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 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 positively effect production and marketing. Development of the manual and technical assistance package was 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 market place. 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 manual. The farmers expressed an interest in business management and cooperatives, and these have been added to the manual. The manual has been printed and disseminated. Dissemination included technical assistance in the form of going over the materials with the recipients and demonstrating how to use, maintain, and update the contents.

Full assessment instruments were developed. Dan Hobbs assisted with the work on the processing and distribution, the marketing and market development, and the production, harvesting, and marketing standards components.

We are working with two new cooperatives, Tres Ríos Agricultural Cooperative in Pueblo, Colorado, and Río Culebra Agricultural Cooperative in San Luis, Colorado, which served as the venues for the workshops on marketing.

Impacts and Contributions/Outcomes

In working with the participants we engaged in a productive process of discovering critical areas, which have often been hidden from the participant, that bottleneck the further development and productivity of their operations and home life. Working with the participants ensured that the instruments developed in this project increasingly reflected the concerns and interests of the participants. NewFarms continues to assist the formation and development of the two agricultural cooperatives mentioned above, which have become additional places to implement the project’s deliverables beyond the current participant list. An e-Plaza project may also create broader opportunities for dissemination of the deliverables.

Collaborators: