Extension News: People in Extension Archives

Cheryl Smith, UNH Cooperative Extension's plant health specialist recently returned from a trip to Bangladesh where she served as co-instructor for a week-long Plant Disease Diagnosis Training Workshop held at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) in Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

"I've always been interested in international agriculture, sharing my knowledge and expertise to improve the plant disease diagnostic skills in developing nations, particularly in Asia," says Smith. "When my colleague Dr. Robert Wick of the University of Massachusetts asked me to join him for this first-of-its-kind training, I jumped at the chance. The plant disease diagnostic training workshop was the first of its kind ever offered in Bangladesh, or in Southeast Asia for that matter."

Wick and Dr. M. Bahadur Meah of BAU have collaborated as co-investigators on a U.S. Department of Agriculture-Bangladesh Cooperative Research Project aimed at establishing a plant-disease diagnostic clinic at BAU, the first of its kind for all Southeast Asia, and training faculty and staff in diagnostic techniques.

Smith says Wick and Meah hope to develop 8-10 satellite labs throughout Bangladesh, but funding efforts to develop them and train diagnosticians to staff them hasn't succeeded. "We're all hopeful that funding efforts will be successful now that the BAU clinic is up and running and the first group of workshop students have been successfully trained," she says.

"Before this workshop, many Bangladeshi plant diagnosticians relied heavily on visual identification of symptoms with little microscopic examination to identify plant health problems," Smith says. "They haven't had the intensive hands-on laboratory training they needed to work effectively with microscopes and conduct laboratory tests, which provide more accurate diagnoses and more cost-effective, environmentally sound treatments. Rob and I emphasized the importance of making an accurate diagnosis before an appropriate treatment can be prescribed."

Ten students from various Bangladeshi institutions, all with degrees in plant pathology, attended the week-long intensive training. Conducted in English, the workshop included work in clinical pathology, learning the steps to plant diagnosis, proper care and use of microscopes, preparing slides, making culture media, incubating samples for disease microorganisms and identifying pathogenic fungi, bacteria and viruses.

"Working with such a small group of students gave everyone plenty of hands-on experience," Smith says. "Several growers even brought in samples during the workshop, giving the students (and us) a chance to tackle some real-life samples."

A UNH professional development grant helped subsidize Smith's trip. "I consider Rob one of the best diagnosticians in the U.S., if not the world," Smith says. "Working with him on this workshop reinforced and expanded my own skills. Even though the climate and many of the crops grown in Bangladesh are different from our own, the process for identifying pathogens is the same. What I taught and learned in Bangladesh will certainly help me solve plant health problems in my own work at the UNH Plant Diagnostic Lab."

See a slide show of Smith's trip to Bangladesh.

Help! I found my pot-bellied pig chomping down on some exotic-looking plant in the barnyard this morning. I hope you can help identify it. The plant seems to have sprouted up from nowhere. It looks like some sort of exotic tropical specimen, with huge, heart-shaped leaves, spiny stems, bright yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers, and fleshy, dark- green seedpods about four inches long. I’m worried they might have poisoned him!

Now that spring has finally arrived in force and folks have headed outside to take stock of the natural world, people who raise pigs or chickens or vegetables, people with lawns and lilac bushes and perennial flowerbeds, or people just curious about snakes, or bats, birds, wild turkeys, or insects, will start calling us with questions. (The pot-bellied pig question arrived early one August morning.)

Yes, adventures in the great outdoors, even adventures that take place just outside your kitchen door, can stimulate a lot of questions. But where can you turn for answers?

If you’re smart, like the caller concerned about her pet pig, you’ll call the UNH Cooperative Extension Info Line at 1-877-398-4769. Trained volunteers linked to an extraordinary network of professionals with expertise in a wide variety of subject matter areas answer the phones Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., dispensing practical, environmentally-sound, research-based information tailored for New Hampshire conditions. People who can’t call during business hours can email questions.

