Proposal for OSU Extension New Team Projects
Title: Interactive Crop Diagnostic Workshops.
Impact Statement:
The Crop Diagnostic Workshops will engage crop consultants and growers in an interactive
program that will help them develop a critical thinking process for diagnosing injured crops.
These skills will help participants avoid and prevent problems in crops. These workshops could
easily benefit crop value in central and eastern Oregon by $2.7 million annually by improving
the productivity of professional crop consultants.
Summary:
We are proposing an interactive educational program that will be conducted in four locations in
central and eastern Oregon and will involve specialists from four disciplines: weed science,
entomology, plant pathology, and soil fertility. The workshop will instruct participants with
technical information needed to identify, prevent and correct problems that they encounter in
crop production. The goal is to initially develop a high quality program that in the future can be
sustained by fee-based and industry support. The intention is also that in subsequent years the
program could be adapted to diverse locations and audiences, like Master Gardeners.
Project Team:
Project Leader:
 Richard Affeldt, Extension Instructor, Jefferson County.
o Area of specialization: Weed Science
Additional Team Members:
 Glenn Fisher, Extension Entomology Specialist.
o Area of specialization: Entomology
 Phil Hamm, Extension Plant Pathologist, HAREC.
o Area of specialization: Plant Pathology
 Don Horneck, Extension Agronomist, HAREC.
o Area of specialization: Soil Fertility
Project Contributors:
 Mylen Bohle, Crook County
 Marvin Butler, Jefferson County
 Brian Charleton, Klamath County
 Mary Corp, Umatilla County
 Lynn Jensen, Malheur County
 Larry Lutcher, Morrow County
 Sandy Macnab, Sherman County
 Jordan Maley, Gilliam County
 Steve Norberg, Malheur County
 Brian Tuck, Wasco County
 Darrin Walenta, Union County
Justification:
A series of workshops conducted by Jed Colquhoun, the former Crop & Soil Science Extension
Weeds Specialist, provided an interactive format that addressed crop/herbicide diagnostics. The
workshops were a huge success! Two to five years after having participated in the workshops,
crop consultants and growers still say those workshops were “the best extension program they’ve
ever attended.” Unfortunately the workshops have not continued and no crops directed programs
have built on the previous success.
A new series of workshops that utilize the interactive format of the crop/herbicide diagnostic
workshops could capitalize on the previous success. The new workshops should include
expertise from local, regional, and statewide personnel and broaden the scope of disciplines:
entomology, plant pathology, and plant nutrition.
Professional crop consultants are a high impact audience for Extension to reach. These
individuals make recommendations to growers on most of the crop acres in the state regarding
pest and fertility management. High value crops draw more involvement from professional crop
consultants. Because of their technical expertise and familiarity with growers’ crops, crop
consultants are often involved in diagnosing problems with unhealthy or injured crops. The task
of diagnosing problems in crops can be incredibly complex and proper treatment of this task
requires a multi-discipline approach. Incorrect diagnosis of problems in crop fields can have
negative financial and environmental implications for Oregon agriculture.
In 2004, the value of crops grown in central and eastern Oregon was $800 million. The value of
crop production in this region has more than doubled in the last 25 years and continues to
increase. The proposed workshops could easily reach one-third of the crop consultants for this
region. If the workshops help crop consultants improve their productivity by 1% through critical
thinking and prevention of crop injury; the economic benefit to eastern and central Oregon would
be $2.7 million annually. A subsequent series of workshops conducted in the Willamette Valley
could result in a $5.7 million benefit annually. In all likelihood, these figures are very
conservative.
Project Plan:
The program will consist of three sections.
1) Section one will develop concepts that are necessary for diagnostics. In this section
participants will be shown how to recognize patterns of injury and how to differentiate various
factors that influence plant health.
2) Section two will help participants apply the concepts from section one. This section will
consist of at least four stations where participants in small groups will be presented with an
example problem that they will diagnose and the specialist or local agent will play the role of the
concerned grower/crop consultant. Each example problem station will have live plant samples
and/or poster-format photographs to develop the problem scenario.
3) Section three will further refine the concepts developed in section one. In this section at least
two of the specialists will analyze specific plant injury symptoms and try to convince participants
that their diagnosis is correct. Participants will then vote on which specialist they believe has the
correct diagnosis.
Sections two and three present participants with the opportunity to interact with specialists and
influence the delivery of the program. The example problems in section two will be developed
with input from the project contributors listed above. Development of the sections two and three
will require two planning meetings.
Goals and Objectives:
The primary goal of this program will work toward OSU Extension’s first goal: to improve
access to high-quality learner services. The program will be built in such a way to work toward
OSU Extension’s second goal: to invest for excellence and impact.
The objective of the Interactive Diagnostic Workshop is to expose participants to technical
information necessary to develop a critical thinking process regarding crop diagnostics. This
will prevent problems in field crops.
Evaluation Plan:
The project will be evaluated by asking participants to complete a survey either during the
program in an electronic format or at the conclusion of the program with paper. The survey will
gather participants’ reaction to the program and try to assess their learning and development of a
critical thinking process. The survey will help define the audience and assess the economic
impact of the program will have. The survey will also assess the level of fee-based support that
could be expected for similar programming.
Budget:
Item
Personnel
Travel
Materials and
Preparation
Sub total
Materials and
Preparation
Travel
Sub total
3 Team Members
Total
Description
Project Leader (Richard Affeldt)
Salary $4,827 / OPE $2,098
For prep meetings and program delivery at 4 locations
Greenhouse space and materials, poster printing, computer
supplies, other supplies
Cost
6,925
850
1,225
$9,000
Project Team Members
Greenhouse space and materials, poster printing, computer
supplies, other supplies
For prep meetings and program delivery at 4 locations
2,000*3
1,150
850
2,000
$6,000
$15,000