MTSU agriculture organizes daylong hybrid field day collaboration available to public

Middle Tennessee School of Agriculture fermentation science researcher Keely O’Brien will discuss “Sensory Analysis of Food and Beverages” in a 45-minute presentation Wednesday, March 15, as part of Food Systems Hybrid Field Day.

An upcoming continuing education collaboration between four universities will bring awareness to agriculture-related topics and issues that educators and the general public can attend online.

Middle Tennessee State University, in partnership with Tennessee Tech University, the University of Tennessee-Martin and University of Kentucky, is hosting a Food Systems Hybrid Field Day from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 15.

MTSU School of Agriculture associate professor Song Cui uses a DJI S-1000-plus drone and multispectral camera to monitor bioenergy crop production (switchgrass) at the MTSU Farm in Lascassas, Tenn. Cui leads a team that landed a three-year, $750,000 USDA grant to establish the Tennessee Digital Agriculture Center at MTSU to enhance youth education. Cui will be one of the presenters Wednesday, March 15, at the first Food Systems Hybrid Field Day at MTSU. (Submitted file photo)

Topics will include crop production, food safety, fermented ag products, soil conservation, digital agriculture, agritourism, food sensory analysis, suicide prevention in agriculture, American ginseng and soil fertility.

To register by Monday, March 13, visit https://forms.gle/xPx3FmiAsvkCva3x7. MTSU and Tennessee Tech students are among those who have registered in advance. Registered participants can attend any of the sessions.

The effort is being coordinated by Chaney Mosley, assistant professor in Agriculture Education in the MTSU School of Agriculture and associate director in the Tennessee STEM Education Center. He will lead the “Suicide Prevention in Agriculture” session.

Dr. Chaney Mosley, assistant professor of agricultural education, School of Agriculture — Dr. Chaney Mosley

“I’ve not seen anything like this done, where it’s in-person or hybrid,” Mosley said. “Usually, it’s held for two or three hours at a farm. Having individual sessions that are 30 to 45 minutes long, you do not have to leave work or get out of the house to participate.”

Other participating MTSU faculty will include Alanna Vaught (“Agritourism”), Seockmo Ku (“Fermentation, Agriculture and Human Health”), Samuel Haruna (“Conservation Practices and Soil Health Parameters”), Song Cui(“Digital Agriculture”), Keely O’Brien (“Sensory Analysis of Food and Beverages”) and Ethan Swiggart (“American Ginseng: Farming the Forest”).

MTSU alumna Kacey Troup with the Tennessee Department of Agriculture will team with Vaught in the agritourism discussion.

Edwin Ritchey, extension associate professor at the University of Kentucky, opens the event with “Cover Crops and Crop Production. UT-Martin assistant professor Bethany Wolters will discuss “Food Safety Starts at the Farm” and Tennessee Tech assistant professor Michael Nattrass wraps things up with “Soil Fertility.”

Continuing education/professional development certificates will be available for each session attended upon completion of the evaluation form, Mosley said.

For more information, email Mosley at Chaney.Mosley@mtsu.edu or call 615-898-8037.

— Randy Weiler (Randy.Weiler@mtsu.edu)