Vegetable and flower production and demonstration

2. 50+ Years A Statewide Mission

3. Research at BREC
Breeding, Physiology, and Plant Protection

4. What’s New?
Rainout Shelters

5. Rainout Shelter
The Water Stressed Corn in the Front

6. New Planting Technology

7. Pacific White Shrimp In A Zero
Discharge system

8. Pacific
White Shrimp-from Larva to
harvest in 90 days

9. Freshwater Prawns (Shrimp)

10. Fresh Water Prawns
In 120 Days

11. Research-Cover Crops/Soil
Health/Sustainability

12. Why Are We Looking
At Cover Crops?
Many Reasons-one is Soil
Organic Matter

13. Importance of Soil Organic
Matter (SOM)
13
Kristen Veum and Robert Kremer

14. What is Soil Organic Matter?
 SOM is derived from
– Plant residue (both
litter and roots)
– Animal remains and
excreta
– Living soil microbes
(microbial biomass)
 Over time fresh
organic material is
transformed into soil
organic matter
Crop
Residues
Bacteria
Fungi
Actinobacteria
SOM
14

15. Soil Life (macro)
Help create soil
structure and break
down larger plant
residues
• Earthworms
• Nematodes
• Beetles
• Ants
• Termites
• Springtails

16. One tablespoon of soil has approximately 1 billion
soil microbes:
• Bacteria: 3,000,000 to 500,000,000
• Actinobacteria: 1,000,000 to 20,000,000
• Fungi: 5,000 to 1,000,000
• Yeast: 1,000 to 1,000,000
• Protozoa: 1,000 to 500,000
• Algae: 1,000 to 500,000
• Nematodes: 10 to 5,000
Soil Life (micro)

17. This is the mass equivalent
of two cows per acre that
need to be fed
Soil organisms
are much like
cows, they need
inputs of plant
residues for food
and energy
Specifically, they
need the carbon
that is contained
in plant residue
and soil organic
matter

18. Cover Crops in Winter-Something
Green and Growing Year Around
And Feeds The Soil Biology

19. What Destroys Organic Matter? Tilling!
Whether It Is a Plow or a Field Cultivator
 Loss of Organic
Matter
– Soil structure
– Soil microbial
biomass
 Release of CO2
 Soil Erosion
 Why Till?
– Weed Control

20. Tilled VS No-Till-We Have Destroyed Much
of Our Soil Structure
Long Term Pasture
Tilled in a
Corn/Soybean/Wheat Rotation

21. Loss of Organic Matter and Loss of
Soil Structure

22. Cover Crops in 2014-Oats and
Legumes

23. Cover Crops For Vegetables
and Wildlife

24. Grow a Cover Crop And Use it
For a Mulch

25. Cover Crops-Legumes
Crimson Clover
Austrian Winter Peas

26. Cover Crops-Cereals
Cereal Rye
Oats

27. Radish
Fall
Spring

28. Tillage Radish-Small Roots Go
Down Deep!

29. Cover Crops-Other
Cowpea Buckwheat

30. How Do You Terminate Them?
 Mow Them
 Roll Them
 Let the Winter Kill
Them
 Plow?

31. Sorghum x Sudan In Between Rows of
Tomatoes-Can Help Control Weeds

32. Sorghum X Sudan Can Be Mowed Back and It Will
Regrow. Returning Biomass (Shoot and Root) To
The Soil

33. Pollinators/Diversity Using
Natives and Cover Crops

34. Field Days, Clinics and Workshops
 Hail School
 Native Plant Field Day
 Weed/IPM Field Day
 Crop Injury and Diagnostic
Clinic
 Integrating Bob White
Quail in Agriculture
 Tomato Festival
 FFA Field Day
 Numerous Septic Systems
Installation and
Inspections

35. 10 Years Ago Only
Targeting the Grain
Farmer
How Do We Reach Out to
Those Who Are Not
Traditionally Our
Audience?

