1. Basic Ag Awareness Agriscience Applications
By: Johnny M. Jessup
Agriculture Instructor/FFA Advisor

2. What is Agriscience?
The application of scientific principles and new technologies to agriculture.

3. Agriscience is……
An applied science because it uses principles learned in biology, chemistry, and physics (the basic sciences) in a practical way.

4. Examples of Agriscience
Agronomy
Uses biology and chemistry to discover new ways to control weeds in crops.
Entomology
Uses biology and chemistry to study insect life.
Agricultural Engineering
Uses physics to develop new machinery.

5. Agriscience employs….. The scientific method to solve problems.
The steps to the scientific method are….
Identify the problem.
Review literature.
Form a hypothesis.
Prepare a project proposal.
Design the experiment.
Collect the data.
Draw conclusions.
Prepare a written report.

6. What is Agriculture?
Activities concerned with the production of plants and animals, and related supplies, services, mechanics, products, processing, processing, and marketing.

7. USDA refers to agriculture as….
“Agriculture/ Agribusiness and renewable natural resources”.
Another definition is food, fiber, and environmental systems.

8. Why is Agriculture/Agriscience Important?
Largest “employer” and the largest source of income in the United States and North Carolina.

9. Opportunities in Agriculture
Agricultural production is supported by many more careers than actually exist in production.
Many careers in agriscience products & distribution are needed to grade, transport, process, package, & market agriculture commodities.
Many careers for agriculture supplies & services are also important.
Projections show that the average size of farms in the U.S. will increase while the number of farms will decrease.

10. Opportunities in Agriculture
Twenty percent of all jobs in the U.S. are agriscience related.
In addition to farming, agriscience jobs help support farmers to meet the world’s food & fiber needs.
Areas include:
Production
Processing, products, and distribution
Supplies and services.

11. World Outlook
The world population will grow as more people beget more people.
More children are surviving to adulthood.
More adults are living longer.
Population growth will….
Add stress to environmental systems of air, water, soil, and natural resources.
Create challenges to meet the demands for food and fiber (clothing and shelter).

12. Trends for Agriculture/Agriscience
Agriculture will always be an essential industry.
Increased commercialization of agriculture will continue.
New types of farming such as aquaculture (fish farming and farming the sea) will be used as well as traditional farming methods.

13. Trends for Agriculture/Agriscience
An expanded view of agriculture is necessary.

14. Divisions of Agriculture
Agribusiness
Agriscience Mechanics
Agronomy
Animal Science
Biotechnology
Horticulture
Natural Resources

15. What is Agribusiness?
Commercial firms that have developed with or stem out of agriculture.

16. Agribusiness includes….
Farming
Chemical company
Fertilizer dealer
Seed store
Tractor dealer
Horticulture
Landscape nursery
Greenhouse dealer
Horticulture supply company

17. What is Agriscience Mechanics?
The application of engineering principles in agricultural settings.

18. Agriscience Mechanics includes….
The design, operation, maintenance, service, selling, and use of power units, machinery, equipment, structures, and utilities in agriscience.

19. What is Agronomy?
The application of soil and plant sciences to land management and crop production.

20. Agronomy includes…. Crop Science Soil Science Turfgrass Management
Weed Science
Range Management

21. What is Animal Science?
The care, management, and production of domestic animals.

22. Animal Science includes….
Livestock
Companion Animals
Specialty Animals

23. What is Biotechnology?
The application of living processes to technology.
The use of microorganisms, animal cells, plant cells, or components of cells to produce products or carry out processes.

24. Biotechnology includes….
Genetics
Biochemistry
Microbiology
Toxicology
Plant Pathology

25. What is Horticulture?
Involves the producing, marketing fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. (Green Industry)
Continues to expand as the standard of living is raised.

26. Horticulture includes….
Greenhouse Management
Nursery Management
Landscape Architecture
Plant Physiology
Integrated Pest Management

27. What are Renewable Natural Resources?
Resources provided by nature that can replace or renew themselves.
Important both economically and for posterity’s sake to maintain life.
Agriculture & resources management will include pollution control.

28. Natural Resources - Forestry
Timber management for lumber, poles, post, plywood, and etc. is another part of the agricultural industry.