Some days the calls come so fast and furious our phone staff can barely catch their breath between calls:

Can humans get roundworms from dog droppings on the lawn?
Where can I get my chickens tested for bird flu?
How long will homemade pickles last on the shelf?
Can I bury my dog’s ashes under the rose bush I want to plant as his memorial?
How can I banish a family of skunks from under the front porch?
How do I get my well water tested?
Do you have plans for a bat house?
The grass on the front lawn looks yellow and sparse. What can I do?
How can I tell if the tick I just pulled off my son’s leg is the kind that transmits Lyme disease?
How can I get more potassium into my diet?

At the end of the day, an elderly gentleman wants to know why his zucchini flowers aren’t developing into zucchinis. We tell him the likely reason is that the female flowers aren’t getting pollinated during this wet spell, give him a lesson in hand-pollination, and close down our phone lines for the day.

Over the past five years, volunteers staffing the Info Line have fielded almost 50,000 questions on gardening and landscaping, lawn care, food safety, food preservation, backyard livestock, water quality, wildlife, household pests, composting, tree care and so much more.

Few of us have extended families and neighbors these days with the knowledge and experience to advise us what to do when the chickens start pecking each other, or explain the advantages of removing suckers from the tomato plants. Most of us are at least two generations removed from folks who grew their own food, kept livestock, and knew which tree species produced the longest-lasting heat.

Most questions that come to the Info Line are uncomplicated and easy to answer. Chances are, the Info Line staffer you talk to has answered similar questions already, had the experience him/herself, or knows someone who has. And when they don’t have the answer at their fingertips, our staff will do the research to get you the information you need or refer you to someone who has it.

One more thing about the Info Line volunteers: without exception they’re very curious. They sign up for the 70-plus hours of training and commit to many hours on the job because they revel in the chance to learn something new as they research answers for you.

Oh, about that “exotic tropical plant” with the heart-shaped leaves, trumpet-shaped flowers and “fleshy seedpods” the caller’s pet pig enjoyed so much?

Because the woman—a recent transplant to rural New Hampshire—had to dash off to work to deliver a presentation, we suggested she put on gloves, pull up the plant, and bring it to her veterinarian’s office after her presentation, while we continued using our botanical “keys” to track its identity.

Turns out she didn’t need further advice from us—or her vet. She called ten minutes later from work to thank us and to say that her coworkers had identified the plant immediately—as a zucchini!

By Margaret Hagen, Director, UNH Cooperative Extension Family, Home & GardenEducationCenter

More from the Family, Home & Garden Education Center

• Do you like to learn through fun, hands-on classes or workshops? Visit our calendar of events to look

• If you want information oriented towards how to grow, build, diagnose or raise almost anything, check out the more than 150 Home & Garden Information Fact Sheets.

• Take a look at some of the New Hampshire Outside columns, mostly written by Extension volunteers with a personal story to tell about life in New Hampshire’s outdoors.

• WMUR-TV (Channel 9) also features a weekly UNH Cooperative Extension spot called “Grow It Green” which airs at noon Tuesdays and during Saturday morning’s early news. The spots highlight topics of seasonal interest.

As testament to her passion for “eating local,” when Juli Brussell migrated with her husband Kevin from Illinois to New Hampshire last fall, she insisted on hauling along a large freezer full of their own beef, their homegrown vegetables and their neighbor’s lamb and chickens.

“We brought a long extension cord and plugged in the freezer when we stopped for the night,” Brussell says. “Sadly, we had to leave behind 12 varieties of heirloom tomatoes in full production.”

Brussell began work October 4 th as the new UNH Cooperative Extension agricultural resources program leader, with a focus on small farms.

A diverse background

Brussell comes to UNH Extension with a diverse academic and professional background that includes early work in chemistry, geography and sociology, a B.S. in geology, and a broad-field science teaching certificate. Her M.S. in land resources included a thesis on value-added, on-farm processing and direct marketing to build a more sustainable food system. She completed all the coursework for a double doctorate in geology and archeology, lacking only the dissertation.

Brussell has held jobs in both government and the private sector as water resources policy and planning analyst, hydrogeologist, technical editor of Earth magazine, director of a sustainable ag program, and as a coordinator for small farm enterprises and sustainable foods marketing.

