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Going Native: Prairie Grass Research
By Randy Weckman
When the first permanent settlers came to Kentucky, millions of acres of the state’s landscape were dominated by wide open prairie vistas, dotted only occasionally by a clump of trees. Prairie grasses, native to Kentucky and other temperate-climate states, grew densely and tall, sometimes so thick that pioneer children would become lost forever in the undulating sea of grass that in good years topped a horse’s withers.
But settlers to the area soon tamed the wild, dense native prairies of Kentucky—as they did elsewhere—and replaced them with commercially important crops such as corn, wheat, barley, and tobacco, among others. And they planted grasses such as bluegrass on which to graze cattle and fine horses. Two factors helped settlers conquer the ancient prairie: overgrazing by cattle and the invention of a scour plow in the 1830s, a device that made blacksmith John Deere a household term. His plow took at least some of the drudgery out of breaking the prairie.
But when the prairie’s deep roots that held soil tightly in place were severed from the land, the ecosystem that had stabilized the land for millennia was disengaged, leading to gullied tracts of land and roiled creeks, streams, and rivers. In addition, wildlife such as bison and prairie chicken that had lived in harmony with the prairie all but vanished as native stands disappeared.
Now, long after most of Kentucky’s native prairie land was put to commercial crops and exotic pasture grasses, there is a renaissance of interest in the ancient grasses as a conservation tool, as a native habitat, and as a grazing crop to feed cattle and horses.
Tom Barnes, University of Kentucky Extension wildlife specialist, and Monroe Rasnake, UK agronomist, are re-establishing small tracts of experimental prairies in Logan County and elsewhere to investigate their advantages for wildlife habitat and water and soil conservation and their potential for grazing animals.
Thanks to a gift to the University of Kentucky of 105 acres by the Monroe Hall family of Indianapolis, Barnes, with the help of local volunteers, constructed a small patch of prairie. (Volunteers have helped immeasurably by hand-planting plugs of more than 50 prairie species, including many rare plants such as the Great Plains ladies’ tresses orchid, blue false indigo, and rough blazing star.)
For Barnes, the new prairie will help support species of flora and fauna that have become rare due to the loss of prairie. He anticipates that even the small patch of prairie established along a 100-yard-wide swath of the small creek that runs through the Hall’s farm will attract species such as meadowlark and Henslow’s sparrow. Another benefit will come from the restoration of a system that has become rare and provide habitat for a wide variety of plant species that are much less common than they were 150 years ago.
But it’s more than a good wildlife habitat that the UK scientists are interested in. They believe that native grasses will help improve water quality by slowing down runoff and erosion of soil and by filtering pollutants. They also believe that the native species may have some real potential for grazing cattle.
“These species adapted to Kentucky’s climate over thousands of years and persist even when the climate is at its natural extremes—dry or wet,” Barnes said.
Rasnake, headquartered at the Research and Education Center in Princeton, planted about five acres of tall grass prairie on the back side of the research farm four years ago. This year, the grass is taller than Rasnake, who is a bit over 6 feet.
“Our research shows that native grass mixtures yield about twice that of fescue,” Rasnake said. “Tall grass prairie can yield between 5 and 7.5 tons per acre per year, while fescue yields about 4 tons per year,” he said.
The potential for grazing native species is good, according to Jimmy Henning, former Extension grazing specialist and current assistant director of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service for agriculture and natural resources. Producers need to realize, however, that native prairie is somewhat costly to establish and that once established, it can’t withstand the punishment of overgrazing nearly as well as some cool-season species such as fescue and bluegrass.
However, Barnes and his graduate students Brian Washburn and Marvin Ruffner have found that using herbicides when establishing prairie grass can result in a grazing stand by the end of the second year. In addition, the cost of the grass has continued to decrease as more and more demand is generated for it. Their research has provided the protocol for re-establishing native prairie throughout the eastern United States.
Barnes said that the real expense in re-establishing authentic prairie is planting wildflowers, which he and volunteers planted by hand from species collected within a 250-mile radius of the site.
Native grasses have tremendous potential for grazing cattle, especially when used in tandem with cool-season grasses, such as tall fescue and bluegrass, Barnes said.
“Native Americans knew well that Kentucky’s prairie supported great herds of American Bison,” he said. “It stands to reason that domestic bovine—first cousins, you might say, to bison—also would do well on the prairie.”
John Johns, Extension animal scientist, said “native grasses perform well on two measures of grazing: palatability and nutritional quality, provided they are grazed during their peak, which is in mid-summer. Toward fall and throughout the winter, native grasses drop on both measures.”
With promising results from the early research conducted, plans are to plant a significant acreage on UK’s Animal Research Center in Woodford County to native species and conduct more precise research on their ability to help prevent erosion and their potential for grazing cattle.
