Westhope: Life as a Former Farm Boy

Review of: Westhope: Life as a Former Farm Boy, by Dean Hulse

An American Colony: Regionalism and the Roots of Midwestern Culture

Review of: An American Colony: Regionalism and the Roots of Midwestern Culture, by Edward Watt

Flyover Lives: A Memoir

Review of: "Flyover Lives: A Memoir," by Diane Johnson

Dirt Farmer vs. Soil Scientist : Representative Tensions in the Constructed Identities of Farmer-Writers Walter Thomas Jack and Edward H. Faulkner

This extended case study of Edward Hubert Faulkner, one-time extension agent turned overnight agricultural sensation, and Walter Thomas Jack, a former Quaker schoolteacher and self-professed Iowa “dirt farmer,” and their respective, point/counterpoint soil conservation classics, Plowman’s Folly (1943) and The Furrow and Us (1946), illuminates key tensions within the fields of rural sociology and agricultural history: namely subject versus object, inside versus outside, and “peasant” versus “professional” practice as they were played out in the American popular and agricultural press from 1943 to 1948. While it is true that Plowman’s Folly, as its title implies, goads the American farmer for his close-minded traditionalism, and The Furrow and Us largely defends the “peasant” class, the reality is more complicated, as the self- and media-constructed identities of Faulkner and Jack forever altered their respective historical legacies: Faulkner was not a pure academic, as Walter Jack made him out to be, and Jack was not, as he presented himself, a simple Iowa dirt farmer “putting experience against titles.” Such rurally-inscribed tensions, examined in light of the Faulkner-Jack no-till debate that Time magazine called in 1944 the “hottest farming argument since the tractor first challenged the horse,” occupied the nation during wartime and exposed many dichotomies, false and real, between “professor” and “plowman,” between agricultural “faddists” and agricultural “scientists.” Though their differences were exaggerated, Faulkner and Jack both offer what Oregon State University’s B. P. Warkentin labels “subjective” portrayals of the soil and soil-derived sociology. Such subjective yet scientifically-informed accounts, often drawing their legitimacy from rural cultures subscribing to implicit notions of agrarian superiority and the artificiality of urban life, frequently problematize “outside” (academic and popular press) examination, as the case of Faulkner and Jack makes clear

An American Colony: Regionalism and the Roots of Midwestern Culture

Review of: "An American Colony: Regionalism and the Roots of Midwestern Culture," by Edward Watt

Storytelling as Narrativity: Rural Life Through the Prism of Social Tensions

This introductory article provides purpose and rationale for this special issue of Southern Rural Sociology. The remaining six essays represent stories based on the authors’ farm experiences, crafted to explicate the tensions that underlie all of social life. Illustrating the connection between rural life and the world of ideas, the work makes explicit how the often unrecognized contradictions of everyday society are balanced through choices that typically exist at an unconscious, taken-for-granted level. Each author describes a particular dialectic. Collectively, the writers have transformed their narrative to narrativity, the formal imposition of moral purpose on storied form. Although our purpose is primarily pedagogical (making the implicit explicit), the personal essays incorporate the pleasure of narrative and the insight of narrativit

Effects of red clover isoflavones on tall fescue seed fermentation and microbial populations \u3ci\u3ein vitro\u3c/i\u3e

Negative impacts of endophyte-infected Lolium arundinaceum (Darbyshire) (tall fescue) are responsible for over $2 billion in losses to livestock producers annually. While the influence of endophyte-infected tall fescue has been studied for decades, mitigation methods have not been clearly elucidated. Isoflavones found in Trifolium pratense (red clover) have been the subject of recent research regarding tall fescue toxicosis mitigation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of ergovaline and red clover isoflavones on rumen microbial populations, fiber degradation, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) in an in vitro system. Using a dose of 1.10 mg × L-1, endophyte-infected or endophyte-free tall fescue seed was added to ANKOM fiber bags with or without 2.19 mg of isoflavones in the form of a control, powder, or pulverized tablet, resulting in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangements of treatments. Measurements of pH, VFA, bacterial taxa, as well as the disappearance of neutral detergent fiber (aNDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and crude protein (CP) were taken after 48 h of incubation. aNDF disappearance values were significantly altered by seed type (P = 0.003) and isoflavone treatment (P = 0.005), and ADF disappearance values were significantly different in a seed × isoflavone treatment interaction (P ≤ 0.05). A seed × isoflavone treatment interaction was also observed with respect to CP disappearance (P ≤ 0.05). Eighteen bacterial taxa were significantly altered by seed × isoflavone treatment interaction groups (P ≤ 0.05), eight bacterial taxa were increased by isoflavones (P ≤ 0.05), and ten bacterial taxa were altered by seed type (P ≤ 0.05). Due to the beneficial effect of isoflavones on tall fescue seed fiber degradation, these compounds may be viable options for mitigating fescue toxicosis. Further research should be conducted to determine physiological implications as well as microbiological changes in vivo

Effects of Red Clover Isoflavones on Tall Fescue Seed Fermentation and Microbial Populations \u3cem\u3eIn Vitro\u3c/em\u3e

Negative impacts of endophyte-infected Lolium arundinaceum (Darbyshire) (tall fescue) are responsible for over $2 billion in losses to livestock producers annually. While the influence of endophyte-infected tall fescue has been studied for decades, mitigation methods have not been clearly elucidated. Isoflavones found in Trifolium pratense (red clover) have been the subject of recent research regarding tall fescue toxicosis mitigation. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of ergovaline and red clover isoflavones on rumen microbial populations, fiber degradation, and volatile fatty acids (VFA) in an in vitro system. Using a dose of 1.10 mg × L-1, endophyte-infected or endophyte-free tall fescue seed was added to ANKOM fiber bags with or without 2.19 mg of isoflavones in the form of a control, powder, or pulverized tablet, resulting in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangements of treatments. Measurements of pH, VFA, bacterial taxa, as well as the disappearance of neutral detergent fiber (aNDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and crude protein (CP) were taken after 48 h of incubation. aNDF disappearance values were significantly altered by seed type (P = 0.003) and isoflavone treatment (P = 0.005), and ADF disappearance values were significantly different in a seed × isoflavone treatment interaction (P ≤ 0.05). A seed × isoflavone treatment interaction was also observed with respect to CP disappearance (P ≤ 0.05). Eighteen bacterial taxa were significantly altered by seed × isoflavone treatment interaction groups (P ≤ 0.05), eight bacterial taxa were increased by isoflavones (P ≤ 0.05), and ten bacterial taxa were altered by seed type (P ≤ 0.05). Due to the beneficial effect of isoflavones on tall fescue seed fiber degradation, these compounds may be viable options for mitigating fescue toxicosis. Further research should be conducted to determine physiological implications as well as microbiological changes in vivo