36. Modern Agriculture,
Conservation and Wildlife on
the Same Page
Quail Harvested in Illinois
0
500000
1000000
1500000
2000000
2500000
3000000
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
1988
1992
1996
2000
2004
Year
QuailHarvested

37. Native Plant Gardens

38. Formal and Rain Gardens

39. Shade Garden

40. Glade

41. What Does Everyone Like That
We Can Really Promote?

42. Tomato Festival-150 Different
Tomato Varieties

43. Tomato Festival
Tasting As Well As Information

44. Tomato Festival-Tasting
Tomatoes and Peppers

45. Salsa and More, Chef
Competition

46. In the Tomato Patch To Ask Questions
and Get a First Hand Look

47. Sweet Corn-What’s Your
Favorite?

48. Just For Fun!
Sweet Corn and Melon Tasting

49. Educational Events and
Demonstrations

50. Gene Zoo

51. Biofuel Garden

52. Day Lilly Demonstration From
Local Hybridizers

53. Passive Solar Greenhouse

54. Educational Activities

55. Undergraduate Education

56. Ag Education Field Day (FFA)
Field Day-High School

57. Fistulated Cow is the Favorite!!

58. Numerous School Groups-Show
Them Where Their Food Comes
From

59. Afterward School Groups Enjoy
Corn Maze and Pumpkins

60. Fulton School For the Deaf

61. Partners In Education-Fishing
Day

62. The Bradford Amaizing Race

63. Community
 Girl Scouts and Boy
Scouts
 McCambridge House
 Big Brothers/Big
Sisters
 Breast Cancer
Awareness

64. Donations to the Mid Missouri
Food Bank

65. Vegetable Research and Campus
Dining

66. Campus Dining-A Survey
 Each student
through out 4.5 oz
of food each meal
 250 tons/year!
 400 big round
bales!

67. What If We Could Make Compost
Out Of the Food Waste?
Food Waste Horse Bedding

68. MU’s Campus Dining halls
generate 3,000+ gallons of
Waste Vegetable Oil
annually. This WVO will be
converted into biodiesel.
An estimated 40% of all food produced in the country is discarded, according to a new federal report. Each day, every person in the U.S. puts about 1,400 calories
worth of food in the garbage, according to researchers at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). Food waste has increased
50% since previous estimates were made in 1974, and now totals some 150 trillion calories per year. SOURCE: CALIFORNIA EMERGENCY FOODLINK
Zero Carbon Footprint Vegetable & Compost P roduction System
University of Missouri Bradford Research & Education Center & MU Campus Dining
Tim Reinbott, BREC Superintendent; Eric Cartwright, MU Campus Dining; Steven Kirk, MU Division of Plant Sciences
Several large-scale composting
methods exist. These include:
Windrow, Aerated Windrow, Aerated
Static Pile, In-Vessel, Containerized
In-Vessel, Rotating Drum and Bag
Systems. Variables include: cost,
compost consistency, time, labor and
area requirements.
The University of Missouri Animal
Sciences and Veterinary Medicine
produce 1500 tons of manure and
bedding material each year. MU’s
Campus Dining produces 270 tons
of food waste annually.
BREC can serve as a model for similar institutions by providing a
working example for alternative waste management. Food waste from
Campus Dining will be collected and taken to BREC, mixed with animal
manures and beddings as needed to balance any nitrogen or carbon
requirements, and composted to create the optimum soil amendment
to be used to grow produce that will then be sold back to Campus
Dining completing the circle. In addition to the compost utilized by
horticultural researchers and students to grow vegetables, excess
compost can be applied to larger fields such as sweet corn, pumpkins,
melons and other crops, as well as be used as a soil amendment by
MU’s Landscape Services and the Mizzou Botanical Garden.
There is a growing interest in locally produced food by the general
public and in our school systems. This proposed system is the
essence of Community Development, and can serve as a model of
how food waste from any type of cafeteria (school, business,
institutional) can be utilized to produce a valuable commodity. Similar
systems could be used to provide schools with a healthy source of
locally grown food, and provide vegetable producers with a creative
way to convert so called waste materials into assets to sell at local
farmers markets and to the general public. The cost/benefits realized
from not sending materials to the landfill could be substantial.
Biodiesel will power the trucks, tractors & equipment used for
vegetable production as well as pick-up and delivery of food
waist and produce to and from campus. Carbon Credits will be
used to off-set any other energy needs for this project.

69. Compost Facility-$35,000 Mid Missouri Solid Waste District
and $35,000 from Campus Dining

70. Composting Operation-Food Waste

71. MU Students Growing Vegetables
to Take to Campus Dining

72. First Produce of the Year

73. Completing the Circle

74. Compostable Tableware Welcome
Back Bash!

75. Let’s Make It Green!
 Campus Dining
Goes Through
3,000 gallons of
Waste Vegetable
Oil Each Year!

76. Make It Into Biodiesel!
$10,000 Missouri
Soybean Association
 50 gallons every 48
hours
 By product Glycerol
which contains methanol
 Challenge to remove the
methanol, then the
Glycerin can be
– Composted
– Burned
– Animal feed
– Made into soap

77. Biodiesel

78. Questions?
Comments?
http://aes.missouri.edu/bradford