Pullout Quote:
“Our research shows that native grass mixtures yield about twice that of fescue.”
—Monroe Rasnake
Bluegrass is Really a European Invader
SHHHH! Don’t tell tourists that Kentucky, the Bluegrass State, might more fittingly be called the sideoats grama state. Somehow, that doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. But sideoats grama, a Kentucky native, otherwise known as Bouteloua curtipendula, is in some ways a more fitting moniker than bluegrass.
You see, for millions of years, sideoats grama thrived in Kentucky’s meadows—or prairie as the French called it, a term we adopted quickly. But bluegrass, the cool-season grass with an image that is largely linked to Kentucky, came late, with the first Europeans to the United States.
It is most likely that the pilgrims (or those who came from Europe soon thereafter) brought with them, besides all manner of livestock, seed for the lush common meadows with which they were familiar—bluegrass. Because the climate was rather similar to some European climes and because Kentucky bluegrass (Poa praetensis) is quite adaptable, the interloper became pervasive and became identified with Kentucky. And it continues to serve the Thoroughbred horse industry—and Kentucky’s tourism industry—very well.
But the original prairie of Kentucky, more like meadows really, was comprised of a number of different native grasses, including big bluestem, little bluestem, and cane (a species something like bamboo that once grew in thick stands) as well as indiangrass, switchgrass, and a multitude of wildflowers such as purple coneflower, prairie clovers, and
royal catchfly. And although bluegrass is a European invader, changing Kentucky’s reputation as the Bluegrass State probably isn’t in the offing anytime soon.
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A New Day, A New Way, A New College
By Randy Weckman
On July 1, 2003, the College of Agriculture changed dramatically—for the better.
Its faculty joined with the faculty of the College of Human Environmental Sciences. The College of Human Environmental Sciences is now the School of Human Environmental Sciences within the College of Agriculture.
The merger of the two colleges was driven by the University’s quest for a strong, unified, comprehensive, and multidisciplinary focus on all areas of research, instruction, and extension. The merger makes for an amalgam as strong as steel.
“The College of Agriculture historically has worked on the production end of food and fiber production; the College of Human Environmental Sciences worked on consumer and family concerns,” said Scott Smith, dean of the College.
“By bringing together the talents of faculty who work on production concerns with faculty whose work is on consumer and family issues, we have a very strong, new entity that will assuredly improve education, research, and outreach programs,” he said. For now, Smith serves as director of the School of Human Environmental Sciences as well as dean of this expanded college.
The College now has 15 academic departments, three of which form the School of Human Environmental Sciences.
These departments include Family Studies; Nutrition and Food Sciences; and Merchandising, Apparel, and Textiles. A fourth department in the former College of Human Environmental Sciences, Interior Design, was moved to the University's newly formed College of Design as a School of Interior Design.
For many years, consumer and family science programs in Cooperative Extension have been jointly administered by the College of Agriculture and the College of Human Environmental Sciences.
In addition, the career and technical education programs in both Agriculture and Human Environmental Sciences have shared common course work.
The teaching program of the expanded College increases the number of students by 600. With the merger, just over 1,700 students are now enrolled in the College.
Currently, the new college is still in transition. While from the outside the obstacles may seem pretty substantial—after all, each College had a set of procedures, separate buildings, and separate cultures to blend—the problems haven’t been too difficult so far.
“Each College had its own traditions—most of which are remarkably similar—and our goal for this year is to unify these traditions,” Smith said.
Take the annual Roundup, the event each fall for which all alumni are invited back to campus. This year, Roundup also included alumni, faculty, and students from the School of Human Environmental Sciences. And while the scholarship recognition programs allied with each unit will continue this year as separate events, they likely will be joined next year in a mammoth celebration.
Joint research investigations between departments comprising the newly expanded College are now just beginning.
“While there have been some mutual collaborations in the past, we are encouraging several departments to work together on research proposals by providing some seed money for initial investigations, especially in the areas of nutrition and food science, agricultural economics, hospitality management, community and leadership development, and merchandising and apparel. Such collaborations have great potential,” said Nancy Cox, associate dean for research.
“I believe that this new college will serve the commonwealth well in teaching, research, and extension programs,” Smith said. “A new theme developed for this fall’s Roundup says a great deal about this new college: Uniting Excellence.”
What Is Old Is New Again
The amalgam of agriculture and human environmental sciences is not altogether new. For a short time after 1905, what was originally called domestic science and taught in the basement of the women's dormitory apparently was a stand-alone unit. In 1908, the School of Domestic Science became a department of the College of Arts and Sciences, where it remained for a couple of years. Then, in 1910, just five years after its establishment—by this time it was called the Department of Home Economics—the unit became a department in the College of Agriculture.
