Students Rewarded for Ag Proposal Project

The Paul Morrell Company was on campus recently to award Utah State University students checks for writing successful proposals for developing a 300-cow dairy in Ethiopia. The company had solicited the proposals as part of a project it is working on set in dairy farms in the east African country.

Winner of the proposal contest, Kelby Johnson, received $2,750. The checks were presented by Evan Maxfield and Brent Keller from the Paul Morrell Company.

 

Five teams submitted proposals and nine students were involved overall. The students recognized were: Taylor and Krista Payne, Elvin Adams, Robert Bowles, Kyle Roerig, Adam Bourgeous, Stephanie Durfee, Rebeka Pratt and Johnson.  Most of the students are studying agriculture and were introduced to the project by College of Agriculture professor Ralph Whitesides, Extension weed specialist at USU.

 

“We received a lot of valuable input and were very impressed by the work these students put together, Maxfield said. “All of the proposals had merit.”

 

The goal behind the 300-cow dairy farm proposal was both to bring in a source of milk to the people and to increase their economic development and introduce them to more efficient ways of farming.

 

Ethiopia is home to 72 million people and poverty is widespread. Maxfield said the number one cause of famine and food storage problems is the absence of dry farming. The process of dry farming is done by planting seeds at the end of the wet season while the soil is moist and fertile. The roots grow deep into the soil as the water dries up, giving them a source of water through the dry season. Many farmers in dry climates use this method to harvest crops year-round.

 

“We just completed the first dry farm in Ethiopia,” Maxfield said. “Ethiopia was once the breadbasket of Africa, and still could be.”

 

Maxfield has been working as an agronomist for the Paul Morrell Company since April of 2008. The company is developing a number of projects in Ethiopia. When Maxfield went to Ethiopia and spent two weeks analyzing the climate and plant growth, he discovered that most people weren’t even gardening during the wet season.

 

“In the early 1980s, it was required that anyone who grew a garden would give up to 90 percent of their harvest to the government,” he said.” People weren’t able to eat the food they were growing so they just stopped gardening.”

 

Students will be working with the Paul Morrell Company to plan a trip to Ethiopia to set up the dairy farm.

 

Contact: Mary Lynne Clark (435) 797-2208, marylynne.clark@usu.edu
Writer: Megan Hanselman (435) 797-1350, megan.hanselman@aggiemail.usu.edu