Catching Up with CALS — Aug. 23, 2023

Dean's Message — CALS, ISDA Partnership Growing

With change comes opportunity. And with the recent appointment of new leadership within the Idaho State Department of Agriculture, Director Chanel Tewalt and Deputy Director Lloyd Knight (’96, animal science), CALS and ISDA are pursuing new opportunities to build on an already strong foundation between the two organizations. The CALS Dean’s Advisory Board has historically included an ex-officio seat for ISDA — a role in which both Tewalt and Knight have already been actively engaged.

Knight and Tewalt returned to campus for a July tour, during which we discussed reinforcing past relationships and building upon existing collaborations. ISDA employs a number of CALS graduates, including, most recently, the hire of new ISDA public information officer, Sydney Plum (’22, agricultural science, communication and leadership). By coordinating our efforts, CALS and ISDA both stand to improve impact. We have a lot in common, and there’s a great deal of overlap in our missions. As a land-grant university, CALS has a statewide presence through the Idaho Agricultural Experiment Station and University of Idaho Extension. ISDA works on behalf of the entire state, as well. We have common stakeholders within Idaho’s agricultural industry, though we serve them in different ways. While ISDA serves and regulates Idaho agriculture, we advance much of the science to help our stakeholders improve the productivity and sustainability of their daily operations. Our UI Extension staff often refer producers seeking answers to certain problems to ISDA experts and programming. In turn, ISDA relies heavily on our Extension and experiment station network as a conduit to reach producers and to keep informed on pressing issues facing farms, ranches or dairies in each county.

CALS and ISDA have a history of partnership. Consider this season’s Mormon cricket and grasshopper population explosions. UI Extension educators throughout the state have been flooded with calls since June from farmers, ranchers and other landowners seeking solutions to save their rangeland and crops from these voracious insects. Our experts authored a 2020 Extension bulletin providing the public with the best entomological science. But they also make certain to educate callers about ISDA’s Grasshopper and Mormon Cricket Control Program, which has directly distributed more than 154,000 pounds of insecticidal bait this season to Idaho property owners to control the pests. The agency has also reimbursed more than $800,000 to farmers who had to buy alternative products because the bait isn’t labeled for use in the crops they’re raising. Furthermore, CALS plays a part in ISDA’s efforts to train and license pesticide applicators, who earn continuing education credits toward recertification by attending many UI Extension field days, as well as events such as the annual Idaho Potato Conference. Also in the realm of pesticides, ISDA is tasked with reviewing registrants’ applications for new product labels and passing those applications along to federal regulators with the EPA. CALS assists with research for special-needs pesticide labels benefiting specialty crops through USDA’s IR-4 Project. Finally, we receive grant funding toward our research projects through ISDA. Federal Specialty Crop Block Grants, which fund research for fresh fruits and vegetables such as potatoes, pass through ISDA, and CALS researchers are very successful in securing those awards.

During our recent visits with Tewalt and Knight, we found fertile ground for growing future collaborations. The new ISDA leaders share our vision for providing real-world experiences for our students and graduates and would like to offer new ISDA internships like providing students a chance to learn more about the regulatory and public policy side of the industry. Or hosting activities for customers and consumers of Idaho-grown products in the Carmelita Spencer Foods Laboratory on campus to showcase all Idaho’s commodities have to offer. Additionally, there are opportunities to engage ISDA in marketing and outreach efforts promoting U of I’s $55 million “Climate-Smart Commodities for Idaho: A Public-Private-Tribal Partnership.” The CALS project represents the largest award in the university’s history and was funded through USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program.

Both Tewalt and Knight have extensive agricultural backgrounds and a long history of aiding Idaho’s food producers. Tewalt has worked for ISDA for the past 15 years, including as deputy director and chief operations officer. She was raised on a livestock operation in Klamath, Oregon, and has placed special emphasis on simplifying regulations for producers. She and her family currently run a Treasure Valley club lamb and seedstock operation. Knight worked for more than eight years with the Idaho Cattle Association, including as its executive vice president. He then served nearly two years as a state budget analyst before becoming administrator of ISDA’s Division of Plant Industries in March 2009 — a position he held for 14 years prior to his recent promotion. “We recognize how important CALS and the network you have are to Idaho agriculture,” Knight said recently. “We really do see CALS as a partner, and we look forward to continuing to build that partnership for the folks we all serve. I think that will be our hallmark moving forward of how we approach things.” The feeling is mutual. Congratulations to ISDA’s new leadership.

Michael P. Parrella

Dean
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences

By the Numbers

The University of Idaho Extension Farm Stress Community Mental Health project facilitates more effective community responses to mental health issues and provides a unique learning opportunity for land grant universities and communities on how to combine forces to impact complex issues. The program was funded with a $200,317 grant through the Western Regional Agricultural Stress Assistance Program, which is funded by the USDA Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network. 17 Idaho communities with documented mental health vulnerabilities were recruited to participate. UI Extension hosted 76 meetings as part of the program, which involved 223 volunteers and 7 UI Extension personnel. Through the sessions, each community identified a mental health priority and created an action plan to address the priority. Each community received $3,000 to see the action plan through.

