Hello Readers

July 1, 2009 by Daniel Schellenberg

The heat of summer is here but, the longest day has passed. At this time, I begin to consolidate ideas and to balance time and expected results. Today, I want to share with you a little about how I use online social media to promote my message about agriculture. You or your organization can do the same. I will run down my top 7 online tools to organize a social network and make your voice heard.

FeedBurner is a service from Google. If you publish to the web, then FeedBurner will take your information, copy it to email format and deliver it to readers who subscribe to your feed. It works best if your audience has limited online access to your source content at the workplace.

Facebook has a compliment to its famous friend features with fan pages. With similar functionality like wall and messaging features, Facebook fan pages add a new dimension to reaching a wider audience. Every message needs a target audience to motivate enthusiasts and Facebook appears to be a solid application.

In less than 10 years, cameras are now in cell phones and video is shared by everyone. Behind the scenes, video and audio are no easy task and being in front of the camera takes a combination of skill, patience and outstanding speaking abilities. YouTube is simple; it takes care of the broadcast, your task is to develop the content.

Twitter grew over 1000% in less than a year. The truth is the service is in its infancy. Best features include its clever @-based usernames to target anyone on the network and private direct messages to communicate with people who follow you. Twitter works seamlessly with any mobile phone enabled for text messaging. To see what is happening right now, check out twitter search.

A picture does tell a thousand words. If you develop charts, graphs and maps or practice photography, then the best way to publish them to the web is with Flickr. Your photostream on Flickr has a build-in licensing so, you can choose to reserve all rights or just some. With the “Share this” function, you can grab the HTML code for your image and re-publish its contents across the web.

PBwiki, now called PBworks, is a hosted collabrative solution to organize a group. You can sign up for a free workspace and keep your content private or use their platform to aggregate media and make your ideas public. Publish keyword phrases such as “Tomato String Method” to the web and educate your audience while powering your searchability.

Last but, not least is the blogging platform brought to you by WordPress. I started a blog back in 2006 and managed to turn out one solid post. WordPress can be you domain without complicating your life. If you want to have a online presence and the capability to socialize on the web, then the only tool you need is WordPress. Sign-up for a free hosted account at wordpress.com and start to tag your content, create categories, track your stats, get feedback from comments, keep up with your readers and project your voice to the world.

I hope you enjoyed my review of the top 7 online tools to organize a network and make your voice be heard. Remember it takes just one person to spread the word. If you want to connect with AGROGURU then, click on the logos above or use the web addresses below.

–

http://agroguru.wordpress.com

http://agorg.pbwiki.com

http://www.flickr.com/photos/agroguru

http://twitter.com/agroguru

http://www.youtube.com/agroguru

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/AGROGURU/46668727565?ref=ts

http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=agroguru&loc=en_US

Tags: network, social, voice
Posted in Readers | 1 Comment »

Soil Nutrient Chemistry

June 15, 2009 by Daniel Schellenberg

Being overwhelmed is a natural feeling when thinking of soil chemistry. There are at least 14 different nutrients as pluses and minuses moving around at any given time. To name a few; there is nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) that moving at extraordinarily different rates and hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) that can take the form of and H⁺and OH^- when good old water (H₂O) is split. The stage is set for other nutrients like calcium (Ca) to become available to plants because of a change in pH. Remember from your gardening or biology classes that soil can be sandy or heavy with clay so the space where all this action takes place is somewhere between 1 and 0.0002 mm.

If you want to see results with your plants, then mix 1 Tbsp of aluminum sulfate (AlSO₄) with a gallon of water, add it to the soil under a hydrangea and watch the pink flowers turn blue!

Are you curious about another natural garden or farm phenomena? If so, ask your question below.

Tags: nutrients, pH, texture
Posted in Agronomists, Farmers, Gardeners | 1 Comment »

Grazing Grasslands

May 31, 2009 by Daniel Schellenberg

What is your first thought when you look out on a grassland? I think about how there is limited water to support trees. I also consider how herds of grazing animals dominate the landscape. The fragile nature of ecosystems with limited water requires careful management to sustain their productivity. Nowadays, grasslands support many of the animals we depend on for meat and dairy protein.

Both grass and grazing animals have certain characteristics to ensure their survival. For example, the active growing zone for grass is at the soil surface. Remove a blade of grass from its base, like an animal taking a bite, and grass continues to grow. Below ground, grasses invest in deep root systems to protect against prolonged periods of drought. Back above ground, grazing animals trample and turn the soil while they fertilize it with their waste. In nature, grazing herds migrate across grasslands to avoid predation and as a result; they rest areas for future grazing.

In order to keep pace with human demand for protein, we will have to conserve our grasslands. One way ranchers are more sustainable is by practicing high density grazing. Similar to grazing herds in nature, ranchers concentrate animals in one area and then rotate them frequently across the grassland. I wanted a first-hand look so, I visited Swallow Valley Farm near Sebastopol, California and met with my friend, Kelly Mulville. We discussed high density grazing, rancher decision-making and grassland management.

Enter Kelly:

“I think I would stress the importance of using sound decision making as a way of management. By sound I mean having a comprehensive goal and then determining the ecological, social and economical ramifications of all decisions made towards that goal. Once a decision is made we should then monitor to ensure that it is working as planned and adjust at the first sign of deviation.”

It is clear from Kelly that he sets a goal, weighs all factors in a decision, and creates an strategy to deal with the unexpected. Not only are his decisions important for him but, his experience are valuable to fellow ranchers. Other practices like feeding his animal supplements to fertilize the soil, tools like portable electric fence and a good sheep dog help to conserve the grassland and grow his herd.

Ultimately, Swallow Valley Farm is subject to the marketplace. Unlike the majority of products on the market, their meat is 100% grass-fed. In today’s market, ranchers like Kelly look to communicate their product’s superiority to the new conscience consumer. I ask you to think about your health, the health of the land, and the hard work ranchers like Kelly when you consider the price of grass-fed meat. Try it as a special treat by visiting your food market and asking for grass-fed meat. See if you can taste the difference.

Tags: grass-fed, holistic, meat
Posted in Conservationists, Consumers, Ranchers | 2 Comments »

Soil Nutrient Chemistry

Grazing Grasslands

General

Archives

Categories