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CCE Steuben will be at the Steuben County Fair August 16-21

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BATH, N.Y. — Come check out the CCE Steuben Fair Booth August 16-21 in the 4-H Building at the Steuben County Fair in Bath. You don’t want to miss the Pollinator Education and Monarch Metamorphosis display or the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program’s herb & spices information.

Did you know that if we lived in a world without pollinators, we would not have apples, blueberries, strawberries, chocolate, almonds, melons, peaches, or pumpkins? In fact, it is estimated that pollinators contribute to roughly 1 of every 3 bites of food we eat! Stop by our booth to view monarch caterpillars munching on common milkweed and some that have already changed into chrysalises! Perhaps you will be lucky enough to see a chrysalis change into a butterfly! Take a few moments to learn more about pollinator contributions to agriculture, healthy ecosystems, and culture and don’t forget to grab educational resources and read our poster display with pollinator facts! See if you can answer the Pollinator Challenge Question! And pick up a free Pollinator Poster at the front office in the 4-H Building – but hurry – only 10 posters given out each day!

The 4-H youth will also be busy all week. Come check out their Vegetable Art Contest on Friday evening and their Flower Arranging and Cookie and Cake Decorating Contests on Saturday morning. There will be a Silent Auction Cake Auction at 11:30 a.m. Saturday. And the youth have been working all year to prepare for the 4-H and FFA Market Animal Sale in the Livestock Showring on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Come support our youth and bid on an animal!

For the full 4-H Fair calendar visit here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.cce.cornell.edu/attachments/57533/2022_County_Fair_Schedule.pdf?1654705307. There are plenty of animal shows all week long.

For more information contact CCE Steuben at 607-664-2300 or visit PutKnowledgeToWork.org.

–CCE Steuben County

MSU Extension’s inaugural Blueberry Field Day

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FENNVILLE, Mich. — On Wednesday Aug. 24, the MSU Blueberry Team will host their inaugural field day at Trevor Nichol’s Research Center in Fennville, Mich., from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. The event is free for attendees and will include lunch and light refreshments.

This event will be packed with hands-on educational content focused on commercial blueberry producers. Presentations by experts from campus and around the state will join us to share their knowledge and what they have been working on for the past few seasons.

The emphasis will be on outdoor demonstration/presentation of information. This will include a demonstration of going “into the honey bee hive” with Apiculture Educator Ana Heck, learning about irrigation timing with our irrigation specialist Younsuk Dong, and learning more about soil health with cover crop and soil health educator Christina Curell.

The program will also include blueberry researchers Tim Miles talking about research to improve management of fruit rots, and Rufus Isaacs discussing methods for sampling fruit to improve management of spotted-wing Drosophila. Additionally, we will have MSU’s new Small Fruit Horticulture Specialist Joshua VanderWeide in attendance.

CLICK HERE for registration, which is required to ensure we can provide enough food, transportation and handouts. The registration cutoff is Aug. 20, so please register today. If you have any questions please reach out to Cheyenne Sloan (sloanche@msu.edu) or Carlos Garcia Salazar (garcias4@msu.edu).

A draft agenda for the event is provided below:

  • Welcome – 11:00-12:00
  • Lunch – 12:00- 1:00
  • Outdoor Hands-On Activities – 1:00-4:00

— Michigan State University Extension

MA officials ask residents to report sightings of the invasive spotted lanternfly

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BOSTON — The Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR) has announced that an infestation of the invasive insect known as spotted lanternfly (SLF) was found in the City of Springfield last week. Agricultural inspectors are in the middle of performing surveys in the area in order to determine the extent of the infestation. While MDAR has not been able to determine the origin of this new find, cities like Springfield with large industrial areas are at especially high risk for spotted lanternfly introductions, since this pest can hitchhike on trucks and other methods of transportation that come from infested states. Urban and industrial areas often harbor large populations of the spotted lanternfly’s preferred host plant, tree-of-heaven.