Our Stories

Drilling Cover Crops

University of Idaho Extension Educator Steven Hines believes he’s found an effective way for farmers who interplant cover crops between corn rows to significantly boost forage production.

Prior to his research this season, Hines’ method of applying cover crop seeds in inter-cropping studies was to broadcast them onto the soil surface, which resulted in relatively poor germination. He chose to research an alternative based on a conversation last winter with a group of soil health-minded Magic Valley farmers.

“We were talking about some of the challenges of getting cover crops established when you broadcast on the ground and don’t have a way to get it into the soil,” said Hines, who is based in Jerome County. “The question two or three of the producers I was talking with came up with was, ‘What if you just ran a grain drill over the corn when it was fairly small?’”

The growers feared the drill would damage cornstalks, outweighing any improvements in cover crop germination. Based on his trial at the U of I Kimberly Research and Extension Center, Hines is already confident that drilling cover crops is worth the effort and needn’t damage much corn.

“I predict there will be no significant difference in corn yield with drilling because there’s not enough plant damage,” Hines said. “I would not hesitate to recommend inter-seeding and drilling a cover crop.”

However, he predicts he’ll quadruple cover crop yields in his project’s drilling scenario compared with broadcasting cover crop seeds.

“I’m really thrilled with the drilled cover crop,” Hines said. “There is some cover crop coming where it was broadcast but nothing like where it was drilled.”

Several growers in Magic Valley have been exploring inter-planting corn and cover crops as a way to provide their cattle with fall forage after taking a corn harvest. In prior inter-cropping research, Hines found that broadcasting cover crops between widely spaced corn rows provided extra forage without adversely affecting corn yields. In fact, the presence of cover crops actually boosted corn yields when corn rows were spaced 44 inches apart.

Interplanting cover crops appears to be the answer for southern Idaho farmers who haven’t been able to find a short-season crop capable of producing much forage when planted just after grain harvest.

“By inter-seeding you get that forage up and going,” Hines said. “The corn grows over the top of it, so it slows that cover crop down until it’s harvested off. The sunlight gets back to the cover crop, and by a couple of irrigations you’ve got forage ready to go for the cattle.”

Hines planted corn for this season’s inter-cropping experiment on May 23, following with cover crop seed on June 15 at the V3 stage. By that date, corn had emerged but the growth point of plants — a sensitive area from which new cells are developed and elongate — was not yet pushed above the soi surface.

Hines planted scenarios with corn and no cover crops, corn and cover crops broadcast in between rows and corn and cover crops drilled between the rows. Rows were spaced either 30 inches or 60 inches apart — his drill was unable to accommodate the 44-inch spacing that produced the best results in prior research regarding corn yields.

Hines used a three-point drill, which attaches to a tractor’s three-point and is lifted so only the tire that engages the drill mechanism touches the ground. He made certain that tire passed between corn rows. It’s critical for success that the tires of a drill don’t run over corn. A commercial interseeder drill is ideal, but Hines was also interested in finding ways to interseed cover crops using equipment most growers already have.

Another benefit of drilling was that it allowed Hines to include larger seeds in his cover crop mix. Large seeds, such as peas, don’t germinate well when broadcast onto fields.

“There are very few peas that are coming up in the broadcast plot, but in the drilled plot it’s a nice stand of peas like everything else,” Hines said.

His cover crop blend also includes clover and annual rye grass, which can produce additional biomass after winter for spring grazing. Furthermore, cover crops provide winter cover, trapping snow for moisture and preventing wind erosion.

“I really see the producer who would adopt this is somebody who is looking for additional forage or someone who is looking for soil-health benefits,” Hines said.

Interns Making Key Contributions

As a 2023 summer intern with University of Idaho Extension in Ada County, McKenna Schmitt helped launch a new program to teach young children how to garden indoors.

Through her internship, Schmitt also joined staff on the Boise Farmers Mobile Market’s “veggie van,” traveling to neighborhoods with poor access to fresh produce and bringing the farmers market to them.

Every summer, UI Extension provides 400-hour, paid internships to students enrolled in Idaho public universities and colleges, such as Schmitt, who experience the real-world applications of lessons they’ve learned in class. Often, UI Extension internships represent the first step on the path toward a fulfilling career for participants.

“I’m finally taking ideas that I’ve learned in school and ideas I’ve dreamed of doing and I’m applying them in the real world,” said Schmitt, a junior at Boise State University. “I’m learning to be a community educator and informing other people rather than getting informed myself.”

Schmitt, of Seattle, who is majoring in environmental studies and minoring in global studies and American Sign Language, plans to work in food systems. Throughout the summer, Schmitt reported to Ariel Agenbroad, an area Extension educator based in Ada County specializing in food systems and small farms. Agenbroad had ordered 20 kits for raising produce indoors, which were developed by UI Extension Educator Andy West. Agenbroad tasked her summer intern with putting those kits to good use.

