The post COVID-19 pandemic environment revealed a continuum of inflation on many goods and services.  One commodity in particular that saw a great increase in price was fertilizer.  The much needed input in the agriculture community almost tripled in price.  With the increase in cost, farmers began to look at their soil management practices to weigh options to weather the "storm" financially.  As farmers thought of ways to make changes on their farm, they began reaching out to local extension offices.  The forecast on fertilizer prices did not show any signs of improvement, so the ANR Agents in the Buffalo Trace Area decided to put together a program on soils and soil fertility called, Fertilizer Academy, to assist farmers in making decisions on their farm.

The program consisted of four individual sessions with topics covering:  nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium; role of micronutrients and CEC; lime and pH; and lastly the economics of spreading your fertilizer dollars further.  The sessions were offered via Zoom and as a "watch party" at some Extension Offices.  Each session was also recorded and a link posted on the YouTube.  While the program was geared towards farmers in the planning stages, the opportunity arose once the program was being marketed to become an educational series for the USDA Natural Resources Offices across the state of Kentucky.  

Sessions had differing amount of folks in attendance but overall there were 109 folks that registered for the program.  At the conclusion of the program an evaluation was given out to participants to provide feedback.  Twenty-four evaluations were returned.  Of the 24 evaluations 85% of the attendees either strongly agreed or agreed that each session was relatable to their farming operations.  Approximately 70% of attendees plan to make changes to their soil fertility management decisions on their farm based off what they learned during the Fertilizer Academy program as well as feel like they can more efficiently spend their fertilizer budget in the future.  From the 24 evaluation responses, approximately 2500 acres of land can potentially be improved by attending this program.  

Many of the farmers had not utilized budgets prior to the program in fertilizer decision making, over 50% of the responses of the evaluation stated that they plan to use budgets in determining what they can afford for 2023.  

One-hundred percent of the evaluations either strongly agreed, or agreed, that they enjoyed the program.