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: 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
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
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
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
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
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
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
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
Author: Dana Anderson
Major Program: Agriculture
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
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
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
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
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
Author: Jessica Bessin
Major Program: Horticulture, Consumer and Home
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
