Ecological,Livestock,Production,Cattle,Beef,Pasture,Grazing,Environment

Grants and Contracts Details

Description

The broad goal of the program is to help Cooperative Extension and NRCS practitioners work with conventional cattle farmers that haven’t yet embraced basic operational practices that can improve soil health and reduce environmental impacts. The specific goals of the program include having practitioners: 1) Identify current operational practices on farms in their localities that if changed, have the most potential to reduce environmental impacts and improve profitability. 2) Identifying the most effective ways to implement changes. 3) Facilitate improved linkages between agricultural extension agents and NRCS field personnel. The proposed program would be delivered by a combination of University of Kentucky extension, NRCS specialists, and University of Tennessee extension. Other key partners in this program include: select county extension agents that will help with program development, Kentucky State University, the Kentucky and Tennessee Cattlemen’s Association, and the Kentucky Forage and Grassland Council. Regional day-long meetings (3-5 per state) would be held to bring together county extension agents and NRCS conservationists. Basic and intermediate programming would cover soil health, water quality, and sustainability (including profitability). Presentations would have a secondary component of planting the seed for more effective collaboration between extension and NRCS. Local area meetings (3-5 county areas) organized by extension agents and NRCS field personnel would identify those operation practices with the most potential in their locality. Participants would start the process at this meeting of developing a local action plan for their locality. NRCS and extension would also start the process of identifying a demonstration farm in each local area that had the most potential for showcasing improvements identified in the local action plan. NRCS and extension would work as an integrated team in implementing the local action plan on this demonstration farm as well as other farms. Adoption of practices at the farm-level would be the ultimate evaluation criteria of the success of this program.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date4/1/179/30/19

Funding

  • University of Georgia: $79,064.00

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