One Week at Waterman: Fall
One Week at Waterman: Fall
A 261-acre living laboratory for innovation and engagement, Waterman is an immersive experience in food, agriculture, and the environment
Autumn settles in quietly at Waterman Lab. Plants start to die and lose their leaves. Harvest begins in earnest as research projects wrap up. And classes take advantage of the creek, woods, and construction on the grounds. The Multispecies Animal Learning Center takes shape as footers are poured. It's going vertical soon, with walls and a roof. While research plots and fields can look lifeless this time of year, the promise of spring waits in the soil. Operations staff are prepping the grounds and preparing for planting season. Winter is coming.
Shoulder high by the 4th of October. Natural resource management student, Conall Sherman, collects data with a hand-held Greenseeker crop sensor during the HCS 3100 Intro to Agronomy class. Professor Bruce Ackley and PhD student Taylor Dill were showing students how to check stand counts and plant health to figure out proper management next steps. Depending on crop stage, this might include spraying fertilizers or pesticides, or determining if a crop is ready for harvest.
Testing turf to the gMax. (That joke slays with the turf people.) Master's student Brynn Johnson in Dr. Tyler Carr's lab uses a Clegg impact Tester to get a reading on turf hardness, measured in gravities or gMax. A lightweight hammer is dropped onto turf from a specific height to determine compaction levels. Students from Clark State University joined their professors, Ohio State grads Dr. Arly Drake (PhD '19) and Avery Davison ('17), to tour the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation Research and Education Facility and The Shoe at Ohio State.
Survey says, it's elevated. Professor Lorrayne Miralha loves having Waterman so close to campus where students can practice solving engineering problems as a team. Jalen Smith (left) and Alessandra Bertucci (right) are holding measuring rods with receivers to capture signals from a laser level stationed in the nearby floodplain for a survey exercise on the Ackerman Run North Reach. This setup allows them to measure elevation points within and around the stream to design a project that supports plants on Waterman. They're part of FABE 5750, an advanced class where students learn to define healthy streams and watersheds, identify natural resource issues, and apply practical engineering skills to protect and restore local waterways.
Small scale, regular-sized crops. Undergraduate students in Jason Hollick's class, HCS 2307 Sustainable Agriculture Practical Experience, learn the basics of small-scale agricultural farming. Tools, farm structures, best management practices for soil, pests, weeds and crops, even business skills, are taught; everything a small farm owner needs to know to be successful. As a class, they work on vegetable production like this fall crop, cabbages, pictured. A student checks the leaves for pests and disease to figure out best management practices or any nutrients this plant needs to stay healthy.
Foraging for supper. Bees can forage on pretty much any flower, but what if some flower pollen could keep bees healthy? That's what research scientist, Chia-Hua Lin, and professor, Reed Johnson, hope to find out. They've set up a cage experiment at the Rothenbuhler Bee Lab at Waterman to test two questions about mustard cover crops. First, are mustard flowers a good resource for bees when other sources are scarce? And second, are there chemical compounds in the mustard pollen that could fight a fungal parasite known to infect entire colonies? Can't wait to find out what they discover!
Nurturing a rich history. Delegates from Punjab Agricultural University visited the college for the first time in 24 years and toured Waterman, where global soil icon, Dr. Rattan Lal (right), shared the value of healthy soil for their experiments. A tour of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Research Complex (CEARC) offered a glimpse into the latest tech in greenhouse production. The group reconnected with colleagues in multiple disciplines across the college and university to exchange ideas and rebuild longstanding relationships. Future plans include a new partnership with a Rattan Lal Exchange Scholar Program funded by the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity.
Concrete and steel. Can you see it? It's starting to (literally) take shape. Construction workers from CK Construction Group are pouring the foundation for the new 100,000 sq. ft. Multispecies Animal Learning Center, with barns for chickens, horses, pigs, and ruminants like sheep. This teaching/research facility offers students a state-of-the-art facility for hands-on experiences in modern livestock production. Viewing areas give visitors a glimpse into daily activities in animal production. And the large arena and meeting spaces give Ohio State University Extension and our over 134,000 4-H youth across Ohio room for animal events and educational programs. We can't wait to show you the progress!
Photos by John Rice and Ken Chamberlain, CFAES Marketing and Communications.
Travel back in time to the easy, breezy days of Waterman in the summer.
