Developing and Publishing Sustainable Farming Resources for Agricultural Extension Professionals and Field Crop Producers

Objective A: Create a multistate advisory group of Cooperative Extension personnel and growers to facilitate the development of educational modules and the revision of a crop management pocket guide.

An advisory committee was formed and has provided direction throughout the course of the project. The panel includes people with extension and research responsibilities, from field crops and IPM-related disciplines, and from five different states in the Northeast (Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New York). Committee membership included people with extension and research responsibilities, people from various IPM-related and ICM-related disciplines. In addition to providing project leadership, the committee reviewed drafts, identified potential project participants, gave final approval to all documents, and performed other vital functions.
Objective B. Develop and produce educational modules in an effort to empower individuals to adopt sustainable farming practices at the local level.

Our original plan to produce educational modules and follow that with training of Extension educators in their use was slightly modified in an effort to both improve the quality of the modules and to increase the likelihood of their use in the field. With this goal in mind, we held a workshop in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for Extension educators and specialists. On November 2–3, 1999, a group of more than 30 Extension educators and specialists from West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York met to “beta test,” critique, and revise existing module drafts, to determine what additional modules were required, and to advise on distribution of the module set. The sessions proved valuable to module developers, providing excellent feedback on content and format as well as advice on key issues (including distribution strategies).

Participants were especially enthusiastic about having been included in the development process. Their participation resulted in more effective and appropriately targeted content and in wider knowledge of and commitment to the modules. They did, after all, represent the intended user group. Indeed, our approach simply borrowed from well-established tenets of Extension. Judging from the comments made about the workshop, being asked for input on developing this kind of material may occur all too rarely in our system.

The consensus of participants in the Harrisburg workshop was that we should distribute the modules via the internet to make them more readily available to all Extension educators in the region, to facilitate low-cost and timely revision, and in general, to promote their use. Accordingly, our efforts since have focused on

• incorporating into each module the content and format suggestions made at the workshop and in subsequent written critiques of workshop participants;

  formatting modules for presentation on the Northeast IPM website

Objective C. Teach Extension professionals to use these new educational modules; record and evaluate clientele use of them.

Our original plan was to first develop the modules and then hold training sessions on their use. We revised this plan by combining development, marketing, and training. We benefited by developing not only more effective content for each module and a range of module topics most appropriate to the target audience (Extension educators), but a sense of ownership by those educators with a likely effect of increased use.

With that in mind, our primary training session thus far has been the module development workshop held in Harrisburg, PA, in November of 1999. Participants were supplied with a packet containing drafts of all modules in progress. A “group leader” for each module was assigned to lead small-group discussions on the module. Group leaders had been identified and prepared via email prior to the workshop, and also met during the first evening to discuss strategy.

After introductory activities in the main session, we split into four working groups. Each group considered one module under the direction of the group leader. A recorder—usually a member of the advisory committee—took notes on all discussion. Mary Woodsen, leader of the module development part of this project, “floated” among all groups, taking notes, managing the schedule, and offering advice as needed. Working groups were encouraged to role-play farmers and educators actually using the module, although in a few cases this method was not used. Each working group was charged with suggesting improvements in both format and content of the module.

Three of these “working group” sessions were held, with participants choosing sessions in advance. Thus each participant worked on three distinct modules and most participants served as group leader on one module.

After the working group sessions, the entire group heard presentations from each group leader and recorder about each module. This allowed all to hear about and comment on every module. Deliberations for any one module by the whole group were not as extensive as the working group deliberations, but many useful comments were made during this final session. The workshop concluded with an evaluation session of the workshop by the whole group (including the opportunity to submit anonymous written comments) and with commitments by many to continue work on individual modules.

In addition to the Harrisburg workshop, other training sessions have been held or are contemplated.

Three educator / outreach training programs on filth fly IPM for agents and others were held in Ithaca, NY, on June 3 1999, June 17 1999, and September 11 2000. Module 14, IPM for Managing Barn Flies, oriented educators get oriented to the subject, helped them understand it, and provided a framework for their presentation. These meetings had 16 participants, including 12 Extension educators and 4 adult educators from private industry.

A poster displaying and marketing the modules was presented at the Agriculture in the Classroom Summit at Cornell October 10 2000.

Modules will be discussed with the New York field crops extension educators at Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Ag and Food Systems In-Service November 29 2000. The annual Extension in-service typically includes most Extension educators in the Cornell system.

Objective D. Develop an improved, regional version of the publication Your Pocket Guide to Alfalfa and Field Corn Management.

Project team members worked collaboratively on IPM Field Corn Pocket Guide. This is an expansion and revision of a 1997 book, Your Pocket Guide to Alfalfa and Field Corn Management, produced for New York State by P. Sutton, C. Koplinka-Loehr, M. Haining Cowles, J. VanKirk, and J. K. Waldron. The IPM Field Corn Pocket Guide offers regional coverage as well as additional material on field corn, pull-out color guides and keys, color disease plates, a practical thumb-index, coverage of vertebrate pest management, a guide to corn development, and expanded sections on corn yield loss and management of dried stored grain.

Publications/Outreach

The IPM Field Corn Pocket Guide has been marketed and distributed in a cooperative arrangement with NRAES, the Natural Resource, Agriculture and Engineering Service. NRAES does an excellent job of marketing publications such as this, as shown by the sales figures cited above. In addition, the NYS IPM Program created and loaned out a display for the pocket guide (with an actual shirt, front pocket, and guide in the pocket) accompanied by this text: “Give someone the shirt off your back… But keep your pocket guide!” The Program advertised the guide via its catalog, newsletters, workshops, and website.

The teaching modules are distributed in PDF format via the world wide web . All who have contributed to their development, including advisory committee members and invitees to the Harrisburg workshop, have received routine progress updates via email. Once all modules are online we will notify all potential users through appropriate communication channels, including the SARE Northeast network, state Extension directors, state IPM coordinators, and the Northeast IPM website.

We have displayed and promoted the modules at the NYS Summit for Agricultural Educators and the NYS Agriculture and Food Systems In-Service Training, as well as at NYS Statewide Program Committee meetings and through What's Cropping Up, a publication of Cornell University's Department of Crop and Soil Science. Now that the entire series is available, we have planned a news release, designed for easy listserve amplification, which we will modify according to the market and which will reach every Cooperative Extension headquarters in the Northeast, as well as many trade publications and newsletters.