Extension
It Starts With Us
Author: Angela Whitehouse
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Author: Danny Adams
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Weeds in Pasture and Hay Fields are costing Wayne County farmers $25.00 to $50.00 an acre in production efficiency. The weeds needing to be controlled are buttercup, pigweeds and thistles along with others.The KSU Small Farm Assistant coordinates two pastures sprayers to be used by Wayne County farmers in controlling weeds in their fields. This program has be going on for 18 years using the spray equipment.Here's how it works, the sprayers were purchase with funds through the local Wayne Cou
Author: Edwin Chavous
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
A home owner in Lincoln County, Kentucky, requested assistance in getting home repair. The home owner spoke with a neighbor that had received USDA home repair technical assistance from the Kentucky State University, Area Agent for Small Farms Program during June 2018. Then the home owner phone called the Kentucky State University Area Agent for Small Farms Program to inquiry about getting USDA home repair assistances. An appointment was scheduled at 2:30pm on July 2, 2018 at the home owner house
Author: Jacob Vincent
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Honey bees are a critical component in the agricultural industry in the United States. Honey bees produce hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of honey and the pollination services they provide are worth hundreds of millions as well. The almond industry is completely reliant on the pollination provided by honey bees. Sadly, managed bee colonies have declined from roughly 6.3 million in 1945 to about 2.5 million today. This decline is due to multiple causes including the Va
Author: Austin Wright
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
TITLE: Aaron McNeil House Level Long Term: Hopkinsville, Kentucky is an urban area of Christian County. The residents have a rich heritage in African American history agriculture development, & culture. The lack resources and education in healthy lifestyles and learning. Rev. Aaron McNeil, a pioneer, churchman, educator and community leader, came to Hopkinsville Kentucky in 1896 as the first black Episcopal priest in this community and first rector of the Episcopal Churc
Author: Marion Simon
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Florida A&M University decided to copy the Kentucky State University Third Thursday Thing sustainable agriculture monthly workshops at their new 3,800 acre Agriculture Environment Research Station in Brooksville, FL. At the conclusion of it's first year of operation, the only records of the farm's research, outreach and Extension activities were the success stories and records related to their Third Thursday Thing educational programs. Florida A&M University Extension
Author: Marion Simon
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Presenters: Marion Simon and Edwin ChavousLocation: The Professional Agriculture Workers Conference (PAWC), December 2-4, 2018, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, ALAt the request of the Conference Planner and Manager and the USDA-NIFA National Program Leader for Small Farms, Marion Simon and Edwin Chavous traveled to Tuskegee University to present a program on the grant writing process for Land Grant Universities, non-profits, and farmers. Of the 275 participants in the PAWC confe
Author: Austin Wright
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
TITLE: The Salad Man Jerry Wyatt Level Long Term: Benton, Kentucky is a rural area of Marshall County. The residents have a rich heritage in agriculture development, & culture. Jerry Wyatt which has constructed KY Hydro Farm to produce, the best in agriculture products in greenhouses, for over 50 years. Jerry Wyatt owner of KY Hydro Farm offers locally grown, high quality produce. They grow products year round in greenhouses which offer many environmental benefits over tradit
Author: Danny Adams
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Twenty hay samples were taken for twenty beef cattle farmers to help them understand the nutritional needs of their cattle. Dr. Jeff Lehmkuhler of UK did an analysis of balancing rations with the hay you produced for sixty farmers at the Wayne County Extension Office.Beef cattle producers are using the information to keep their herds healthy with the results. These results keep beef cattle farmers from losing cattle with poor nutrition and help provide growth and gains with their herds.
Author: Edwin Chavous
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Kentucky has some 79,000 farms, most of which are small farms. The number of farms, and the number of acres in farming, are declining. Specifically, between the 2007 and 2012 Census, the number of farms in Kentucky decreased by about 10,000 with the major losses being in small and mid-sized farms. Likewise, the number of acres in farming decreased by a reported 943,000 acres. When the 2018-19 Census is released, it will show even more declines as aging farmers retire and
Author: William Rogers
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Plastic mulch is one of the most upcoming ways to plant your plants today in the flied. This way makes it easier to take care of the plants because you can control your water uptake and the weeds that are around the plant. People in the county that I work with had not seen this before and people were reluctant about using the plastic. So I put some out at the Extension Office for people to see how to use it. After people saw how it worked and how it cuts down on labor in the field, there was a l
Author: Danny Adams
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Wayne County grain farmers participate in a corn and soybean yield contest each year. The program is designed to see who achieves the best yields in Wayne County in corn and soybeans. Most of the participants are small and beginning farmers. The KSU Small Farm Assistant and UK Ag Agent go out and measure these fields each time and have them weighed to have the correct yield per acre.The Wayne County Extension office shares the production information to the area grain farmers to see if their prod
Author: Edwin Chavous
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
A small farmer, born and raised in Wayne County, Kentucky, now living and farming in Lincoln County, Kentucky, has a passion for growing vegetables in the field with black plastic-irrigation systems and in high tunnels.“High tunnels, also called high hoops or hoop houses, are temporary structures that extend the growing season. These covered structures are constructed in the field in order to protect crops from the weather (rain, wind, cool or warm temperatures), as well as in so
Author: William Rogers
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Farmers are having to hire more people to work on their farm (Farm Labor). This is raising the cost of labor that farmers will have to pay. So farmers are looking for a way to reduce the labor cost on the farm. Also the decrease of people for labor. To help with this problem in Breckinridge County, Kentucky State University has provided the Small Farm Agent with plastic mulch equipment. This will give the farmer a chance to reduce the cost and the am
