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July 2005
Pennsylvania Growers
Eligible for Bittner Travel Fellowship Award. Pennsylvania
Fruit News (July '05) announced that the State
Horticultural Association of Pennsylvania is sponsoring
the Carl S. Bittner Travel Fellowship Award "to expose young people working
in the Pennsylvania fruit industry to new ideas on fruit
production being used in other areas of the world." Up
to $500 can be awarded annually by the association to someone
age 18 or older "working in the fruit industry, and promoting
leadership within the society." The recipient must be a
fruit grower, or someone associated with fruit production
in Pennsylvania , who would like to travel outside the
state of Pennsylvania . To apply, a brief explanation of
the proposed trip should be submitted in writing, including
the name, address, age, and potential trip being considered
by the applicant. Applications must be submitted by November
1 to Maureen Irvin, Executive Secretary, State Horticultural
Association of Pennsylvania, 697 Mountain Road , Orrtanna
, PA 17353 . The award will be decided on in November and
presented at the Annual Fruit and Vegetable Growers Dinner
in January.
On-Farm Strawberry Variety Trials in
Ontario: 2004 Results are reported in the Canadian
publication The
Grower (July '05). "Test plots with 25-50 plants
of each variety were planted at 12 different grower sites
in 2003. Growers were asked to record information about
each planting and to make observations on winter injury,
leaf disease and fruit yield and quality. Berries ware
harvested weekly at several sites each year. . . . Information
was collected during the 2004 harvest from five farms in
different regions. . . . Many of the varieties in this
trial are not yet recommended for general planting because
they have not been tested for more than one growing season." Read
the complete article with graphics and photos at http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/hort/news/allontario/ao0405a1.htm .
The Effect of Irrigation
on Terbacil Tolerance in Field-grown Strawberry by researchers in the Department of Horticulture
and Crop Science at Ohio State University is reported in HortTechnology (July-September
2005). The journal's "Spotlight" on this article notes, "The
Sinbar (terbacil) product label permits application of the
herbicide immediately after strawberry planting and again
late in the summer. Terbacil may cause leaf chlorosis and
stunt plants. Polter at al. . . . investigated the use of
irrigation to remove herbicide deposits from strawberry leaves
and thereby mitigate these effects. Irrigation applied immediately
after terbacil spraying reduced leaf chlorosis significantly,
but did not reduce weed control. Fruit yield the following
June was unaffected by terbacil or irrigation treatments." Reprints
of this article may be purchased by clicking on the article
title at http://www.electronicipc.com/JournalEZ/toc.cfm?code=0420003 .
Got kids? Got chores? How to keep your
kids safe is "The
People Side" feature in Hoard's Dairyman (July
'05). "Each year, 32,800 children are seriously hurt doing
farm work in the United States , and around 100 children
are killed, according to the National Agricultural Statistics
Service. . . . The North American Guidelines for Children's
Agricultural Tasks, known as NAGCAT (were) developed in consultation
with farm families, cooperative extension specialists, and
child development and health experts. The guidelines help
parents assess whether children aged 7 to 16 are developmentally
ready to safely perform common farm tasks." The " Job Hazard
Analysis Frameworks and Developmental Checklists" for many
farm jobs are available at http://nagcat.org/nagcat/pages/default.aspx?page=AgriJobs
Operating Cash Flow: The Secret to
Creating and Sustaining a Valuable Business (American
Christmas Tree Journal, July '05). Author Jim Devine
notes, "The number of times that I have heard a business
owner say they acquired additional assets due to their
ability to write them off would require a Hewlett Packard
calculator to quantify. . . . As a small business owner,
the funding strategies that are available don't include
some of the creative financing alternatives that are available
to large businesses with open access to public capital
markets. On the credit side, most small businesses have
access to only the capital they can effectively borrow
from their local bank or what they can squeeze from their
suppliers. Equity in the form of retained profits represents
their primary equity funding resource.. . . We often find
that business owners who are struggling with cash flow
issues are also the ones who have accumulated the biggest
pool of assets. . . . The very decision to acquire an asset
is an intentional decision to be less liquid. . . . Remember,
at the end of the day, cash is king!
Protect Your Hearing recommends Golf
Course News (July '05) in an article that appears
in English and Spanish. "Loud noises increase heart rate
and energy use. This can contribute to fatigue, discomfort
and mental unease. However, the primary effect of noise
is loss of hearing. Abusing the ears with loud noises shifts
the hearing threshold upward, so that a person can only
hear louder sounds. . . . Once damage to hearing has occurred,
it is impossible to repair. Everyone should take steps
to protect their hearing in the workplace. . . . Acoustical
ear muffs provide the most effective protection against
noise. They don't contribute to infection and discomfort
as do ear plugs, which fit tightly and carry dirt to the
ear canal. Ear muffs block more noise than plugs because
they also cover the sound conducting bones around the ears."
Oregon continues to lose strawberry
acreage reports The Vegetable Growers News (July
'05). "Today, Oregon's strawberry crop, practically all
of which is processed, is only a shadow of its former self
. . . The number of strawberry packinghouses that dice,
slice, sugar, puree and freeze strawberries for food processing
customers has dwindled, too. . . . In the past, even with
heavy pressure from California, Oregon growers still enjoyed
good markets because ice cream, yogurt and jam makers were
willing to pay a price differential to get high-quality,
vine-ripened Oregon strawberries developed especially for
processing. But with the flood of California berries coming
on the market at around 25 cents a pound to the grower
and Oregon grower prices at around 41 cents a pound, price
has become the driving force. . . . The chief customers
for Oregon strawberries today are premium ice cream makers,
including local creameries that promote their use of Oregon
strawberries."
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