Extension
It Starts With Us
Agriculture and Horticulture
Advancing Agriculture & Horticulture
Linda McClanahan, Jessica Bessin, Dana Anderson
Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Horticulture, Commercial
Beef
Farm Management, Economics and Policy
Mercer County has a diverse combination of both commercial agriculture, horticulture, and home horticulture, all being viable industries in Mercer County. Farmers, community leaders, farm organizations, Mercer County Ag Development Council, Mercer County Farmers Market, Mercer County Ag Advisory Council, and Mercer County Horticulture Advisory Council have identified important agricultural and horticultural issues and needed programs. Farm profitability, diversification, increasing value of property, promoting local foods, and marketing opportunities are some of the top priorities. Leaders have also identified the need to have extensive programs in the area of agricultural awareness. With less than 2% of the population involved in food production there is a great need for education about where and how food and other agricultural products are produced.
*Increased interest in agriculture and horticulture production.
*Homeowners will save more money on home landscape.
*Increased diversification of crops produced in county.
*Homeowners will add value to their property through education programs on maintaing landscapes
*Farmers market will continue to grow as intrest in local food increases
*Youth will exhibit skills, share knowledge with others, including family members, and may decide to raise some of their own food
*Farmers will improve production practices
*Farmers and homeowners will understand pesticide safety
*Increased interest in local foods
*Students will learn about UK and career opportunities in agriculture.
Initial Outcome: Increased interest in Agriculture and Horticulture Programs
Indicator: Increased numbers of participants for agriculture and horticulture programs
Method: Counting participants attending the programs
Timeline: on-going
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Audience: Clients with Horticulture Interest
Project or Activity: Master Gardener Program
Content or Curriculum: UK Master Gardener Manual
Inputs: UK CES Facilities, UK Extension Specialists, Mercer Extension Staff, UK Publications and other resources, Master Gardener volunteers
Date: Fall
Audience: Clients with Horticulture Interest
Project or Activity: Horticulture topics, instructor, newsletter, radio, Facebook page, videos,
Content or Curriculum: UK Horticulture Department, Horticulture organizations, Ag communications
Inputs: CES Facilities, UK Extension Specialist, Mercer County Hort. Agent, UK publications, Master Gardeners, Volunteers
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Clients with Horticulture Interest
Project or Activity: Gardening Through the Seasons
Content or Curriculum: UK CES
Inputs: CES Facilities, UK Extension Specialist, Mercer Extension Staff, UK publications
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Clients with Beekeeping Interest
Project or Activity: Beekeeping Club
Content or Curriculum: KDA State Apiarist, Hands-on demonstrations, KY State
Inputs: CES Facilities, UK Extension Specialist, Mercer Extension Staff, UK publications, KDA, KY State
Audience: Clients with Horticulture Interest
Project or Activity: Community Garden
Content or Curriculum: UK Horticulture Department
Inputs: CES Facilities, UK Extension Specialist, Mercer Extension Staff, UK publications, NEP
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Farmers
Project or Activity: Mercer County Horticulture Field Day
Content or Curriculum: Chosen by Hort Field Day Committee - from UK Specialists and Hort Industry
Inputs: Host farm, volunteers, CES Staff, Partners/Sponsoring Organizations, Mercer Extension Staff
Date: Summer/Fall
Audience: Farmers Market Clients
Project or Activity: Fresh To Table
Content or Curriculum: NEP_Plate it Up, Veggie vouchers, Recipes
Inputs: UK publications, Volunteers, Mercer Extension Staff, Partners/Sponsoring Organization
Date: On-going
Audience:Homeowners and Farmers
Project or Activity: Pesticide Safety Training/ Pesticides 101
Content or Curriculum: KY Pest Management Curriculum, hands on demonstrations
Inputs: UK Specialist, Extension Publications, Mercer Extension Staff
Date: Spring/Summer
Audience: Farmers
Project or Activity: Annual Mercer County Agriculture Field Day
Content or Curriculum: Chosen by Field Day Committee - from UK Specialists and Ag Industry
Inputs: Host farm, volunteers, CES Staff, Partners/Sponsoring Organizations
Date: September
Audience: Mercer County citizens
Project or Activity: Annual Farm-City Dinner
Content or Curriculum: National Farm-City Council, American Farm Bureau Federation, content relevant to the educational objective set by the committee
Inputs: Extension staff, Extension resources, collaborating agencies, sponsors, speakers
Date: March
Audience: Farmers
Project or Activity: Beef Quality & Care Assurance Certification
Content or Curriculum: KY BQA Curriculum
Inputs: Extension staff, Extension resources, KY Cattlemen's Association, host location
Date: Spring/Fall
Audience: Farmers
Project or Activity: Private Pesticide Applicator Training
Content or Curriculum: KY Pest Management Curriculum
Inputs: Extension staff, Extension resources, UK Extension publications
Date: spring
Audience: Elementary school youth
Project or Activity: FarmSCool Week
Content or Curriculum: UK CES, KY Beef Council, KY Horse Council, KY Soybean Association, KY Dept of Ag
Inputs: Extension Staff, Extension resources, Mercer County School system, Burgin School System
Date: Fall
Audience: Mercer County citizens, farmers
Project or Activity: Services
Content or Curriculum: Soil Testing, Plant Disease Diagnosis, Hay Testing, Ration Balancing, Farm & Home Visits, Insect Identification, Weed Identification, Water Testing, Plant Identification, Snake Identification, Forage & Grain Moisture Testing
Inputs: UK CES Facilities, Extension Staff, UK Publications, UK Plant Disease Diagnostic Lab, UK Soil Lab, UK Extension Specialists
Date: Ongoing
Audience: Equine clientele
Project or Activity: Equine Express newsletter, Horse College, special equine topic programs, State Equine Farm & Facilities Expo
Content or Curriculum: Horse College, UK Equine
Inputs: UK CES facilities, ANR Agents, UK Extension Specialists, UK publications, UK news releases/exclusives
Date: ongoing
Audience: Mercer County clientele with agriculture or horticulture interest
