Utah 2018-20 PDP project

View the project final report

Commodities

• Agronomic: hay, wheat
• Fruits: apples, apricots, berries (brambles), cherries, melons, peaches, pears, plums
• Vegetables: beets, broccoli, carrots, greens (leafy), greens (lettuces), onions, peppers, sweet corn, tomatoes
• Additional Plants: herbs, native plants, ornamentals, trees
• Animals: bovine

Practices

• Animal Production: animal protection and health, feed/forage, feed additives, grazing management, grazing - rotational, manure management, preventive practices, range improvement, rangeland/pasture management, winter forage
• Crop Production: agroforestry, alley cropping, catch crops, cover crops, crop improvement and selection, crop rotation, fertilizers, greenhouses, high tunnels or hoop houses, season extension types and construction, seed saving
• Education and Training: demonstration, extension, networking, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research, technical assistance, workshop
• Farm Business Management: farm succession
• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, habitat enhancement
• Pest Management: biological control, biorational pesticides, chemical control, cultural control, economic threshold, field monitoring/scouting, integrated pest management, mating disruption, physical control, prevention, sanitation, trap crops, traps, weather monitoring
• Production Systems: dryland farming, organic agriculture, transitioning to organic
• Soil Management: organic matter
• Sustainable Communities: quality of life, urban agriculture, urban/rural integration

For the Utah Urban and Smal Farm Conference, the state coordinator will join an existing
committee of 10 agricultural professionals to organize the 8th annual 3‐day conference,
to be held in the greater Salt Lake City area in spring 2020. Speakers will be USU specialists, agricultural agency staff, NGO staff, producers, and professionals from outside Utah. Topics will include all aspects of sustainable farming, including crop production and diversification, selling and marketing, budgets, safety, and more.

The travel awards are new for Utah’s state PDP Program, as recommended by the
PDP Advisory Committee. The Western SARE PDP will continue to partner with the
Utah IPM Program, and award approximately $10,000 per year ($6,000 from PDP) for
professional trips or to host workshops. Proposals will be reviewed by the PDP state coordinator and the Advisory Committee

Preference for funding will be given to applicants with high potential for impacts in
learning about, or improving, producer profitability, quality of life, and farm
sustainability. Each awardee will receive a pdf document explaining Utah’s WSARE PDP
program, and will be required to submit a report and to promote WSARE.

The range workshop is a 3‐day conference, trade show, and tour event that is
organized by Extension faculty from Utah and Arizona, plus members of BLM, NRCS,
and soil conservation districts. Spring 2020 will be the 42st annual event, with support
of printing and supplies provided by the Utah WSARE PDP. Topics include health of
rangeland, dealing with drought, stocking rates, working with government agencies,
maximizing profits, and success stories shared by local producers.

For promotion and outreach, the State Coordinator will include promotional
information at all presentations and workshops, as well as in the USU fruit and
vegetable pest advisory newsletters (10,000 subscribers) that she produces. In
addition, the Coordinator and colleagues will host at least five on‐farm fruit and
vegetable grower meetings to discuss sustainable agriculture “hot topics”, and will print
and distribute pertinent fruit and vegetable production guides.

Agricultural professionals will have increased awareness in local and regional sustainable agriculture issues. The USFC, travel awards, and range workshop will accelerate the adoption of sustainable agriculture practices in Utah and promote the use ofsustainable agriculture systems in land use decision‐making. These programs, plus the promotion and outreach will also enhance collaborations and allow for production of
educational materials or demonstrations, scholarship, and impact evaluation. In general,
approximately 250 agriculture professionals in education, state/federal agencies, and
NGO’s and 700 producers will increase their knowledge about SARE and sustainable
agriculture. Of those, we anticipate that 75 professionals will use SARE and sustainable
agriculture information during presentations, workshops, and field days, and
approximately a third of them will be able to communicate to their stakeholders about the
WSARE PDP program.