In 1941, the College of Agriculture’s name changed to reflect the importance of Home Economics to its mission: The College of Agriculture and Home Economics. In 1953, the Department of Home Economics became the School of Home Economics, still in the College of Agriculture.
In 1969, the School of Home Economics became the College of Home Economics, and by the following year, five departments comprised the College: Nutrition and Food Science; Textiles, Clothing, and Merchandising; Human Development and Family Relations; Management and Family Economics; and Housing and Interior Design.
In 1993 the College of Home Economics became the College of Human Environmental Sciences to reflect the expanding vision of the disciplines comprising the College. Cooperative Extension programs were jointly administered by the Colleges of Human Environmental Sciences and Agriculture. And finally, in July 2003, the College of Human Environmental Sciences became a school with the College of Agriculture once again.
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Great Expectations-- These Students Will Surely Shape The Future
By Randy Weckman
Remember these names: Conley Chaney, Angela Green, Craig Duvall.
The talents of these recent College of Agriculture grads are already recognized; their magnificence is likely to make them famous.
Chaney is nationally acclaimed as a Truman Scholar; Green and Duvall are both noted as being among a handful of National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows.
Green and Duvall, in addition to being nationally recognized as National Science Foundation Research Scholars, are unusual in that they both attended the same rather small high school in Western Kentucky (Muhlenberg South High School) and because they both studied biosystems and agricultural engineering at UK, a pretty small major in the mix of the University's curriculum. The National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship rewards the students with $27,500 each year for three years of graduate studies. Past recipients of the fellowships have made substantial contributions to science—23 have won Nobel Prizes for their work.
Conley Chaney
Chaney, a native of McCreary County in southeastern Kentucky, graduated summa cum laude in May with a degree in Community and Leadership Development and accepted a one-year fellowship with the National Rural Development Partnership in Washington, D.C., part of USDA Rural Development. In this role, he serves as liaison to the National Rural Development Council as well as coordinator of the National Rural Development Partnership’s honors fellows program. Among other duties, Chaney also is responsible for working with state rural development councils in their quest for improving rural economies and infrastructures.
And although Chaney finds his current position both stimulating and rewarding, he sees it only as a transition between undergraduate school and law school in the next couple of years.
“Kentucky is my home, and the world is my oyster. I don’t expect ever to enter into any 20-year professional position,” Chaney said. “Rather, I plan on an evolving career to make the most positive social differences where and when I can—all the while holding just enough back to maintain a steady and necessary amount of leisure and simplicity.”
The Truman Scholars program recognizes 60 students nationwide each year who plan careers in public service. It rewards them with a stipend of $30,000 to use toward their graduate education. Chaney plans to use his stipend for law school.
“Conley’s the type of student every professor dreams of having in class. He’s beyond bright; he’s articulate with an expansive and curious mind,” said sociologist Lori Garkovich, who serves as advisor to students in the Public Service and Leadership program. “His concerns about social issues and social policies are genuine and well founded. I am proud to be able to say that I was his advisor,” she said.
Angela Green
Green found the right program as an undergraduate when Tommy Harrison, Muhlenberg County 4-H agent, brought her to Lexington to look at the agricultural engineering program.
“I liked math and science a lot in high school, and when I found that I could use those interests in the biosystems and agricultural engineering program at UK, I knew I had found my home,” Green said.
Green currently is finishing up her master’s degree at UK in biosystems and agricultural engineering. In December she defended her thesis, a groundbreaking study of the physiological response of horses to being transported. It will contribute to improving trailer design and thus the well-being of animals. She plans to spend a few months away from school working in engineering design before starting work on her doctorate next fall.
While writing her thesis, she interviewed several prestigious programs (that’s right, she interviewed them) for a position to work on her doctorate in biosystems and agricultural engineering.
Green is confident about being accepted into a program of her choice because, as she says, “When a graduate student brings funding, it changes everything. Doors open that you never knew existed; there is a great selection of doctoral programs from which to choose.”
Craig Duvall
A graduate of UK’s biosystems and agricultural engineering program in 2001, Craig Duvall used his undergraduate degree as a platform for a doctoral program in biomedical engineering, a joint program of the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University. He bypassed a traditional master’s of science degree and went straight into the doctoral program, where his research involves developing techniques for measuring vascular growth in animals—the development of new blood vessels.
He plans to use these new techniques to assess various growth factors that could be used in therapeutic strategies for stimulating the formation of new blood vessels that may replace non-functional clogged arteries, helping human patients avoid highly invasive procedures currently used to treat blockages.
