2. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF JOB DUTIES
This agent is responsible for designing and coordinating educational programs relevant to sugarcane and rice growers in south Florida. Educational programs are developed based on suggestions from the sugarcane/rice advisory committee. The agent works closely with UF/IFAS and USDA scientists to deliver research-based information, relevant on-farm demonstration trials, and field days to clientele. Issues include sugarcane and rice pest (insects, weeds, pathogens) management, crop nutrition (particularly N and P), water quality impacts of sulfur, and sugarcane harvesting options (burn vs. green). The agent also conducts agricultural worker trainings to improve safety, including restricted use pesticide trainings, worker protection standard workshops, and Africanized honey bee safety awareness presentations. The agent assists in 4-H and other youth educational programs. As the Agricultural Extension Program Leader, this agent supervises and mentors 3 additional agriculture extension agents, develops annual budgets for the Agricultural Extension Department, assists the County Extension Director with administrative duties, and works with other extension program leaders to organize high-profile educational events that highlight Palm Beach County Extension programs.
Specific duties by percentage
I. Improving Sugarcane Production Technologies in South Florida 40 %
II. Promoting Sugarcane Best Management Practices 20 %
III. Promoting Agricultural Safety/Awareness 25 %
IV. Agriculture Extension Program Leader 10 %
V. 4-H/Youth Development and other Extension Activities 5 %
Total 100%
3. AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
· Sugarcane and rice agronomy
· Calibrated soil-test methodologies
· Restricted use pesticide training
· Worker protection standard training
· Water quality and fertilizer best management practices
· Honeybees
4. ASSIGNED ACTIVITY SINCE LAST PROMOTION
Activity / 2010-11 / 2009-10 / 2008-09 / 2007-08 / 2006-07Teaching / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0%
Research / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0%
Service / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0%
Extension / 100%
0% / 100% / 100% / 100% / 100%
Clinical / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0% / 0%
TOTAL / 100% / 100% / 100% / 100% / 100%
5. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
University / Program Area / Degree / YearUniversity of Florida / Agronomy / PhD / 1993
Stanford University / Biological Sciences / MS / 1982
Stanford University
Stanford University / Biological Sciences / BS / 1982
6. EMPLOYMENT
University/ Organization / Title / PermanentStatus* / Year
UF/IFAS Cooperative Extension Service - Palm Beach County / Agronomic Crops Agent III / accruing / 07/29/05 - present
Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida / Research Agronomist / Non-accruing / 10/15/02 - 07/28/05
UF/IFAS Everglades REC / Director, Everglades Soil Testing Laboratory / Non-accruing / 12/02/02 - 07/28/05
UF/IFAS Everglades REC / Assistant Professor / Tenure Accruing / 11/15/96 - 10/14/02
UF/IFAS Everglades REC / Assistant In Post Doc Associate / Non-accruing / 07/01/93 - 11/14/96
UF/IFAS Agronomy Department / Research Assistant / Non-accruing / 01/01/88 - 06/01/93
U.S. Peace Corps (Bangkok, Thailand) / Ag. Technical Coordinator / 02/01/86 - 11/01/86
U.S. Peace Corps (Korat, Thailand) / Fisheries Extension / 06/01/82 - 01/31/86
*Permanent status accruing or not
7. YEAR TENURE/PERMANENT STATUS WAS AWARDED BY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA – NA
8. UF TENURE, PERMANENT STATUS, AND PROMOTION CRITERIA
The university’s criteria for granting tenure, promotion, or permanent status shall be relevant to the performance of the work that the faculty member has been employed to do and to his/her performance of the duties and responsibilities expected of a member of the university community. These criteria recognize three broad categories of academic service as follows:
(A) Teaching – Instruction, including regular classroom teaching and distance/ executive/continuing education, direction of theses and dissertations, academic advisement, extension education programs, and all preparation for this work, including study to keep abreast of one’s field.
(B) Research – Research or other creative activity including peer-reviewed publications.
(C) Service – Public and professional.
Extension contributions in academic service may be inclusive of the three broad categories described above.
In most cases, tenure and promotion require distinction in at least two areas, one of which shall be that of the faculty member’s primary responsibility, and those areas should be teaching and research unless the faculty member or extension faculty member has an assignment that primarily reflects other responsibilities, such as the Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Merit should be regarded as more important than variety of activity.
IFAS AND DEPARTMENTAL DISCIPLINE-SPECIFIC CLARIFICATIONS OF THE UF CRITERIA
Faculty are expected to perform at an outstanding level in their assigned areas of responsibility with productivity that is proportional to their assignment. Regardless of the number of functional areas of assignment, it is expected that the faculty member will meet the professional responsibilities normally expected for service.