Project or Activity: demonstration plots and demonstration programs
Content or Curriculum: UK, industry companies
Inputs: UK CES Specialists & resources, new practices, chemicals, local farms for demonstrations, host locations for programs
Date: ongoing
Audience: Extension clientele/followers on social media
Project or Activity: Facebook pages, website, videos, podcasts
Content or Curriculum: UK CES
Inputs: UK CES agents, UK CES staff, Ag Comm news releases, UK publications/information
Date: ongoing
Audience: Mercer County crop producers
Project or Activity: crop production practices and meetings including regional
Content or Curriculum: UK CES
Inputs: UK CES Specialists, facilities, agents, publications and other resources
Date: ongoing
Audience: Mercer County Cattle producers
Project or Activity: cattle production practices, newsletters, and meetings (KY Beef Conference, KY Stocker Conference, county winter meetings, regional meetings, dairy month kickoff breakfast, dairy monthly newsletter, cattlemens quarterly roundup newsletter, Master series (Master Cattlemen, Master Marketer, Master Stocker), beef month activities
Content or Curriculum: UK CES
Inputs: UK CES specialists, facilities, agents, publications and other resources
Date: ongoing
Audience: Mercer County young and beginning farmers
Project or Activity: support for both young and beginning farmers
Content or Curriculum: UK CES
Inputs: UK CES specialists, facilities, agents, publications and other resources
Date: ongoing
Audience: Mercer County farmers and clientele
Project or Activity: collaboration with agriculture organizations
Content or Curriculum: UK CES, agriculture organizations
Inputs: Farm Bureau, Soil Conservation, Cattlemens Association, Goat Association, Backcountry Horsemen, Master Gardeners, Fair Board
Date: ongoing
Audience: county fair attendees and participants
Project or Activity: Mercer County Fair & Horse Show
Content or Curriculum: CES guidelines, rules & regulations set by various show committees
Inputs: CES Staff, Mercer County Fair & Horse Show facilities/funds, community sponsors, county fair participants
Date: July
Author: Linda McClanahan
Major Program: Equine
In order to help equine producers be efficient and profitable, Central Kentucky County Extension Agents for Agriculture & Natural Resources collaborated with UK Extension Specialists and Ag Equine Programs to offer the Equine Farm and Facilities Expo. The assistance of long-time business community sponsors allowed producers to see what the latest offerings are in farm machinery, equine nutrition products, and numerous other necessities for equine operations. Just like in years past, the
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Everyday Gardener Webinar Series IIContinuing efforts to meet the public desire for horticultural educational classes in the ever-changing climate of the post pandemic world, horticulture agents in 7 counties of Central Region collaborated in the Fall of 2021 to offer the Everyday Gardener Webinar Series once again. The series, taught by agents and specialist, provided educational classes related to horticulture under the fields of: Insects: The Good , the Bad and the Ugly, Wildlife and Woodland
Author: Linda McClanahan
Major Program: Tornado Response and Recovery
When tornadoes ripped across KY, farmers were among those left with widespread devastation. The Mercer County Extension Office and ANR agent partnered on a couple different initiatives. The Mercer County Extension Office, Cattlemen's Association and Farm Bureau Federation partnered to collect monetary donations. Those organizations in addition to private donations totaled $8,650. The ANR agent worked with local farm supply stores (Johnson's Farm Supply, Southern States Harrodsburg a
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
Lisa walker recovery center is a 16 bed facility for women recovering from a variety of addictions. Women usually stay for about a month at this facility before moving on to other assisted living areas until they can get back on their feet. The Mercer County NEP assistant has been heavily involved with Lisa Walker residents for the past few years with nutrition classes.With the help of the Mercer County NEP assistant the Mercer County Horticulture Agent was introduced to the facility manag
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Beekeeping
As the popularity of beekeeping continues to grow the Fort Harrod Beekeeping club has been there to help the residents of Mercer County and those other counties that surround it.The Fort Harrod Beekeeping club started in the winter of 2015 by the Mercer County Horticulture agent. The club initially had only 10 members and now has grown to around 50. The club meets monthly for a short business meeting followed by a speaker or activity. Members of the club receive access to a variety of equipment
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Commercial
In an effort to offer more educational classes for growers wanting to make the jump from backyard growers to more commercial, the Mercer County Horticulture Agent teamed up with one of the UK Horticulture Extension Specialist to offer two small fruit webinars in early 2022. The two topics selected were strawberry and blueberry production. Originally these webinars were planned to be broadcasted in only the central part of the state. Once discussing with other agents how often they are aske
Author: Linda McClanahan
Major Program: Beef
To celebrate National Beef Month in May the NEP assistant teamed up with the ANR Agent to develop Get Cooking with Beef, a 4 week series focused on all aspects of cooking with beef. In this series youth learned on a range of topics from food safety, knife skills, beef cut selection, beef nutrition, recipe creation, MyPlate, food preparation and cooking methods. 10 students participated in this series. Several of the students indicated their favorite part was actually getting to cook their o
Author: Linda McClanahan
Major Program: Agriculture and Extension Leadership Development
The Mercer County Extension Office teamed up with Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill to enhance and expand their annual Harvest Fest event. The Mercer County Agriculture Advisory Council continuously identifies the need to educate the non farm public and youth about agriculture. Staff and agents from the Mercer County office took agriculture displays and games for festival attendees to play and learn more about agriculture. Games focused on various segments of the agriculture industry. In addition,