Over the years, Brussell has held posts on many regional and national boards and committees. She currently sits on the board of the Organic Farming Research Foundation and the steering committee of the Scientific Congress on Organic Agriculture Research.

Through both academic and professional work, she developed expertise in direct marketing, on-farm value-added enterprises, organic/sustainable agriculture, grass-based livestock management, and public policy development.

After marrying Kevin Brussell seven years ago, she lived and worked on his family’s fifth-generation, 500-acre Illinois farm, which produces a wide diversity of crops and forages, including certified organic grains and beans. “With Kevin, I’ve had the experience of working with three management systems simultaneously: conventional, transitional, and certified organic,” she says, adding “I’ve experienced farming under a lot of adverse conditions, including one familiar to many New Hampshire farmers—poor soil and very wet planting conditions.”

Q. After spending your entire professional life in the Midwest, why did you decide to apply for and accept a job in New Hampshire?

A. The strongest base for our nation’s community food system lies within the strength of our smaller family farms. Ninety-five percent of New Hampshire’s farms are classified as small. The focus in Illinois is still big agriculture. It’s not where I wanted to focus my energy.

Also, I was looking for a community of interest that included an academic community where I’d find resources and people with curiosity.

What have you found as a newcomer to the GraniteState?

I’ve found a good energy, a commitment on the part of citizens to being involved—involved in politics, in lively public discourse. People here are willing to let you know what they think. I find that openness engaging and very hopeful. I also find engaging and hopeful the fact that New Hampshire is small enough to build relationships that can make statewide partnerships work.

What do you perceive as the main challenges to New Hampshire agriculture?

Our growing agricultural diversity, which I consider one of our greatest strengths, also stands out as one of our greatest challenges. It’s really tough for an individual or a family to have to juggle all the production requirements for diverse crops, handle all the tasks involved in marketing and distribution, as well as maintaining a strong, sane and balanced life.

Another challenge I see: How do we find our place in this changing structure of agriculture nationally? How do we carve out a role for family farmers that embodies their importance to New Hampshire’s quality of life? Our farms are in jeopardy. How do we create a place within people’s hearts? How do we motivate people to make room for farms in their culture?

Farmers need increased community support. Community members need to engage with their local farms by buying their products, by ensuring farmers have access to capital, by developing a processing infrastructure. Communities need to recognize the multiple benefits of maintaining their farm infrastructure. Farms are low on demands for tax-supported services. They provide green space and offer aesthetic appeal. They pollute less than competing land uses. They recharge water supplies. Every dollar spent at a local farm circulates in the local economy.

How would you characterize the major opportunities for New Hampshire agriculture?

One of the opportunities for New Hampshire farmers lies in the production of on-farm “artisan” foods, food products that achieve uniqueness by dint of their craftsmanship. Artisan foods are uniquely linked to what the French call the terroir—a term loosely translated as “sense of place,” the way a food product uniquely reflects the attributes of geography, microclimate, vegetation. The flavor of an artisan cheese uniquely reflects the vegetation the cows or sheep grazed upon.

Both Vermont and Maine are actively exploiting this new relationship between people and their food. Increasingly consumers say they want a more direct relationship with their food and the people who grow it.

New Hampshire farmers have the opportunity to develop many new forms of “agri-tourism” beyond the fact that a vibrant agriculture contributes to all tourism, since people don’t come here to look at condo developments and strip malls. A farm that can’t make it on sales of farm products alone can market itself as a destination site that provides that connection to the land urban residents are so hungry for.

I also believe we have an opportunity to expand our livestock operations here in New Hampshire, especially in the realm of organic dairying, grass-fed beef and lamb, even pork and poultry. We’ve already begun to discuss the infrastructure needed to accommodate this expansion. I can also envision systems that integrate livestock into fruit and vegetable production.

Sustainable/organic agriculture stands out as a strong feature of your resume. Given the rising interest among both consumers and new growers in organic production, how would you go about healing the perceived rift between conventional and organic production systems?

First of all, it’s not a perceived rift, but a real one. I think there are a couple of attitudes we need to bring to the table. Given the dwindling number of farmers in the population at large, it’s not in anybody’s interest to increase the divisions between us. The public doesn’t really understand the distinctions between organic and conventional farming. When we start talking about “those farmers over there; they’re doing the wrong thing,” it hurts us all.

