STN18-001

Agents tour a local farm in Nashville, TN, conducting a mock On-Farm Readiness Review during In-Service Training.

We have paid registration fees for six Extension Agents and one Extension Specialist to attend; amounting to 17.5% of the total budget set aside for this training.

The agents participating in this event learned more information about cover crops.  One agent indicated that he learned that all cover crops are not the same and that he would use a couple of varieties of cover crops in his crop variety trials locations to evaluate the effectiveness of these cover crops relating to soil cover, fertilization benefits and ease of planting into cover crop the following year.

The agents also learned about how to work with cover crops in order to maximize benefits intended from the cover crop material.  This also takes into thought what cover crops to use, dealing with weed management in cover crops, the possibility of grazing cover crops, using cover crops in a conventional and/or organic vegetable system and the overall basics of cover crop management. 

Comments from Attendees:

• The Farm Management Specialists were given information that directs them to a better understanding of the balance sheet and income statement, allowing them to assist producers to improve their farm financial and management performance.
• Financial Benchmarking of an enterprise is important each year but increasingly important in years when the enterprises (dairy and beef) are witnessing downturns in output product price.  This program helps producers identify aspects of their operation where they are currently efficient and inefficient.  The ability to identify inefficient aspects of the operation and make management changes will assist in the long-term survivability of the operation.  Most often, the management changes necessary to improve efficiencies include economic sustainable production practices and labor management.
• The information on the annual cost of keeping a beef cow is an important way to remind producers and Extension agents of the importance of having a good culling program in the beef herd.
• Ten area specialists and three state specialists received training in the above mentioned areas.  This will enable them to present information to Extension Agents and producers on farm and financial management, with the aim to improve the agent's knowledge on these subjects and assist the producers in making better and more informed financial decisions for their farms.  (SARE Funds covered approximately 82% of the cost of all agents and specialists in attendance).

Comments from a portion of the 16 Extension Agents that attended the Pick Tennessee Conference using the SARE Enhanced Funding Monies:

• Agri-tourism - Learned the importance of recordkeeping and how you could use financial statements such as a balance sheet to make decisions.  Learned about the five keys to profit:  production/gross sales, cost control, efficiency, capacity and industry skills.  I learned that successful farm business owners and managers review key essential business management proficiencies regularly and develop systems to operate their agricultural businesses.
• It is important to learn sustainable practices that can be implemented by producers.  I learned about pollinators and creating sustainable habitats for bees, marketing fundamentals for small farms, and the regulations involved with USDA organic certification.
• Urban Agriculture - I learned about vertical farming and the concept of planting food crops in small spaces.
• "Less Mowing, More Growing" - Learned about designing functional home or community spaces to become permaculture habitats, also known as Foodscaping.  This concept consists of using the low maintenance plantings of locally adapted plants that provide a useful and sustainable food source such as fruit trees and edible plants.
• I learned more about the use of beneficial insects to reduce the use of pesticides.  There were great suggestions from a commercial greenhouse flower grower in West Tennessee.
• The hands-on grafting class of tomatoes was one of my favorite sessions.  This type of grafting has become a growing trend to help with disease resistance in tomatoes in the South.
• The sustainability of a local farmers market is vital in today's economy.  One of the workshops that I enjoyed the most was related to marketing concepts and techniques.  I plan to share some of these ideas during a vendor's meeting prior to the opening of our local farmers market.  Improved marketing skills will increase the sustainability of all of our vendors.
• Herb gardening was a very interesting topic for me.  Information on the different varieties of plants that can be used to help with your health and diet was of interest to me.  I will be using this information during my master gardener training class this year.

Foodscaping and permaculture are an interest for many people.  This is seen as a means of creating welcoming and comforting backyard or community spaces that provide benefit through a supply of fresh food for the stakeholders.  The knowledge gained from this presentation will be shared professionally through Extension programs.