“With new populations of the spotted lanternfly likely to pop up more and more frequently as the invasive pest becomes established across the northeast, it is critical that we all remain diligent in identifying them early on,” said Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner John Lebeaux. “Anyone who sees this pest is asked to report it promptly. Early detection will help limit the spread of spotted lanternfly and give orchards, farms, and other growers time to prepare.”

MDAR is urging the public to be on the lookout for this pest, especially if they live or work in the Springfield area. Spotted lanternflies may be found on sides of buildings, in or on vehicles, or on host plants, including tree of heaven, grape, maple and walnut. Anyone who has recently received goods or materials from states where SLF is known to have been introduced (including Connecticut, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia) should also be on the lookout. Additionally, if a spotted lanternfly is found, the public is asked to take a photo or collect the specimen, and report the sighting using MDAR’s online reporting form.

The public should look for both adult insects (large, gray bugs, about one inch long, with black spots and red underwings), as well as nymphs (younger, wingless insects that are red with black and white markings). Spotted lanternfly is a sap-feeding insect that has caused significant impacts to vineyards, orchards, and other agricultural commodities in states where it has become established. SLF not only harms grapevines, maples, hops, blueberries, and over 100 other host plants, but has the potential to negatively impact outdoor recreation through the swarming behavior that occurs during mating season.

Photo: SLF late-stage nymphs (Credit: USDA)

–Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources

Inflation hits organic fresh produce in Q2

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MONTEREY, Calif. — Higher retail prices of organic fresh produce during the second quarter of 2022 generated a 3.7 percent increase in total organic dollars but also contributed to a decline in organic volume of 2.8 percent, according to Q2 2022 Organic Produce Performance Report issued by the Organic Produce Network (OPN) and Category Partners.

Overall, organic fresh produce pricing increased by 6.7 percent for Q2/2022 compared to same period last year, with sales for the quarter topping $2.4 billion. At the same time, conventional produce’s average price increased by more than 9 percent compared to the same period last year, with total sales of $18.1 billion. The Q2 2022 Organic Produce Performance Report uses Nielsen IQ syndicated data to track and report the performance of organic fresh produce—and specifically the top 20 leading organic categories.

The report suggests consumers are watching grocery spending carefully as inflation often takes its toll on higher priced items, which would include many organic fresh produce items. “Seeing a decline in organic volume for Q2 suggests food budgets are under stress in many US households,” said Tom Barnes, CEO of Category Partners. “It’s common to see budget-centric consumers trade down, substituting for lower-priced conventional items or shifting from a high-priced organic item to a cheaper organic alternative from another category.”

Barnes believes organic substitution explains why organic bananas had a particularly strong quarter in Q2. “Bananas are one of the lowest-priced organic fruits and have the smallest price spread between conventional and organic. For the quarter, while nearly every other organic fruit declined in volume, bananas increased in both dollars (+4.3 percent) and volume (+4.0 percent). So for budget-focused consumers still wanting to buy organic, bananas provided a cost-effective option. Suppliers need to be aware of shifting consumer purchase drivers and develop strategies to keep shoppers buying,” he said.

Geographically, all four regions of the US showed increases in sales and decreases in volume for the quarter. Organic performance during Q2/2022 was weakest in the Northeast, where dollars increased by a mere 0.4 percent, and volume fell by 6.1 percent. The South continues to show the most improvement year over year, and with a fairly low ACV compared to the Northeast and West, data suggests the South is poised for continued growth.

Despite the minor decline in volume, OPN Co-founder and CEO Matt Seeley is bullish on the long-term prospects for growth of organic fresh produce. “While there are likely some difficult months ahead, the long-term potential for continued organic fresh produce growth remains unchanged,” Seeley said. “Inflation and supply chain challenges have impacted pricing in the short term; however, organic fresh produce will remain an important component of weekly food shopping as consumers look for healthy, safe, and nutritious products for their families.”

In addition to bananas having an exceptional quarter, the berry category (strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries) led the way in dollar sales, topping $430 million. Organic blackberries generated the largest percent increase in dollars, gaining 27.6 percent year over year, followed by tomatoes, onions, and raspberries.

