Field-to-Table Technical Outreach Package for Smaller-Scale Farmers - Ranchers in the Front range

Field-to-Table Technical Outreach Package for Smaller-Scale Farmers - Ranchers in the Front range

Summary

The process of creating a “user-friendly” agricultural manual and effective hands-on technical assistance package has revealed that many smaller-scale farmers and ranchers have worked out a particular system of production that is generally satisfactory. In most of these cases, the market is weak or developing slowly. Closer examination reveals that business management and process control are usually the critical bottlenecks to improved economy of the operation. Improvements to these generally have a positive effect on production and marketing. Development of the manual and technical assistance package has been modified to include more material on assessments, business management, process control, and standards.

Objectives/Performance Targets

1) Produce a manual with regionally relevant information on agricultural commodities for smaller-scale operations utilizing sustainable agricultural techniques. 2) Develop a process of hands-on technical assistance that is most useful and accommodating to farmers’ and ranchers’ needs within a developing marketplace. 3) Work with farmers and ranchers to increase their awareness and understanding of market development and evolution through workshops and direct mail. 4) Completed manuals will be advertised and mailed to other agricultural professionals who are working on similar projects in marginal areas. For those who have e-mail, publications will be available over the Internet.

Accomplishments/Milestones

All areas (resource assessment, production, marketing, testing, planning, etc.) are in the draft manual, except a list of sources of supplies and literature. The current material is ready for the addition of more pictures and final editing. The farmers expressed an interest in business management and cooperatives, and these have been added to the draft manual. The material on sources of supplies and literature will be added later. The contracted professional, a poultry biologist and statistician, is gathering information from the participants and other producers on traditional, unusual, successful, and locale-specific techniques that are hard to find or do not appear elsewhere in the literature. This work area is 85% complete.

Full assessment instruments have been developed and are in the process of being completed by the participants (the assessments occur in stages; the participants are in stage one of the assessments). One of the participants, Doug Wiley, is helping to develop the farm mapping, soil testing, and resource analysis tools, along with those for crop planning and management. Dan Hobbs is assisting with the work on the processing and distribution, the marketing and market development, and the production, harvesting, and marketing standards components. This work area is 60% complete.

We are working with two new cooperatives, Tres Ríos Agricultural Cooperative in Pueblo, Colorado, and Río Culebra Agricultural Cooperative in San Luis, Colorado, which may serve as venues for the workshops on marketing. This area of work is about to begin.

Nothing has been done concerning dissemination of the results except to follow the progress of an “e-Plaza” project here in northern New Mexico: “Using web-based collaborative tools in combination with innovative organizational and community-involvement strategies, the e-Plaza will further integration and development within northern New Mexico’s agricultural cluster.” This may be an additional place to post the project materials. This area of work will begin last.

In general, the manual and technical assistance package will be finished early next year. The work will then focus on the marketing workshops, implementing the technical assistance package, and publishing and disseminating the manual.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

In working with the participants, we have already engaged in a productive process of discovering critical areas, which have often been hidden to the participant, that bottleneck the development and productivity of their operations and home life. Working with the participants helped ensure that the instruments being developed in this project are increasingly reflecting the concerns and interests of the participants. NewFarms is assisting the formation and development of the two agricultural cooperatives mentioned above, which are becoming an additional place to implement this project’s deliverables beyond the current participant list. The e-Plaza project may also create broader opportunities for dissemination of the deliverables.

Collaborators: