2004 AgrAbility Articles
Back to Articles Main MenuFrom the WVATS Fall 2004 Newsletter
Aquaculture
A growing choice for West Virginia farmers is aquaculture, which is considered the fastest growing sector of U.S. Agriculture. Aquaculture is defined as the farming of fish, shellfish, aquatic plants, etc., in a natural or controlled environment.
The USDA Census of Aquaculture in 1998 reported 27 aquaculture farms in West Virginia with $691,000 in sales. Twenty-two farms used on-farm surface water, four used groundwater and one used off-farm water to raise fish. Detailed data from the 2002 Census will not be released until 2005, although many more aquaculture farms are now operating in West Virginia. According to the 2002 state profile, aquaculture sales had increased to $2,712,000.
Farms used ponds, flow-through raceways or tanks, closed recirculation tanks, cages or a combination of methods. Catfish and trout were produced on 28 West Virginia farms, while striped bass, walleye, blue gill and large mouth bass were raised on other farms.
Researchers on WVU's Aquaculture Food and Marketing Development Project have joined together to enhance the production and marketing of farm-raised fish for food and recreation in private waters, boosting economic development and tourism, and creating new opportunities for farmers in West Virginia.
It is the team's mission to expand the aquaculture industry through a variety of means, such as market research, supporting individual farmers, studying fish species at the genetic level, and turning mine sites into fish farms.
The final aspect of the multifaceted project is perhaps the most important: communicating findings to West Virginia's growing aquaculture industry and helping farmers apply them to make their efforts more productive, profitable, and successful. Ken Semmens, an aquaculture specialist with the WVU Extension, coordinates these efforts, scheduling workshops and short courses for producers and organizing an annual aquaculture forum. For more information, call Ken at 304-293-6131 ext, 4211 or e-mail him at ksemmens@wvu.edu.
WVU Extension has an aquaculture information series of fact sheets on every aspect of aquaculture from pond management to record keeping forms and water quality. One fact sheet discusses the basics of "Getting Started in Aquaculture in West Virginia." You can find the series at www.wvu.edu/~agexten/aquaculture/factsht.htm.
To see a working aquaculture system, you might want to consider a visit to Keyser, West Virginia. The Mineral County Vo Tech in Keyser has had an active and growing aquaculture program since 1994 that is linked to hydroponics. Hydroponics is growing plants without soil. In a program called aquaponics, the vegetation is planted in gravel, then water and fertilizer are circulated over the beds to give the plants the nutrients needed to grow.
The Mineral County facility is equipped with a state-of-the-art filtration system, classroom computer monitoring, and a lighting and heating system that allows the school to produce crops of fish and plants year-round. Students operate the lab by testing water quality, feeding fish, planting, harvesting and monitoring growth, operating the hatchery and caring for broodfish. Students also conduct tours for visitors. E-mail cewebb@access.k12.wv.us for more information about the
Bionic Gardening Gloves
A new type of gardening glove can make gardening easier for people with arthrites. Bionic Gardening Gloves are designed to improve hand strength while reducing pain. Anatomic relief pads on the thumb, fingers and palm reduce calluses, blisters and fatigue.
The gloves have received an Ease-of-Use Commendation from the Arthritis Foundation. Bionic Gloves can be ordered for $45 a pair from the company at 800-282-2287 - select Option # 6 - or www.bionicgloves.com/PG. They are also available at some garden centers.
From the WVATS Summer 2004 Newsletter
County Farms Are Open for Visitors
In an effort to sustain their farms, farm families are developing new innovative practices and improving old ones. Farmers are offering fee-fishing, petting zoos, and other educational and recreational activities to the public to maintain the viability of West Virginia family farming. The following is a list of farms open for visitors in Preston County.
Mountain Diamond Longhorns
Tunnelton, W.Va.
Open all year
These farmers demonstrate the modern model of rural part-time agriculture in West Virginia on their Longhorn cattle farm. Please call or e-mail to arrange a weekend or evening visit. For more information, e-mail barbara.a.miller@att.net, or call 304-568-2322
Fulks Farm and Crafts
Aurora, W.Va.
Open all year
This farm features Romney sheep on rolling West Virginia hillsides. The wool is used to produce high quality rugs and other items. For more information or to arrange a visit (please call ahead), call 304-735-3604.
Reckart's Mill
Orr, W.Va.
Open May-September
Built in 1865, this mill spans Muddy Creek in Preston County where grain, buckwheat, and corn were milled into flour. Reckart's Mill is located on an operational farm were visitors may see cows, rabbits and chickens. There is also a general store selling local crafts. For more information, please call 888-478-2324.
Cole Mountain Trout Farm
Terra Alta, W.Va.
Open during the spring
Cole Mountain Trout Farm is located on top of Briery Mountain in Preston County. This farm features a fish-for-fee trout pond and a hatching facility. For more information, or to arrange a visit, please call 304-789-2881.
Arthurdale
Arthurdale, W.Va.
Open all year
Arthurdale, recognized as the nation's first New Deal homestead, was created in the 1930's. Arthurdale offers tours of the New Deal Museum, a blacksmith's shop, an old service station, the historic Center Hall and the homestead museum with its farm animals, garden and root cellar. Special events are scheduled throughout the year. For more information, please call 304-864-3959 or visit www.arthurdaleheritage.org
Hopping Acres
Bruceton Mills, W.Va.
Open May-December
Nestled in the mountains of Bruceton Mills, this farm is the home of Romney and Leicester Longwool sheep. Hopping Acres sheep wool is used to make wool sweaters and knit-ware available at the farm or on the website. For more information, visit www.frontiernet.net/~hoppingacres/, e-mail hoppingacres@frontiernet.net or call 304-379-2212.
The Grazing Herd Sheep & Wool Co.
Bruceton Mills, W.Va.
Open May 15 - December 15
Touted as West Virginia's only wool processing mill, the Grazing Herd Sheep & Wool Co. turns fine wool from sheep, llamas, rabbits and other critters into quality fleece, knitwear and felted items. For more information, e-mail grazingherd@frontiernet.net or call 304-379-9100.
Crimson Shamrock Alpacas
Eglon, W.Va.
Open all year
The Crimson Shamrock Alpacas farm is the home to Suri Alpacas, Angora rabbits and Wensleydale sheep. A tour of the farm gives visitors a chance to touch and groom these friendly creatures and to learn about Alpaca farming. For more information, please call 304-735-6413.
Allegheny Treenware
Thornton, W.Va.
Open all year
Treenware, handcrafted wood kitchenware, is crafted and sold on the 45-acre Preston County farm. Each piece is hand-shaped and sanded to a satiny finish. Open 7 days a week. For more information, visit www.spooners.com or call 304-892-3270.
AgrAbility Helps Farmers Keep Farming
The AgrAbility Project is a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)- funded program established to help farmers and farm families who, because of occupational and personal accidents or illnesses, need to find accommodations to remain active in farming.
West Virginia AgrAbility Project staff will assist farmers and their families by making recommendations for safe, affordable modifications to their homes, land, vehicles and farming equipment. Staff members will make direct on-the-farm visits to help develop solutions to meet specific needs. Project staff will also help farm families locate peer support and funding sources. The West Virginia AgrAbility Project can develop and pursue resources, inform farmers of what is available and, in some cases, help them design and build assistive devices.
The program is designed to aid those who experience any number of chronic illnesses or physical limitations including amputation, arthritis, back pain, developmental disabilities, hearing problems, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's disease, vision problems, respiratory problems, stroke, spinal cord injury, post-polio syndrome, chronic pain and other health or chronic conditions.
West Virginia AgrAbility Project serves agricultural families regardless of farm type and can develop solutions to meet specific needs through direct on-the-farm visits.