Conversely, blueberries posted the largest decline in dollars, with bell peppers and squash also showing noticeable declines. Berries and salads continue to be the top organic produce categories by total sales, responsible for nearly 40 percent of all organic produce dollars.

The Q2 2022 Organic Produce Performance Report covers total food sales in the US, including all outlets (i.e. supermarkets, mass merchandisers, club stores, dollar stores, convenience stores, and military commissaries), over the months of April, May, and June of this year. The full Q2 2022 Organic Produce Performance Report is available on the Organic Produce Network website here.

–Organic Produce Network

PSU’s Ag Progress Days offers a variety of activities, exhibits for all

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The 2022 edition of Penn State’s Ag Progress Days promises to give attendees three days of informative demonstrations, hands-on activities and engaging education for all ages. The expo begins Aug. 9 and continues through Aug. 11 at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs in Ferguson Township, Centre County.

Ag Progress Days is one of the largest agricultural expos in the East, featuring nearly 500 commercial and educational exhibits, crop displays, machinery demonstrations, guided research tours, family and youth activities, horse exhibitions, workshops, and the Pasto Agricultural Museum. There also are plenty of food vendors, offering hot sandwiches, lemonade, ice cream and fried fare, among other treats.

The event typically attracts as many as 45,000 visitors from across Pennsylvania and beyond to get a glimpse into the science and business of agriculture. To make the most of Ag Progress Days, it is helpful to know some of the available major demonstrations and activities.

College of Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building

Climate-smart agriculture, animal health issues such as avian influenza, vector-borne diseases and the spread of the spotted lanternfly will be the focus of displays and presentations at the College of Agricultural Sciences Exhibits Building and Theater.

Native to Asia and found for the first time in the U.S. in Berks County in 2014, the invasive spotted lanternfly has spread to 45 counties across Pennsylvania — a region that the state Department of Agriculture has designated as a quarantine zone. Ag Progress Days visitors can speak with Penn State spotted lanternfly experts, learn how to identify the various life stages of the insect, and find out how they can help contain and manage lanternfly infestations.

Exhibits and theater presentations will also cover avian influenza, vector-borne diseases such as Lyme disease spread by ticks, workforce development in agriculture, protecting animal health, and climate impact on pollinators, among other topics.

In addition, representatives from the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Office of Undergraduate Education will be on hand to provide prospective students and their families with information about the college’s programs in animal, biomedical, environmental, plant and social sciences.

The Trade Show

With nearly 500 commercial and educational exhibits and various field demonstrations and workshops, producers can walk away with newfound knowledge and ideas to enhance their operations. Exhibitors cover every product category, including field machinery, milking systems, animal genetics, storage structures, seed, feed, tools, trailers, sprayers, mixers, livestock housing, utility vehicles, fertilizers, fencing, financial products, insurance and more.

Field demonstrations are well attended and allow potential buyers to see and compare equipment in action, such as hay mowers, rakes and tedders, hay balers, and bale handlers. New demonstrations this year include small-grain combines and large square balers.

Youth Activities

Parents and children can learn about various 4-H programs with hands-on activities and demonstrations in the 4-H Youth Building. Activities will include exploring plant diseases under a microscope, meeting rabbits and testing dairy knowledge.

Several other activities aimed at children and their families can be found throughout the Ag Progress Days grounds. A sunflower maze offers a fun way to learn facts about Pennsylvania agriculture. The hands-on exhibits at the Pasto Agricultural Museum will give visitors a glimpse into farm and rural life of days gone by, and a butterfly tent will feature informational displays and live butterflies.

The Equine Experience

This year’s arena demonstrations cover various topics for every interest and horsemanship level. For the first time since 2019, a six-horse hitch will return to the Equine Experience. Spring Mount Percherons, owned and shown by David and Linda Hershey, of Warriors Mark, will be on site all three days.

Visitors can learn more about horse logging and restorative forestry by attending one of the demonstrations by Bear Hill Horse Logging. Bear Hill specializes in low-impact timber management, selective harvests and wetlands logging.

Penn State equine science faculty and staff will join members of the Pennsylvania Equine Council in the Equine Exhibits Building throughout the three-day show to answer questions and provide information on equine-related topics.