Author: Laura Rogers
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
According to Jim Jones, of Environmental Protection Agency’s top pesticide regulator, one-third of all our food is dependent on pollination. Pollination accounts for 15 billion dollars of the United States economy. Without pollinators, we would still have apples in the grocery, but apples would go from 1.00 dollar a pound to 3.00 dollars a pound. According to the USDA data number of honey bee colonies in 2018 has decreased by 16 perc
Author: Danny Adams
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Wayne County has several Small Beef Cattle Producers in the county. One of these producers and his wife have a herd size of four cows and four calves along with a bull. The small cattle producers are limited on the cattle working facility's on their farms. KSU Small Farm Assistant has KSU shared-use cattle handling equipment that can be used on these farms at no cost. This producer and his wife requested the use of the equipment in their cattle herd because seven of the nine head is taking a
Author: Marion Simon
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Kentucky State University collaborated with Southern University (lead institution), North Carolina A&T State University, South Carolina State University, and Prairie View A&M University to conduct a series of seven (7) two-year leadership training programs for small farmers. Nominated by all of the 1890 Land Grant Institutions, 20 to 40 small farmers were selected to participate in each of the seven sessions. The nine (9) farmers from Kentucky who participated in the 1890 Smal
Author: Edwin Chavous
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
The Kentucky State University (KSU) Small Farm Program is an Extension program designed to help farm families with decision-making skills to solve farm and home problems. It includes educational programs that emphasize farm production, farm management, and marketing. It also includes the use and understanding of local county programs and USDA agencies and their programs, plus providing technical assistance in completing applications for the program and the entire application process.  
Author: Austin Wright
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
TITLE: 1890 Land Grant Meeting Level Long Term: Hopkinsville, Kentucky is an urban area of Christian County. Is the location which Kentucky State University Small Farms Agent Austin D. Wright hosted the first annual 1890 Hemp Land Grant Meeting this meeting was designed to educate our 1890 Land Grant Universities in the development, production, rules and regulations in which hemp can save and assist small farmers in another option to produce revenue and continue the small farmers way o
Author: Siddhartha Dasgupta
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP) is a competitive USDA NIFA grant program that provides funding for the education and training of beginning farmers and ranchers. The BFRDP supports the belief that there are many types of assistance beginning farmers may benefit from when starting out in agriculture. The explicit goal of the program is to “enhance food security by providing beginning farmer and rancher producers and their families in the U.S. with the knowledge,
Author: Siddhartha Dasgupta
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Despite many attempts at aquaculture success, Kentucky remains a state with very limited production. The last two decades had seen many farmers enter and leave the industry after a few seasons of production. In most cases, there is evidence of misjudgment with respect to the production and marketing realities and mismanagement of agricultural risks. Surviving aquaculture farmers in Kentucky were those who had successfully incorporated aquaculture into the whole-farm agricultural scene and those
Author: Siddhartha Dasgupta
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Based on the economics of limited-resource farms in Kentucky, it is key for farmers to be connected to niche markets where customers are willing to buy unique products such as live fish and poultry. Kentucky State University 1890 Land Grant Extension and Research team, led by Dr. Sid Dasgupta, had investigated Hispanic direct-to-consumer markets in the past and discovered lucrative opportunities in the sale of live animals. After sharing this information with Kentucky growers, this t
Author: Siddhartha Dasgupta
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Most chain grocery stores in Kentucky do not purchase from small and limited-resource farms due to insufficient volume of outputs and the producers' lack of federal GAP/GHP certificates. However, a Kentucky State University Extension team, led by Dr. Sid Dasgupta, hypothesized that some of the smaller independent grocery stores in Kentucky could source some of their produce from local farms.Ethnic grocers, who are rarely part of chains, supply their clients with specialty vegetables, f
Author: Laura Rogers
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Wayne Riley, head of the African American Museum in Laurel County, strived to achieve a more leadership role within the Laurel County community. Riley had goals of a location in which people could go and learn about gardening, farming, beekeeping, and pastured poultry. Riley strives to have a place people could processing their products through a commercial kitchen. In order to encourage and support Riley in achieving his goal Kentucky State Univ
Author: Laura Rogers
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Kentucky State University Small Farm Project and Beginning Farmer Grant and a collaborative with the University of Kentucky and Cedar Ridge Ministry worked together to distribute Yukon Gold seed potatoes to beginning and minority farmers. On average, the cost of seed potatoes ranges in price from 25.00 dollars to 55.00 dollars per 50 pounds of potatoes. Beginning farmers or farmers on a strict budget may find this cost more than they can afford to pay. 
Author: Laura Rogers
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
“Most citizens today are three generations removed from the farm — they don’t know where their food comes from, and they don’t understand the importance of agriculture. . .” Stated John Campbell, director of Mississippi’s Bureau of Plant Industry at a national meeting of state departments of agriculture.Basic beekeeping classes on “How Honeybee Sees - Not like you or me!” and “Honey-How is made and the different types of honey” presente
Author: William Rogers
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
The Farmer in the area that I work in have been face with the problem for many years. How to keep their plants for getting to much water from the weather. The farmer come to ask me if I could help them solve this problem. So I help them with putting plastic mulch in their fields to plant in. the plastic mulch help by raising the plant out of the water and letting some of the water run off of the plant. This will increase the product of the plant so that they will have more product to sell.Elsevi