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (Teaching):
For faculty with a teaching assignment, evidence of distinction as an educator for that portion of FTE assigned to teaching is necessary. Distinction may be evidenced in a number of ways, including course and curriculum development and improvement, student and peer evaluations of instruction and advisement, and involvement in counseling students in programs of study and research including service on graduate committees and supervision of masters’ theses, doctoral dissertations and other student research. Other indicators of distinction include the development and use of innovative teaching methods, teaching contracts and grants, relevant publications, software and other creative activities (the scholarship of teaching), as well as teaching awards and the faculty member’s involvement in professional development opportunities designed to enhance teaching proficiency and service to students.
Florida Agricultural Experiment Station (Research):
For faculty with a research assignment, distinction in the scholarship of discovery, innovation and applications based research is necessary for tenure and/or promotion. There must be evidence of an organized, significant and long-term research program proportional to the percent of FTE assigned to research. Demonstration of competence in design, conduct and interpretation of original research must be documented. Research distinction may be evidenced by scholarly work published in refereed journals, development of or contributions to publications for use by producers and other clientele, and scholarly products and activities such as books, patents, cultivar releases, software and other creative works. Other indicators include extramural support, interdisciplinary or cooperative research efforts, and scholarly presentations at professional meetings and conferences. Service on graduate committees and supervision of masters' candidates and doctoral candidates to degree completion is required.
Florida Cooperative Extension Service (Extension):
For faculty with an extension assignment, effective contribution to the planned non-degree educational programs of UF/IFAS for that portion of FTE assigned to extension is necessary for promotion and tenure. Distinction in this area may be evidenced by effectiveness in obtaining, integrating and organizing educational resources into programs directed to meet the needs of extension clientele (general public, producers, industry groups, families, youth and other relevant audiences); the design and implementation of educational experiences (the scholarship of application) appropriate to priority needs identified; the packaging of research based information into program materials such as bulletins, fact sheets, newsletters, mass media messages, electronic publications, distance education, and public displays; and the development and utilization of result demonstrations and other teaching methods as a part of the educational process. Other indicators include participation in professional development and training opportunities to remain current with scientific and methodological developments, extramural funds received, and recognition by peers and clientele as a leader in the assigned areas of responsibility.
9. TEACHING, ADVISING, AND/OR OTHER INSTRUCTIONAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS – None
10. TEACHING EVALUATIONS – None
11. GRADUATE FACULTY STATUS – No
12. GRADUATE COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES – None
13. CONTRIBUTION TO DISCIPLINE/RESEARCH NARRATIVE
This agent has worked closely with UF/IFAS research faculty and the agriculture research departments at major sugar companies to design, install, monitor, and analyze on-farm sugarcane research experiments and rice variety trials.
Continuing with a grant that this agent originally secured in 2004 (Developing a Calibrated P Fertilizer Recommendation for EAA Sugarcane: Assessment of 7 Soil-P Extraction Methods and Their Correlation to Sugarcane Yields Under Variable P Inputs), numerous replicated phosphorus fertilization trials combined with comparisons of soil extraction procedures for organic soil have resulted in a newly proposed soil extraction procedure and calibrated soil-P test for sugarcane using the Mehlich 3 extraction. The proposed procedure and calibration analysis has been submitted for peer review to the Soil Science Society of America Journal. A companion paper analyzing sugarcane performance in response to variable P inputs has been submitted to the Agronomy Journal.
This agent has been a member of the multi-disciplinary UF/IFAS and agricultural industry research team that has installed 2 commercial-size on-farm green cane harvest experiments, one on organic soils and another on sandy mineral soils. This agent participated in the design and planting of these large-scale experiments, and for the subsequent 12 multi-day harvest events over a 3-year period, this agent specialized in reconciling sugar mill biomass and sugar yield data with truck and/or train rail car transports to specific experimental units in the field.
This agent wrote the Sulfur literature review for Review of current sugarcane fertilizer recommendations: A white paper from the UF/IFAS Sugarcane Fertilizer Standards Task Force, published as a peer review paper in the Proceedings of the Soil and Crop Science Society of Florida. This document has since served as a roadmap for the design and implementation of timely, responsive, and relevant crop nutrition research in sugarcane. To this end, this agent has been involved in the coordination and reporting on 8 on-farm nitrogen fertilization experiments with the objective to update/revise UF/IFAS nitrogen fertilization recommendations for sugarcane grown on sandy mineral soils and also to assess the potential for reducing nitrogen input requirements by using controlled- and slow-release fertilizer products. The aforementioned “white paper” also identified a need to quantify sugarcane sulfur requirements, and this agent has helped design and coordinate several on-farm sulfur-response sugarcane experiments.