Tours

Livestock studies, pasture systems, forest management and water quality will be among the topics featured on several research and educational tours during Ag Progress Days.

Most of the tours will transport visitors by bus to locations in and around Penn State’s Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center, a 2,400-acre facility where researchers in the College of Agricultural Sciences study technologies and best practices in farming, conservation and natural resources. Those who can’t attend the annual expo still can get a flavor for Penn State agricultural research by viewing online virtual tours that are available anytime.

All Ag Progress Days tours are free, and all except the Water Wellhead Safety tour require tickets, which can be obtained at the departure point at the corn crib near the top of Main Street at the show site. Most of the tours involve some walking or standing.

Farm Safety and Health

Visitors to the Farm Safety Demonstration Area can learn about the hazards of flowing grain in confined-space grain storage and best practices to avoid and respond to entrapment risks.

Six demonstrations — at 10 a.m., noon and 2 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday — will show how grain flows in storage structures, as well as hazards, anchor points and best practices for preventing grain entrapment and engulfment.

On Wednesday, Aug. 10, agricultural safety specialists will hold two grain-bin rescue demonstrations to highlight rescue devices and training available to first responders to properly manage on-farm incidents involving grain storage. These demonstrations will take place at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

At the adjacent Rural Health and Safety Tent, health specialists will offer carotid artery screenings, vision screenings, and health and safety information daily from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Crops, Soils and Conservation Area

In the J.D. Harrington Crops, Soils and Conservation Building, specialists from Penn State and other organizations will be on hand to answer questions about crop production, weed identification, water quality and biofuels. Visitors can ask questions about crop and nutrient management, no-till practices, organic farming and sustainable agriculture, and even bring weeds for experts to identify.

Outside the Harrington Building, the Conservation Exhibit Area will include demonstrations supported by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. With a focus on working farms, NRCS technical staff will feature an active livestock watering system with solar-powered pumps for grazing operations; a scale model manure storage and concrete heavy-use area to address animal concentration areas and manure management; and an interactive soil tunnel to demonstrate soil health.

The 2022 Pennsylvania Hay Show, sponsored by the Pennsylvania Forage and Grassland Council, also will take place in the Harrington Building. Hay producers can bring samples to be evaluated.

The Family Room

Open to all ages, the Family Room is located on Main Street between Eighth and Ninth streets at the Ag Progress Days site. Several talks will take place each day, covering topics such as kinship family resources, financial literacy, sun protection and skin cancer, poison prevention, ticks, and stress in agriculture.

Educators from the Penn State Extension Food, Families and Health and Food Safety and Quality teams will prepare healthy recipes and demonstrate safe home food preservation techniques. Demonstrations will feature strawberry spinach salad; ginger lime watermelon salad; Mediterranean chickpea salad; strawberry salsa; grilled corn salad with avocado and tomato; classic Caesar salad; and a blueberry and cream smoothie.

Yard and Garden Area

Experts include Penn State Extension Master Gardeners, extension educators, and specialists in horticulture, plant pathology and entomology. Master Gardeners from across the state will dispense advice to gardening enthusiasts. There also will be presentations on container gardening, seed saving, building raised beds, winter sowing, flower arranging and tomato grafting.

The flowers and plantings in the garden attract and nourish huge numbers of native bees, butterflies and other pollinators. With pollinators in jeopardy, Penn State Master Gardeners teamed up with horticulture faculty members to create and nurture the gardens — located at the end of 11th Street at the show site — to demonstrate that supplying pollinators with food and habitat can be beautiful.

There will be an observation beehive nearby, where experts from the Pennsylvania State Beekeepers Association and Penn State Extension will conduct honey bee demonstrations and provide guidance.

Pasto Agricultural Museum

The Pasto Agricultural Museum offers hands-on exhibits to connect visitors to their agricultural past. The approximately 1,300 items in the collection span from 4,000 B.C. to the 1940s — before the widespread use of electricity and gasoline-powered equipment — when farm and household work was accomplished with the muscle power of people and animals.