Duvall expects to complete his dissertation in the next three years, before embarking on a career that likely will involve either teaching and research at the university level or practicing as a professional engineer in the medical technology industry.
“It is a pleasure to see both Angela and Craig win these national awards,” said Rich Gates, chairman of the Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering. “I have had pleasure of interacting with both of them in the classroom, and they are very deserving of these awards. Their achievements reflect well on our faculty and programs. With these fellowships, Angela and Craig will go on to rewarding and fulfilling careers,” he said.
These three College of Agriculture graduates, whose promise already is recognized, are potent indicators that the University of Kentucky’s quest for Top 20 status, as mandated by the Kentucky Legislature, is well on its way to becoming a reality.
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Getting Our Goat(s) & Maybe Our Profits, Too
By Martha Jackson
It may have all started with Jim Ragland’s ancestor. He was an 18th century youth who was kidnapped from Wales and sold as an indentured servant to a southern Virginia plantation. He worked for 12 years, was freed, and married the plantation owner's daughter. Definitely a young man who put his eye on the main chance.
Maybe that’s what Ragland, that young man’s great-great-great-grandsomething, did on Oct. 24, 2001, when he traveled from his LaRue County farm to the Kentucky Boer Goat Classic Show and Sale in Harrodsburg. That’s where Ragland laid eyes on Boer (meat) goats for the first time. He bought 24 of them and came out of retirement to show his fellow Kentucky farmers that the book's not finished yet on how many ways the Bluegrass State can spell farmer.
“I felt meat goat production was the best alternative enterprise for Kentucky small farms, and I wanted to be a part of introducing and developing this industry in Kentucky,” said Ragland. He is a 1961 graduate of the College (Animal Sciences). His daughter Kim Ragland, an associate Extension professor, is also a graduate of the College (’87, ’90), as is his son Chris (’85).
Less than three years ago, Ragland said, “it was not considered really acceptable
to raise goats. You’d never go to the Quick Stop and drink coffee and say, ‘I raise goats.’”
As he talked, his herd of about 270 goats bleated, snarfed down a midmorning feed, and moved from pen to pen under the practiced hands of Vernon and Pam Weaver, the husband-and-wife team managing them.
Ragland has had a reputation in Kentucky based on more than his cagey Welsh ancestor. He was in livestock breeding and production much of his farming life—in fact, he has been an active Simmental and Hereford cattle breeder in Kentucky. If a respected and well-known farmer thinks goats are worth getting into, it sends a message.
The message has been delivered, thanks to Ragland and hundreds of other Kentucky farmers, the Cooperative Extension Service, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, and others. Consider this:
- Kentucky now ranks in the top three nationally in its number of goats, which is estimated to be between 100,000 and 150,000. (Texas is by far the front-runner, followed by North Carolina, then Kentucky.)
- A statewide goat producers’ association and more than 25 local and regional associations are up and running.
- Monty Chappell, Extension professor, and Terry Hutchens, Extension associate, are now providing the state’s meat goat farmers the information they need to buy, breed, and raise goats. Chappell teaches and writes how-to material for both sheep and goat farmers (the livestock management issues are somewhat similar). Hutchens, a longtime Extension agent in Kentucky, is now a full-time Extension associate for goat management in a partnership between UK and Kentucky State University. He was most recently in Armenia as part of a USDA project to help that former Soviet nation build up its dairy goat industry.
- UK and KSU work together on field days and newsletters. They also work with land-grant schools in several other southern states to educate goat producers and consumers in a project sponsored by the federal Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program.
- Extension agents throughout the state assist goat producers with everything from setting up meetings, to obtaining educational materials, to applying for cost-share funds.
n Farmers can now take advantage of tobacco settlement money through the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board to purchase equipment and breeding stock and convert tobacco barns for goat production.
- Three research trials on goat parasites (sponsored with grant funds from USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program) are going on across the state, including one trial at KSU.
- The state’s goat farmers are selling their product direct from the farm, at graded sales, and through a telephone auction managed by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
- Perhaps the biggest asset Kentucky’s goat industry has is the producers themselves, about 4,000 of them. Among them are true believers that Kentucky, with its abundant forage supply, has the potential to reap great profits from the goat industry.
A Family Enterprise
Keith Jeffries, with UK degrees in both animal sciences (’85) and law (’91), is a full-time attorney in Henry County. His statewide client base is made up almost entirely of Kentucky farmers. Jeffries is also a part-time goat farmer who sells primarily Boer goat breeding stock. The Jeffries family bought its first goat at the Kentucky Classic Boer Goat Show and Sale in October of 2000.
“Laura and I wanted something the boys could be involved in,” said Jeffries, explaining part of his motivation for raising goats. “We have 20 goats; I wish we had 40.” Wife and partner Laura manages the farm during the week with lots of help from sons Derek, 8, and Jackson, 6. With some supervision, the boys can do almost all of the work needed to care for the herd.
