Category: Strategic Intent
The newsletters include stories about grants, awards, and funding, as well as international connections and faculty spotlights. The link is the CAS comprehensive list of 2015 Departmental newsletters:
http://agsci.oregonstate.edu/main/newsletters
A succulent chicken-bacon-ranch sausage created by animal science student Claire Logue won a Reserve Grand Champion award at the 2015 Northwest Meat Processors Association convention in Seaside. Logue’s creation joins the award-winning hams, bacons, and sausages made and sold by OSU’s meat science students at the student-run Clark Meat Center, where students gain hands-on experience in every phase of meat processing, from slaughtering to crafting value-added products like bacon and sausage.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/student-entrepreneurs
http://anrs.oregonstate.edu/system/files/Spring%202015%20Newsletter_1.pdf
At last summer’s American Cheese Society competition, the mozzarella variety of Beaver Classic Cheese—made and marketed by AgSci students—won first place in its category, beating out commercial entries from all over the United States.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/student-entrepreneurs
Lauren Gwin, a food systems specialist with Extension’s Small Farms Program, helps ranchers assess economic viability and navigate regulations for small-scale meat production. Gwin co-founded the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network, which now connects more than 1,000 members. Gwin served as a technical liason to lawmakers and the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) concerning a poultry production bill, and wrote a guide on best practices for open-air poultry slaughtering. She also helped the ODA’s food safety division adopt federal regulations that make it easier for small-scale farmers to process poultry in licensed facilities.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/getting-meat
Christina DeWitt, director of the Seafood Lab at OSU’s Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station (COMES), mediated a dispute between federal regulators and fishermen over handling procedures of freshly caught tuna. DeWitt traveled to Washington, D.C. and met with the FDA’s Office of Seafood Safety, ultimately drafting a set of handling guidelines that satisfied safety concerns, without being economically burdensome on fishermen.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/ensuring-safety-fast-paced-fishery
In 2014, the College completely revamped the OSU Dairy to reflect contemporary management and research relevant to Oregon’s 3rd largest agricultural industry. AgSci maintains campus-based living laboratories for research in horticulture, crops, botany and plant pathology, and animal sciences.
http://oregonprogress.oregonstate.edu/summer-2015/things-are-moooo-ving-osu-dairy
Over 140 people in southern Oregon have completed the training
Oregon’s Rogue Valley is an attractive spot for newcomers looking to enjoy rural life. It’s also home to a large retired population, some of whom are passing their land to the next generation. These heirs and new residents, however, don’t necessarily have experience owning land.
With this in mind, the OSU Extension Service created the Land Steward Program. Offered in Jackson and Josephine counties, the six- to 10-week training teaches landowners how to create a healthy environment on their property. Participants tour other properties and see how landowners control weeds, care for their trees, enhance wildlife habitat, and safeguard their premises from wildfires. Graduates are required to spend 20 hours sharing their new knowledge with the public.
More than 140 people on about 5,000 acres of land have completed the program since it started in 2009. A survey of four years’ worth of participants found that 85 percent had implemented at least five projects that they planned in class.
To learn more, watch this video of how the program has helped one family in Central Point or read this story about them.
Source: Rhianna Simes, coordinator of the Land Steward Program
The OSU Extension Master Gardener Program, taught by AgSci faculty, offers 10-week courses on natural resources and horticulture in 28 counties and online. AgSci faculty continue to support 3,800 Master Gardeners statewide as they provide public instruction in sustainable landscapes.
Luisa Santamaria, a plant pathologist with OSU’s North Willamette Research and Extension Center, teaches plant disease prevention measures to local nursery workers. Since 2011, Santamaria has reached about 500 Spanish-speaking workers from 25 nurseries through a grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and National Institute of Food and Agriculture. She is currently working in collaboration with OSU’s Professional and Continuing Education Program to create a certification that focuses on plant disease prevention. Her work is crucial to the preservation of Oregon’s largest agricultural commodity: the $745 million nursery industry, which produces 18% of the nation’s nursery crops.
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/bridges/bilingual-outreach-keeps-agricultural-businesses-sanitary
Students receive in-person support while pursuing online agricultural degree
Students in the close-knit community of Klamath Falls have only one local option for pursuing a four-year degree. Those who want more choices, have to leave home. Not everyone, however, can leave their families and jobs.
But now they can pursue their dreams thanks to a program that gives Klamath Community College graduates the chance to work toward an OSU online bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences. OSU Open Campus launched the program in 2013. Students take classes online through OSU’s Ecampus program and also meet on the KCC campus and get face-to-face support from faculty at KCC and OSU’s Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center. They can customize their curriculum, emphasizing fields like animal science, crop and soil science or agricultural business management. Some students also intern at the center helping, for example, researchers with their work on potatoes, wheat and barley. So far, four students have completed internships there. Local Extension staff mentor all of the students.
Six students enrolled in the program the first year; enrollment jumped to nine the following year. Three graduated in 2014.
Sources: Keely Moxley, coordinator for OSU Open Campus in Klamath County; Willie Riggs, director of OSU’s Klamath Basin Research and Extension Center