Programs at the museum during Ag Progress Days will immerse visitors in thinking about food and fiber systems and natural resources. They will provide an opportunity to explore critical issues facing agriculture and the environment in a historical context.

Location, Dates and Times

Sponsored by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Ag Progress Days is held at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, 9 miles southwest of State College on Route 45. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 9; 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 10; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 11. Admission and parking are free.

For more information, visit the Ag Progress Days website. Twitter users can find and share information about the event by using the hashtag #agprogressdays, and the event also can be found on Facebook (@AgProgressDays).

–Amy Duke, Penn State University

UF study shows why ‘aromatic’ blueberries taste better

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — They may be called “aromatic” blueberries, but they don’t just smell nice — they taste good.

University of Florida scientists now know why: These fruits contain just the right genetic combination to produce the chemistry required for a pleasant blueberry flavor.

Growers and consumers always seek better-tasting fruit, compelling blueberry breeders like Patricio Muñoz to work in fields and labs and to use UF taste-test panelists to find the right varieties of blueberry to breed.

“More consumption will increase demand and keep prices up for our growers to stay in business, making profits,” Muñoz said.

Blueberry breeders have long known that the fruit they help grow, classified as “aromatic,” comes with naturally occurring chemical components that make the fruit taste different, said Muñoz, a UF/IFAS associate professor of horticultural sciences.

“These metabolites are in a category we call ‘volatile organic compounds,’  because they explode with fruit flavor when you crunch the fruit in your mouth,” he said.

To find where the flavor starts, scientists must find the right genes that control these compounds.

Haley Sater, a doctoral graduate from the UF/IFAS College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, led the research, under the supervision of Muñoz.

The new study combines information from UF sensory panels with biochemical and molecular information. Through the research, scientists identified potential candidate genes that control the production of terpenes in some types of blueberries. Terpenes are aromatic compounds found in many plants.

To reach their findings, scientists selected two groups of blueberry varieties. In the first group were a few traditional blueberry varieties; in the second group, researchers selected aromatic varieties.

Then, Charles Sims, a professor of food science and human nutrition, conducted a taste-testing panel.

Sims asked the tasters whether they could detect any special traits in the blueberries, and if so, to describe them. They also asked the tasters if they liked the fruit.

The results: Consumers correctly detected the special aromatic blueberries, and they described them, using different words such as “floral,” “fruity,” “blueberry (flavor),” “strong” and more. Most tasters liked the blueberries.

“Once we analyzed the data of the panel, we saw consumers like these aromatic blueberry varieties more than the non-aromatics,” Muñoz said. “Once we had this information, we tried to understand where this characteristic originated.”

That’s when scientists put molecular marker information together with data on volatile organic compounds. Researchers discovered the aromatic varieties contained more of the terpenes, which provide aroma related to floral, sweet, citrus and fresh.

“Now we know why these blueberry varieties make the fruit aromatic,” Muñoz said. “We now have the capacity to use these compounds to formally classify varieties as aromatics. We can predict consumer liking and preference for these varieties.”

In addition to Muñoz, Sims and Sater, Felipe Ferrao, a research assistant scientist for Munoz, was among the scientists who helped with the study.

–Brad Buck, UF/IFAS

Organics in an era of inflation

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MONTEREY, Calif. — While the organic fresh produce industry has certainly felt the pangs of inflation, industry experts agree that there are other variables impacting organic sales in the second quarter of this year as well.

As part of the Organic Produce Summit 2022 educational program, Tom Barnes, CEO of Category Partners, and Richard Gonzales, VP of Global Produce Sourcing for Walmart, discussed how to adapt and grow in the era of inflation with moderator Kevin Coupe, founder of Morning News Beat.

Barnes kicked off the educational session with Q2 2022 Nielsen data that showed organic produce sales stood at $2.4 billion, up 3.7 percent from the same period last year. Volume, however, was down 2.8 percent, with 748 million pounds of organic produce sold.

“If we look at the 5-year comparison in dollars from Q2 2018 to present, we’re trending up. However, the volume is trending down over that 5-year period, with conventional off 2 percent and organics down 2.8 percent,” said Barnes.

