Author: Shane Bogle
Planning Unit: Caldwell County CES
Major Program: Tobacco
Plan of Work: Local Commodities Provide Agriculture Income
Outcome: Intermediate Outcome
Diversification of agriculture enterprises has been a hot topic in Kentucky for many years. Many areas with historic concentrations of burley and air cured tobacco production have reduced acreage in exchange for endeavors from vegetable production to beef cows. The dark fired tobacco belt of western KY, including Caldwell County, is one area that has maintained a sizeable attachment to the production of this specialized crop. For producers, disease pressure, increased regulations, and excess rainfall in 2022 made producing a high quality, high yielding crop very difficult. Trigg and Caldwell Counties have worked together to put on an educational program and GAP training each year to help producers better plan for the issues they are facing in the field as well as in the barn. This year, 63 producers were in attendance. GAP has long been a valuable resource for best practices on the farm providing producers with accountability and higher standards of production. Producer surveys indicate that 81% of producers feel better about their records and production practices with the partnership of UK and Gap Connections.
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