There are a couple of issues we need to bring to the table here. The first is the increasing limitation to introducing toxins into the environment. This is starting to limit the arsenal of chemicals available to farmers.

A related issue is the growing trend [among lawmakers and policymakers] to hold farmers liable for the consequences of using these toxins. This leaves farmers open to the possibility that they will have to pay for ag-chemical remediation. We need to acknowledge that possibility for litigation, and with that knowledge, work with farmers to reduce their vulnerability.

You bring a lot of experience and interest in food production. Yet in New Hampshire ornamental horticulture far outpaces food production in terms of both acreage and gross sales.

I like to quote Kahlil Gibran on this issue: “If I had two loaves of bread, I would sell one to buy hyacinth, for it will feed my soul.” We have to get over the notion that growing ornamentals is less than agriculture. Agriculture is the conversion of solar energy into saleable products people find useful. I’m interested in systems that help farmers not just survive, but thrive, and if it takes growing ornamental crops to keep our growers thriving and their land open, we need to embrace that and enjoy the diversity it brings to our landscape. Diverse systems are more stable systems. Bringing stability and prosperity to our state is a worthy goal for our agriculture, isn’t it? UNH Cooperative Extension has the capacity and the mandate to bring this to fruition for all New Hampshire residents.

Trybulski 1st in the U.S., 2 nd in World Bowhunting Championships

Congratulations Sandy Trybulski! Trybulski, an associate in the UNH Cooperative Extension Nutrition Connections program in Sullivan County, won the 2004 national Triple Crown Championship in her class and came in second in the International Bowhunting Organization  World Championships, held August 12-14, in Snowshoe, West Virginia.

IBO national and international competition involves walking a course scattered with 40 3-D targets, rigid foam replicas of deer, bear, turkeys, wild boars, and other game animals. Competitors score points according to whether and where their arrows hit the targets. The top five contestants in each class shoot another 10 targets to determine the ultimate winner in the World Championships.

Trybulski’s high-tech compound bow differs radically from the traditional crescent-shaped “recurve” bow many people encountered in gym class or summer camp. It features machine- made limbs replete with cams, wheels, cables and strings, and requires dozens of sensitive adjustments.

Trybulski began shooting as a teenager. “Bill [the high school sweetheart she later married] and I went woodchuck hunting on our first dates,” she says. “Bill taught me to shoot. He bought me my first rifle, explaining all the safety aspects in great detail. He insisted I become as familiar with its working parts as I was with a washing machine. I got my first bow sometime in the early 1970’s, but only used it for hunting until Bill and I took up 3-D competition  in 1996.”

The Trybulskis’ passion for shooting sports has long supplied all the meat for their family table—hunting with rifle and bow, Sandy Trybulski has managed to shoot a deer almost every year for more than 30 years. The first New Hampshire woman to shoot a wild turkey with a shotgun when the season was reinstated in the state in the 1980s, she’s also bagged a turkey with her bow, as well as wild boar at a game preserve.

High-level competitive bowhunting demands daily physical training year-round that keeps Trybulski fit and trim. “I walk, hike, snowshoe or cross-county ski at least an hour a day, often both before and after work,” she says. ”I use stretchy bands for strength training. I shoot somewhere between 5 and 24 arrows every day. In the winter, I shoot at a bag target in the basement, with the woodstove going, or from the warm garage out into the snow.”

Trybulski also "practices judging yardage," pacing and measuring distances under varying conditions of terrain, vegetative cover, and weather. The sport requires contestants to estimate their distance from the 3-D targets quickly and accurately, without help from rangefinders or other technical instruments.

Trybulski cherishes training, competing and hunting for “the self-discipline it provides, and for that strong bond of common interest” that keeps her marriage strong.

She puts her knowledge of good nutrition to work, in both her private and professional domains: “I tell my clients I always eat a good breakfast, eat from the Food Guide Pyramid lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains and limit the fats, oils and sweets.  It helps me win. It really works!”