Author: William Rogers
Planning Unit: KSU Administration
Major Program: KSU Small Farm Program
Plan of Work: Unrelated to a specified County Plan of Work
Outcome: Long-Term Outcome
Farmers are having to hire more people to work on their farm (Farm Labor). This is raising the cost of labor that farmers will have to pay. So farmers are looking for a way to reduce the labor cost on the farm. Also the decrease of people for labor.
To help with this problem in Breckinridge County, Kentucky State University has provided the Small Farm Agent with plastic mulch equipment. This will give the farmer a chance to reduce the cost and the amount of labor needed on the farm to produce vegetables to be sold at the farmers market or in their Community Supported Agriculture. By using the plastic mulch equipment it cuts do on the hoeing around the plants that the farmer has to do. It also helps keep the vegetables cleaner where they not on the soil.
In conclusion, I have had educational classes for the use and safety of the plastic mulch equipment. I had 11 different farms represented at the educational meetings. All the producers want to use the equipment so that they can use the least labor on the hoeing and washing of their vegetables; thus, providing the farmer the resources to maximize their labor force to bring in more products to sell.
(https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/farm-economy/farm-labor/.USDA ERS - Farm Labor,Farm Labor, March 28, 2019)
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