Beginning farmers, market gardeners, and landowners frequently find themselves overwhelmed by all of the aspects of getting started. Imagine someone bought a 5-10 acre home lot where they dream of homesteading and selling produce from a large garden. Maybe, they are retiring, inherited land, and suddenly became the steward of a much larger property. Possibly they are a young farmer leasing land for the first time to establish their business.  Regardless of their experiences, they tend to have similar interests and can benefit from similar educational opportunities. Learning together and from each other is an important part of getting started and getting involved in the community. To support these community members, the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service in Bullitt and Spencer Counties partnered to offer an ongoing series of classes for beginning farmers, market gardeners, and landowners.

Potential participants were surveyed and results indicated that the most desired class topics were writing a business plan, basics of pasture and hayfield soil health, and protected cultivation. In addition to those three topics classes covered goal setting and defining values; funding the farm with grants, loans, and other programs; marketing basics; and marketing with effective signage. Classes ranged from 8 to 65 participants with an approximately even gender distribution. Through extra advertising efforts on local radio stations, newspaper articles, and Meta and Eventbrite platforms, a diverse audience was invited to participate. Most of the classes included several attendees who had never been to an extension program before and multiple participants who identify as black or Hispanic. Offering one of the classes on zoom allowed new parents with young children to attend virtually. These successes will inform the planning of next year's class series.

Beginning farmers learned about digital marketing from Bethany Prekopa Cox.

In the first class, Dr. Steve Isaacs led participants to define why they want to farm and use values and strength assessments to determine what enterprises they should try. They walked away with the skills to set SMART Goals. Kara McIntosh from the Farm Service Agency Service Center in Shelbyville provided information about acquiring a farm number and a variety of other resources for beginning farmers.

The second class focused on marketing. The first speaker was Lewis Ramsey, who is the Home-Based Processor Coordinator for the Kentucky Food Safety Branch of the Department of Public Health. He provided an overview of rules and regulations surrounding home processing farm goods for sale. Bethany Prekopa Cox is the Direct Marketing Program Manager for the Kentucky Horticulture Council and she provided resources and ideas for digital marketing from the farm. To close out the presentations, Sharon Spencer, Director of the Direct Farm Marketing Division of KDA used her expertise as the coordinator of KDA's farmers' markets to share tips on selling products at farmers markets. Out of the class attendees, 8 people participated in a survey after this class. 

• 100% self-reported that they "learned methods to reduce risk and improve farm profit". 
• 75% reported that they "will improve or maintain recordkeeping practices based on what they learned in class". 
• 100% reported an "increase in knowledge of farm business planning and financial management skills". 
• 87% reporting that they already have or plan to diversify their farm or market garden with enterprises including beef, hay, equine, honey, fruit, vegetables, baked goods and candy, and more.

At a class on pasture and hay field management, participants learned about soil health, rotational grazing, and reseeding pastures with plenty of university resources for learning more. 

The Center for Crop Diversity's Dr. Brett Wolff taught a surprisingly fascinating class on using signage for effective marketing in which participants got into the minutia of picking font sizes for roadside signs based on visibility and posted speed limits and determining what types of signs attract the most customers at a farmers market booth. During this class David Mathis of Shelby Insurance shared options for farm insurance products relevant to beginning farmers.

Beginning farmers attended from many surrounding counties.

Bullitt County and Spencer County Agents also brought in Spencer Guinn, a Business Development Specialist for the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD) to help beginning farmers, market gardeners, and landowners begin to write a business plan for their farm enterprises. 

In the final class of the series in 2022-2023, controlled environment horticulture specialist, Dr. Rachel Rudolph zoomed in to a crowded hybrid room of 50 in-person and 15 online participants to teach about the basics of incorporating high tunnels into the farm. 

Many participants identified that they would like to continue attending similar classes next year. Several reported improved business plans. Many attendees submitted soil samples for the first time and made nutrient management decisions bases on their results. All of the attendees left having a greater understanding of the resources available through University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service and the many organizations and agencies that work together to help beginning farmers, market gardeners, and landowners.