Professor focuses on farm science, Amish
By SHARON N. SCHNALL
4:30 am, July 25, 2005
A s he drives deeper into Geauga County’s Amish community, Randy James points out familiar sights and shares his unique insights of the terrain. “See the milk cans,” he said, heading onto a gravel road. “This is a new farm.” “There’s the origin of the Grand River.” “See that. That’s a phone booth; three or four (Amish) families share it.” As he steered toward the Geauga-Trumbull county line, he said, “This is the scene that I think is the most beautiful that we’re coming to. I think this valley is as pretty as anything going. When I see this I ask, ‘I get paid to do this?’” Yes, he does.
As an Ohio State University Extension agricultural agent for Geauga County, Dr. James, 50, visits ultra-modern farms and then heads to Amish farms operating as if time stopped 100 years ago. This time travel has happened every day for more than 25 years for Dr. James, who also is an associate professor in Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
“I enjoy being a faculty member at the university and yet not being physically there,” he said. “It’s about as un-ivory tower here as you can get.”
His workload varies as the result of questions raised by farmers who call his Burton office or during countless farm visits. Recently, he was asked how to keep birds out of the barn and the best approach for setting up cow pastures. Questions frequently deal with crop fertilization, killing weeds and feeding cows.
“On a given day, 50% of your job, you don’t have a clue what’s going to happen, because you don’t know who’s going to call and walk through your door next,” said David Marrison, Ashtabula County’s Extension educator. “We’re not held to the clock. It’s not a five-second answer. It may be a two-week process to get an answer.”
About 50% of Geauga’s for-profit farms are Amish-owned, which makes the job fun, Dr. James said. He has formed enduring relationships with Amish farmers and their families across three generations.
“These are fun families,” he said. “From my standpoint, it’s a rare privilege and I know it. Part of their doctrine is to stay separate from the outside world. It was (my) job that opened it up, and I consider that a privilege.”
The challenging part of his job is what he does most frequently for farmers — extracting practical information from research-laden, large-scale farming studies.
Dr. James disseminates scientific breakthroughs through user-friendly lectures, fact sheets and flyers.
“Randy has a unique ability to take that scientific information, to mold it, and make it unique and have it make logical, common sense,” Mr. Marrison said. “They ask of you to be a ‘walking encyclopedia’ of agriculture in this position and he’s got a couple of ‘volumes upstairs.’”
He also authored the book “Why Cows Learn Dutch and Other Secrets of Amish Farms (Kent State University Press: 2005).” The book, part memoir, part farming how-to, chronicles some of his long-term relationships with families in the Amish farming community.
What keeps the soil chemist and agronomist excited is agricultural diversity. He says just about every crop — excluding cotton, citrus and peanuts — can grow in Northeast Ohio. Another professional draw is growth.
“Over a 30-year period, only four counties in Ohio increased in farm numbers, and Geauga increased the most,” Dr. James said. “Geauga was one of the leaders even for the period between 1997 and 2002 with over 130 new farms.”
Citing a 2002 U.S. Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture report, he said 975 for-profit farms operate in Geauga. Add about 200 horse farms, and that represents his clientele.
Among his challenges is knowing when science should take a back seat to tradition. Dr. James recognized that Amish beliefs guide farming practices.
“It was a learning curve for me to say, ‘What is scientifically correct may not have any value here,’” he said. “Even if science is correct, the religious beliefs are valid. I need to work within that constraint.”
Dr. James said the Amish realize — on average — higher-profit yields per acre from smaller, diversified farms compared to non-Amish counterparts. Yields are not necessarily greater, but profit is because of lower input costs. Horses are more efficient than tractors, he added.
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