilkerson’s farm in Trenton. Pitman is currently experimenting with controlled release fertilizers on Wilkerson’s land.

Two years ago, Sharma set up Florida Stakeholder Engagement Program (STEP) Corn Contest plots for 10 farmers at NFREC-SV, thanks to funding from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. He put out a call for participants. The idea was to do the farming for them as they directed and give them data and photos, and the farmers would respond with decisions on seeding rate, nitrogen management, irrigation, insurance selection and grain marketing.

Wilkerson was among those who heard from Sharma. At the time his daughter was telling Wilkerson she wanted to be a farmer just like her dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Wilkerson also wanted to do everything he could to protect the land and natural resources on which Kelsey would be depending 40 harvests from now.

They were one of winners of the competition and collected a $1,000 check as the top overall performers. You can guess who ultimately cashed it.

I’m excited to attend this year’s Suwannee CARES to hear more inspiring stories about how university-Farm Bureau-agency partnerships are using BMPs to protect water quality.

The scientist-grower partnership really hits home with me, because I came up through the ranks of UF/IFAS at the Everglades Research and Education Center. Scientists, growers, and agency officials working together there have used BMPs to reduce phosphorus runoff by 57 percent.

Farmers, of course, see themselves as environmental stewards. But they can’t build environmental stewardship into the price of their crop, and they can’t even convince some people that it’s part of their practices and ethic.

In that atmosphere, the daddy-daughter victory and the CARES award mean a lot to Wilkerson.

“We get put down a whole lot more than we get picked up,” Wilkerson says. “It’s nice to know at least somebody thinks we’re headed in the right direction.”

Rob Gilbert is the University of Florida’s interim senior vice president for agriculture and natural resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).