2018 University of Wyoming PDP Project

Anticipated Topics for Wyoming’s WSARE Development Program in 2017-2019:
• Soil Health, Fertility and Sustainable Cropping Management Practices.
• Sustainable Livestock Grazing Management Strategies.
• Assessment of Climate Variability and Extreme Events on Agricultural Production in
Wyoming.
• Wildlife Habitat Management.
• Irrigation Water Management and Conservation.
• Invasive Species Management.
• Economic Sustainability and Agricultural Enterprise Management Strategies.
• Native Plants, Specialty Crops, and Pollinators.
• Travel Scholarships to Enhance Technical Knowledge and Teaching Capacity of Agricultural
Professionals and Producers on topics including: sustainable livestock grazing; invasive
species; regulatory policies; rangeland assessment and monitoring; working with “new”
audiences; and others.

Context, Justification and Assumptions for Wyoming’s WSARE Development Program in
2017-2019:
In 2016, UW Extension continued our statewide effort to identify emerging educational needs
and contemporary issues for our stakeholders in Wyoming. This process engaged diverse focus
groups of stakeholders associated with our Agriculture and Horticulture and Rangeland initiative teams. These focus group sessions were conducted at several locations throughout Wyoming.
   Our analyses of the outputs from this process clearly indicate that irrigation water; invasive
species; soil nutrient and fertility management; continued access to grazing on federal lands;
regulatory constraints on agricultural production; public scrutiny of agriculture; farm and ranch
succession; and the influence of “new” landowners were important issues to individuals involved with agricultural and natural resources in Wyoming. The anticipated topics and educational activities in the following proposal reflect these explicitly identified needs.
Wyoming is a small population state and relative to other states has a small agriculture sector
dominated by livestock production. The majority of farming is concentrated along river corridors and is irrigated. Much of the farming is for hay production for on-farm animal feed. The agriculture sector clientele has generally been in business for many years, surviving droughts and periodic low prices and would argue that their operations are “sustainable”. The professionals that serve Wyoming agriculturalists come from a variety of backgrounds and regions to serve UW Extension, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), and Conservation Districts (CD’S) predominantly. As indicated in the results of the 2004 regional SARE PDP survey, those WES professionals surveyed in Wyoming had a higher interest in the areas of livestock, grazing management and marketing. Their knowledge and utilization of sustainable agriculture programming provided in the state was limited probably because the programming was not specifically advertised as “sustainable ag” or did not fit their  preconceived notions. The survey did not address other agricultural professionals such as NRCS and CD’S.
   In Wyoming, agriculture professionals and agricultural enterprises are particularly influenced by public land, and environmental policies. Management policies to address issues such as
threatened or endangered species, federal grazing, energy development, water quality, air quality, predator control, and wildlife/livestock disease interactions have a profound impact on the economic viability of Wyoming ranches. Geographic isolation and the generally low level of
resource productivity provide lower limits than many other locales to the opportunities for the
agricultural sector to adopt practices that could enhance the stability of existing family
operations. The demographics of the agricultural sector and changing land ownership patterns
further complicate identifying clients and their needs. Horticulture and small acreage landowners have increased interest in servicing these interests. Wyoming ES and SARE-PDP needs better targeting of educational topics and methods to reach professional educators, NRCS and CD advisors, and subsequently the producers.
   In past years, Wyoming’s WSARE Development Program had a decided and well-justified focus on travel scholarships to agricultural professionals to participate in professional development opportunities. This approach continues to produce meaningful educational impacts for the professionals and positive impacts to their associated clientele. However, our needs assessment discussed previously and feedback from our advisory committee indicate continued opportunities to expand our programmatic approach. In this project year, we will continue our successful soil health/fertility workshops, and video-based peer learning experiences. We will also implement regional workshops to provide experiential learning opportunities for Wyoming agricultural professionals in the coming year. These multi-day educational events will increase the technical knowledge and capacity of Wyoming agricultural professionals in topics such as wildlife habitat management, sustainable livestock grazing, irrigation water management, and invasive species management. These educational outputs will be in addition to our continued efforts to provide a limited number of travel scholarships associated with professional development opportunities for Wyoming agricultural professionals.