Raven Herron

 Hello from Washington County!

We were asked to watch a documentary titled “Delmarva and the Ground for Change.” This documentary did a great job at encompassing the changes that our environment is going through, paired with the developments and changes in agriculture, and how we are likely to be impacted in the future. The most impactful Statistic from the documentary in my opinion was the one that stated: 

“In the Northeast, over 1 million acres of agricultural land were paved over, fragmented, or converted to uses that jeopardize agriculture between 2001 and 2016.” 

- American Farmland Trust, Farms Under Threat, The State of the States, 2020

This statistic was very impactful to me. My first instinct when hearing this quote is to feel very depressed as we know a strong agricultural industry is important to the survival of a strong society. Nonetheless, the statistics also sparked some hope - even though we have lost so much agricultural land to these issues, we have found ways to still produce more yields and better nutritional quality on the land we have now. 

Other important takeaways that I learned, or some of the takeaways that I believe need to be shared are listed below:

1. The Delmarva states are the premiere utilizing states of no-till drilling AND the use of cover crops

2. Pastures provide over 100 times the biodiversity than monoculture cropland

3. The development of strong perennial roots in the ground greatly improves soil carbon

The most amazing thing I have gathered is knowing that I have been on farms in Maryland that have improved their practices by utilizing all three of these takeaways! It is awesome to know that Maryland and the surrounding states are leading the future of agriculture. I am so excited to keep learning about agricultural advancements such as drone use which I know has been implemented already.

Here are two pictures of the animals in the annual group at the research station! 

Here is a picture of me getting a fecal sample on one of the experiment lambs to track parasite load.