Not only do the Jeffries breed, raise, and sell goats, but their farm has become an unofficial gathering place for the Henry County Boer Goat Association. Its members, who come from several counties, gather at the Jeffries’ barn and sit on hay bales to learn about goat breeding, nutrition, parasite control, and herd health.
Starting Young
Jason Brashear, a senior ag education major from Perry County, is another pioneer. He has been raising goats since he was in the fourth grade, when he used his chore money to go down to the stockyards and pick out a doe. By the time Brashear was in the sixth grade, he had 30 head, and he and his parents continue to expand their goat operation.
Goats are ideally suited for the Brashear’s 130-acre farm. It’s so hilly that the Brashears have to seed and fertilize by hand. It grows thicket (but not forages and grasses) and that’s just fine for grazing goats. Brashear and his father now have about 100 head.
Stiff Competition
Kentucky is not the only state in the Mid-South and Southeast gearing up to capitalize on an increasing demand for goat meat.
Consumer demand in the United States is being fueled by a influx of Muslims, Hispanics, and Asians—most of whom eat goat meat and would probably eat more if it were available. A large portion of what they do eat is imported from New Zealand and Australia.
Definite market opportunities exist for Kentucky’s goat farmers, but here and elsewhere in the United States, the localized nature of the meat goat industry creates some hurdles. Few facilities are dedicated to processing goats, so processing costs are relatively high. Also, marketing is fragmented because, in this fledgling industry, farmers generally sell independently.
But Kentucky has some advantages on which it can capitalize.
“The small farmer in Kentucky has pasture, hay, and a tobacco barn that could be renovated and used for goats,” Ragland said.
David Harrison, Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources in LaRue County, sees goats as a good complement to grazing beef cattle. “You can get multiple marketings off facilities dedicated to cattle,” he said.
An extensive marketing study, carried out in 2003 for the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy, said that “Kentucky will need to move quickly to take advantage of the marketplace situations before others can.”
About 3.5 million people who eat goat live within a short distance from Kentucky, and for now the industry is expected to grow at 10 percent a year.
The burning question, said Terry Hutchens, is "Who’s gonna win this race?”
Goat production, for Kentucky, may definitely be a race worth winning.
……………….
GOAT PROFIT Captions;
Terry Hutchens (above) works full-time for Extension in goat management.
Jim Ragland (right) is one of the pioneers in Kentucky’s goat production.
The Jeffries family (left) and
Jason Brashear (right).
David Harrison, ag agent in LaRue County (left). Below, Jackson Jeffries.
GOAT(s) PULLOUT QUOTE:
“I felt meat goat production was the best alternative enterprise
for Kentucky small farms, and I wanted to be a part of introducing
and developing this industry in Kentucky.” —Jim Ragland
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2003 Extension Annual Report
The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service received more than $69 million in funding for the fiscal year 2003.
11%
GRANTS,
GIFTS & CONTRACTS
$7,425,157
33%
COUNTY
$22,870,581
16%
FEDERAL
$10,872,109
40%
STATE
$28,029,389
Income Includes External Funding
In fiscal 2003 (July 1, 2002-June 30, 2003), 11% of Extension's $69 million in funding was from external grants, gifts, and contracts. It included approximately:
$5.1 million for programs led by Extension specialists (much of this amount is also reported as part of annual reports for the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station).
$700,000 in funding from the private, non-profit Friends of Kentucky 4-H Foundation (a private, non-profit fund development partner of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service) and other gifts and endowments.
$1.6 million obtained by counties for support of county programs.
Kentucky’s economic development, health issues, need for youth opportunities, and a rapidly changing agricultural landscape require a vital Cooperative Extension Service (CES) program. This report provides an overview of how our programs in fiscal year 2003 made a difference. Our programming for farmers in 2003 didn't stop at the farm gate—it also included education about processing and marketing. We worked with other types of industries and home-based businesses, too, and worked to develop leaders and educate consumers.
Program Highlights
The state’s farmers, with CES assistance, are working cooperatively to infuse Kentucky agriculture with entrepreneurship (something that starts early through 4-H Youth Development).
In CES, we too are becoming more entrepreneurial as we seek to be wise stewards of the public funding supporting extension. We are working to multiply those funds for broader support for the needs Kentuckians face. For every state dollar spent on CES programs, an additional $1.50 is matched from other sources. For every county dollar provided, more than $2 is matched from other sources.