Schmitt partnered with an Extension intern working out of Owyhee County, Cassie Moody, and they put their own spin on UI Extension’s 4-H Junior Master Gardener curriculum to pair with lessons using the kits. The program they created, called Let’s Grow!, brings indoor gardening and classroom food safety kits to preschools, daycares and summer camps and teaches children about planting seeds, harvesting produce and encourages kids to try new vegetables.

Agenbroad has supervised 20 summer interns over the past 11 years.

“It increases our capacity significantly to do programming — to be in more places; to have more impact and outreach,” Agenbroad said. “It’s also fun for me because of the energy and the enthusiasm the interns bring, and it’s good to have that fresh perspective.”

A couple of Agenbroad’s past interns have gone on to make careers in Extension. For example, Courtney Cosdon, UI Extension soil health instructor, got to work with researchers and Treasure Valley’s small producers through an internship with Agenbroad, which set her on her career path.

“I walked into the Ada County Extension office in May of 2017 trying to learn more about what Extension was and walked out with an internship,” Cosdon said. “I think that internship was helpful in teaching me the Extension mission, which was very unclear to me at the time, and helped me realize that I would enjoy this work.”

Following her internship, Cosdon earned a master’s degree in soil and water systems. Working on her master’s thesis, she discovered she enjoyed research and teaching others about soils, compost and gardening.

Jim Sprinkle, UI Extension beef specialist, has also relied heavily on assistance from summer interns throughout the years. His interns have helped move cattle, assisted with temporary fencing, conducted rangeland monitoring, gathered data on forage consumption and completed a host of other ranch tasks.

“They’re a great resource. They assist us in research, and I think we assist them in acquiring skills that maybe they haven’t had a chance to acquire with research and so forth,” Sprinkle said.

Eight former interns associated with Sprinkle’s research were acknowledged in a paper documenting a grazing behavior study conducted at U of I’s Rinker Rock Creek Ranch, which was published in a 2021 edition of “Translational Animal Science.”

One former intern, Mallery Larson, now works as a research specialist for U of I’s Palouse Research, Extension and Education Center. During her 2018 undergraduate internship, Larson had the chance to present a poster based on her research during an annual meeting of the Western Section — American Society of Animal Science.

Larson graduated with a bachelor’s degree in animal and veterinary science: business option in May 2020. She began working on a master’s degree in animal science at U of I last fall.

“I wouldn’t have the job I have today if I hadn’t done it,” Larson said. “It opened opportunities to see what research is and what rangeland and animal science looks like.”

Larson also got to know her husband, Taythen Larson, during her internship. He managed cattle as an intern under the supervision of John Hall, cattle management lead with Rinker Rock Creek Ranch.

UI Extension increased hourly wages for interns to $17 per hour prior to this summer. Wage savings from unfilled positions account for much of the funding for internships. For the past few years, U of I has also partnered with AmeriCorps, which has helped fund interns serving 4-H youth development.

Agricultural education majors frequently accept 4-H internships, which afford participants the opportunity to plan curriculum, organize and evaluate summer day camps. Barbara Petty, UI Extension director and associate dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, has a committee assigned to review applications and determine which Extension educators should receive interns.

“It increases our capacity. We are able to use the student interns during our busy time in the summer, but yet we’re not paying them a full-time salary year-round,” Petty said. “And it’s just a great opportunity for the youth to put into practice what they’re learning.”

Benefits of 4-H Animal Projects

Braiden Wilde and his goat Nibbles had a daily routine leading up to the Bannock County Fair, hosted Aug. 7-12.

In preparation for the University of Idaho Extension 4-H Youth Development Goat Show, the 11-year-old Inkom boy would walk Nibbles back and forth on his long driveway while his family members offered their feedback. Then he’d practice showing Nibbles in the family’s small, private arena.

For 4-H youth involved in animal projects throughout the state, fair season is the fruition of countless hours of care and preparation, but the rewards cannot be overstated. 

Read the full story

Faces and Places

Jolene Whiteley, a master’s student in dietetics and nutritional sciences and manager of the Carmelita Spencer Food Laboratory, organized and taught three three-day camps, all of which were unique, focused on cooking and healthy eating for middle school students. Cooking Camps for Middle Schoolers were hosted in the food lab in the Niccolls Building from 1-4 p.m. July 25-27, Aug. 8-10 and 15-17. The camps covered how to build lunch and snack plates, good flavor combinations and techniques for cooking basic foods. This was the first year in which the camps were offered.

Professors Michael Strickland and Zachary Kayler spent time this summer traveling to various ecotron sites in Europe in preparation for the forthcoming Deep Soil Ecotron project. The pair recently spoke with Nature Methods about the project.

The Margaret Ritchie School of Family and Consumer Sciences sponsored the second annual University of Idaho Child Development Conference Aug. 12 in Moscow, attended by more than 50 childcare providers and early childhood educators. CALS faculty Sara Matthews, Shiyi Chen and Ling-Ling Tsao organized and facilitated the event. Professor Emeritus Beth Price served as keynote speaker.