Barnes said that it is important to note that every organic category is performing differently. Organic blueberries, for example, were down 23.5 percent year over year in Q2, whereas conventional blueberries were only down by 2.1 percent. Organic apples were down 10 percent year over year, while conventional apples were up 3.1 percent. However, organic tomatoes were up almost 20 percent year over year for Q2, whereas their conventional counterparts were only up 0.3 percent. Organic mushrooms were only down 1.3 percent in volume, while conventional mushroom volume was down 8.5 percent.

“If you look across all of the categories, half of them [are] bucking the trend, and half of them are not,” said Barnes.

Gonzales noted that consumer behavior began changing in February of this year. “There was a shift to cooking at home, and people began thinking more about what they buy. Inflation has been here for a while, and I don’t think consumer behavior is going to change in a recession,” he said.

Barnes, in turn, said the industry needs to make sure there is a compelling reason for consumers to buy organic. “There’s a large percentage of fence sitters that swing between organic and conventional and look to quality and price to guide their decision. Look at your business and then at the numbers to see what you need to do,” he said.

In 2020, Gonzales said there was a clear drive by consumers to better manage their health, which resulted in a jump in organic produce sales—and retailers have responded. “The more supply, the more upside there is. It’s not just inflation. There are sourcing issues that cause prices to go up. The consistency of supply will help drive choices; if retailers know they will get consistent supply, they’ll allocate the space,” said Gonzales.

Barnes warned against volatile reactions to changing consumer behaviors: “We need to look down the road and not fall prey to knee jerk reactions,” he said. “Some retailers rely on higher price points, and right now they’re suffering; the foot traffic is going elsewhere. Should that retailer drop their prices and go value add? No, because that would be reactionary.”

“There will be a ceiling in the organic fresh produce industry,” said Barnes. “When we began, we saw conventional growers watching what they put on their crops. Organics helped the industry, and it’s still a huge upsell for retailers. We can’t go backwards. However, can we go forwards in the next six months to a year? It will be a tough road home for organic growers and shippers. We need to make sure it’s available for the right price. We don’t want to drop our prices to match conventional, but we need to look at conventional and then figure out where the price gap should be while ensuring we tell our consumers the right story.”

Barnes said prices are trending up in both categories. In Q2 2022, conventional was up 9.3 percent and organic was up 7.2 percent. “The prices are all going up, but the gap between the two is still decreasing. It’s important to have this gap. There are retailers that want to push that price down to parity with conventional; it doesn’t have to go there.”

Gonzales said opportunities exist to attract more organic customers. “There is a lot of opportunity with mid-market and price-sensitive buyers, which accounts for 95 percent of market share,” he said. “They want more organics, but they’re not sure if they can afford it, or maybe it’s not available. This is everyone’s customer, no matter which retailer you are. The question becomes: how do we get them more organics in a way that’s consistently cost-effective?”

— Organic Produce Network

Butter Cow honors Ohio State Fair's ag roots

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time since 2019, the American Dairy Association Mideast’s annual butter cow display is back at the Ohio State Fair and is bigger than ever, paying homage to the fair’s rich agricultural heritage.

The Ohio State Fair began more than 170 years ago and since then, the fair has grown, welcoming hundreds of thousands of guests each year to enjoy a variety of food, attractions, rides and concerts. But the roots of the fair remain grounded in agriculture, highlighting farm families and their contributions to our communities.

This year’s display features 10 life-size butter sculptures including the traditional cow and calf, and for the first time ever, other livestock  –  a pig, a lamb and a chicken – all being proudly shown by kids at the fair where they are being recognized for their hard work.

The butter display was sculpted by a team of technical sculptors including lead sculptor Paul Brooke of Cincinnati and Tammy Buerk of West Chester, Erin Birum of Columbus, dairy farmer Matt Davidson of Sidney, Joe Metzler of Auburn and Karen Tharp of Fort Myers, Florida.