Inetta Fluharty, field operations manager, and Sonja Gollihue, assistant field operations manager, coordinate resources and services to farm families. If you know someone who farms with an injury or chronic health condition or has a family member with a disability, or if you would just like more information about West Virginia AgrAbility, please call 800-841-8436.
From the WVATS Spring 2004 Newsletter
Weed with Less Strain
by Astrid Newenhouse, Bob Meyer, Marcia Miquelon and Larry Chapman
University of Wisconsin Healthy Farmers Healthy Profits Project, Dec. 2001; Second Edition
Many of the hoes commonly used for weeding can strain your back, neck, shoulders, and arms because they force you to adopt a stooped position. Consider a long handled diamond hoe instead of what you currently use. With a long handled diamond hoe you stand up straight while you work and keep your wrists in a more neutral position. The hoe's unique design can also help you save time and effort.
How does it work?
The long handled diamond hoe has a 2" x 8" diamond-shaped blade, sharpened on all four edges. The handle is 6' long and ends in a modified "T" shape. While standing upright, you push the hoe with your hand loosely gripping the "T", and pull it back again in a push-pull motion similar to running a household vacuum. With your other hand along the handle, you can gently guide the hoe.
Hoes are designed either for weeding (to slice weeds at or just below ground level) or for chopping (to cut up weeds and cultivate or disturb the soil surface). Blades on chopping hoes, such as a rectangular onion hoe, are set at a sharp angle to the ground and are designed to move more soil than weeding hoes. The long handled diamond hoe is a weeding hoe, as are the stirrup hoe (also called the action, oscillating, swivel, scuffle, or hula hoe), the circle hoe, and Eliot Coleman's collinear hoe.
Diamond hoe benefits:
Less fatigue and discomfort. To prevent fatigue and soreness, it helps to use a weeding hoe instead of a chopping hoe because you skim it along the ground or slightly beneath the surface instead of repeatedly lifting the hoe and moving a lot of soil. Using a hoe with a regular length handle (typically 54-57 inches) forces you to bend to reach the ground, which strains your back, shoulders, arms, and neck. With the long handled diamond hoe and the collinear hoe, the handle length and blade position work together to let you hoe with your back straight. In our trials, we took repeated measurements of spine angle from an hour of work. On average, when using the long-handled diamond hoe the worker had 8 degrees of forward lean from vertical, as compared to 15 degrees of forward lean using the stirrup hoe.
With the diamond hoe, you also have less neck strain because you face forward as you work instead of sideways, compared to using the collinear and stirrup hoes. The long handled diamond hoe moves less soil than the stirrup hoe and requires less effort. Holding the slightly angled "T" handle on the end of the long handled diamond hoe puts your wrist in line with your arm in a neutral position that isn't bent or twisted. This helps prevent wrist strain.
Requires less effort. Your body exerts more power with less effort when you push against something than when you pull, therefore pushing a hoe to cut off weeds is more efficient than pulling it. With the long handled diamond hoe, you can do both. It also takes a lot less effort to slice weeds with a sharp edge than a dull one.
The long handled diamond hoe is made of forged steel and is razor sharp. Compared to a stamped blade of mild steel, it starts out sharper and stays sharper. To keep it sharp, use a mill file or bench grinder and file across the width of the blade with each downward stroke. Maintain the manufacturer's bevel.
Lets you change positions. Many people who use the long handled diamond hoe switch it from hand to hand to give each arm a rest. You can also use your leg muscles to help move the hoe through the soil. Some people alternate hoeing in front of them with reaching to hoe each adjoining row, saving themselves steps. Each time you change your work position, you alleviate muscle stress and prevent pain.
Fast and precise. The hoe you choose depends on personal preference, soil type and moisture level, weed height, and crop growth. With four cutting edges and two sharp points, you can quickly remove weeds very close to your crop. After an initial trial session to get used to the long handle, upright posture, precise cutting edges and "far away" blade, you can weed more quickly with this hoe than with others. In our field trials, removing small (2-4 inch) weeds from between salsify rows was 21% faster with a long handled diamond hoe than with a stirrup hoe.
