The attempted assassination of a former president, the floods along the coast, the everyday murders in Raleigh and Durham – they all fell away a few weeks ago because we somehow received a copy of the NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Fall 2024 magazine.
It was titled “Future-Proof Farming,” and it was fun to read but with a serious message voiced by Teresa Lambert, Director, Research Station Division, NCDA&CS: “If we are going to continue to fee a growing population, with fewer resources like land, water and labor, those of us working in agriculture must improve our efficiency. Technology and research are the only ways to achieve that goal.”
Native North Carolinians know that NC State helps keep North Carolina #1 in producing poultry, eggs, sweet potatoes and tobacco. But did you know that the students and professors and staff are also getting updates every 30 minutes on the stomach contents of a herd of Guernsey’s because bovines produce 6 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions.
Hoofprint Biome, a startup located in the Plant Science Building, is developing probiotics and natural enzymes to improve cattle gut health and reduce methane emissions.
To get the project underway, staff had to install the fiber optic cables, build a pergola to house the SpaceX-Starlink servers for high-speed internet access and the data processing equipment. A sensor technology developed at NC State measures the hydrogen, CO2 and methane and transmits it to the servers. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world.
And then there are the raspberries. We all love them, but there were no commercial growers, just backyard gardens. The weather is too hot. Until Cal Lewis, an NC State graduate from CALS who is the third-generation owner of Lewis Farms in Rocky Point, Pender County. He’s betting a lot that he has found a way to grow raspberries commercially.
It involves long-cane or primocane raspberry plants which are grown in containers in a cooler climate for a year and transported to a warmer area where they grow under long tunnels, those fabric-wrapped tunnels high enough to arch over the canes and people. They are harvested in the spring before summer sets in. The canes are then discarded. The method is widely used in Europe.
Lewis is sharing his experiences with raspberries with other smaller potential growers. His father was an NC State Extension Agent. “As leaders of the industry,” he said, “I feel an obligation to share my knowledge with the smaller grower.”
Entomologist Steve Frank works with trees, finding ways to improve their health and sharing information with cities and towns who want to plant trees along their streets.
He told the planners in Raleigh that they should stop planting red maples. “We’ve developed thresholds where if there’s a certain amount of impervious surface around a site where you want to plant a tree – if it exceeds 30 percent – then you shouldn’t plant the red maple because it will be too hot and dry.”
After hearing his guidelines, the City of Raleigh reduced its plantings of red maples and diversified to other tree species.
NC State has 22 research stations throughout the state, and it is currently in a program to take high speed optic internet to all of them. Of the 22, only 10 have 100 Mbps-1Gbps service, but NC State is laying the cables and working on upgrading the 12 to future-proof them.
The 18 research stations and four field laboratories – an office and fields where most of the plant-breeding research happens – range in size from 101 acres to several thousand. It is the second-largest research station network in the country.
At those “living laboratories,” the high speed internet combines with drones of all sizes and shapes that look over and under leaves, test the soil and the plants for moisture and chemicals, and undertake any other measurement required, to allow a researcher in Raleigh to gather meaningful data from across the state instantly.
“Massive data collection and analysis are now required at the field level to provide the next generation with decision-making tools, predictions and variety development,” said Steve Lommel of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service and associate dean for research in CALS. “That’s why fast fiber is needed at every station.”
The project is one of those funded by the $42-billion-dollar 2022 Broadband Access, Equity and Deployment (BEAD) Program to increase broadband equitably nationwide.
To help prepare North Carolina for the future of agricultural research, NC State and NCDA&CS have partnered with MCNC, a nonprofit organization that owns and operates one of America’s longest-running regional research and education broadband infrastructure networks. North Carolina’s education, research, library, healthcare, public safety and other public institutions are all connected on the same network through MCNC.
The article says the Research Triangle did not become what it is today by accident or happenstance. The ability of Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill to develop world-renowned cancer research was in part made possible by being connected to a secure network, established by MCNC, through which they could exchange information.
****
The North Carolina State University story begins in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the federal Morrill Land-Grant Act. This act created endowments that were to be used in the establishment of colleges that would provide a “liberal and practical education” while focusing on military tactics, agriculture and the mechanical arts without excluding classical studies.
During Reconstruction, North Carolina allocated its endowment to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For two decades, that university received $7,500 annually from the endowment.
In the mid-1880s, both state farmers and business leaders claimed that Chapel Hill’s “elitist” education did not meet the mandate set forth by the Morrill Land-Grant Act. On March 7, 1887, the North Carolina General Assembly authorized the establishment of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The state also budgeted money for the new college and transferred North Carolina‘s land-grant endowment to it as well.
R. Stanhope Pullen gave land towards the establishment of the new college in Raleigh. The cornerstone of the main building (now called Holladay Hall)was laid in 1888 by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina.[1] The college formally opened on October 3, 1889.[2][3]
71 students enrolled the first year.
