Author: Edwin Ritchey
Major Program: Water and Soil Quality and Conservation
A small group of county ANR agents, extension faculty, and college administration met with the Energy and Environment Secretary Goodman at Elizabethtown to discuss how UK and the local commodity boards provide support to Kentucky producers. This tour was arranged by the Soybean, Corn, and Small Grain Commodity Boards. We were successful in providing the evidence that UK and local extension efforts are well used and often relied on by the producers of Kentucky. Secretary Goodman left with a great
I became the UK representative to the Kentuckiana Certified Crop Advisors (CCA) Conference in 2011. This program is a joint effort between the University of Kentucky and Purdue University This joint effort is approaching a 30-year anniversary. This longstanding program provides current information for crop production common to Kentucky and Indiana agriculture. Approximately 200 CCA’s attend this conference annually from Kentucky, Indiana, Tennessee, and Missouri. Many of the participants r
This publication was developed in 2015 to supplement the 4-H Land Judging in Kentucky publication (4BA-08MH) and provide greater guidance in determining soil texture. It is used by 4-H students and coaches, but also extensively by other clientele throughout the nation and world. According to UKnowledge Author Dashboard, this publication has been downloaded 20,924 times, up 10,000 from the year before. It has been downloaded by 1,417 institutions and in 169 countries since originally developed. T
The UK Wheat Field School was initiated in 2016 to provide real life scenarios for crop advisors, managers, and others in the agricultural field. In 2018 the Wheat Field School was changed to KATS to include other crops commonly grown in Kentucky and surrounding states. The spring of 2020 started out with two in-person, half-day meetings and then COVID 19 resulted in the cancellation of in-person meetings. We had to switch to a virtual format to continue offering trainings. Since COVID restricti
A shift in delivery methods occurred when normal operations were disrupted by COVID 19. The format shifted from hands-on to virtual. The Coffee KATS video series was started and resulted in 18 YouTube videos covering many aspects of production agriculture from soil testing and fertilizer recommendations to pesticide applications and effectiveness. The Spray Clinic is a staple program of KATS. This year it was presented in an electronic format via Facebook Live. There were over 600 views for this
Farm visits to producers’ farms to help diagnose production issues are sometimes very beneficial, very beneficial to the producers needing help solving their production issue and very beneficial to extension agents fostering relationships with clientele. I was involved with several farm visits with agents that dealt with hay production, nursery production, and row crop production issues. I had four different agents relay information to me that the visit to their clienteles’ farm was
Author: Eric Baker
In Cooperative Extension’s over 100-year history of helping farmers with sound, research-based knowledge, it is known our rural community recognizes the benefit of land grant institutions like the University of Kentucky. Farmers utilize all the resources available to them to accomplish practices needed in their farming operation. In this example, a farmer made application and received an acceptance letter for a local cost share program. He was approved 50 percent cost share for tiling an 1
Author: Samantha Anderson
According to the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service, planting trees provides a multitude of benefit to local ecosystems. These benefits include protecting soil from rill and sheet erosion, protecting water quality by filtering excess nutrients and chemicals from surface runoff, increasing infiltration rates and providing long term wildlife habitats. In partnership with the McCracken County Soil Conservation District, McCracken County Agent for Agricult
Author: Lee Moser
Over the past year our working group has partnered with the Friends of Wolf Run to develop a demonstration and outreach program related to residential stormwater management. Surveys were conducted with both Lexington residents and local contractors related to residential stormwater needs and the potential for best management practices to address some of the stormwater issues experienced in residential settings. Friends of Wolf Run has selected partner residents to implement residential stormwate
The Kentucky Master Naturalist Program is an extension program with a curriculum designed to engage and educate participants with materials related to various topics such as water resources, archaeology, soils, entomology, outdoor safety, and multiple other naturalist related topics. The program began as a UK course and as an extension program with two offerings (one in Louisville and one in Lexington). The efforts over the past year have involved developing a framework and foundational document
The University of Kentucky has a Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) for the main campus in Lexington, Kentucky. An MS4 is a permitted system that requires education and outreach efforts as a part of the minimum control measures outlined within the permit. As a part of our partnership with UK Environmental Management, we developed website content for the new UK Stormwater website, developed multiple videos related to stormwater topics on campus, developed and piloted a drain marking and
Author: Matthew Futrell
Water Quality should be one of the most important values held a in a community. In 2012 the Little River water Quality Consortium formed to address water quality in Christian County. Little River is the main body of water that flows through Christian County. Every couple of years the Division of Water scores streams all across the state. Prior to 2012 the Little River had been deemed a hazardous water source as it had elevated levels of E.coli and nutrients.The LRWQC made
Author: Lacey Kessell
Kentucky has over 91,000 miles of rivers and streams and more than 225,000 acres of ponds, lakes, and reservoirs. These water resources not only play a vital role in Kentucky’s drinking water systems, but also are imperative to our agriculture industry. Each day in Kentucky, 81 million gallons of surface water and 4 million gallons of groundwater are withdrawn for agricultural use. In addition, these resources are a source of recreation for
Author: Adam Leonberger
According to the EPA, nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is the leading remaining cause of water quality problems. NPS pollution is caused by rainfall or snowmelt moving over and through the ground. As the runoff moves, it picks up and carries away natural and human-made pollutants, finally depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground waters, where they cause harmful effects on drinking water supplies, recreation, fisheries and wildlife. Excess fertilizers, herbicides a
Author: Tammy Brewster-Barnes
In collaboration with Steve Evans and others at the KWRRI, two projects have been started to improve water quality in the Glenns Creek watershed (Versailles, KY) and the central Bluegrass region. The first project goal is to provide water quality data to Versailles so the city can develop a Watershed Protection Plan (WPP) for Glenns Creek. A WPP will enable the city to apply Federal dollars to improve their sanitary sewage infrastructure. Our community partners are Versailles Mayor, Woodford Cou
On going efforts with CD, Agents, producer associations, FSA to provide farmer education and environmental compliance plans to protect or improve water quality in Kentucky. Education and technical assistance was provided via Zoom, phone, email or in-person. Since the KY Division of Water has shifted funding for KY NMP development from Cooperative Extension to CD, education focus has been on trainings that enable CD staff and agents to produce conservation plans that will be accepted by FSA for l
Author: Beau Neal
Feeding horses and livestock during the winter in Kentucky can prove to be difficult due to wet and muddy conditions. These conditions lead to soil erosion and disruption of soil structure, in-turn decreasing its ability to sustain adequate forage growth in future years. This program was developed for Fayette County farmers to educate them on matters of soil structure breakdown and particular farm practices they can put in place for prevention of that degradation. Decreased soi
Author: DJ Scully
384 Campbell County residents responded to the Kentucky Needs Assessment Survey that was completed in 2019. Focus Groups were held to provide additional data for the community assessment. Since then, County Extension Council and Environmental Advisory Council meetings have identified composting education and implementation as a need in the county. The Campbell County Extension Service and the Campbell County Conservation District agreed to collaborate to address the issue and develo