Partnerships with other groups and agencies multiply our efforts. Some of our partnerships in 2003 included:
- Strategic planning and visioning programs with Garrard County Tomorrow, Maysville Chamber of Commerce, Green County Chamber of Commerce, Wolfe County Renaissance, Jackson County Empowerment Zone, and Kentucky Fairs and Festivals.
- Agritourism programming with the West Kentucky Development Corporation, the Kentucky Cabinet for Tourism, and the Kentucky Tourism Council.
- The Women in Agriculture program with Kentucky State University, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Kentucky Small Business Development Center, USDA Rural Development, USDA Farm Service Agency, Partners for Family Farms, Kentucky Farm Bureau Women, Kentucky Cattlemen's Association, and the Kentucky Soybean Association.
- All Wild about Kentucky's Environment, a partnership to develop a Web site and educational programming with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the Kentucky Department of Education.
- Research-based information for producers about alternative horticultural crops with the Kentucky Horticulture Council, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, and the UK New Crop Opportunities Center.
- Assistance for the state’s beef producers to improve quality and markets with the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, the Kentucky Beef Network, USDA, and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
- Health education programming including Health Education through Extension Leadership (HEEL), Rural Healthworks, and health camps for fourth and fifth graders. Our partners in one or more of these programs include USDA, the Kentucky School of Public Health, Area Health Education Centers, the UK Center of Excellence in Rural Health, the Kentucky State Office of Rural Health, and Kentucky State University Cooperative Extension Programs.
- Energy Star educational programming with the Kentucky Division of Energy and UK Colleges of Engineering, Design, and Business and Economics.
- Children’s environmental health education and outreach with Kentucky State University, Kentucky Division for Air Quality, Kentucky Department of Agriculture, Kentucky Regional Poison Center, and the Kentucky Environmental Quality Commission.
We are proud to have worked with you in 2003, and we look forward to the future.
Larry W. Turner, Associate Director
Cooperative Extension Service
S-107 Agricultural Science Center
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky 40546-0091
E-mail: larry.turner@uky.edu
For more information about the Cooperative Extension Service, contact the Associate Director or log on to
http://ces.ca.uky.edu/ces/
Extension by the Numbers in 2003
We made more than 6.5 million contacts in 2003. That number included 225,000 young people who took part in 4-H activity during the year. We ranked only behind Texas and New York in total 4-H enrollment.
$22 million in additional income was realized by Kentucky farmers who adopted new practices.
48,000 people gained leadership skills.
31,000 people made lifestyle changes to improve their health.
21,000 people took steps to reduce their debt or increase savings.
67,000 youth learned new life skills.
22,000 individuals adopted practices to improve the quality of Kentucky's water.
Program Emphasis
Extension programming in six major categories is supported by faculty and staff on campus in Lexington, at the Research and Education Center in Princeton, at Robinson Station in Quicksand, and in each of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
Here’s how we spent our time in fiscal 2003:
5% Environment
20% Life Skills
18% Diet & Health
16% Leadership
29% Agriculture
12% Community
Annual Report stories by Martha Jackson
Across Kentucky, farmers and their families are finding new ways to sustain
the rural way of life. As the state moves beyond a tobacco-based farm economy,
our entrepreneurs are determined to make their new enterprises work, whether they be
cooperatives, agritourism, home-based businesses, or something else. The Cooperative Extension Service is playing a role in their success and in grooming the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
Keeping More of
the Cattle Business at Home
When he retired from the Community Trust Bank in Campbellsville, Ed Rogers could have propped up his feet on the porch rail. Instead, in 2001 he and eight other Green County farmers took a dream to Frankfort.
“Our goal was to economically feed and market cattle to the consumer directly,” said Rogers. The Kentucky Agricultural Development Board liked the sound of that and gave what had by then become the Green River Cattle Co. a matching grant of $43,000. The group used the money to help prove that the state can capture much more of the industry dollar—that cattle can be bred, weaned, grown to finishing weight, and processed right here in Kentucky.
During the first phase of its growth, the company also commissioned a marketing study to find out what commercial customers want. The results were a bit surprising.
“They want quality first, service second, and price third,” Rogers said.
“We found out they would pay up to 20 percent more if they got those three attributes,” said Brian Newman, Green County Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources, who has worked long and hard to coordinate resources from the College of Ag for the company in areas such as feeding regulations, marketing, animal nutrition, and food science.
Green River Cattle is now marketing its premium beef to some restaurants in Louisville, to a grocery store chain in Central Kentucky, and through the farm supply business owned by the family of one of its members. The company is also buying cattle from other area producers—another boost to the local economy. It expects to show a profit in three to five years.
Bolstered by an additional $90,000 matching grant from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board in September 2003, the company, in its intermediate phase, will hire marketing and production coordinators and continue to expand.