While the butter sculptures typically weigh-in around 2,000 pounds, this year’s record-breaking display uses 2,530 pounds of butter, donated in part by Dairy Farmers of America, and was completed in 600 hours, 500 of which were spent sculpting.

The butter sculptures are exhibited in the Dairy Products Building at the Ohio Expo Center in a large walk-in refrigerated cooler that is 36 feet long by 11 feet wide and maintained at an energy-efficient 46 degrees.

The butter cow display attracts more than 500,000 visitors to the Ohio State Fair, often gaining nationwide recognition and media attention. A long-standing tradition for Ohio’s 1,550 dairy farm families, the American Dairy Association Mideast chooses an icon or theme to feature in butter that is non-political, non-controversial and reflects optimism and broad audience appeal. Each year, the theme of the butter cow display is one of the best-kept secrets leading up to the fair.

The Dairy Products Building is open daily and offers a variety of dairy foods, including the Ohio State Fair official ice cream flavor Red, White & Blueberry – a vanilla ice cream ice cream with strawberry pieces and a blueberry swirl by Velvet Ice Cream. A variety of other ice cream flavors, milkshakes, cheese sandwiches and milk are also available.

While visiting the Dairy Products Building, fair visitors can learn about how Ohio’s dairy farmers care for their cows and land to produce safe, wholesome milk.

The butter display and the Dairy Products Building are sponsored by the American Dairy Association Mideast, Ohio’s dairy farmer-funded marketing and promotion program. For more information, visit www.drink-milk.com.

— American Dairy Association Mideast

Learn about food, families and health at Ag Progress Days

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — From strawberry salsa to sun protection, the Family Room Building will offer a range of health and wellness education during Penn State’s Ag Progress Days Aug. 9-11.

Open to all ages, the Family Room is located on Main Street between Eighth and Ninth streets at the Ag Progress Days site.

Displays and activities will include the following:

— Speaking presentations and food demonstrations: Several talks will take place each day, covering topics such as kinship family resources, financial literacy, sun protection and skin cancer, poison prevention, ticks, and stress in agriculture.

Educators from the Penn State Extension Food, Families and Health and Food Safety and Quality teams will prepare healthy recipes and demonstrate safe home food preservation techniques. Demonstrations will feature strawberry spinach salad; ginger lime watermelon salad; Mediterranean chickpea salad; strawberry salsa; grilled corn salad with avocado and tomato; classic Caesar salad; and a blueberry and cream smoothie. Food preservation demonstrations will cover water bath canning of salsa and water bath canning of blueberry spice jam.

The Ag Progress Days Facebook page will feature some of the food demonstrations and speaking presentations live for those interested in tuning in online.

— Mental health and wellness in agriculture: Agriculture ranks among the most stressful and hazardous industries. Personal injuries, extreme and unpredictable weather conditions, machine breakdowns and rollovers, highly contagious animal diseases, and fluctuating crop prices can cause excessive stress on the farmer and farm family. This display provides resources and tips for identifying and responding to stressors in positive ways.

— Health and wellness: Aimed at helping visitors achieve a healthy lifestyle, this exhibit will provide information on physical fitness, nutrition and chronic disease prevention.

— Family well-being: This display will offer ideas and resources on parenting and childcare, grandparents raising grandchildren, and financial management.

— Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement: This exhibit will showcase a joint initiative between the nation’s Cooperative Extension System and the Centers for Disease Control, providing accurate and trusted information on immunization and vaccines.

— Home food preservation and consumer food safety: In celebration of National Food Safety Month in September, Penn State food safety specialists will provide research-based information on how to safely store and preserve foods at home.

— Pesticide education: This display will offer information about pests, integrated pest management and poison prevention. Visitors can test their knowledge by spinning the wheel to answer a question and win a prize.

Sponsored by Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, Ag Progress Days is held at the Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center at Rock Springs, 9 miles southwest of State College on Route 45. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 9; 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 10; and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 11. Admission and parking are free.

For more information, visit the Ag Progress Days website. Twitter users can find and share information about the event by using the hashtag #agprogressdays. The event also can be found on Facebook (@AgProgressDays).

–Alexandra McLaughlin, Penn State University