An important objective for this agent is to support the rice farmers in the Everglades Agricultural Area, recognizing that the sugarcane-rice crop rotation is an environmentally friendly best management practice that supports grower efforts to protect organics soils while also reducing phosphorus levels in farm drainage water. To this end, this agent annually conducts rice variety trials by contacting out-of-state rice breeding programs to obtain conventional and hybrid rice seed for testing. This agent annually plants three to four on-farm replicated rice variety trials (with 8 to 15 breeding lines) for yield and disease evaluation. The objective is to find new rice varieties that perform well in south Florida growing environments in order to maximize genetic diversity across the rice industry.
14. CREATIVE WORKS OR ACTIVITIES
Instructional Multimedia Presentations
Rice, R.W. 2011. Sugarcane and Vegetable/Fruit Extension in the Glades. One of three presenters for the March 4, 2011 First Friday Seminar, Everglades REC, Belle Glade.
Rice, R.W. 2010. 4-H Demonstrations & Illustrated Talks. An overview of good powerpoint presentation design, including examples of effective (and distracting) use of animation, effective use of bullet points and photographs, and an overview of 4-H presentation judging criteria (13 slides).
Rice, R.W. 2010. The 2008-2009 Florida Sugarcane Variety Census. Summary of the planted acreage for all sugarcane varieties by crop age, soil type, and planting method, including 10-year histories to highlight any trends towards unfavorable dominance by a single variety (13 slides).
Rice, R.W. 2010. Floating Aquatic Weeds and EAA Farm Phosphorus Loads. Summary of best management practices (canal drainage flow management and floating aquatic vegetation control) that greatly reduce particulate phosphorus levels in farm drainage water (19 slides).
Rice, R.W. 2010. Understanding the Fertilizer Label. A module for bi-annual Master Gardener training and certification classes, Palm Beach County (18 slides).
Baucum, L.E. and R.W. Rice. 2010. Sugarcane Fertility. A summary of recommended soil and leaf tissue sampling protocols for sugarcane, including interpretation of analyses, review of UF/IFAS fertilizer recommendations for syrup sugarcane (and why these differ from commercial cane fertilizer recommendations), and a demonstration of how soil organic matter amendments improve sugarcane performance on sandy mineral soils. Presented at the annual Sugarcane Syrup Field Day, North Florida REC, Quincy (41 slides).
Rice, R.W. 2009. Sugar and the Everglades. A review of environmentally-friendly production practices adopted by south Florida sugarcane, vegetable and rice growers, for EARTH Day, West Palm Beach (35 slides).
Rice, R.W. 2009. Soils in South Florida. A module for bi-annual Master Gardener training and certification classes, Palm Beach County (60 slides).
Rice, R.W. 2009. Sugarcane Nutrient Deficiency Symptoms. A layman’s explanation of the roles that required plant nutrients play in plant physiology, with supporting photographs depicting nutrient deficiency symptoms in different parts of the sugarcane plant, Belle Glade (39 slides).
Rice, R.W. 2009. Rain Barrels – Preserving Water Resources. A discussion on how to design and construct rain water capture devices to support homeowner “green” initiatives, with examples from different countries, for the Vegetable Symposium, West Palm Beach (26 slides).
Rice, R.W., L.E. Baucum, J. Summersill, and L. Amador. 2009. Spray Application Requests: Common Errors and Required Documentation. Interactive demonstration with audience role-playing to highlight sensible protocols to ensure accurate/safe pesticide applications and good record keeping that survives a regulator audit, Belle Glade (22 slides).
Rice, R.W. and L.E. Baucum. 2009. Certified Pesticide Applicator Training – Calibration Math for Aquatic Systems. Step-by-step calculations for numerous calibration scenarios that might be encountered when applying herbicides to different aquatic systems, used in the best management training for the aquatic weed control staff of the local South Florida Conservancy District, Belle Glade (98 slides).
Baucum, L.E. and R.W. Rice. 2009. Certified Pesticide Applicator Training - Aquatic Pest Control . Overview of different aquatic herbicide active ingredients and their correct use, environmental impacts when used incorrectly, and aquatic weed characteristics and identification, used in the best management training for the aquatic weed control staff of the local South Florida Conservancy District, Belle Glade (59 slides).