Extension Agents had the chance to learn first-hand what makes up a successful agri-tourism enterprise.  Keeping good financial records, taking time to plan financially and program-wise while also knowing the proper and right kind of facilities to have in place, are just a few things to consider for your operation to become established and profitable.

Dr. Dilip Nandwani, Tennessee State University Extension, demonstrates to the audience of growers and Extension Agents, what the idea of vertical farming is and how to use this in an Urban Agriculture setting.  The demonstration explained the concept of planting food crops in small spaces.

Dr. Annette Wszelaki, University of Tennessee Extension, presents information on the economics of adopting biodegradable plastic mulch films.  This may be an answer to the plastic mulch which is a burden to the producer to remove from the field and then disposing of it.

Report of the meeting from the Tennessee Extension Agent SARE provided funds to attend.

With less than 2% of the population having a direct connection to agriculture, the consumer market is increasing its demand on ethically raised and high quality food products. Consumers want to know where their food is produced and to have a sense of connection to that farm.
The beef cattle industry has taken on the responsibility to produce a sustainable product by forming the US Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. The committee is a group of producers, allied industries, processors, retail, and civil society whose goal is to create a single voice for the beef cattle community. Director of the UT Beef & Forage Center, Dr. Gary Bates, serves on this committee and gave a presentation about what they are currently working on. Being environmentally sound is a facet of a sustainable business and one point of conflict is that beef cattle are a major factor in global warming. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, livestock is responsible for 14.5% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. This is a reduction of 3.5% in just seven years and takes in account livestock production from field to plate. Of these emissions, 5% is from carbon dioxide which takes approximately 1,000 years to break down and 55% produced from methane which only takes about 10 years to break down. Globally, 65% of greenhouse gas emissions are given off by the industrial sector mostly releasing carbon dioxide.

Another objective of sustainable agricultural producers is to maintain economic value. Dr. Matt Hersom, University of Florida, spoke about adding value by reconditioning cull cows that will likely become a food product of whole muscle cuts. This value-added process includes the availability of excess feed resources and space, time to add body weight to increase Body Condition Scoring and change fat color from yellow to white, an opportunity by monitoring the seasonal price index of cull cows. In a University of Florida demonstration, they were able to profit $220 a cow on summer purchases and profit $818 on fall purchased cows. The topic of Prices and Profitability: Are you making money? Was discussed by Dr. Josh Maples, Mississippi State University. In just three years, beef production had increased 14% from 2015-2018 as a result of high consumer confidence and high restaurant and grocery store sales. Dr. Maples explained the largest expense for a stocker calf producer is pasture and feed; minimizing cost of gain is the biggest influence on profits. He demonstrated the use of the UT stocker budget to find hidden costs a producer might not be aware or do not normally think about or that create "holes in your bucket" such as mileage to and from feeding.

Training was conducted for the Central Region Extension Agents in Tennessee on June 14, 2021, at the Middle TN Research and Education Center in Spring Hill, TN.  Twenty-one agents completed the training.  The evaluation summary can be found here: Grazing School In Service Eval Summary

Four Forage/Fencing Kits were assembled for agents to use in their educational programming.  One kit is housed in each region of our state (3) and the fourth is with Dr. Katie Mason, UT Extension Animal Science, Knoxville, as she was an educator for the training,  Grazing School In-Service. Since June of 2021, Dr. Mason, has visited with agents in the Eastern Region of the state about the kits and plans to have a brief publication developed this summer (2022), for use by agents to inform them of how to best make use of the kits in their counties. Forage Kit Contents

Below are trainings conducted by Extension Agents using the Forage/Fencing Kits to educate producers on the use of this equipment. 

Since June of 2021, 7 training sessions have been conducted by agents using the kits, with 236 producers in attendance.  Producers commented that these trainings were "really great, everyone seemed to enjoy the training."  "All it took was one person looking at something and the next thing we knew they were talking to each other and asking questions; it was great."