###The attempted assassination of a former president, the floods along the coast, the everyday murders in Raleigh and Durham – they all fell away a few weeks ago because we somehow received a copy of the NC State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Fall 2024 magazine.
It was titled “Future-Proof Farming,” and it was fun to read but with a serious message voiced by Teresa Lambert, Director, Research Station Division, NCDA&CS: “If we are going to continue to fee a growing population, with fewer resources like land, water and labor, those of us working in agriculture must improve our efficiency. Technology and research are the only ways to achieve that goal.”
Native North Carolinians know that NC State helps keep North Carolina #1 in producing poultry, eggs, sweet potatoes and tobacco. But did you know that the students and professors and staff are also getting updates every 30 minutes on the stomach contents of a herd of Guernsey’s because bovines produce 6 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions.
Hoofprint Biome, a startup located in the Plant Science Building, is developing probiotics and natural enzymes to improve cattle gut health and reduce methane emissions.
To get the project underway, staff had to install the fiber optic cables, build a pergola to house the SpaceX-Starlink servers for high-speed internet access and the data processing equipment. A sensor technology developed at NC State measures the hydrogen, CO2 and methane and transmits it to the servers. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world.
And then there are the raspberries. We all love them, but there were no commercial growers, just backyard gardens. The weather is too hot. Until Cal Lewis, an NC State graduate from CALS who is the third-generation owner of Lewis Farms in Rocky Point, Pender County. He’s betting a lot that he has found a way to grow raspberries commercially.
It involves long-cane or primocane raspberry plants which are grown in containers in a cooler climate for a year and transported to a warmer area where they grow under long tunnels, those fabric-wrapped tunnels high enough to arch over the canes and people. They are harvested in the spring before summer sets in. The canes are then discarded. The method is widely used in Europe.
Lewis is sharing his experiences with raspberries with other smaller potential growers. His father was an NC State Extension Agent. “As leaders of the industry,” he said, “I feel an obligation to share my knowledge with the smaller grower.”
Entomologist Steve Frank works with trees, finding ways to improve their health and sharing information with cities and towns who want to plant trees along their streets.
He told the planners in Raleigh that they should stop planting red maples. “We’ve developed thresholds where if there’s a certain amount of impervious surface around a site where you want to plant a tree – if it exceeds 30 percent – then you shouldn’t plant the red maple because it will be too hot and dry.”
After hearing his guidelines, the City of Raleigh reduced its plantings of red maples and diversified to other tree species.
NC State has 22 research stations throughout the state, and it is currently in a program to take high speed optic internet to all of them. Of the 22, only 10 have 100 Mbps-1Gbps service, but NC State is laying the cables and working on upgrading the 12 to future-proof them.
The 18 research stations and four field laboratories – an office and fields where most of the plant-breeding research happens – range in size from 101 acres to several thousand. It is the second-largest research station network in the country.
At those “living laboratories,” the high speed internet combines with drones of all sizes and shapes that look over and under leaves, test the soil and the plants for moisture and chemicals, and undertake any other measurement required, to allow a researcher in Raleigh to gather meaningful data from across the state instantly.
“Massive data collection and analysis are now required at the field level to provide the next generation with decision-making tools, predictions and variety development,” said Steve Lommel of the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service and associate dean for research in CALS. “That’s why fast fiber is needed at every station.”
The project is one of those funded by the $42-billion-dollar 2022 Broadband Access, Equity and Deployment (BEAD) Program to increase broadband equitably nationwide.
To help prepare North Carolina for the future of agricultural research, NC State and NCDA&CS have partnered with MCNC, a nonprofit organization that owns and operates one of America’s longest-running regional research and education broadband infrastructure networks. North Carolina’s education, research, library, healthcare, public safety and other public institutions are all connected on the same network through MCNC.
The article says the Research Triangle did not become what it is today by accident or happenstance. The ability of Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill to develop world-renowned cancer research was in part made possible by being connected to a secure network, established by MCNC, through which they could exchange information.
****
The North Carolina State University story begins in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the federal Morrill Land-Grant Act. This act created endowments that were to be used in the establishment of colleges that would provide a “liberal and practical education” while focusing on military tactics, agriculture and the mechanical arts without excluding classical studies.
During Reconstruction, North Carolina allocated its endowment to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. For two decades, that university received $7,500 annually from the endowment.
In the mid-1880s, both state farmers and business leaders claimed that Chapel Hill’s “elitist” education did not meet the mandate set forth by the Morrill Land-Grant Act. On March 7, 1887, the North Carolina General Assembly authorized the establishment of the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. The state also budgeted money for the new college and transferred North Carolina‘s land-grant endowment to it as well.
R. Stanhope Pullen gave land towards the establishment of the new college in Raleigh. The cornerstone of the main building (now called Holladay Hall) was laid in 1888 by the Grand Lodge of North Carolina.[1] The college formally opened on October 3, 1889.[2][3]
71 students enrolled the first year.
###