Affordable. The long handled diamond hoe costs $35-$40. While initially more costly than many other hoes, it can pay for itself by saving time and preventing injury and soreness.
How can I get one?
The long handled diamond hoe we describe here was originally designed for tulip farmers, and is made by De Van Koek, a Dutch company. It is available from farm and garden supply dealers such as:
Glacier Valley Enterprises
S2907 County Hwy A
Baraboo, WI 53913
1-800-236-6670
Ag Resource Inc.
35268 State Hwy 34
Detroit Lakes, MN 56501
1-800-288-6650
These references are provided as a convenience for our readers. They are not an endorsement by West Virginia University.
Deluxe Boot & Shoe Brush with Scraper
Are you always tracking unwanted dirt, sand, snow, and slush into your home because it is just too hard to scrape off your boots? Keep your boots clean with Duluth Trading Company's Deluxe Boot and Shoe Brush with built in scraper. The boot and shoe scraper has two 11"L x 6"W V-shaped contour brushes to clean your footwear with over 100 square inches of plastic bristles.
Plus, with the tip of your shoe, you can flip the brushes to expose the steel scraper bar to remove accumulations from the sole and instep - all without the need for bending. One foot secures the unit while the other is being cleaned; or, you can secure the unit through the anchor holes provided. The Deluxe Boot and Shoe Brush is made in USA by Sparta Brush(r) and retails for $42.99.
For more information, call 1-877-382-2345 or visit www.duluthtrading.com on the web.
From the WVATS Winter 2004 Newsletter
Lack of farm safety rules reaping a toll
Dominion Post, Nov. 9, 2003 Employment and Technology SectionOn-the-job death rates in agriculture have remained stubbornly high for generations, even as the casualty counts have plunged in mining, construction and other risky industries. The rigorous safety rules and government inspections credited with reducing the toll elsewhere in the economy play almost no role on the farm, and that's just how farmers want it.
Frustrated researchers call the phenomenon "the farm safety-risk paradox," a fancy name for the fact that farmers understand the poor odds they face but willingly take their chances. They resolutely resist measures that would save lives, such as requiring roll bars on older tractors.
"It's just awful tough to force it," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., whose district takes in a swath of farm country.
Fatalism, self-reliance and economic pressure combine to make injury and death as much a part of agriculture as seed and feed. The prospect of additional government regulation threatens deeply held values far more than entanglement in machinery, assault by livestock and other common mishaps long regarded as an inescapable part of rural life.
"So much of the culture involves risk-taking and the independence to make their own decisions about their own operations," said Dennis J. Murphy, a professor of agricultural engineering at Penn State University, who grew up near Waggoner. "The very first memory they have is doing things the way their dad did or their grandfather did. Farmers tend to accept the hazards."
No single occupational hazard comes close to the dangers involving tractors, according to a government-funded research effort that has uncovered alarming new data pinpointing the perils in America's heartland.
Between 1992 and 2000, tractor accidents claimed the lives of 1,894 farmers, or 37 percent of all those who died on the job during that period. Rollovers account for more accidental deaths than any other single cause, and no one expects the numbers to fall sharply anytime soon.
The population of U.S. farmers is graying rapidly, resulting in slower reaction times and reduced capacity to heal. Because death rates rise dramatically with age, an increasing proportion of farmers will face their highest risk in years to come.
Fatigue becomes a big factor during fall harvest and spring planting, especially as the average acreage of a working farm expands, and farmers travel farther from field to field. As farm tractors creep along on roadways as vehicles whiz by, the potential increases for accidents.
In the most common fatal accident, a farmer in his 60s or 70s riding an older-model tractor alone at the end of a long day rolls the machine over sideways down a hill or embankment. Even if he doesn't die immediately, help is usually far away.
Yet although the public investment in research has advanced the understanding of agricultural health and safety, it has done nothing to reduce the death rate, Penn State's Murphy concludes in a report published this year.
