K-State Horticulturist: Plants Teach Valuable Life Lessons
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Jennifer Smith admits that she still has trouble handling the “lull” in late winter, even though she’s fully employed as an educator and horticulture pro.
Smith finished this year’s gardening catalogs weeks ago. She’s completed her landscape to-do list for 2009 and started raising earthworms indoors in a bin she built from scratch. Smith is beginning to suspect, however, that a different kind of keep-busy work she’s been trying may prove to be the most interesting.
“We learn lessons in life from all kinds of things. If we gardeners would pause now and then to think about it, though, we might realize plants can teach us, too. We’d just have to pay attention … or remember,” said Smith, who is a horticulturist with Kansas State University Research and Extension.
She listed the following as possible lessons that have occurred to her in recent weeks’ musings:
* Use your support systems. The soil you’re growing from can be great support. But, if you stretch yourself a little too thin or climb too quickly, don’t hesitate to get extra help – i.e., a stake or trellis.
* Eat the right vitamins, nutrients. People and plants both look and feel better when their basic nutritional needs are being met. So, if you’re feeling a little droopy or off-color, check your fertilizer/diet.
* Stay healthy to make it easier to fend off pests. Tomato plants are a spider mite magnet, but the healthiest plants are best able to withstand the attacks. Of course, those plants’ health needs aren’t the same as people’s. Regular exercise, for example, simply isn’t a big factor for tomatoes’ well-being. Whether plant or person, being unhealthy really raises your odds for further and more severe problems.
* Shake off the dust once in awhile. When the dust gets thick enough, plants have trouble breathing. The same seems to be true for people. Have you ever met an interesting person whom you could classify as a dust collector?
* You don’t have to be a prize-winning cultivar if you’re being the best that you can be. That’s proven by every peace lily in the corner of a room. Just glimpsing its lovely flowers makes people feel good and perhaps smile. At the same time, the peace lily is one of the best air-cleaning plants around.
* Real is better than fake. Real plants do everything from produce oxygen to filter pollutants from water. Research shows real plants also help people relax and feel better. They can reduce pain and help us heal faster. And, fortunately, caring people who are genuine – real – can produce similar benefits.
* Grow and bloom. It’s a fact: When a plant stops growing (learning?), it has started to die.
K-State, USDA Develop Web Library on Cattle Risk Management
MANHATTAN, Kan. – A variety of risk management resources are available to crop growers, and now cattle producers have a centralized place to find risk management resources. The new Cattle Risk Management Information Library is posted on the Web.
The library is available through Kansas State University’s AgManager Web site (http://www.agmanager.info/crmil/). The resource is the culmination of a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency and K-State’s Department of Agricultural Economics and Department of Computing and Information Sciences.
“The library is designed to provide cattle risk management information in an easy-to-use, centralized location,” said James Mintert, state ag economics extension leader for K-State Research and Extension.
It makes a wide variety of information available for cow/calf, feeder, and fed cattle producers, he said. The information can be categorized by such key risks as price, financial, and production.
In addition to including K-State and USDA-RMA information, the on-line library has links to other resources, with special emphasis on information available from other U.S. universities.
For example, one paper on the site compares differences in fed cattle prices across various marketing arrangements. Its contributing authors are from Colorado State University, Iowa State University, RTI International and The World Bank.
Another library offering is USDA Economic Research Service information on production costs.
Kansas 4-H’ers Trying Out Legislative Skills
TOPEKA, Kan. – A group of Kansas 4-H members – 186 strong – will test their legislative skills prior to meeting with the legislators from their districts Feb. 15-16 in Topeka.
The 4-H members are participating in Citizenship in Action, a weekend 4-H retreat in the state’s capital city, which offers teens a closer look at state government and how it works, said Justin Wiebers, 4-H events coordinator with Kansas State University Research and Extension.
New in this year’s retreat will be a mock legislative session that provides opportunities for 4-H members to try out the legislative process, while discussing three of the issues facing this year’s state legislature:
* Loss of revenue and subsequent budget crunch,
* Operation of coal-powered plants in the state, and
* Changes in age requirements for a state driver’s license.
4-H members attending the retreat also will tour the Capitol. They’ll meet with state officials, as well as their elected representatives. They’ll observe the state legislature working to resolve Kansas issues.
The retreat has become a popular part of state 4-H programs, Wiebers said. This year, 56 of Kansas’ 105 counties will be represented.
More information is available by contacting any county or district K-State Research and Extension office or visiting the Kansas 4-H Web site (http://www.kansas4-h.org/) and clicking on “Citizenship in Action.”
Ag Leadership Program Accepting Applications Through April 15
MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas Agriculture and Rural Leadership program will accept applications through April 15 from state residents interested in participating in KARL’s 2009-11 Class X.
The two-year program includes study tours, as well as monthly, 48-hour seminars at sites across the state, said KARL director Jack Lindquist. The program schedules its two national seminars and a “capstone” international tour for November-March – production agriculture’s “off season” in Kansas.
“KARL alumni and current class members both have gone out of their way to tell me that the 50-day commitment (over two years) is much more than just well worth the investment. It’s needed in today’s changing and competitive environment,” he said.
Terry Hobbs of Graham County said, “The KARL program has always fascinated me. Its positive direction and the doors it has opened for many leaders in the ag industry haven been and continue to be very beneficial. The program builds and strengthens individuals’ character. In the bigger picture, these individuals can then be mortar and building blocks for making our state and nation even stronger.”
Class X will begin its training in August with a weekend retreat.
To be considered for that class, applicants must submit a completed profile form. They can get the form from the Web at http://www.karlprogram.com/ or the KARL office at 785-532-6300.
KARL’s board of directors will screen the profiles and select the top 45 applicants to be scheduled for interviews in May. The program will announce its new 30-member Class X on June 1.
The criteria for eligibility are leadership experience and a devotion to Kansas agriculture and rural communities, Lindquist said. But, “dedication to a more positive future is key to being selected.”
Tuition for the not-for-profit training program is $1,500 per year or a total of $3,000. KARL donors pay the remainder of the expenses, valued at $15,000 per person.
Lindquist said more details about what the curriculum will include and/or how to become a KARL supporter are also available by accessing the organization’s Web site or calling 785-532-6300.
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