Enhancing Agriculture Management and MarketingPlan of Work

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Grayson County CES

Title:
Enhancing Agriculture Management and Marketing
MAP:
Growing Grayson County through Rural, Youth, and Community Development
Agents Involved:
Whitney Carman
MAJOR PROGRAM 1:
Forages
MAJOR PROGRAM 2:
Beef
MAJOR PROGRAM 3:
Grain Crops
MAJOR PROGRAM 4:
Commercial Horticulture - Crop Marketing
Situation:

Agriculture in Grayson County is an integral part of the economic system. In 2012 the total value of crop and livestock cash receipts for Grayson County was 46 million. Balancing input costs, value of crops and livestock, and marketing techniques are always changing, making it harder for farmers and agriculturalists to be profitable. Another issues is the increase in average farmer age, thus the importance of estate transitional planning. Therefore, it is important to educate farmers on the latest information available from the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture food and Environment, and industry partners so they can make educated decisions to help increase the vitality and profitability of their enterprises.

Long-Term Outcomes:

Farmers and Producers will adopt integrated systems of animal and plant production which sustain and/or enhance the economic vitality of their agricultural enterprise. Production methods utilized will increase the amount of commodities produced. There will also be an increase in early career farmers by the year 2019.There will be an increase in farm enterprises who have completed estate planning.

Intermediate Outcomes:

Producers will utilize new management and marketing skills learned from the Cooperative Extension Service programs that can increase the chance of agricultural enterprise profitability. More farmers will make decisions to work on estate plans.

Initial Outcomes:

Producers will learn new marketing techniques for livestock and plant production.

Producers will understand ways of controlling their input costs more effectively

Producers will learn new educational tools that they can use to increase efficiency and effectiveness on their agricultural enterprise.

Evaluation:

Initial Outcome: Increases awareness of new production methods and techniques

Indicator: education of production methods and techniques

Method: written evaluation

Timeline: Spring 2019, Fall 2019


Intermediate Outcome: Improvement in management and production methods

Indicator: Adoption of practices learned in Extension Programs

Method: Survey of Extension Programs

Timeline: Fall 2020


Long-term Outcome: Increased Economic Vitality of Agriculture Enterprises

Indicator: Economic conditions of farmers become more viable

Method: mailed survey, online survey, and e-mail survey.

Timeline: Fall 2020

Learning Opportunities:

Audience: farmers

Project or Activity: Livestock Marketing

Content or Curriculum: CPH-45 program, Yellow-Tag program, Retained Ownership Program, KY Proud, KY Beef IRM

Inputs: UK Specialists, UK Beef Publications, county agents, beef farmers, Cooperative Extension Services, local livestock markets, Kentucky Department of Agriculture

Date: Spring-Winter 2019


Audience: farmers

Project or Activity: Beef and Forage Production Education

Content or Curriculum: Publications and videos on forages and beef production, project demonstrations on crabgrass and summer annuals

Inputs: UK publications, UK videos, Specialists

Date: Winter 2018-19


Audience: farmers

Project or Activity: Beef and Forage Field Days

Content or Curriculum: Demonstration plot, UK publications and presentations on beef marketing and forage use

Inputs: UK specialists, Local Farmer, Kentucky Beef Network, Agents, Publications, Beef IRM Committee, local farm store

Date: Summer 2018, Fall 2018, summer 2019


Audience: farmers

Project or Activity: Variety Plots for crops, forages, and vegetables

Content or Curriculum: County variety plots for Corn, soybeans, summer and winter forages, and vegetables

Inputs: UK Specialists, Local seed reps, Local farmers, UK publications

Date: Summer 2018, 2019, 2020


Audience: Early career farmers

Project or Activity: Farm Financial Management

Content or Curriculum: UK curriculum for Managing for Today and Tomorrow

Inputs: UK, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Kentucky Ag Development Fund, Agents, local businesses

Date: Summer 2019


Audience: Women in Agriculture and Agribusiness

Project or Activity: Annie's Project

Content or Curriculum: financial management and general agribusiness education

Inputs: UK, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Kentucky Ag Development Fund, Agents, local businesses, Annie's Project curriculum

Date: Fall- Winter 2018


Audience: Grain Producers

Project or Activity: Grain Marketing Education

Content or Curriculum: Information on grain marketing

Inputs: UK publications, UK specialists, local marketing groups, producers

Date: Summer 2019


Audience: Young Farmers

Project or Activity: Young Farmer Program

Content or Curriculum: FarmStart curriculum, UK specialists, local agribusinesses, local farmers, UK Extension agents, commodity organizations

Date: Meet Quarterly: Fall 2018, Winter 2018, Spring 2019, Summer 2019



Audience: Facebook and Social Media Users/General Public

Project or Activity: Social media posts regarding agriculture marketing and management techniques

Content or Curriculum: various research based resources

Inputs: UK Specialist, paid Extension Staff, social media outlets

Date: Year round 2018, 2019



Success Stories

Combining Efforts for Regional Beef Field Day

Author: Whitney Carman

Major Program: Beef

Based on the 2017 Census of Agriculture, beef production in counties surrounding Grayson County have on average, 35% of their livestock/poultry income from beef production. Each of the counties do various programs throughout the year, but to combine efforts, the Grayson County Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent reached out to surrounding counties to gauge interest in hosting a regional approach to a field day. Counties that would participate would be Grayson, Breckinridge, Edmonson, Hanco

Full Story

Central Kentucky Beef Cow DNA Project

Author: Whitney Carman

Major Program: Beef

Genetic evaluation has largely been developed and determined by using seedstock bulls throughout the beef industry. However, producers are continually educated to utilize heterosis to increase the profitability and genetic merit of their progeny. As the increase in genomic testing and overall understanding of genetic merit has been promoted, the goal for this project is to help producers adopt a new tool to utilize when selecting traits using maternal parentage for their commercial herds. The Ex

Full Story

Dirt 2 Dollars: A Different Approach to Extension Education

Author: Whitney Carman

Major Program: Farm Management

Dirt 2 Dollars: A Different Approach to Extension Education

Cooperative Extension Agents are continuously looking for ideas to help reach new audiences to educate and communicate. Agriculture and Natural Resources Agents Matt Adams (Hardin), Whitney Carman (Grayson) and Daniel Carpenter (LaRue) specifically were looking for ways to reach the young farmer population, a group that can be difficult to reach in the current educational methods. One way that the agents looked into is podcasting. Podcasting uses the internet to make recordings of broadcasts ava

Full Story
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