Day 1 of the Shenandoah Valley

    On day one of the trip to the Shenandoah Valley we visited Novozymes Biologicals, Inc. We spoke to senior scientist, Jarrod Leland. He discussed that the biological solutions at Novozymes create necessary balance between better business, cleaner environment and better lives. History of Novozymes is the world leader in individual enzymes, microorganism and globally 2010 sales were 1.77 billion. Novozymes moves more than seven hundred products used in 130 countries within more than thirty industries. Novozymes employees 5,200+ people worldwide. For sustainable agriculture at Novozymes the products are to improve industrial performance and safeguard the world's resources. Novozymes at the Virginia location is considered closer to the pharmaceutical industry then to the agricultural industry but microorganisms are used for the agricultural applications purposes. Approximately sixty percent of their business is related to primarily agriculture. Their global headquarters are located in Denmark and Europe, Denmark is the enzyme business for Novozymes. Novozymes are related to my coarse work at Ferrum and my career by their use of probiotics in animal feed to help the growth and productivity. Mr. Leland stated that they focus on the the individual customers by delivering high value to produce food, feed, and fiber.
      Bio Ag products are in three parts that is Biofertility, Biocontrol, and Bioyield enhancement. Biofertility is a supply of nutrients to plants and they use the product JumpStart to acquire Phosphorus in the soil to be applied directly to seed before planting. They also use Tag Teamto acquire Phosphorus and Nitrogen in the soil. Biocontrol helps with control of insects, diseases, and weed pests. They use/produce two kinds of products Met 52G/Bio 1020 controls weevils, thrips and more. The second product for biocontrol was Taegro helps with soil born disease on vegetables. There is up to ninety percent of the applied Phosphorus is unavailable to plants in the Phosphorus cycle. Penicillium bilaiae helps to increase the Phosphorus uptake and yield for four to ten percent in a range of crops this helps the farmer yield more. The Nitrogen in plants are a limiting factor for the plants growth.
     We moved to the lab and greenhouse at Novozymes, at the greenhouse their specific crop area are legumes. The greenhouse we toured was just finished last January and it is the largest in the state. They track organisms within the soil connected with Ferrum College. The greenhouse makes their own soil for their plants. Each of the rooms in the greenhouse can adjust their heat and the lighting for each specific plant. One of their current crops in the greenhouse is corn that are mainly grown in sand. Pest prevention is the use of sticky traps for white flies and aphids, as well as, ladybugs to prevent the aphids.

      Our second trip was to Polyface Farm that was bought in 1961 it is a family owned farm with four generations currently living on the farm. Their slogan is "Many faces of agriculture." Joel Salatin, our tour guide and the owner of Polyface farms showed us one of his nine farm locations. He raises 800 chickens, 1000 cows, 3000 broilers, and 700 pigs. Mr. Salatin considers his farm "neighbor friendly," due to no smell and and no harsh conditions for the visitors or his livestock. Our first stop on the tour was to his Egg Mobiles that hold 800 chickens. The chickens are moved everyday behind the cows when they are rotated. The chickens are considered free range since they have the ability to scratch in the cow manure for fly larvae. His chickens were Plymouth Rocks and Rhode Island Reds. The water is gravity feed and they do not receive GMO feed. The chickens main supply of food is fifteen to twenty percent off of the pastures and the rest is from the feed located inside the mobiles. Chickens are moved in November to the hoop barns where they collect their manure and used as compost.
       Cows are able to graze four times on his fields before moved to another location. Mr. Salatin said that his pasture production is how much a cow eats on an acre in a day, his cows averaged 400 cows a day per acre. His cows are not fed grain they go from the pasture to the slaughter house. He does not have a veterinarian bill therefore my major/career would not be allowed on his farm. Polyface farms' products are only sold to the individual customer. We moved from the cows to pigs where he had forty-five pigs to an area that was a forest area of Ash trees. The pigs were rotated when needed and that was key due to the time causing a disturbance and that disturbance can be too much causing damage. Mr. Salatin receives his pigs from another individual and keeps them for six months. He takes the lambs, beef, and pigs to the slaughter houses and they slaughter the chickens, turkeys, and rabbits on the farm. There were lots of mixed information presented throughout the tour but he is a running, operating, sustainable farm.