Energy Training for Agriculture Professionals

 

 

Mark Blevins
North Carolina State University
Gastonia, NC
mark_blevins@ncsu.edu
Energy efficiency and production on farm are important components for agriculture sustainability and viability in an increasingly difficult economic environment and their importance is compounded by the surrounding influence of development pressure. A college Agricultural Electrification class "sparked" my interest before and soaring fuel prices have renewed my concern for on-farm energy resource conservation and development. I want to learn how farmers can stretch their energy dollars in protected horticulture systems (greenhouses, high tunnels, etc) and in small to medium scale diversified operations (integrating plant, animal, and other components) to positively impact their bottom line, our environment and society.

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David Boldt
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA
dboldt@agcenter.lsu.edu
I oversee the science, engineering and technology programs for the Louisiana 4-H Youth Development Department. I want to become more knowledgeable about the various aspects of energy and emerging renewable technologies. I hope to gain a broader understanding of energy practices to better help train youth in the Louisiana community. I have been involved in developing educational resources for our summer camp program in energy which reaches about 5,000 youth in 10 weeks. As director of the science, engineering and technology program, I am responsible for providing new educational activities and resources for the state of Louisiana 4-H Program. I think an understanding of the energy resources that are available now and those that will become available in the future are critical to the youth in today's world. I think it is important for the youth to understand the affects in their local communities. I am interested in providing hands-on trainings/workshops for local and state 4-H programs.

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Jacque Breman, Ph.D.
University of Florida
Lake Butler, FL
civilday@ufl.edu
He has been the Union County Extension Director and only Extension Agent for 24 years. He is re-tooling for energy education in the northeast Florida area. Farmers, home owners, and 4-H youth are all served with Extension education programs. A shift in education emphasis towards energy conservation and renewable energy sources education in this predominantly rural and forested part of Florida has a potentially large economic impact. He is conducting applied research work at the University of Florida Hastings AREC, concerning sweet sorghum for ethanol production as an alternative to cover crops impacting 30,000 acres of vegetables.

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Bill Carney
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA
bcarney@agcenter.lsu.edu
Environmental specialist in extension and research programs since1992. Responsibilities in the areas of Alternative Energy (Biofuels), Solid Waste Management (Composting), Water Quality, Environmental Liability, Urban Nonpoint Source Pollution, and Agricultural Prescribed Burning. Other areas of interest include: animal waste disposal, industrial waste, municipal solid waste and waste water treatment.

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Don Day
University of Missouri Extension
Columbia, MO
daydr@missouri.edu
Don Day began working for University of Missouri extension in 1967 as a Farm Management Agent. He worked in that capacity in Bates county and later in the Central Missouri Region until 1975. At that time he moved to Columbia and worked out of the Boone County Extension Center as a Natural Resource Engineer until his retirement in July 2008. In September 2008, he was hired to coordinate the energy education programs for University Extension. His work in energy includes workshops and newsletters on various aspects of energy conservation and alternative energy sources. In the 1980's, he was involved in some research projects using solar energy for hog facilities and grain drying.

Don is married to Fran. They just celebrated their 40th anniversary. They have three children and four grandchildren. All of their family lives in Columbia, MO. They are active in Broadway Christian Church.

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Brock Fry
Texas A&M University
Jefferson, TX
bafry@ag.tamu.edu
My name is Brock Fry and I serve as a County Agricultural and Natural Resource Agent in Marion County, Texas. NORTHEAST TEXAS WOODY BIOENERGY SYMPOSIUM This program brought international attention to the woodlands of East Texas. This effort was recognized by the Governor of Texas the Honorable Rick Perry and the Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples as well as industry. I hope through efforts like this to bring new and innovative marketing strategies to the forestry and timber industries.

I graduated from Angelo State University with my Bachelors and Masters degree. My background is Animal Science. I have worked for Cargill Animal Nutrition and now Texas AgriLIFE Extension since graduation in 2000. My interest in energy is for the potential uses in the timber industry. I also have interest in Hydro Power and believe we have a great resource using water.

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David Graf
Texas A&M University
Stratford, TX
cdgraf@ag.tamu.edu
EXPERIENCE-
18 years as commercial swine and show pig producer.
3 years - manager of custom fertilizer application business, Brownfield, TX.
5 years - Southern Region Marketing Director, AgriPro Wheat, Vernon, TX.
3 years- Finisher manager, Seaboard Farms, Guymon, OK.
2 years- Extension Agent, Ag/Natural Resources, Texas AgriLife Extension, Stratford, TX.

My experience in relation to this session includes my families (along with many along the proposed route) involvement with Mesa Energy's project(T.Boone Pickens) to develop transmission lines, wind turbines, and an underground water pipeline stretching over 300 miles. I have attended sessions on: feed yard manure to produce methane, ethanol from corn and cellulosic sources, and irrigation pumping plant efficiency.