Indeed, the roughly $30 million earmarked annually for farm safety amounts to relatively little. The federal government spends as much as 200 times more per miner than it does per farmer, mostly on inspection and enforcement programs.
Only farms with more than 10 employees are subject to similar regimens. The vast majority of Midwest operations fall under the "small-farm exemption" to occupational safety enforcement - granted at the behest of agriculture lobbyists and farm-state politicians in the 1970s.
With so little leverage, farm-safety researchers have resorted to communicating safety messages through churches, banks and other rural institutions. Their studies suggest that influencing community leaders works better at changing behavior than safety education aimed directly at everyday farmers, who tune it out.
Even cash incentives to install tractor roll bars or replace equipment shields don't work as well as "peer pressure," said John R. Myers, a NIOSH statistician responsible for farm data.
Although the decline is less pronounced than for other dangerous industries, farm death rates have fallen over the past 40 years, probably because of technological advancements more than behavioral changes among typical farmers, the safety experts say.
In the mid-1980s, tractor manufacturers made rollover protection standard on their new vehicles. However, tractors last for decades, and farmers sometimes remove the roll bars so the big machines will fit in tight spaces. Only about half of tractors operating on America's farms have the steel frames enclosing the driver's seat that boost survival rates in rollovers.
Outside the United States, some countries have made different choices. Simple regulations covering farm equipment, such as requiring closed cabs on tractors, are common across Europe and the United Kingdom. In Australia, with a few exceptions, anyone operating a modern tractor without rollover protection faces a four-figure fine.
Even on U.S. farms, certain regulations cover pesticide applications because, unlike workplace safety, those rules are deemed necessary to protect a wider public.
Farm Tractor Rollover Protective Structures (ROPS)
Each year tractor rollover accidents continue to be the single leading cause of farm-related fatalities in many states. Having a rollover protective structure (ROPS) is the only sure way to protect the operator in case of a rollover.
Be sure your tractor has ROPS. A cab with ROPS has a label certifying that it meets ROPS standards. Many older tractors do not have a ROPS structure built into the framework. There are ROPS retrofits available for many tractors that cost between $300 and $600 and these devices can save a farmer's life.
Farmers should not attempt to build their own ROPS as there are many variables in mounting and metal strength involved. ROPS are certified as a guarantee that the device will absorb energy and withstand tremendous force to protect the tractor operator.
ROPS are not designed to prevent rollovers; they are designed to protect the operator in the event of a rollover. Tractor operators should still wear a seatbelt and practice caution while operating the tractor.
Information obtained from the University of Wisconsin Center for Agricultural Safety and Health, Madison.
Tractor-related Incidents Account for 37 Deaths in W.Va. from 1997 to 2002
Dominion Post November 3, 2003 Local News
A total of 37 West Virginia farmers died in tractor-related incidents between 1997 and 2002. Many of these deaths were the result of tractor rollovers and overturns, according to research conducted by the WVU Center for Rural Emergency Medicine's Fatality Assessment and Control Evaluation (FACE) program.
The deaths prompted statewide distribution of a survey containing questions on tractor safety practices among farmers. The results of nearly 3,000 surveys show that the average age of a tractor is more than 22 years, and older tractors are not equipped with a rollover protective structure (ROPS). A ROPS is a structural frame designed to protect the driver in the event of a rollover. They are standard on newer tractors and available for older ones.
"The presence of a ROPS on a tractor can reduce the chance of sustaining injury in the event of a rollover," FACE Program Coordinator, Wayne Lundstrom said. "Farmers must also use a safety belt for full protection."
Farmers cited expense, availability and unlikelihood of a rollover as reasons they avoid outfitting their older tractors with a ROPS. However, more than 40 percent of all farmers surveyed reported a close call with a rollover.
"There are no known rollover fatalities in the state while the operator was wearing a seatbelt in a ROPS-equipped tractor," Lundstrom said.