29. Other Examples include:
Wildlife
Water
Fish
Soils
Air

30. What are Commodities? Agricultural products which are sold. Examples:
Milk
Corn
Wheat
Beef
Cotton

31. U.S. Agricultural Commodities #1 State Rankings
Beef
Dairy
Broilers
Eggs
Turkeys
Texas
California
Georgia
Iowa
Minnesota

32. U.S. Agricultural Commodities #1 State Rankings
Swine
Horses
Sheep
Fruit
Vegetables
Iowa
Texas
California

33. U.S. Agricultural Commodities #1 State Rankings
Cotton
Wheat
Corn
Soybeans
Peanuts
Texas
Kansas
Iowa
Illinois
Georgia

34. U.S. Agricultural Commodities (Market Value of Products Sold)
Total Crops
California
Total Livestock
Texas
Total Ag Income

35. Top 10 U.S. Ag Commodity Exports
#1 Soybeans
#2 Corn*
#3 Wheat
#4 Cotton
#5 Misc. Hort Products
#6 Poultry Meat**
#7 Feed
#8 Edible Tree Nuts
#9 Pork
#10 Feed Grain
*Consistently ranks in top 5 in U.S. grain exports year after year.
**Number 1 meat export as far as tonnage shipped from the U.S.

36. Top 10 Importers of U.S. Ag Commodities
#1 Canada
#2 Mexico
#3 Japan
#4 China
#5 South Korea
# 6 Taiwan
# 7 United Kingdom
# 8 Germany
# 9 The Netherlands
#10 Turkey

37. U.S. Dept of Agriculture
Secretary
Mike Johanns
Nebraska

38. U.S. Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following:
Food Safety Inspection
Commodity Grading
Meat
Fruit
Vegetables
Eggs

39. U.S. Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following: School Lunch Program
Food Stamps
Agricultural Cooperatives
U.S. Forest Service
Cooperative Extension
Agricultural Marketing

40. North Carolina Agriculture
North Carolina is #1 in the following commodities.
Tobacco
Sweetpotatoes

41. North Carolina Agriculture
North Carolina is #2 in the following commodities.
Hogs
Christmas Trees
Turkeys

42. North Carolina Agriculture
North Carolina is #3 in the following commodities.
Pickles
Trout
Total Poultry & Eggs

43. North Carolina Agriculture
North Carolina is #4 in the following commodities.
Blueberries
Broilers
Greenhouse/Nursery
Strawberries

44. North Carolina Agriculture
North Carolina is #5 in the following commodities.
Catfish
Peanuts
Snap Beans

45. North Carolina Agriculture
North Carolina is ranked in the top 10 nationally in the following commodities.
Apples
Cotton
Grapes
Tomatoes
Watermelons
Total Cash Receipts

46. North Carolina Agriculture
Ranking in Agricultural Income
#1 – Hogs
#2 – Broilers
#3 – Greenhouse & Nursery***
#4 – Tobacco
#5 – Turkeys
***Recently passed tobacco to crack the top 3.

47. SOURCE OF FARM CASH RECEIPTS, NORTH CAROLINA, 2003 $6,916,349,000

48. North Carolina Agriculture #1 County by Commodity
Hogs
Broilers
Greenhouse/Nursery
Tobacco
Turkeys
Duplin
Wilkes
Mecklenburg
Pitt
Sampson

49. North Carolina Agriculture #1 County by Commodity
Cotton
Eggs
Cattle
Milk
Soybeans
Northhampton
Iredell
Robeson

50. North Carolina Agriculture #1 County by Commodity
Corn
Christmas Trees
Peanuts
Sweetpotatoes
Wheat
Beaufort
Ashe
Martin
Nash
Robeson

51. North Carolina Agriculture
Top Ten Counties in Farm Cash Receipts, North Carolina, 2003

52. North Carolina Agriculture

53. North Carolina Agriculture Agricultural Research
North Carolina has two land grant universities.
North Carolina State University (1887)
North Carolina A&T State University (1891)

54. NC Dept of Agriculture Steve Troxler Current Commissioner
Guilford County

55. NC Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following: All agricultural issues
Weights & Standards
Food & Drugs in North Carolina
NC State Fair

56. NC Dept of Agriculture Oversees the following: Marketing
Farmer’s Markets
Goodness Grows Program
Research Stations
Structural Pests
Veterinarian Program

57. Professional Agricultural Organizations
Allow professionals the opportunity to network, learn, and communicate.
Provide trade shows and journals to update members on new methods, products, and technology.
Use membership dues to finance commodity advertisement, trade journals, and educational programs for members.

58. Cooperative Extension Service
Located in all 100 counties and the Cherokee Indian Reservation.
Provides information for those working in agriculture.
Best free source of information for small agricultural businesses.
Administers the 4H program.

59. Professional Agricultural Associations

60. Progress in Agriculture
Mechanization helps 2% of America’s work force to meet the food & fiber needs of our nation.
There has been a reduction from 90% of the nation’s populace involved in farming 200 years ago.

61. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
George Washington
In 1785, he became the first American to own mules.
Also introduced agricultural concepts such as terracing, crop rotation, and the use of cover crops.

62. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Eli Whitney
Invented the cotton gin in 1793.
Turned cotton into an usable product by removing cottonseed from the cotton fiber.

63. Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin

64. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Thomas Jefferson
In 1814, Jefferson had his moldboard plow cast in iron.
Was a marked improvement over the inefficient European plow.

65. Thomas Jefferson’s Plow

66. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Cyrus McCormick
Invented the grain reaper in 1834 to save labor in cutting wheat, oats, and similar crops.
Later a threshing machine was added and it became known as a combine.

67. Cyrus McCormick’s Reaper

68. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
John Deere
In 1837, improved the iron plow by inventing the steel moldboard plow.
Need caused by tough prairie soils.

69. John Deere’s Plow

70. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Edmund W. Quincy
Invented the mechanical corn picker in 1850.
Anna Baldwin
Changed the dairy industry in 1878 by inventing a milking machine to replace hand milking.

71. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Joseph Glidden
Invented barbed wire in 1874.
Used for livestock fencing.
Tamed the west by allowing ranches with fixed boundaries to be established.

72. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Booker T. Washington
Founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Advocate of vocational education/skills development.
The school was later given land-grant status.

73. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
George Washington Carver
Director of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute in early 1900’s.
Found new uses for soybeans, peanuts, and sweetpotatoes.
Diversified southern agriculture.

74. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
John Froelich
Invented the 1st gasoline powered tractor that could go forwards and backwards in 1892.
His Waterloo Tractor Company was later bought out by the John Deere Co. in 1918.

75. John Froelich’s Tractor

76. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Benjamin Holt
Invented the traction system found on modern day tanks and bulldozers.
Company went one to become Caterpillar Inc.
This is where tractors get their name.

77. Benjamin Holt’s Tractor

78. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
Harry Ferguson
Invented the 3 point hitching system on tractors.
Met with Henry Ford in 1938 and had the famous “Handshake Agreement”.

79. “The Handshake Agreement”

80. Ferguson Insignia on a Ford Tractor

81. Progress in Agriculture: Historical Events
In 1954, the tractor finally surpasses the mule as the main source of agricultural power.

82. Improving Life through Agriscience
Soybeans
Known as the “Yellow Jewell” to the Chinese.
World’s most important source for vegetable oil.
Provide basic materials for hundreds of products.
Used as major food source in China in the form of tofu.

83. Improving Life through Agriscience
Baked Potatoes
USDA developed the pest resistant variety of potato called the BelRus.
A superior baking variety.
Bred to grow well in New England.

84. Improving Life through Agriscience
Aerosols
Developed by the U.S. military to create a “bug bomb” to combat malaria.
Present day pressurized cans originated from that early research.

85. Improving Life through Agriscience
Beltsville Small White Turkey
A 8-10 lb. turkey developed by USDA researchers.
Need arose when American families decreased in size and 30lb. turkeys became too much.

86. Improving Life through Agriscience
The Green Revolution
Process whereby many countries became self sufficient in food production in the 1960s by using improved crop varieties and practices.

87. Improving Life through Agriscience
The Green Industry
The modern horticulture industry with emphasis on turf and landscape plants.

88. Improving Life through Agriscience
Cultivated Blueberries
Blueberry industry launched when high-quality, large-fruited blueberries were developed.
Blueberries had to be picked from the wild before this development.

89. Improving Life through Agriscience
Nutritional Values
Detergent chemical methods were developed to analyze nutritional value of feed stuffs.
Procedures now widely used in both human & animal nutrition.

90. Improving Life through Agriscience
Biological Attractants
Chemicals only produce short term results.
Traps created to capture large numbers of insect populations for integrated pest management programs.

91. Recent Breakthroughs in Agriscience
Mastitis Reduced
Human Nutrition
Fire-Ant Control
Coccidiosis Control
Exotic Flowers
Satellites & Nitrogen-Gas Lasers
Sugar Beet & Rice Hybrids

92. Agriscience and the Future
The average American farmer produces enough food and fiber for 128 people.
As the world’s population increases, it will require a more sophisticated agriscience industry to keep pace with demand.

93. Agriscience and the Future
The science of food production, processing, and distribution will require:
College graduates to fill roles as scientists, engineers, and other professionals.
USDA reported an increased demand for graduates from agricultural colleges in the 90s.

94. Designed By:
Johnny M. Jessup, FFA Advisor
Hobbton High School