Organic Dairy Training Conferences and Educational Materials for Professionals

Organic Dairy Training Conferences and Educational Materials for Professionals

Summary

1) Activity with the Southern SARE Project ES08-091 was limited in 2008 due to delays in getting the budgets set up. Initially, the money was delayed and then our business office was short on personnel so the fund number was not set up until January 2009. We expect to request a one-year no-costs extension since spending was zero. We are now proceeding as expected but are about one year late.

2) We conducted a planning phone call on June 30, 2008, and had tentatively set a December date for an exchange trip with personnel in Arkansas and North Carolina. Personnel from the cproject communicated numerous times with ideas for the project. The notes from the planning conference call are below.

“SARE PDP GRANT FOR ORGANIC DAIRY

Geoff Benson’s MEETING NOTES from 6/30/08 conference call

Participating on the call:

Steve Washburn, Jodie Pennington, Ron Morrow, Ann Wells, Karl VanDevender, Mark Alley, Kevin Anderson, George Teague, Kelly Loftin, Hue Karreman, Mike Fisher, Geoff Benson.

Each call participant provided a brief introduction to him/her self.

Funding: We have the grant but the paperwork to get the money from SSARE is not completed yet. The delay in officially notifying us of the award may slow us down and necessitate an adjustment to our original time line.

The proposal includes collecting data from the farmer participants for use in the workshops/training sessions. We need to develop procedures/protocols for collecting data so we have a minimum of consistent data from all participants. These might include family goals, a description of farm resources, financial data, and farm performance data. Collecting financial data will require trust on the part of producers. There may be other date we can use, e.g., financial data from the Maine and Vermont project. The pool of potential farmer-cooperators is 9 from Arkansas and 6 from North Carolina. Dr. Karreman volunteered to circulate an existing herd health questionnaire used in PA which could be used or modified for this project. (Note: After the meeting, Ron Rainey who could not be on the call indicated that he would have a person working for him to critique the survey as she has had extensive experience with surveys.) Geoff Benson volunteered to circulate worksheets used in the NC Farm Assessment project. The discussion turned to the mechanics of data collection, mail out or farm visit. It was felt that a farm visit would result in more complete and accurate information.

The timeline and meeting logistics included whether or not to offer CEU credits, as was done with a Northeast SARE PDP project conference held in March 2007. A follow-up conference is planned for October, 2008 and there might be materials we could use in our program. The sequence for our project needed to be data collection/surveying first, then follow this with the exchange visits between AR and NC. The first exchange would be a visit to NC by an AR delegation and this was tentatively scheduled for the first week of December, 2008 (Last week, Steve Washburn indicated that we might try for the NC field day in early October). The visit to AR by the NC delegation would likely take place in the spring of 2009. There are direct flights from AR to NC, so a three-day trip (two days of touring) would be feasible and should be workable for the dairy farmers involved (Flights are about $330 per person and greater).

The group was reminded that the eOrganic group that is part of the national eXtension initiative would be interested in the activities of this project and should be kept in the loop.”

3) Dates for the exhange trip to North Carolina have been set for May 26-May 29, 2009.

Objectives/Performance Targets

Approach and Methods: Detailed description of the activities and methods to be used to accomplish the objectives.
An information exchange tour for organic groups in Arkansas and North Carolina (2-3 dairy farmers, 2-3 extension personnel, 1 NRCS or FSA agent, and 1 organic dairy industry representative from each state) will be conducted to share information on organic dairy farming from each state to determine the problems and possible solutions to enhance the efficiency of organic dairy farming in the southern region. The emphasis of the exchange tours will be to find needs of dairy farmers for organic dairy production, especially during the transition year, and to establish the characteristics of the more successful producers.

The information exchange groups in each state will meet within one month after the tours. Information collected on the exchange trips, especially from the dairy farmers, will be used to plan the conferences in year 2. Selected additional organic dairy farms from the southern region also will be contacted to see if they have information to add to the conferences. A follow-up conference call will share information between the two states and a consensus on topics to be covered in the training conference for educators will be determined. A report of the tours will be prepared and reviewed by participants on the tours.

Several extension speakers, two veterinarians who have extensive experience with organic production, one milk procurement officer, and one dairy farmer who practices homeopathy have already committed to the conferences. However, the specific topics covered will be based on the input from farmers and others on the exchange trips. Other speakers as deemed appropriate from discussions of the groups on the exchange tours will be contacted by the collaborators during the fall of 2008 to arrange for the conferences in year 2.

Additionally, a list of vendors and products used by the organic dairies visited will be assimilated and made available to other professionals and dairy producers in the south before the conferences. A web site will be available to all states with the information. A web site will be set up for the conferences by January, 2009.

Two in-service conferences will be conducted in the eastern and western areas of the southern US, tentatively scheduled for Arkansas and North Carolina. Representatives from all states and territories in the southern region will be invited and three from each state/territory will be provided travel scholarships. The workshops will be formatted in a way to provide classroom style learning, round table discussions, reading materials, interactive problem solving exercises, and on-farm experiential learning with an organic dairy farm.

