Extension
It Starts With Us
Enhancing Agriculture Management and Marketing
Growing Grayson County through Rural, Youth, and Community Development
Whitney Carman
Forages
Beef
Grain Crops
Commercial Horticulture - Crop Marketing
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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
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
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
Author: Whitney Carman
Major Program: Farm Management
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