INTERESTS
I have had a longtime interest in renewable energy, starting with my father and I pursuing methane generation from our family's swine farm in the late '70's. I am currently in a county of forward thinking producers (1 group has an idle bio-diesel plant) and am interested in learning how to improve efficiency and cost competitiveness.

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Susan Gray
Oklahoma State University
Tulsa, OK
sgray@tulsacounty.org
Sue Gray has served the Tulsa County OSU Extension office for 25 years, working with small farmers who raise horticulture crops. She has also worked in the areas of water quality, starting the Blue Thumb water education project. Sue has taught Master Gardener training, farmers market and pecan production courses as well as programs in Integrated Pest Management and other areas of environmental education. Sue has a B.S. degree in Horticulture from Oklahoma State and a Master of Science degree in horticulture from the University of Maryland. She has also worked for the Maryland Cooperative Extension Service, serving Frederick County, working with both home and commercial horticulture.

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Lyndall Harned
University of Kentucky
Catlettsburg, KY
llyndall.harned@uky.edu
I am the County Agricultural Extension Agent in Boyd County, Kentucky. After teaching Vo Ag in FL for 4 1/2 years, I have been in Extension in KY for 20 years and in Boyd County for almost 13. I have a BS in Agricultural education and an MS in Vocational education, both from the University of Kentucky. I am married to Hilma, with 3 sons, Michael, Brian, and Justin, the youngest, who is a senior at UK. I have 2 grandchildren, Jared, 6, and Delaney, 2. The bulk of agriculture in Boyd County is livestock (cattle, horses, and, increasingly, goats) and forages.

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Gary Hawkins
University of Georgia
Tifton, GA
ghawkins@uga.edu
Gary L. Hawkins is a Pollution Prevention Specialist in the Biological and Agricultural engineering Department in Tifton. His major responsibilities include conservation tillage (hydrology), alternative energy and agricultural solid waste management. Specific responsibilities as relates to this training are in the area of solar and anaerobic digestion. Extension programming deals with solar irrigation for small pecan orchard and conversion of culled fruits and vegetables to energy through anaerobic digestion. Purposes of wanting to attend this training are to learn different training methods for disseminating information.

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Osagie Idehen
Federation of Southern Cooperatives
Epes, AL
osagie_idehen@yahoo.com
My current job responsibilities include providing outreach and technical assistance to cooperatives, small landowners, farmers, low income families on various economic development programs. I also work with youth on agricultural projects.

I have a master's degree in Environmental Science and I have worked on a number of research projects: including but not limited to recycling of poultry waste, carbon sequestration in soil, use of cover crop in organic farming. My personal interest is in waste recycling and solar power.

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John Ignosh
Virginia Tech University
Harrisonburg, VA
jignosh@vt.edu
John Ignosh works to promote the efficient utilization of agricultural byproducts as an area specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension and the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. The primary focus of his work is on developing outreach materials to support Virginia Cooperative Extension's programming on renewable energy and byproduct utilization strategies. Often, this outreach work is conducted through the "Bioenergy Engineering Education Program (BEEP)", with Extension colleagues in Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech. He also works to assess the feasibility of using bioresidue as a feedstock in new applications (i.e. bioenergy production, etc.) at regional and farm scales. These assessments explore the highest and best use of these bioresidues to promote long-term sustainable production systems. Active projects include exploring the feasibility of anaerobic digestion on smaller dairies, on-farm biodiesel workshops, and inventorying residual biomass resources throughout Virginia.

John holds a master's degree in forest resource management from the University of Minnesota, and has served as a resource extension agent with the U.S. Peace Corps. Prior to his work with Virginia Cooperative Extension, he performed air quality research with the University of California.

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Keith Morris
Arkansas State University
State University, AR
kmorris@agcenter.lsu.edu
I have a 60% extension, 25% research and 15% teaching appointment.Currently my primary mandate is to serve as geospatial technology specialist for the LSU AgCenter with statewide responsibilities. However, with only four extension engineers covering the whole state of Louisiana, we all field questions on a variety of topics outside of our "area of expertise".

My interests are personal and professional. I come from a family farm that needs to pump water from a creek to a large garden where no electricity is readily available. Constructing a solar system is a viable solution. A solar water heater to supplement our current system is also one of our current considerations. On a professional level as an Extension Specialist, I want to serve the public and my clientele which are parish extension agents both agricultural and 4-H. I have bought many books trying to educate and enable myself to answer questions that I personally have and questions my agents frequently ask about energy conservation, especially through the use of solar.

