Agriculture and HorticulturePlan of Work

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Mercer County CES

Title:
Agriculture and Horticulture
MAP:
Advancing Agriculture & Horticulture
Agents Involved:
Linda McClanahan, Jessica Bessin, Dana Anderson
MAJOR PROGRAM 1:
Horticulture, Consumer and Home
MAJOR PROGRAM 2:
Horticulture, Commercial
MAJOR PROGRAM 3:
Beef
MAJOR PROGRAM 4:
Farm Management, Economics and Policy
Situation:

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.

Long-Term Outcomes:

*Increased interest in agriculture and horticulture production.

*Homeowners will save more money on home landscape.

*Increased diversification of crops produced in county.

Intermediate Outcomes:

*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

Initial Outcomes:

*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.

Evaluation:

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


Intermediate Outcome:

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Long-term Outcome:

Indicator:

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Learning Opportunities:

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



Success Stories

Adapting KY Beef Conference to Meet Producers Where They Are

Author: Linda McClanahan

Major Program: Beef

In order to prepare producers to be efficient and profitable, Central Kentucky County Extension Agents for Agriculture & Natural Resources have collaborated with Beef and Agricultural Economic Extension Specialists to present the Kentucky Beef Conference annually for almost 25 years. The assistance of long time business community sponsors has allowed producers to hear from nationally known experts in cattle marketing. The past couple of years utilizing Zoom proved to be a successful too

Full Story

Planting Trees Enhances Community

Author: Jessica Bessin

Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home

Planting Trees Enhances Community

Trees can make a community an attractive place to live, while also providing many benefits.  When trees are planted they help reduce energy cost, absorb sounds of traffic, improving mental and physical health, can keep your house cooler and help absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  The Harrodsburg Tree Board has worked hard to be recognized as an Official Tree City for the last 10 years through the Arbor Day Foundation. Qualifications to be a tree city require a community to for

Full Story

Increasing Agricultural Awareness

Author: Linda McClanahan

Major Program: Beef

As the percent of the population involved in agriculture and food production continues to decrease, the Mercer County Agriculture Advisory Council among other groups continue to prioritize the need to educate others on where their food, fiber, and fuel comes from. The ANR agent actively seeks out ways to continue programming based on past successes while also working to identify ways to reach new audiences. This year the ANR agent taught sessions at 4-H day camps about beef production, beef cuts

Full Story

County Agents Corner

Author: Jessica Bessin

Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home

In Extension we keep clientele up to date with monthly newsletters, Facebook posts and even radio. The County Agents corner is a weekly radio program that is broadcasted to 48,000 listeners. Horticulture and ANR agents from four different counties participate in this program on a weekly rotation.These radio shows allow agents to share timely topics, upcoming programs, and other events that have occurred between the releases of their newsletters. The shows are geared towards farmers and homeowner

Full Story

Area Extension Meetings

Author: Linda McClanahan

Major Program: Farm Management, Economics and Policy

To meet educational needs for farmers of certain agricultural commodities, ANR agents in Boyle, Garrard, Lincoln and Mercer counties collaborate to host a series of winter educational meetings annually. This year they conducted meetings for forages, grain crops, backgrounder and tobacco producers. Topics for the meetings are selected based off surveys conducted by the individual county agents, surveys from past meetings and current issues. Surveys found these meetings were attended by producers

Full Story

Apple Tree Care

Author: Jessica Bessin

Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home

Apple Tree Care

When February rolls around it is time to start thinking about apple tree care. The Mercer County Horticulture Agent offers this class every other spring and covers planting, pollination, insect, disease, and general management practice. A large part of this class is always dedicated to pruning, and the different techniques. After teaching the class for several years the Horticulture Agent realized just talking about the different pruning cuts wasn’t enough, participants needed hands on exp

Full Story

Agriculture Exploration Day

Author: Dana Anderson

Major Program: Agriculture

Agriculture Exploration Day

Mercer County is rural, yet some youth need help understanding agriculture's relationship with their daily life. Ag Exploration Day was held for 260 third-grade students at Mercer County Extension Office. Students rotated thru stations every 20 minutes. The stations focused on: Beef, Dairy, Horse, Goat, Sheep, Hog, Rabbit, Poultry, Crops - corn, soybeans, and wheat, and food safety. There were 15 instructors and six volunteers who assisted with the program. The instructors at the stations we

Full Story

Pastures Please!

Author: Linda McClanahan

Major Program: Equine

The ANR Equine Agents Working Group, Extension Specialists and Associates, planned the annual Pastures Please! Workshop. This was the 16th year for the workshop and typically takes place at one of the extension offices in central KY. As a result of efforts from the working group, this year the workshop was held in two locations - Fayette County and Livingston County. In the future the group would like to add a location in eastern KY. This workshop typically focuses on horse pasture management an

Full Story

Farm/City Celebration

Author: Linda McClanahan

Major Program: Farm Management, Economics and Policy

As the percent of the population involved in agriculture continues to decline, there is a great need to share accurate information on food production and provide opportunities across the rural/urban divide. This year the Mercer County Cooperative Extension Service, Farm Bureau Federation, Soil Conservation District and Chamber of Commerce commemorated the 20th anniversary of the annual Farm/City Celebration. This event provides the opportunity to showcase both agriculture and business in our cou

Full Story

Fort Harrod Garden Club

Author: Jessica Bessin

Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home

Fort Harrod Garden Club

There is a new club in town for those who like to garden and want to help volunteer in the community. The Boyle and Mercer County Extension Agents for Horticulture developed a new club known as the Fort Harrod Garden Club in response to past Master Gardener’s and community member’s desire to have more social programing revolving around plant topics.Many of the Master Gardeners between the two counties cut back on activities during covid. So, this club has allowed volunteers to ease t

Full Story

Tomato Day!

Author: Jessica Bessin

Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home

Tomato Day!

In the spring of 2021, the Mercer County High School greenhouse was left in a bind when it came time for their plant sale. Due to covid protocols the greenhouse was only allowed open to customers for a limited time. With a greenhouse still full of plants the Mercer County Horticulture Agent came up with a program idea to help the high school and increase foot traffic at the Extension Office.The Horticulture Agent scheduled a tomato day at the Extension Office. With the help of Master Gardener vo

Full Story
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