Princeton, Kentucky
June 27, 2007
By Laura Skillman
Since its birth seven years ago, the
University of Kentucky New Crop
Opportunities Center has provided research and information on
new and emerging crop options for Kentucky’s once
tobacco-dependent producers.
To date, the center has funded 63 projects, of which 34 are
ongoing. These projects are often collaborative efforts between
departments. Researchers from seven departments within the UK
College of Agriculture have had projects funded through the
center, which receives federal grant money to operate and pay
for the research efforts. This funding has provided research in
areas that otherwise may not have been conducted, said Dewayne
Ingram, center co-director and horticulture department chair.
David Van Sanford, UK wheat breeder, is the center’s other
co-director.
“The bottom line is we want to help farmers,” said Christy
Cassady, center coordinator. “We’ve had good research and
enabled farmers to try new things. Part of our role is to
determine the most economically feasible ways to produce these
crops.
“One of the dangers is to not let people get too excited about a
new crop too early. People come up with ideas, and it sounds
really good on the surface, but you don’t want people to jump
into it too fast before we have more information for them,” she
said. “If people come in too quickly and then they end up losing
money, they just write that crop off. They think there’s no hope
for it. That’s why you’ve got to be careful and not over promote
something until you have adequate information in place before
growers invest.”
The center began in July 2000 as Kentucky was starting to
transition from a tobacco-based agriculture economy to a more
diverse economy. Knowing there would be a need for alternative
sources of income for Kentucky farmers, UK established the
center with a special interest toward horticulture and
specialty grains.
“We look for the opportunities to do research on a number of
crops that would provide fairly high income for Kentucky
growers,” Cassady said. “This has been very diverse from the
start with a lot of different people from several departments in
the college. It has always had a multidisciplinary approach.”
The center shares its research results and other crop
information with farmers through agents with the UK Cooperative
Extension Service, as well as through a Web site and at
meetings. Cassady said the center’s crop profiles are quick
snapshots of what is required to produce a particular crop so a
farmer can quickly decide if it is one they may or may not want
to consider growing. The profiles give farmers an opportunity to
compare crop growing requirements to their resources.
Since it began, the center has seen a number of successes. One
of those was a project to find disease-resistant varieties of
bell peppers that could be grown in the state.
“They were experiencing huge losses from disease before this
research,” Cassady said. “That research has made a big
difference. Basically, 95 percent of the varieties grown now in
Kentucky were varieties recommended as a result of this
research.”
Small fruits production, especially blackberries and
blueberries, has also increased in the state and research
efforts on cultivars and other production practices have enabled
growers to be successful. A project now under way focuses on the
organic production of blueberries, as well as value-added frozen
and dried blueberry products. With the increasing number of
blueberry acres in the state, this research could make a real
difference for producers, she said.
Cassady noted there’s been quite a bit of interest in organic
production. Although she’s not sure how many people will go
into organics, research such as a new project on developing an
organic apple orchard, gives them the needed information. The
center has funded several research projects on organic vegetable
production in addition to organic fruit and organic grain
cropping systems. The center’s web site has information on the
organic certification process as well as a recent survey of
organic production in Kentucky. Extension agents, specialists
and organic growers were surveyed for their ideas on crops that
are easy or difficult to organically grow in Kentucky. The
information gathered helps people learn from the experiences of
others when it comes to deciding what to organically grow.
The center is collaborating with Kentucky Department of
Agriculture on a project to optimize Romaine lettuce
production in Kentucky primarily because of interest by a
produce company.
“We are looking at what cultivars work best, what production
practices work best, and grower and agent training. It looks
like it has potential if we can work out the bugs,” Cassady
said.
With many of these crops, marketing is also a vital piece of the
puzzle. This can be the most difficult part, Cassady said,
because you can’t change a person’s personality and some people
just don’t have it in them to do the face-to-face marketing
required for some of these crops.
Some other research funded through the center includes white
wheat production, sweet sorghum varieties for
Kentucky, high tunnel production practices for season extension,
sustainable management of insect pests and diseases of
nursery-grown maples in Kentucky, optimizing pot-in-pot nursery
production, and several biofuels projects.
Center Co-Director Ingram noted that the center has played a
vital role in Kentucky’s efforts to diversify its farm economy
but there’s still more for the center and its research efforts
to do.
“Kentucky agriculture is not through transitioning. It is still
in transition,” he said.
To see the crop profiles, research reports and other information
on new cropping opportunities, visit the center’s Web site at
http://www.uky.edu/Ag/NewCrops. |
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