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Elizabeth Myles
Alcorn State University
Alcorn, MS
emyles@alcorn.edu
Elizabeth Myles is the Marketing Specialist affiliated with Alcorn State University's Mississippi Small Farm Development Center. She provides leadership in developing and implementing marketing programs for small farmers and small-scale agricultural enterprises in the state of Mississippi. She has developed a rapport with the agribusiness sector locally, nationally and internationally. Her strength is developing strong relationships with the private and public sectors in identifying markets, developing markets, and promoting Mississippi products. She also conducts staff development training for extension agents and provides technical assistance to farmers. Myles plans to use her training to gain additional knowledge on renewable energy technologies that will assist limited-resource farmers in the state of Mississippi and to network with other agriculture professionals throughout the United States.

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Clay Olson
University of Florida
Perry, FL
cbolson@ufl.edu
I attended the 2006 National Extension meeting in Colorado concerning the role of extension agents in energy education. Previous to that I had done some investigation into The UF wood gasification projects of the mid 70's using wood gas to power vehicles.

A local small business interested in renewable energy projects partnered with the extension office to submit several state and federal grants to pursue developing the use of gasification for power and heat needs in the poultry production area. This year the Florida Climate and Energy Commission funded a 473K request to develop technology to gasify chicken litter for heat and power needs.

Taylor County Extension has provided workshops at the N. Florida Research and Education Center teaching small farmers the technology of using used oil for biodiesel production. Net metering laws being developed by the Florida Public Service Commission, and wood gas applications for the small farm.

Renewable energy In-service training has also been developed for statewide offering to county extension faculty in May of 2010 addressing uses of biomass, solar, etc in small farm and residential use.

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Leon Porter
Fort Valley State University
Perry, GA
porterl@fvsu.edu
Mr. Porter is an Extension Agent at Fort Valley State University. He provides information to small farmers on matters such as financial planning, youth work, gardening and issues dealing with the family. His main scope of work is to provide alternate sources of income to farmers in his area and to promote tecnological advances.

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Luis A. Ribera, Ph.D.
Texas A&M University
Weslaco, TX
laribera@taexgw.tamu.edu
Dr. Ribera received his B.S. and M.S. from the University of Arkansas and his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, all in Agricultural Economics with emphases in Risk Analysis, Simulation and Econometric Modeling. Dr. Ribera is an Assistant Professor and Extension Economist for the Department of Agricultural Economics of the Texas A&M University System. He also serves as the International Programs Coordinator for the Agricultural and Food Policy Center. His research expertise includes applying risk analysis and econometric tools on business management and economic analysis. His current work focuses on economic feasibility studies of biofuels using different feedstock, climate change, and international market integration.

In the international arena, Dr. Ribera has been to Brazil several times to gather data and meet with industry experts on cotton, sugarcane and ethanol production. He is also working on a competitiveness analyses for crop production between the U.S. and Latin America. Since 2004, Dr. Ribera is a faculty member of the Master's Program in Applied Economics and Business Administration, a partnership program between Texas A&M University and Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

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Laban Kipkoriony Rutto, Ph.D.
Virginia State University
Petersburg, VA
lrutto@vsu.edu
Kipkoriony is an Assistant Professor (Research) at the Agriculture Research Station of Virginia State University (VSU). His main responsibility at the station is to carry out studies on the agronomy and economic feasibility of alternative crops for the state of Virginia. This effort is a response to the diverse challenges faced by Virginia agriculture. More than ever, there is need to identify profitable alternatives to tobacco and peanut.

His training is in plant nutrition, and his research interests are in crop stress physiology, plant-microbe interactions and soil bioremediation. At VSU, Kipkoriony working on the agronomy of alternative crops that can be introduced to Virginia. One of the areas in which he is now developing a work plan is bio-energy. His main interest is in crops with multiple uses including as potential sources of fermentable sugars for bio-ethanol production.

Among the crops he is working on is sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor Moench.). He strongly feels that sweet sorghum has potential as an energy crop in Virginia. He would like to offer training on cropping and processing of sweet sorghum for bio-ethanol production as part of our outreach program. He is now getting ready to harvest my first trial involving five varieties: Dale, Della, Keller, M81E, and Sugar Drip. Results from this trials and subsequent trials will facilitate the dissemination of sweet sorghum production technology in coming years.

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Samy Sadaka
University of Arkansas
Little Rock, AR
ssadaka@uaex.edu
Dr. Samy Sadaka is an Assistant Professor - Extension Engineer, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. Samy is a licensed professional engineer in United States and Canada. Prior to joining the University of Arkansas, Samy worked as an Associate Scientist at the Biomass Energy Conversion Facility at ISU where he led various research projects in the biofuel and bioenergy areas.

Since his arrival at the UofA, he established two biofuel and bioenergy research and extension laboratories located at the Rice Research and Extension Center, Stuttgart, AR. Samy succeeded to obtain internal and external fund for six research and extension projects.