While this company’s model is not the only method beef cattle farmers can use to increase their profits, it does show how the state’s farmers, working cooperatively, are infusing Kentucky’s agriculture with creative, bold ideas.
Growing
a Crop of Pleasure
Kevan Evans, a Scott County farmer, is now planting fun along with his fruits and vegetables. He, like other farmers across the state, has decided that agritourism, or the industry of bringing tourists back to the rural life, offers the best new hope for the future.
“I weaned myself away from tobacco in 1998,” said Evans, who owns Evans Orchard and Cider Mill on Scott County’s southeastern edge. Evans has reshaped the farm that his family has owned since the 1940s into an agritourism destination. It benefits from the buzz of a county-wide tourism effort in the fall known as the Harvest Trail. But, much credit is due to the ingenuity of Evans and his daughter Jenny (who graduated in 1999 from the College of Agriculture with a degree in agricultural economics with an emphasis in food marketing).
The Evans family planted its first apple trees in the mid-90s and, year by year, added other fruits and vegetables, selling them at farmer’s markets and wholesale. They also had some strokes of genius that point up how essential good marketing is to successful agritourism:
First, they opened up the orchard to school tours, even tailoring the tours to the schools’ curriculum. The students, Evans said, “come back on the weekends with their parents and buy.”
Second, they applied for (and obtained) a $125,000 grant from the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board to purchase a cider mill, making them owners of one of two cider mills now operating in the state. The Evanses now buy apples from other orchard growers, turn them into cider, sell some of it back to the growers, and sell some of it themselves.
The Evanses matched the ag development grant with money of their own to convert their tobacco barn into a store. Now, on a good weekend, that store is full of tourists buying cider slushes, T-shirts, jams, fried apple pies, and fresh fruits and vegetables as well as cider that’s produced a stone’s throw from the cash register.
Scott County ag agent Mark Reese worked closely with Evans as he made the switch to agritourism. Extension specialist John Strang helped him choose apple varieties and plan the orchard layout. Reese and Strang are just two examples of how Extension is helping farmers and communities across the state find ways for tourists to experience the land.
Learning How Business
Works in America
Shane Lyle is a Lexington architect whose firm bills a half million dollars a year.
When Lyle was 16, he was among the 10 percent of his junior class at Allen County-Scottsville High School who took part in the American Private Enterprise System Program. Lyle got a crash course in business during those few days.
He toured factories and local businesses and learned about sole proprietorships, corporations, and liability.
Lyle went on to graduate from UK in 1983 with a degree in architecture. Now, his firm, Lyle Associates Architects, designs homes, fire stations, courthouses, city halls, and office buildings across the state.
He is only one of Kentucky's success stories with the American Private Enterprise System Program on his resume.
“Ours is a model program for how to reach youth,” said Lionel Williamson, Extension professor in agricultural economics, about the program, which is a joint effort between the UK College of Agriculture and the Kentucky Council of Cooperatives. Williamson has been state coordinator of the Kentucky program since 1985.
In the early 1950s, when the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives wanted to expand its program to youth, it looked to the Cooperative Extension Service in Kentucky to put together the pilot program.
Then and now, Extension agents help pull together an estimated 2,000 volunteers in 200 high schools to plan the program. Every year 1,500 to 1,800 kids across Kentucky take part. Between 125 and 150 of them, like Lyle, go on to the state program, and about 10 percent of that group goes to the national event, as he did.
“It's a fantastic program,” Williamson said. “It exposes young people to basic business and economic principles, it encourages them to learn more about how business and government in their communities operate, and it allows the local population to take ownership.”
Mrs. Antrobus Goes to Frankfort
Imogene Antrobus of Woodford County was in her mid-60s when she started her own business. Then she turned 70 and became a political activist. This is how it happened:
“Our tobacco had been cut so much that it was hard to make ends meet. I visited the farmer's market and I thought that would be some way I could make a little extra money and help with the bills,” she said.
Antrobus started selling her pickles, relishes, and salsa at the local farmer's market. For five years, she was able to bring home about $3,000 every year.
But in July of 2002, at the county’s Twilight Festival on the courthouse square, she was shut down. Unbeknownst to Antrobus, state law apparently didn't allow sale of home-processed products made outside a commercial kitchen.
“This little old mountain girl got stirred up,” said Antrobus, who was born in Powell County.
Interested legislators went to work to help her and other farm families. So did Extension. Patti Meads, Woodford County Extension agent for horticulture, researched how other states regulate home-processed products. Then, Antrobus, who had “never spoken anywhere but Homemakers and Sunday school,” went to Frankfort and testified before two legislative committees.