General practices and concepts at the conferences will include: an overview of the National Organic Program, managing the transition period to certification, economics, preventive management for optimum livestock health, pasture management, soil fertility, weed control, possible cropping rotation to enhance efficiency and minimize run-off, complementary therapies approved for use on organic farms, reproductive management, continued learning resources, and animal welfare. Emphasis of the presentations will be on utilization of on-farm sources for feed, mastitis prevention and treatment, and control of parasites. Specific topics will be based on needs as determined by the information exchange tour of dairy producers and industry personnel. One of our organic dairy producers practices homeopathy and we hope to have enough information by the conferences to report how those treatments are working. At a minimum, producers and educators need to be aware that such treatments with homeopathy exist since most commercial drugs are not allowed in organic production.

These workshops will qualify for continued education/in-service credit for veterinary professionals, NRCS, ARPAS members, and extension agents. All of these organizations will also be consulted in the planning of the conferences, including being invited speakers. Emphasis in the talks will be on sustainability of economic production, including the environmental and social impacts of the various methods of production.

The 3-day in-service conferences will be in a workshop format and will include a visit to an excellent organic dairy farm. The conferences and the travel scholarships for each state/territory will be publicized through state extension services, NRCS, FSA, and the web (dairy south, national dairy extension, and Odairy listservs).

In order to disseminate the information throughout the southern region, each state can send up to three representatives with up to $500 reimbursement of travel expenses per representative paid from the grant. North Carolina State University and the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service will each host a conference in their area. The participants in the workshops will be provided with a) a training manual to run educational programs and b) an outline to work one-on-one with interested producers. Later, a CD of speakers at the conferences, additional resource materials, and general organic recommendations will be provided to all attendees. Surveys to obtain feedback from participants and to evaluate the exchange trips and conferences will be conducted.

Accomplishments/Milestones

1) Activity with the Southern SARE Project ES08-091 was limited in 2008 due to delays in getting the budgets set up. Initially, the money was delayed and then our business office was short on personnel so the fund number was not set up until January 2009. We expect to request a one-year no-costs extension since spending was zero. We are now proceeding as expected but are about one year late.

2) We conducted a planning phone call on June 30, 2008, and had tentatively set a December date for an exchange trip with personnel in Arkansas and North Carolina. Personnel from the cproject communicated numerous times with ideas for the project. The notes from the planning conference call are below.

“SARE PDP GRANT FOR ORGANIC DAIRY

Geoff Benson’s MEETING NOTES from 6/30/08 conference call

Participating on the call:

Steve Washburn, Jodie Pennington, Ron Morrow, Ann Wells, Karl VanDevender, Mark Alley, Kevin Anderson, George Teague, Kelly Loftin, Hue Karreman, Mike Fisher, Geoff Benson.

Each call participant provided a brief introduction to him/her self.

Funding: We have the grant but the paperwork to get the money from SSARE is not completed yet. The delay in officially notifying us of the award may slow us down and necessitate an adjustment to our original time line.

The proposal includes collecting data from the farmer participants for use in the workshops/training sessions. We need to develop procedures/protocols for collecting data so we have a minimum of consistent data from all participants. These might include family goals, a description of farm resources, financial data, and farm performance data. Collecting financial data will require trust on the part of producers. There may be other date we can use, e.g., financial data from the Maine and Vermont project. The pool of potential farmer-cooperators is 9 from Arkansas and 6 from North Carolina. Dr. Karreman volunteered to circulate an existing herd health questionnaire used in PA which could be used or modified for this project. (Note: After the meeting, Ron Rainey who could not be on the call indicated that he would have a person working for him to critique the survey as she has had extensive experience with surveys.) Geoff Benson volunteered to circulate worksheets used in the NC Farm Assessment project. The discussion turned to the mechanics of data collection, mail out or farm visit. It was felt that a farm visit would result in more complete and accurate information.

The timeline and meeting logistics included whether or not to offer CEU credits, as was done with a Northeast SARE PDP project conference held in March 2007. A follow-up conference is planned for October, 2008 and there might be materials we could use in our program. The sequence for our project needed to be data collection/surveying first, then follow this with the exchange visits between AR and NC. The first exchange would be a visit to NC by an AR delegation and this was tentatively scheduled for the first week of December, 2008 (Last week, Steve Washburn indicated that we might try for the NC field day in early October). The visit to AR by the NC delegation would likely take place in the spring of 2009. There are direct flights from AR to NC, so a three-day trip (two days of touring) would be feasible and should be workable for the dairy farmers involved (Flights are about $330 per person and greater).

The group was reminded that the eOrganic group that is part of the national eXtension initiative would be interested in the activities of this project and should be kept in the loop.”

3) Dates for the exhange trip to North Carolina have been set for May 26-May 29, 2009.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

Planning was the primary outcome. One organic budget was obtained for later use.

Collaborators: