Progress Report 82, October 2018

IN THIS ISSUE . . .

The Move is Complete…Center Staff Settled into New Office Page 1 Welcome Troy Dugger Page 2 Giorgio Receives First-Ever Charlie and Patricia Goan Award Page 2 Holland Receives Downen Leadership Award Page 2 Leffew Recognized for Two Awards at National Meeting Page 3 Center Leads Value-Added and Agritourism Tour in East Tennessee for NACAA Page 3 Center Program Featured in National Meeting Poster Sessions Page 3 Center’s Educational Exhibit Featured at Trade Show Page 4 Hal Pepper Delivers Professional Development Seminar at National Meetings Page 4 UTIA Symposium on Hops Page 4 County-Based Ag Asset Mapping/Inventory Page 5 County Ag Impact Summary Sheets Page 5 Update on Sustainable Agiculture and Tennessee SARE Page 5 Update on Marketing Specialist Search Page 6 Update on Lone Oaks Director Search Page 6 The Move is Complete….Center Staff Settled into New Office As of August 21, 2018, the official office headquarters for the Center for Profitable Agriculture is 850 Lion Parkway, Columbia, Tennessee 38401 in the main office building at the William P. Ridley 4-H Center. The new office building provides space for each staff member of the Center and accommodates future growth. The office phone number is still 931-486-2777, and each member of the CPA team can still be reached at their same email address. An open house and ribbon-cutting event will be planned for the near future. If you are in the area, come see us.

Helping Farmers Develop Value-Added Enterprises Center for Profitable Agriculture Quarterly Progress Report

2 | P a g e

Welcome Troy Dugger After serving as a county Extension agent for University of Tennessee Extension in Hickman County for more than thirty-three years, Troy Dugger has joined the UT Center for Profitable Agriculture as a program coordinator. Dugger will be involved in developing and implementing educational programs related to farm-based value-added agriculture enterprises, sustainable agriculture, alternative and specialty crops marketing and beginning farmer programs. Working closely with Rob Holland and Roy Bullock from Tennessee State University Extension, Dugger will help coordinate various professional development opportunities and other Extension efforts with the USDA SARE program. SARE stands for sustainable agriculture research and education. In addition to his work with sustainable agriculture, Dugger will work with other members of the Center for Profitable Agriculture on various projects and educational programs related to value-added farm enterprises, workshops for beginning farmers and marketing specialty crops. The Center for Profitable Agriculture is the state’s flagship educational program for value-added agriculture and is a partnership between UT Extension and the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. In his previous work as Extension agent in Hickman County, Dugger served as a 4-H agent for six years, adult agriculture agent for three years and as county director and agriculture agent for twenty-four years. Much of his Extension work in Hickman County involved programs for farmers and landowners in the areas of livestock, forages, and forestry. He has been instrumental in collaborating with local farmers conducting row crop test plots and in the development of the Hickman County Farmers Market. Dugger holds degrees from Columbia State Community College and UT Knoxville. He has received various awards and recognition including the 2017 recipient of the TAAA&S-Hicks Award of Excellence, the 2002 NACAA Distinguished Service Award and numerous recognitions for his outstanding work in 4-H youth development programs. Troy is originally from the Culleoka community in Maury County. Giorgio Receives First-Ever Charlie and Patricia Goan Award for Outstanding Customer Service

Kim Giorgio, administrative specialist for CPA, is the first-ever winner of a new UTIA honor the Charles and Patricia Goan Excellence in Customer Service award, named for the former animal science professor and his wife. Giorgio is heavily involved in the management and operation of CPA’s main office and in the development of educational outreach programs and seminars statewide. She’s worked for the CPA the past fifteen years and previously worked in the Maury County schools.

Holland Receives Downen Leadership Award The Center’s director, Rob Holland, was recognized with the Lloyd and Nettie Downen Award, named for the former dean of the UT Extension and his wife. The award includes funding to pursue leadership training. Holland plans to use the award to study agricultural marketing programs, collaborative leadership efforts and successful agricultural teams in other states. Holland is a twenty-five year employee of UTIA. Prior to becoming director of CPA, he served as a financial analysis specialist and as an area farm management specialist for UT Extension and has conducted educational programs in all ninety-five Tennessee counties and twelve other states.

3 | P a g e

Leffew Recognized for Two Awards at National Meeting

Megan Bruch Leffew was one of three Tennessee recipients for the National Association of County Agricultural Agents’ (NACAA) Distinguished Service Awards in 2018. The awards were given at the association’s annual meeting awards banquet in Chattanooga on August 1. The award recognizes excellence in the field of professional Extension for members with more than ten years of service. Other Tennessee honorees were John Goddard, Loudon County agriculture agent, and Stephen Huff, Jefferson County agriculture agent.

Leffew was also a state and regional level winner and national finalist in the NACAA Communications Awards in the bound book category for “Tennessee Christmas Tree Production Manual” (PB 1854). Contributing authors to the publication also included Alan Galloway, area farm management specialist, and David Mercker, Extension forestry specialist. Center Leads Value-Added and Agritourism Tour in East Tennessee for NACAA

Center specialists Megan Bruch Leffew and Hal Pepper helped to organize and host one of more than twenty professional improvement tours as part of the 2018 National Association of County Agriculture Agents Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference. The tour focused on value-added agriculture and agritourism featuring stops at Sweetwater Valley Farm, Mayfield Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch, and Tsali Notch Vineyard. A total of thirty-five Extension professionals from across the country participated. The tour was requested by the NACAA Agricultural Economics and Community Development Committee and sponsored by National Crop Insurance Services.

Center Program Featured in National Meeting Poster Sessions The Center’s Growing Digital Educational Program focusing on advanced online marketing strategies for direct farm marketers was featured in the poster session at the 2018 National Association of Agricultural Agents and Specialists Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference in July. Co-authored by Megan Bruch Leffew, Chuck Grigbsy, and David Yates, the poster was the Tennessee State Winner in the Educational Program Category. A record 173 posters were entered in the national poster contest, 108 of which were in Extension Education with the other 65 coming from Applied Research. During the “Meet the Author” sessions, members had the ability to meet one-on-one with the poster author(s) and discuss their work.

4 | P a g e

Center’s Educational Exhibit Featured at Trade Shows The Center for Profitable Agriculture featured their exhibit this quarter at the following trade shows:

• National Association County Agricultural Agents • Steak and Potatoes Field Day-Crossville • Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation President’s Conference • Milan No-Till Field Day

Hal Pepper Delivers Professional Development Seminar at National Meetings in Chattanooga and Washington, DC In July Center specialist Hal Pepper presented a summary of the Center’s work with Tennessee farmers markets at the National Association of County Agricultural Agents in Chattanooga and in September he presented the summary at the National Direct Agricultural Marketing Summit in Washington, D.C. Collaborating groups at the summit included USDA, Farmers Market Coalition, Food Distribution Research Society and the 20th Annual National Value Added Conference. The summary provided history, justification and background for the Center’s development of all-day educational workshops for farmers market vendors and managers and an assessment of overall impact. From 2012 to 2018 the Center has conducted 40 farmers market boot camp workshops for 1,348 participants. From 2015 to 2017 six farmers market manager trainings have been conducted for 141 participants. UTIA Symposium on Hops

The increased interest in locally produced hops prompted a group from the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture to host a “hops” focused symposium on August 15, 2018. There were seventy-seven members of UTIA’s faculty and staff in attendance representing several departments. The symposium addressed the opportunities and challenges of production, marketing strategies, and the roles of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture and UTIA/UT Extension. The symposium generated positive input and discussion for future research and outreach related to the crop. Those on the program of the symposium included David Hughes, Aaron Smith and Hannah Wright from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics; David Lockwood and Eric Walker from the Department of Plant Sciences; Bruce Kirksey from Agricenter International; Rob Holland from the Center for Profitable Agriculture; Whitney Flatt and Mike Brown from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture; and Tim Cross, UTIA Chancellor.

5 | P a g e

County-Based Ag Asset Mapping/Inventory In collaboration with colleagues in the UTIA Department of Agriculture Economics, our Center recently participated in an agriculture asset mapping exercise in two rural counties: Hancock County and Hardeman County. Results of the exercises were presented in each county in September. The agriculture asset mapping project found and addressed various opportunities for economic development including utilization of wood waste products, contract poultry production, soybean processing, livestock slaughtering and processing, annual county agriculture fair, farmers market and various agritourism, nature tourism, aquaculture and wood industry ventures. The lists of agriculture assets and opportunities were prioritized by local stakeholders and will be further evaluated for future next steps.

County Ag Impact Summary Sheets We are pleased to make you aware that the “County-Level Agricultural Economic Impact Summary Sheets” that we have been working on for the past year have now been completed. This was a collaborative project under the primary leadership of David Hughes. The map at the following web site will allow you to check out the summary sheet for each county: extension.tennessee.edu/Pages/ANR-CED-ABEE-County-level-Ag-Economic-Impact.aspx. We think the information in these summary sheets will be powerful ammunition to help inform local leaders and stakeholders of the value that agriculture contributes to local economies. We will make these county-based summary sheets available to agents in our county Extension offices and we will conduct a variety of outreach and informational sessions with other agriculture leaders as well. We greatly appreciate the funding and support from Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Tennessee Soybean Promotion Board, Tennessee Cattlemen’s Association, Farm Credit Mid-America, and Tennessee Farm Bureau that made this project possible. Update on Sustainable Agriculture and Tennessee SARE

The Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has been around for thirty years. The mission of SARE is to advance innovations that improve profitability, stewardship and quality of life by investing in groundbreaking research and education. Troy Dugger is now serving as the SARE Program Assistant as part of his responsibilities as Program Coordinator with the Center for Profitable Agriculture. SARE funds are being used to assist Extension personnel in attending professional development workshops and seminars that help them in planning programs

and working with clientele. Five area specialists with the farm management program recently attended the Mid-South Agricultural Finance Conference at UT Martin. These specialists commented that this conference provided them with several useful tools for evaluating farm operations’ profitability and financial sustainability, while equipping them with tools that will better serve them while working with farm families in Tennessee.

6 | P a g e

Update on Marketing Specialist Search The search for a Marketing Specialist is well underway. A search committee has been formed consisting of Megan Bruch Leffew (chair), Hal Pepper and Troy Dugger from the Center, Dan Strasser from Tennessee Farm Bureau, Bob Ary from Sumner County Extension, Rachel Painter from Rutherford County Extension, and Sreedhar Upendram from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics. Applications are now being accepted, and the search committee will soon begin screening applications. A job announcement is available online at https://tiny.utk.edu/X1834. Update on Lone Oaks Director Search The search committee is fully at work to fill the position of director – Lone Oaks Farm. The position announcement is posted online at: extension.tennessee.edu/employment/Positions/X1833%20Director,%20Lone%20Oaks%20Farm.pdf and candidates can be nominated by contacting search committee member Janie Burney at jburney@utk.edu. A screening of applications will begin in October with interviews anticipated in December.

AG.TENNESSEE.EDU

Programs in agriculture and natural resources, 4-H youth development, family and consumer sciences, and resource development.

University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture and county governments cooperating. UT Extension provides equal opportunities in programs and employment.

Center for Profitable Agriculture 850 Lion Parkway, Columbia, TN 38401

931-486-2777 ag.tennessee.edu/cpa