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Justin Shealey
University of Georgia
Statenville, GA
justin1@uga.edu
I am the County Extension Coordinator and the Ag Agent in Echols County Georgia. I have been an agent for a little over a year. I assist farmers and home owners with plant disease and insect problems as well as livestock health. I attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and the University of Georgia where I received a degree in Agricultural Education. I also continue to farm in Cook County. I am very interested in this bio fuels training because I feel that it will be a very valuable resource in Echols County where vegetables and timber make up over 80% of the counties economy.

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Daniel Skipper
Oklahoma State University
Duncan, OK
daniel.skipper@okstate.edu
Daniel Skipper is a Southwest Area Extension Agricultural Economics Specialist at OSU based out of Duncan, Oklahoma. At the University of Arkansas he earned a B.S. degree in Agricultural Business with emphasis in Management and M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness.

Daniel has been with the OSU Cooperative Extension Service since September 2007 and has played an active role in the SW District. He attends community/producer meetings developed by Agricultural Extension Educators and helps teach producers about current key issues related to agriculture, such as enterprise budgets, Farm Bill programs, and livestock and grain markets.

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Tim Smith
University of Georgia
Rochelle, GA
timsmith@uga.edu
I have a BS in Animal Science and a MS in Agricultural Education from the University of Georgia. I have worked for The University of Georgia as an Extension Agent for more than six years. I am currently assigned to Wilcox County as the County Extension Coordinator and agricultural agent. Wilcox County is very rural with a very diverse agriculture base, which includes cotton, peanuts, corn, soybeans, vegetables, poultry and livestock. In the mid 1990s I was an Extension Agent in Crisp and Dooley Counties working on a 319 water quality project.

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Cliff Sutton
North Carolina A&T State University
Winton, NC
Cliff_sutton@ncsu.edu
On behalf of North Carolina Cooperative Extension at NC Agricultural and Technical State University I would like to introduce myself. I am Cliff Sutton, Small Farms Management Agent, for Hertford, Bertie, and Northampton Counties in North Carolina.

I am a 2005 graduate of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Education. I am a native of Warsaw and Turkey, NC. I grew up on the family farm raising tobacco and various vegetables.

As the Small Farms Management Agent I am responsible for the providing Research Based information and educational programs that helps to improve the quality of life and income for small and limited resource farms. Programs will include, but are not limited to, record-keeping, financial documentation, and progression into alternative enterprising and niche markets. Along with the fiscal accountability we also focus on energy efficiency.

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Sandra Wade-Penn
Langston University
Guthrie, OK
sywade@lunet.edu
Sandy Penn grew up on a farm in Boley, Oklahoma. She and two siblings were raised by their grandmother. She graduated from Boley High School as the class salutatorian and served two years as class president. She married a serviceman and raised three sons and one daughter. After the death of her husband, she entered college and received the Bachelor of Science Degree in Organizational Leadership with Honors as Magna Cum Laude from Southern Nazarene University in December 1999 and the Master of Science Degree in Business Management with Honors as Summa Cum Laude in 2001. She has worked at Langston University since 1993 and has received several job promotions. She received certification as a Nutrient Management Planning Specialist with the USDA, NRCS in 2003.

She currently serves as a Program Manager in the Center for Outreach Programs &, where she coordinates workshops and services to small farmers, ranchers and rural residents, and assists farmers and farm families to continue to farm after sustaining a disability. She was also Program Leader for the Oklahoma AgrAbility Project at Langston University and the curriculum coordinator for the Langston University National Summer Transportation Institute and the Agriscience Academy, summer programs for ninth and tenth grade students. Sandy has received numerous awards. She served as the Vice-President of the Business & Professional Women's Club of Coyle/Langston and as and the BPW District Secretary in 2000-01. She works as a church volunteer and has worked as a volunteer for the March of Dimes, Langston University Ag Club, and the American Cancer Society. She is the wife of a farmer, Ray Penn, and the grandmother of two lovely granddaughters, Raven and Caitlin and one handsome grandson, Landen. Her hobbies are traveling, playing dominoes and bowling.

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Jon Walton
University of Tennessee
Friendsville, TN
jcwalton@utk.edu
Jon Walton provides technical support to farmers in a ten county area in the southern Tennessee Valley growing 2700 acres of switchgrass as a feedstock for a pilot scale cellulosic ethanol biorefinery and research facility being constructed in Vonore, TN as part of the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative.

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James Wooten
Mississippi State University
Starkville, MS
jwooten@ext.msstate.edu
James Wooten is extension engineer specializing is thermal conversion of biomass to fuel. His primary areas of work are Bio-energy and alternative energy. Additional areas include general energy and Feed manufacturing. For the past eight years he worked for MAFES (Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station) mainly working with bio-gasification and feedstock densification.

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