Increasing Conservation Investment, Cover Crops and Third Crops in Iowa through Farmer-Led Educational Programs

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: technical assistance, demonstration, farmer to farmer, mentoring, workshop
• Sustainable Communities: leadership development, partnerships, public participation

Project summary Practical Farmers of Iowa’s members are committed to both economical and ecological sustainable agricultural practices. PFI members have identified conservation investment, cover crops and third crops as three sustainable agriculture priorities. Farmer-educators within PFI are eager to share their knowledge on these practices with other farmers and stakeholders, have asked for help improving their teaching skills, and are the target audience for this project. The goal of this project is to help farmer-educators become more effective teachers, increasing the quality of educational programs to help shift Iowa’s farming systems to a more sustainable agriculture. Outcomes for this project: 1) Enhance presentation skills of PFI staff and board, 2) Educate PFI staff on effective one-on-one coaching, 3) Educate 10 farmer-educators through one-on-one coaching, 4) Hold an in-person boot camp for farmer-educators, and 5) Create a farmer-educator resource kit to train future farmers. Additional outcomes based on evaluation feedback include: 1) 80% (of 1000) will increase their knowledge on grant focused topics, 2) 60% (of 1000) will plan to makes changes based on what they learned. Activities designed to reach our outcomes include intensive educational trainings, and opportunities to practice new skills and receive feedback. Specific activities are: 1) Two-day in-person presentation training for PFI board members and staff, 2) One-on-one field day coaching between PFI staff and the farmer-educator, 3) Field days to demonstrate and practice skills and receive feedback, 4) Two-day farmer-educator training, and 5) Farmer-led workshops. Project description PFI members are committed to sustainable agricultural practices. Farmer-educators within PFI are eager to share their knowledge with other farmers and stakeholders and have asked for help improving their teaching skills. The goal of this project is to help farmer-educators become more effective teachers, increasing the quality of educational programs to help shift Iowa’s farming systems to a more sustainable agriculture. Activities include intensive educational trainings, and opportunities to practice new skills and receive feedback. Proposal narrative Background and situation Practical Farmers of Iowa was founded by farmers who wanted to learn from each other; farmer-to-farmer knowledge sharing remains at the core of our mission. Practical Farmers has a critical mass of farmer members who are experts on practical implementation of conservation investment, cover crops and third crops. These farmers are willing to share their expertise with others; they value the cooperative learning model applied by PFI since 1985. Farmers in PFI realize collaborative education improves practical understanding of sustainable agriculture practices, leading to increased implementation and positive impacts to Iowa agriculture. PFI farmer-educators are sustainable agriculture experts. In addition to years of operating farm businesses and implementing farm practices, they participate in continued education through PFI, ISU, SARE and other networks, and many have ag-related degrees. Here are some comments from the past year: ”I get motivated talking to other PFI farmers about what they do.” “I like the focus on farmers versus agency and/or programs. Practical way to deliver these practices. Great information.” “Very knowledgeable speakers – It’s always nice to have producers speaking.” “This conference is always educational and often inspirational.” PFI’s farmer-led approach is effective: 90% of PFI members report we have helped them achieve their goals. As a result of 2015 field days, 99% reported some change in knowledge; 75% reported a large to very large change in knowledge; and 84% of attendees are considering making changes to their farm operations. As a result of PFI’s 2016 annual conference, 99% of attendees reported an increase in knowledge. While farmer learners in our membership appreciate PFI’s farmer-led approach, they have identified the need for increased training to help farmer-educators improve presentation skills. Here is some feedback from PFI’s farmer-led educational events: “Field Days are making a difference. We just need to continuously look for ways to improve the ‘presentation’ of the ‘Cover Crop Story.’” “We have talked about the need for a clear moderator with a clear agenda, especially in regards to the order of the day. There is even room to lay out specific learning outcomes, much like a classroom environment, that are introduced, reiterated frequently, and summed up at the end.” “You may consider having speakers get coaching or provide a clear structure for talk. There are some easy strategies to help presenters. Communicate their messages clearly, concisely and effectively.” Farmer-educators in our membership have asked for help to effectively educate other farmers and stakeholders. They want to know how to decide and pare down the amount of information to cover, define presentation goals and outcomes, organize a focused and relevant presentation, and deliver effectively (stay on task, engaging presentation skills, intro and summary, etc.). They also want to know what common information needs to be shared across Iowa to increase adoption of sustainable agriculture practices.  Practical Farmers of Iowa has held farmer-led events since 1985. All farmer-led educational events address priorities identified by farmers in the membership. PFI works to teach farmers to set and stick to an agenda and keep on time. In recent years Practical Farmers has increased the amount of tools used to help farmers plan successful workshops. Practical Farmers of Iowa has held outreach leader trainings in the past to help farmers tell their story. However, it is clear we need to do more to further equip farmer-educators with tools and skills to best convey their expertise in and knowledge of sustainable agriculture to other farmers. We propose to expand on this work. Target audience The target audience for this grant is PFI farmer-educators committed to effectively educating other farmers on conservation investment, cover crops and third crops. These three focus areas come from PFI’s strategic plan, which is based on priorities of farmers within the membership. Three letters of commitment are included to illustrate that PFI farmers are committed to teaching others on these subjects and are invested in learning how to be more effective at doing so. Practical Farmers’ members have provided input on project components, and the consultant PFI proposes to work with is a farmer within PFI’s membership who is a communication educator at Creighton University.

