Author: Mattea Mitchell
Major Program: Ag Policy
Early Career Farming Program (ECFP) - Local Government Carlisle, Fulton and Hickman County had a market value of $337 million in agricultural products last year – equal to the single largest producing county in the state. This region spent over $70 million on fertilizer, seed and chemicals alone last year. After discussing with our CEC boards and Ag councils, the three agents wanted to offer a program geared toward younger farmers getting ready to transition toward making farm decisions wh
With 83.53% of the land in all four river counties used for crop production, agriculture holds a strong presence. It was proposed to highlight agriculture in Ballard, Carlisle, Fulton, and Hickman County. The first of its kind event WAVE River Counties AG Day was held at Fort Jefferson Cross Memorial in Wickliffe on July 13 from 7:30 am to 2:00 pm. The theme “Lets Grow With It”, was chosen. The WAVE Ag Day is a joint venture including all four county judge execu
Author: Roger Mollette
The Martin County Agricultural Development Council recently received $30,000.00 from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Council. The County Council with the Martin County Soil Conservation District acting as the Administrator of the program has chosen the County Agricultural Investment Program (CAIP). Producers with a Farm Number and Water Quality Plan may apply for up to $3,000.00 for Primary Focus Areas and up to $1,500.00 for Secondary Focus Areas. Producers will be respo
Author: Curtis Judy
Covid-19 changed nearly everything in the United States in the spring of 2020. It closed many businesses, most schools and churches, eliminated most travel, and turned many Americans into virtual hermits. It also affected agriculture, with some of the most significant effects falling on livestock producers as farm-gate prices declined due to the closure of many of the large beef and pork processing plants. Prices of other commodities such as corn, soybeans, and produce were als
Author: Thomas Miller
With the Rollout of the 2020 Farm Bill Signups, Extension played an important role in helping FSA conduct grower education. FSA is not allowed to give growers advice on the best options. Tom Miller, Ballard County Agent for ANR, tried to help as many agents across the state as possible by developing a Power Point they could use individually or by helping them, conduct training meetings. He did a zoom recording of a regional meeting at Warren County for Warren, Simpson and Butler that
Author: Benjamin Rudy
With the new 2020 Farm Bill required producers with important decision to make concerning the programs sign-ups with the individual farm numbers. Due to the Farm Service Agency (FSA), not being allowed to assist in education landowners and producer about these program the Extension Serviced aided in this process in educating producers on this process. The Fulton County Agriculture and Natural Resource Extension Agent partnered with the Fulton/Hickman FSA office to host a meeting to p
Author: Matthew Adams
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
The sign-up process for the 2020 Farm Bill left producers with many questions and options they needed to consider when signing up each of their individual farm numbers. FSA is forbidden from helping producers make these decisions so it has been a long standing tradition for Tom Miller, Ballard County Extension Agent for Ag and Natural Resources to partner with the Ballard/ McCracken FSA office to help educate farmers on how to make the best decisions for their operations. On January
In August of 2019, Tom Miller, Ballard County Extension Agent for Ag and Natural Resources attended the Summer Economic Conference in Cincinnati at the invitation of Dr. Todd Davis, UK Extension Grain Marketing Specialist. This meeting consisted of all the grain economists from across the cornbelt. The focus of the meeting was the status of the crops across the cornbelt and to try and come to some consensus on marketing for the fall. Another focus of the meeting was the coming
Author: Lyndall Harned
In late summer of 2019 I contacted Bill McCloskey in the Governors Office for Agricultural Policy (GOAP). The purpose of the contact was to inquire about the possibility of the state Ag Development Board (ADB) offering a 'one time' program a second time. The original one-time program occurred several years ago, I, along with a local leader, were invited to attend an ADB meeting in Frankfort and address them in person to do a one-time allocation of state funds to low county funds counties
Author: T. Adam Probst
As the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) develops federal programs through legislation, it is crucial that farmers be informed of the new programs or changes that occur in a timely manner. The Woodford County Extension Service partnered with the local Versailles Farm Service Agency Service Center and Woodford County Conservation District to offer a lunch and learn program to discuss changes to federal programs including ARC, PLC, EQIP, and CSP. Eighteen local producers a
Author: Traci Johnson
Educational programs that increase agriculture awareness in Oldham County are a continued priority identified by Oldham County’s Extension and Agriculture Councils. This continues to be a challenge in Oldham County, where residential areas make up just over half of the county’s land mass.The Oldham County Ag Connection is a new program that is designed to address community agriculture awareness. This program will consist of quarterly meetings with special topics of intere
Author: Matthew Futrell
Foreign Dignitaries TourEvery year agriculture becomes more and more a global market. As these markets expand it is more important than ever to explore new opportunities and stay in tune with global demand. On September 18th the Christian County Cooperative Extension Service was honored to host the Kentucky Department of Agriculture Foreign Dignitaries tour. The tour consisted of 32 participants from 23 different countries around the world. These parti
