WABI interviews Roche, Handley for report on Ag Trades Show

WABI (Channel 5) interviewed the University of Maine Cooperative Extension’s Erin Roche, a crop insurance education program manager, and David Handley, a vegetable and small fruit specialist, for a report on the 2019 Maine Agricultural Trades Show in Augusta. The report focused on a weather-based crop management tools event at the show. “What we’re really hoping by hosting this type of workshop is to shed some light on the different options that are available,” said Roche. “So there are both the higher-tech newer kind of computer/smartphone-based tools that a farmer might consider, but then there are the tried and true soil thermometers, water sensors, rain gauges.” WABI also reported on a strawberry growing class at the show. “A lot of what strawberry farmers are doing now that’s becoming more high-tech is dealing with our climate, so we can now have our computers set up such that they can take readings in the field, determine if there’s an issue out there — ‘It’s too hot, it’s too cold, I’m too dry, I’m too wet’ — and the computer will say, this is important enough that the farmer needs to know about it,” said Handley. “We’ll call them on the phone.”