Last year, House Bill 391 became law. It allows farm families to sell their home-processed wares if they follow prescribed guidelines for food safety. Under the new law, the Cooperative Extension Service, in cooperation with the state Department of Public Health, is providing the training necessary for state certification of home-based canners to ensure food quality and safety. Antrobus has already taken the training.
Kentucky has a wide range of home-based businesses—flowers, foods, specialty meats, greenhouses, wood products, and more—that are adding substantially to the state's economy.
Extension professionals are a resource for many of those who own these businesses, offering advice on raising products, workshops on value-added products, and guidance on business development.
Just ask Imogene Antrobus, who this year will set up shop once again at the Woodford County Farmer's Market. “They have been my backbone,” she said.
We’re Expanding
Our Funding Sources
Roy Burris had been on the road that week, nowhere near his desk. But when he walked into his office at the Research and Education Center at Princeton late one afternoon, the application for the USDA grant was there waiting for him.
That grant was for integrated resource management (IRM) for beef producers in Kentucky and Tennessee. It was also five years of planning, months of writing, weeks of hope, and 65 pages long. Now, unexpectedly, the application had to be rewritten by 10 a.m. the next day.
“I rewrote it that night,” said Burris, Extension professor in animal sciences. The next morning, it had to be retyped. “By pleading with four secretaries, we split it up and actually got it done,” Burris said.
Then Burris got in a car and drove 200 miles to Lexington, got the necessary signatures on the application, and turned it in on time.
Researchers in the College are not strangers to such skin-of-our-teeth stories, since grants have been their bread and butter for years.
But more and more, the Cooperative Extension Service is expanding its capabilities by applying for and receiving grant funds to help accomplish its mission.
“Some of it,” Burris said, “is figuring out how to navigate the landscape.”
The Beef IRM grant, requested through USDA’s Initiative for Future Agriculture and Food Systems (IFAFS) program, was approved for $750,000. The application was so solid, the proposal so good, that it became one of only 15 percent of grant applications funded in 2000.
The grant has already resulted, through May 2003, in beef producers in Kentucky and Tennessee recouping an additional $9.1 million due to grant-funded programs that were put in place.
Five-State Beef Initiative
Once beef cattle leave the farm, they can easily go into what Lee Meyer, Extension professor in agricultural economics, has called “never-never land”—the producer has no idea how the cattle compare to other cattle on the market and may be clueless about what changes, if made, would bring home more profit. A grant submitted in 2000 for what’s called the Five-State Beef Initiative was designed to change that.
Ten to 15 Extension professionals from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, and Michigan worked on the grant over two years, traveling to Indiana several times to sit around a table at Purdue and “put flesh on the ideas,” Meyer said. In the end, the grant was a 200-page document—about 50 pages of application and 150 pages of supporting data.
Government and the private sector also helped shape the grant, which was funded, also through IFAFS, for $2.5 million in 2000. It will run through 2004.
Gary Woodall, a beef producer in Logan County who raises seed stock for Kentucky and Tennessee cattle producers, is one of the farmers who has benefited from the Five-State Beef Initiative.
Before the initiative was in place, he said, “all you could do is talk to the customers you sold your bulls to. We felt like we needed information closer to the consumer. We never got any information back before on whether we met the market demands at the meat case.”
Now, he and others are receiving information on calf health and the quality of their meat, and they're using it to adapt their breeding and management practices so that more dollars return home.
Success in obtaining grant funds has generated more of those funds. Last fall, for example, the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board awarded $230,000 to Extension to promote the ideas of the five-state concept more deeply in Kentucky. This program began in the fall of 2003.
Nancy Cox, associate dean for research, called these two initiatives “tremendous application of new technologies in our home state as well as recognition of our excellence in the competitive federal arena.”
“This is truly the best of both worlds,” she said, “accomplished with the help of valued partners including the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association, the Kentucky Beef Network, the Ag Development Board, the Farm Bureau, the stockyard industry, and others.”
Grants such as Beef IRM and the Five-State Beef Initiative have enabled Kentucky to leverage its own investment in College of Agriculture programs with federal dollars, Cox said.
Crossing Boundaries
In Extension, there are rarely clear boundaries between projects. Instead, collaboration is the model—professionals in several disciplines may be involved. For example, John Johns, Extension professor in beef nutrition and management, deserves much of the credit for the early emphasis on IRM in Kentucky and was also a leader in Kentucky's involvement in the Five-State Beef Initiative.
“It's not as usual for Extension to go after grants,” Burris said. But, as these initiatives show, it's much more usual than it used to be.
Report Pullout QUOTE:
“We are becoming more entrepreneurial as we seek to be wise stewards of public funding. We are working to multiply those funds to provide broader support for a range of needs Kentuckians face.”
—Larry Turner
Associate Dean for Extension
and Associate Director, Cooperative Extension Service
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