2002 Annual Report for EW99-015
Harvesting the Wealth: of AERO's Farm and Ranch Improvement Clubs
Summary
This is a two-year project to turn 10 years of Farm Improvement Club research, knowledge and experience into widely accessible educational tools and programs. The fall of 1999 marks the 10th Anniversary of AERO's Farm and Ranch Improvement Club Program in Montana. The nearly 500 people who've been involved, including producers and their agency technical assistance providers, have acquired an impressive amount of practical knowledge and experience through whole-field and whole-farm research and education that can now be of direct benefit to others throughout the western region. The knowledge and experience gained by the program participants is concrete and practical: 60 percent of producers in the program have made real changes in their operations as a result of their participation, and a majority have gained some financial benefit. (Rusmore, 1996)
The current downturn in agricultural commodity and livestock prices and the phase-out of federal farm subsidies is creating a new wave of farmers and ranchers interested in learning about more sustainable farming systems. Those in the worst trouble need proven alternatives, which the accumulated results of years of clubs' whole-field and whole-farm testing across different agroclimatic zones can provide.
The most widely researched topics during the life of the club program are ones for which the need is now greatest in Montana's ag community: alternative crops for cereal farmers, marketing of specialty crops for both large and small farmers and alternative livestock and grazing management.
The educational approach we're proposing consists of the following four objectives:
1. Synthesize the results of 10 years of farm improvement clubs and disseminate them through a variety of means throughout the region.
2. Create from among experienced farm improvement club members and their technical assistance providers a formal resource pool of trainers, collaborators, presenters, writers, consultants and mentors in sustainable agriculture and alternative farming systems.
3. Learn from and share with others around the country who are developing similar attempts to strengthen the analysis and dissemination of farmer research.
Synthesis of results will be done by two or three graduate students working with club participants and technical assistance providers who'll check for accuracy, with the help of scientists, Extension agents and an ag economist for analysis and validity. The Montana Ag Sustainability Network will be involved in all aspects as advisors, publicists, and sources of in-kind assistance in the development of educational materials, programs and strategies.
The farm club participants themselves, along with their technical assistance providers, will form a pool of educators who can bring the information to life in ways tailored to the needs of different audiences throughout the region from one-on-one consulting to conference presentations. We will create a pool of funds to match any fees they must charge for their time so their services are affordable. (Not all will need to charge.)
The project's major participants and cooperators will help existing clubs connect to additional available resources (money, people, organizations and networks) that can enable them to expand and deepen their work as they mature. With the next request for farm improvement club proposals we will encourage the formation of marketing and financial planning clubs that can start to increase the collective knowledge in the program in these areas.
Objective 1: Synthesize the results of 10 years of farm improvement clubs and disseminate them through a variety of means throughout the region.
1. Completed indexing of all Farm Clubs. There were over 450 participants in the program, over 75 Farm Clubs working on sustainable agriculture research and demonstration issues, spread geographically throughout Montana, over the 10 year history of the program. The index compiled includes information such as: who participated, emphasis of project, completion of final report, outreach materials developed, field days held, materials written, major project conclusions.
The full index document is 16 pages long, one of these pages is attached as an example of the scope of work accomplished for this phase.
2. Project Partner ATTRA's role will be to help with materials design and dissemination to a broader audience. Nancy Matheson is the lead ATTRA staffer working with AERO. She will make sure the information is structured as much as possible to serve the widest audience. In addition, Nancy has done a review of all the clubs' efforts and identified which ones appear to have produced the most valuable information in terms of extension beyond the club participants to broader audiences.
Objective 2: Create from among experienced farm improvement club members and their technical assistance providers a formal resource pool of trainers, collaborators, presenters, writers, consultants and mentors in sustainable agriculture and alternative farming systems.
1. Have developed a team of Farm Club advisors and resources folks who worked on the Farm Club program through the 1990’s. To date eight farm club leaders and 3 technical assistance providers are participating.
Objective 3: Learn from and share with others around the country who are developing similar attempts to strengthen the analysis and dissemination of farmer research.
Project partner Dr. Bruce Maxwell From Montana State University suggested at our recent project meeting that the project use the web database format developed by Steve Gliessman (formerly with UC SAREP and author of Agroecology) for expressing case studies and the lessons learned. It is searchable by any of its fields, for instance, by sustainable ag principle, by geographic area, by production practice, by research topic, etc. The one Steve set up is designed to be useful to farmers, rural development professionals, as well as ag scientists and educators.
The project leaders decided to test this format by first entering the data from all the cereal-legume-focused farm clubs, then playing around with the information to see how well it works for this project. Bruce will contact Steve to make sure it's okay to use his template, and to tailor it to fit this project's needs. For instance, we'd want to add a field to describe additional research the farm clubs identified as needing to be done, either on-farm or on-station. Another field we'd add would list willing and able workshop presenters from each club that others could tap. There is money in the grant to subsidize club participants to present at workshops.
Objectives/Performance Targets
Objective 1: Synthesize the results of 10 years of farm improvement clubs and disseminate them through a variety of means throughout the region.
1. Completed indexing of all Farm Clubs. There were over 450 participants in the program, over 75 Farm Clubs working on sustainable agriculture research and demonstration issues, spread geographically throughout Montana, over the 10-year history of the program. The index compiled includes information such as: who participated, emphasis of project, completion of final report, outreach materials developed, field days held, materials written, major project conclusions.
The full index document is 16 pages long. One of these pages is attached as an example of the scope of work accomplished for this phase.
2. Project Partner ATTRA's role will be to help with materials design and dissemination to a broader audience. Nancy Matheson is the lead ATTRA staffer working with AERO. She will make sure the information is structured as much as possible to serve the widest audience. In addition, Nancy has done a review of all the clubs' efforts and identified which ones appear to have produced the most valuable information in terms of extension beyond the club participants to broader audiences.
Objective 2: Create from among experienced farm improvement club members and their technical assistance providers a formal resource pool of trainers, collaborators, presenters, writers, consultants and mentors in sustainable agriculture and alternative farming systems.
1. Have developed a team of Farm Club advisors and resources folks who worked on the Farm Club program through the 1990s. To date eight farm club leaders and three technical assistance providers are participating.
Objective 3: Learn from and share with others around the country who are developing similar attempts to strengthen the analysis and dissemination of farmer research.
Project partner Dr. Bruce Maxwell From Montana State University suggested at our recent project meeting that the project use the web database format developed by Steve Gliessman (formerly with UC SAREP and author of Agroecology) for expressing case studies and the lessons learned. It is searchable by any of its fields, for instance, by sustainable ag principle, by geographic area, by production practice, by research topic, etc. The one Steve set up is designed to be useful to farmers, rural development professionals, as well as ag scientists and educators.
The project leaders decided to test this format by first entering the data from all the cereal-legume-focused farm clubs, then playing around with the information to see how well it works for this project. Bruce will contact Steve to make sure it's okay to use his template, and to tailor it to fit this project's needs. For instance, we'd want to add a field to describe additional research the farm clubs identified as needing to be done, either on-farm or on-station. Another field we'd add would list willing and able workshop presenters from each club that others could tap. There is money in the grant to subsidize club participants to present at workshops.