Short-term outcomes

During the grant, PFI plans to:

• Increase presentation skills of PFI staff and board, who all serve as sustainable agriculture educators.
• Educate PFI employees on how to most effectively coach farmers one-on-one to hone messaging, and educate other farmers and stakeholders about conservation investment, cover crops and third crops.
• Educate 10 farmers, through one-on-one coaching, to effectively present at 10 field days in 2017. Evaluate effectiveness through intense evaluation efforts. Create action plan to improve all field day presentations through one-on-one coaching and educational tools moving forward.
• Hold an in-person boot camp where farmers learn and practice presentation skills as well as work with partner experts to create effective messages on the three identified sustainable agriculture focuses.
• Create farmer-educator resource kit to train future farmer educators how to provide effective education to other farmers.

Intermediate outcome

Farmer-educators at PFI and partner events are more effective educators, increasing the quality of educational programs to assist farmers and stakeholders in shifting to sustainable agriculture systems that adopt conservation investment, cover crops and third crops.

Long-term outcomes

1. Farmers in Iowa enhancing sustainability of agriculture by increased conservation investment, cover crops and third crops.
2. Farmers using these practices continue to offer farmer-led educational programs to other farmers to enhance the sustainability of agriculture in Iowa and beyond.

Inputs

People will be the primary inputs to be used in this grant. PFI personnel, a communications consultant, farmer-educators, agronomic experts and partners will work together throughout the project. PFI staff will dedicate extensive time to working closely with farmer-educators, our consultant, agronomic experts, as well as conducting in-depth evaluation to gauge effectiveness and make improvements to coaching and farmer educator toolkits.

This project will also use existing presenter training curriculum and resources, both within PFI (Current PFI curriculum includes: presentation templates, planning forms, presentation tip sheets) and from external resources.

In addition, funding from Walton Family Foundation and Ceres Trust will pay for field days held as part of this project.

Activities

Two-day in-person board and staff training. Board and staff will learn presentation skills themselves, for three main goals: 1) Board and staff are seen as agricultural educators already, present on sustainable agriculture regularly, and have expressed an interest in and need for training; 2) Staff confident in their presentation skills will be better equipped to coach farmer educators; 3) Board members, who are current Iowa farmer-educators and known as farmer leaders, will provide in-depth input on where they most need to build skills.

Tina Bakehouse, farmer and communication educator and executive coach, will work with staff to plan and lead this training. Tina has 15 years of experience teaching communication, five years of executive coaching experience, six years of experience developing and facilitating communication workshops, and direct experience with Practical Farmers of Iowa.

After this training, 15 of the board and staff will present on focus grant topics at least once during the upcoming year.

One-on-one field day coaching. PFI will develop a toolkit including protocols, internal agenda templates, handout tips, and other resources needed to create a high-quality event. The toolkit will be based on feedback from the two-day training, current PFI templates and planning forms, late co-founder Dick Thompson’s written field day instructions, and additional existing resources. PFI staff will use this toolkit to work with 10 farmer-educators for the 2017 field day season. We will use rigorous evaluation to determine the effectiveness of the coaching. Based on feedback we receive from the farmer-educators as well as people in attendance at field days where farmer-educators present, PFI will make changes to its toolkit. In 2018 and beyond, PFI will use its more intensive coaching format with all field day hosts.

Field days will be held on PFI member farms, allowing people to see and hear first-hand how practices and business decisions shape farm operations. This project will include formal intensive coaching for farmer-educators presenting about conservation investment, cover crops and third crops at 10 field days in 2017.

Two-day farmer educator training (boot camp): During this boot camp, farmer-leaders committed to educating others on sustainable agriculture practices of conservation investment, cover crops and third crops will learn and practice effective presentation skills. At this two-day boot camp agriculture experts in these three areas will work with the farmer-educators to create messaging to create common action steps and priorities to implement these practices across the state. Ten farmer-educators in attendance will commit to presenting at least one educational event, and participating in one outreach piece (radio, article, interview, etc.) to share messaging created during the training.

