Agricultural Science Project

The conquistadors eventually used potatoes as rations on their ships and took it back to Spain (Chapman, n.d.). From there, the potato spread to other countries. Unfortunately, the potato was “regarded with suspicion, distaste and fear.” (Chapman, n.d.) Only animals were fed the potatoes at first but as time went on, the aristocracy of Europe began to encourage the lower classes to begin cultivating potatoes. Potatoes, however, did not become a staple until roughly 1795 and the food shortages that came during the time of the Revolutionary Wars in England. (Chapman, n.d.)

In the time period between 1865 and 1900 technology,government policy,and economic conditions really changed American agriculture. The technology made farming more efficient,and more profitable. Government policies both helped and hindered farmers with helping them transport their products,but they also “stole” from the farmers to help make the government more money. The economic conditions helped farmers with selling more products,and helping cities grow;along with starving families almost to death. All of these coming together really changed American agriculture.

Potatoes became a staple in the diet of many as they were discovered around the world. They are still an important part of the diet of many today. ("International year of," 2008)

Introduced to Europe in the mid 1500s, potatoes were able to strongly impact European lives. They originally grew in Peru but spread throughout South America and later in Europe. Potatoes were able to thrive in Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland. Potatoes were able to feed many people and improve food supply. The potato was able to supply a steady amount of calories and nutrients which was able to provide a better life for people of the Old World. Potatoes quickly spread throughout Europe and became an important crop. Today people still use the potato for food and other uses such as making stamps and soothing headaches. When growing potatoes today, many diseases can occur. Some include early and late blight, potato scab, and bacterial ring rot.

Potatoes began prospering with the Incan people in the Andes in the form of polyculture. The environment surrounding the Andes was harsh and unforgiving and where one type of potato would thrive, another would perish. The Incan people then changed their needs in order to satisfy the potato and began growing different types of each in different areas of the mountains. This method was extremely successful and resulted in massive genetic diversity for the potato. On the other hand, once potatoes were transported to Ireland, they underwent a change subject to human desires where only one type of potato was grown excessively, otherwise known as monoculture. The Irish had discovered that a single type of potato prospered in their soil and provided substantial nutritional support for the masses, resulting in the cultivation of a single genetic strand. The consequences of this endeavor would come later with the blight, but in this case, the potato had succumbed to the needs of humans. Lastly and more presently in the United States, potatoes have altogether lost their say in evolution by being grown only based on their requirement to feed the many. Certain strains of potatoes have become prevalent due to their need for food purposes, such as “perfect” French fries provided for restaurant chains. Besides

“I’ve heard horse guys talk for years that if you have a good mare, you can breed her to anything,” Brett said. “If you have a mediocre mare, it doesn’t matter what you breed her to, you are going to have a mediocre colt. I think cows are the same way; you’ve got to have a good set of foundation cows that work in your environment.”

There for that mean we will have to keep his coat of fur nice and silk and nice and shining. The Charolais have more of the Smokey grey coloring on them and maybe a few white marking but it just depends on the calf genetic and their hair like Cooper has big white marking in his stomach. The Charolais calf has a very slow growth rate and the have lots of birth weight. When the come out the mom cow they are about 90 pound and then when there about time to buy they range from 400 to 600 pound. They do well in the cold and warm summers and they are able to go to the pasture and eat grass and gain weight and get muscle

Potatoes have been one of mankind 's most important food staples for the past millennium. First cultivated on the Titicaca Plateau in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia where they formed the basis of both the Inca and Aymara Indian diet. The Aymara Indians developed more than two hundred varietes of the potato at elevations higher than 10,000 feet.

As mentioned in The Littlest Farmhands, the fungus-like organism called Phytophthora infestans is known to cause potato blight and other crop diseases which leads to famines. There are many other fungi and bacteria that cause the roots and leaves of the plant to decay. On the other hand, microbial groups such as rhizobiome, have been discovered to help fight off crop pests and diseases. Other microbes have been found to help plants thrive in dry or salty environments; this will be beneficial when the world needs to adapt to climate change (Jop de Vrieze, pg 681). There is another beneficial microorganism called mycorrhizae, which forms fungal filaments at the base of the plant’s roots. These filaments carry nutrients and water to the plant cells for survival, and they let different crops communicate with one another to form a defense system in the event of a pathogenic attack. I strongly believe farmers should switch to the more natural way of taking care of their

As the historical legend goes: in 1744, Frederick the Great of Prussia strived to cultivate the potato in an effort to lower the price of bread and rid the nation of a severe famine. His people were quick to oppose this proposition, though, believing the vegetable was a poisonous nightshade and the spawn of the Devil (as it is not mentioned in the Bible), or at the very least, tasteless and utterly disgusting that “not even the dogs will eat them” (Chapman). At first, the king carried out his Potato Edict with an iron fist, strictly requiring every peasant in the kingdom to grow the crop in their homes. Town records even show people being executed for their civil disobedience against this decree. Seeing little progress, Frederick the Great

Since the potatoes R & G provides are supposedly all unnatural, this means that they use any chemicals or pesticides on the potatoes. In substitute of this, the farmers rely on “filter strips, crop rotations and other pest prevention” according to the official R & G potato company website. Crop rotation is a process used to make sure pests do not remain habitual in the soil and the filter strips catch nutrients, deposits and infectious bacteria in the exterior runoff that appears from grassy areas before the polluted runoff gets into any of the surface water.

From my research on how potatoes are graded in America, I have learned that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) established and enforce the grading. The USDA has been enforcing and updating the quality grading system for all foods since 1862. The last time the quality grading system for potatoes was updated was in June of 2011. The system in place currently grades potatoes on the following information: shape, firmness, appearance, size, color, and being free from: soft rot, wet breakdown, blackheart, freezing, blight, scabs, rhizoctonia, and physical damage or foreign matter. Although there are three grades for potatoes available for purchase due to the USDA’s grading scale, all potatoes sold in the US must fall into this scale.

Held in Furnace, Pa, the program is carried out by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, in collaboration with Penn State’s Department of Dairy and Animal Science, the Pennsylvania Sheep and Wool Grower’s Association, and state breed associations. The unique value of this program is that rams are evaluated under parallel, unbiased, environmental conditions. Traits such as average rate of gain, weight per day of age, adjusted loin eye area, and adjusted fat thickness are evaluated and then calculated into an overall animal index. Other traits analyzed include structural soundness, breed character, muscularity, shoulder height, and scrotal circumference. With this information the buyer as well as the breeder is able to track the production characteristics of rams since variations in traits are more likely to be genetic. Thus, improving efficiency within commercial and purebred flocks. The testing facility houses at most 200 Rams in 5 groups for a 77-day feeding period.

The potato seems to us today to be such a staple food that it is hard to believe that it has only been accepted as edible by most of the Western world for the past 200 years. Our story begins thousands of years ago, in South America—Peru,

New farming methods came to use during late 16th century. Farmers in many parts of Europe, including Ireland, France, started to raise potatoes. A plant from the “New World”, that for a long tome was seen with a big suspiciousness. A higher rate of potato