Sustaining Small Flock Poultry Producers Utilizing a Train-the-trainer Model on Identified Poultry Needs

Commodities

• Animals: poultry

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, livestock breeding, meat product quality/safety
• Education and Training: extension, technical assistance

Many producers in Tennessee are diversifying their current operations to include small flock poultry production.  The diversification is supporting the food and fiber needs of the community. Based on our 2022 initial small flock needs assessment survey, there is an educational need for standard husbandry practices for sustainable poultry operation of small flock owners. Tennessee State University in collaboration with the University of Tennessee Institute for Agriculture propose a project to increase small flock producer knowledge and implementation of sustainable best management practices for poultry egg and meat production.The team will convene an advisory committee, create poultry education modules, and utilize a train-the-trainer model for agents, mentor farmers, and educators across the state. The ultimate target audience for the poultry modules and external website are small flock producers in Tennessee.  To ensure a diverse audience is reached, agents from three regions of the state (eastern, central, western) will be trained, in turn, the trained agents will conduct county/multi-county trainings for small flock producers.  Program evaluation will take place at many levels.  The advisory committee, trained agents, and participants will provide evaluation data.  The project team anticipates, the education training modules will increase knowledge of small flock producers to take informed decision on basics husbandry practices such as bird nutrition, breeding management, flock health management, bio-security, processing and safe food handling practices, and marketing. Small flock producers who learn from trainers adopt sustainable systems, approaches and practices in poultry operation that will eventually benefit poultry consumers and the community.

The overall grant project goal is to increase small flock producer knowledge and implementation of sustainable best management practices for poultry egg and meat production. Along with commercial enterprises, small flock producers play a major role in ensuring there is a safe, affordable, and sustainable food supply of poultry eggs and meat.

We will meet the overall goal of increasing small flock producer knowledge and implementation of sustainable best management practices by training Cooperative Extension agents, mentor farmers, and agricultural educators in Tennessee on sustainable best management poultry topics (egg and meat) for small flock producers.  Specific objectives are:

1. Create and convene an advisory committee to guide the project
2. Develop poultry education training modules
3. Develop an internal and external poultry education website
4. Implement statewide training of extension agents, mentor farmers, and agricultural educators
5. Implement small flock producer trainings by poultry specialists, trained extension agents, mentor farmers, and agricultural educators.

The target audience for the poultry education modules and external website are small flock producers in Tennessee.  We will be training extension agents, mentor farmers, and agricultural educators on the poultry education modules to be delivered to small flock producers across the state.  The education training modules will increase knowledge of small flock producers in the areas of sustainable nutrition, reproduction, flock health management, bio-security, and safe food handling practices.

Overall, we will frame the SARE PDP project evaluation by assessing participants reactions, knowledge and skills, organizational support, implementation, and outcomes. The first level examines the participants’ reactions, including reactions about the overall effectiveness of the professional development. The second level focuses on what new knowledge and skills the participants learn. The third level addresses the extent to which participants feel that their organizations support and facilitate their new learning. The fourth level of evaluation focuses on the degree and quality with which participants implement what they have learned. The fifth level of evaluation focuses on participant outcomes, which could be cognitive (performance and achievement), affective (attitudes and dispositions) or psychomotor (skills and behaviors). Methods such as those described above (e.g., surveys, focus groups/interviews, observations) will be utilized to measure these levels of sustainable poultry egg and meat production practices.  These formative and summative processes will be combined with measures of sustainable poultry egg and meat production practices and participation before and during project implementation to yield a comprehensive evaluation.