This boot camp will focus on best presentation practices for meeting and workshop settings. PFI will create a presentation toolkit based on this boot camp, as well as the first training in this project, to share with farmer-educators within PFI as well as with other partners who are sustainable agriculture educators. The toolkit will consist of mixed media to provide multiple learning platforms. Specific components for this toolkit will be identified during the project, based on research, existing resources, and farmer-educator and communication consultant feedback.

Farmer-led workshops provide a classroom setting where farmer-educators provide detailed information on a particular topic. Workshops are always structured to promote attendee participation. Ten farmers who receive training during the boot camp will present at a workshop or meeting before the grant end date.

Timeline

October-December 2016 Prepare for two-day, in-person board and staff training. (PFI staff organizes in partnership with consultant Tina Bakehouse and farmer advisory committees)

January-March 2017 Full board and staff participate in two-day workshop; 15 of these 25 individuals will present on focus grant topics at least once during the upcoming year.

Create additional tools to assist in one-on-one coaching.

April-June 2017 Educate 10 farmers, through one-on-one coaching, to effectively present at 10 field days in 2017.

July-September 2017 10 farmers who participate in one-on-one coaching present at 10 field days; rigorous evaluation to evaluate effectiveness of one-on-one coaching.

October-December 2017 Create action plan to improve all field day presentations through one-on-one coaching and educational tools moving forward.

Prepare for two-day in-person boot camp. (PFI staff organizes with consultant, farmer advisory committees and agronomic experts.)

Hold in-person boot camp to teach and practice presentation skills; work with partner agronomic experts to create effective messaging to share across Iowa to increase implementation of three grant topic focuses.

January-March 2018 Five farmer-educators who attended boot camp present at workshops or meetings on one of the three identified sustainable agriculture issues.

April-June 2018 Ten farmer-educators who attended boot camp conduct outreach (in newsletter article, radio interview, newspaper, agriculture publication, etc.) on one of the three identified sustainable agriculture issues.

July-September 2018 Five farmer-educators who attended boot camp present at workshops and field days on one of the three identified sustainable agriculture issues

With feedback from farmers and experts on what components are most needed to help them create good presentations, create presentation toolkit (mixed media, paper, online, video, etc.) to use with future presenters.

Outputs

Coaching toolkit: Protocols and worksheets resulting from the two-day, in-person board and staff training to help PFI staff coach farmer-educators one-on-one to prepare high-quality field days featuring sustainable agricultural practices.

Presentation toolkit: Presentation outlines; videos, presentation templates; presentation tips; messaging on conservation investment, cover crops and third crops (including graphs, statistics, etc.); and other tools resulting from the two-day farmer-educator boot camp to help farmers prepare effective presentations for workshops and meetings.

Clear and influential messaging for sustainable agricultural practices – such as conservation investment, cover crops and third crops – created during this project will be shared widely to increase implementation of these practices.

Fifteen presentations on identified sustainable agriculture focuses by PFI board and staff

Ten field days, average 50 in attendance at each

Ten workshops, average 50 in attendance at each

Ten media pieces, read by 1,000,000

Outcomes

• Increase presentation skills of PFI staff and board, who all serve as educators to farmers on these topics. Measured by pre- and post-training surveys

• Educate PFI employees who work with farmers to organize farmer-led educational programs how to most effectively one-on-one coach farmers to hone messaging and educate other farmers and stakeholders about conservation investment, cover crops and third crops. Measured by qualitative and quantitative feedback from farmer-educators, audience participants and field day surveys

• Educate 10 farmers, through one-on-one coaching, to effectively present at 10 field days in 2017. Evaluate effectiveness through intense evaluation efforts. Create action plan to improve all field day presentations through one-on-one coaching and educational tools moving forward.

• Hold an in-person boot camp where farmers learn and practice presentation skills as well as work with partner experts to create effective messages on the three identified sustainable agriculture focuses. Ten farmers who participate in boot camp will lead a presentation as well as complete an outreach activity (radio interview, newspaper, etc.) by the end of the grant period.

• Create farmer-educator resource kit to train future farmer-educators on how to provide effective education to other farmers at future field days, workshops and meetings.

• 80% of 500 (50 in attendance x 10 field days) who attend field days increase knowledge on grant focus topics.

• 60% of 500 (50 in attendance x 10 field days) who attend field days plan to make changes based on what they learned.

• 80% of 500 (50 in attendance x 10 workshops) workshop attendees increase knowledge on grant focus topics.

• 60% of 500 (50 in attendance x 10 workshops) who attend workshops plan to make changes based on what they learned.