Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/15
Outputs
Target Audience:Women farmers, new & beginning farmers, potential farmers, farmers who want to diversify, gardeners, consumers, agriculture professionals, women veteran farmers, women farmers of color. Changes/Problems:We added additional social media tools and social media trainingfor the mentors in the last two years of the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We held 29 on-farm field days with 686 participants. Topics included: Organic Vegetable Production: From Seed to Field to Plate Whole Diet CSA Value-Added Goat Dairying Organic Vegetable Production and Heritage Seed Saving Animal Handling - PASA Education As A Value-Added Product Rodale Tour Urban Farming at Joshua Farm Transitioning to Mob Grazing Organic Dairy and Mentoring for Transitioning Farmers Assessing Honeybees for Overwintering Managing Soils in Organic Vegetable Production Spring Honeybee Assessment Shiitake Mushrooms Integrating Agritourism into a Whole Farm Plan Understanding Hardy Kiwi Day to Day Realities of Raising Sheep Building Children's Gardens and Working with Youth Transitioning to Organic Grain Production Agriforestry in King State Park Raising & Marketing Chickens & Turkeys Getting Ready for Market: A Farmers Guide to Retailing Tiller & Tools Farmer To Farmer: Sharing the Land Integrating Natural Health Care Into Your Herd Annual Rodale Tour Urban Poultry: Eggs, Fertilizer, Entertainment Assessing Dairy Goat Health, body Structure & Nutritional Needs Diversifying CSA Shares & Market Basket Choosing the Right Breed for Grass-fed Beef Production: Highland Cattle We produced 14 on-line farminars. The specialty mentors presented on topics from their farm experience. There were 3 livestock, 3 dairy/cheese, 3 fruit & vegetable, 3 value-added production, and 2 on-farm education farminars. Successfully recorded farminars are at http://agsci.psu.edu/wagn/archived-faminars. (This is not a typo) PA-WAgN held 3 day-long intensive workshops: New & Beginning Farmers, Equipment Safety and Maintenance and Holistic Financial Planning. These were held in conjunction with PASA's annual conference. Each December we held a one-day networking symposium with women keynoters: Judy Wicks (author of Good Morning Beautiful Business), Heather Retburg (Quill's End Farm), Lyn Garling (Over the Moon Farm) and Christine Anderson (producer of the film Terra Firma). There were sixteen breakout sessions each year covering topics within marketing and business planning; livestock production; fruit and vegetable production; value-added; health and personal care; and financial and production resources. We held 3 professional development trainings for Steering Committee members. Topics were Assessing the Needs of New & Beginning Farmers, Leadership in International Agriculture (Wallace Center), Effective Steering Committees, Barriers to Communication, and Strategic Planning. In addition, 3 trainings were held for specialty mentors covering the use of Adobe Connect, how to compose good PowerPoint presentations, and engaging conversation with mentees. Approximately 75 people attended 3 Twilight meetings held in partnership with the PSU Horticulture Team. Topics included tomato trellising, growing and marketing flowers and high tunnel IPM. There were 16 regional events held by regional representatives and other members. There was a gathering covering maintaining fitness will farming in Dauphin Co.; 2 potlucks in Huntingdon Co.; 2 luncheons in Chester Co. with women farmer speakers; a gathering for new farmers in Cumberland Co., a potluck in Northumberland Co.; 4 gatherings in Montour Co. were members discussed marketing, made value-added products, made crafts and shared resources, 1 potluck in Dauphin Co., 1 potluck in Juniata Co.; 1 chainsaw workshop in Centre Co.; 1 gathering in Jefferson Co.; and 1 potluck in Schuykill Co. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Through on farm field days, on-line webinars, regional events, and professional training as noted above. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Obective 1. On-farm education: Develop and deliver on-farm, hands-on, and participatory educational events for new and beginning farmers focused on sustainability in three topical tracks: production practices, value-added practices and food security. Six hundred eighty six people attended 29 field days. Seventy-five percent were women. The highest age group was 55-64 at 26% followed by 45-54 at 24% and 25-34 at 18%. Demographics were 87% white and 13% either Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Black or Mixed race. Attending to learn about farming and business practices was 91%. Those who percent attended to meet other women farmers was 32%. With 350 responses on surveys, 59% stated they improved their knowledge and skill on 7 or more topics; 30% improved on 4-6 topics and 10% on 1-2 topics. Only 2% stated no improvement. Eighty% of those already farming said they were moderately to very inspired. Forty-three percent of those not farming were moderately to very inspired. Of those, less than half plan to farm in the future. Respondents said they planned to stay in touch with people they met (77%) to provide or get business leads (29%), give or get technical information (53%) and to network (83%). Attitude about the subjects improved 45% from before the field day began to after the information was presented. Confidence about a topic rose in 3 areas from not too confident before (47%, 48% and 49%) to only 4%, 5% and 6% saying they were still not too confident after. Forty-five percent of people stated they intended to institute recommended practices on their farms. The annual symposiums which focused on tracks in livestock, fruit & vegetable, business skills and advocacy or personal care brought in over 380 people in the past 3 years. Females were 99%. The highest age group was 25-34 years with 30%, then 45-54 years at 23%, 35-44 with 20%, 55-64 with 18%, up to 24 with 11% and 65-74 at 7%. Eighty-three percent said they met someone they would stay in touch with. The greatest reason was for networking at 65%, then to share technical information at 30% and only 23% for business leads. Objective 2: On-line education: Continue to improve and deliver participatory, interactive on-line curriculum in the program subject areas with the new addition of event-related "farminars" (our version of webinars), which strengthen our virtual learning community. Fourteen farminars were presented with a total of 220 viewers and 131 who visited the archived versions on the website. Respondents increased knowledge by 57%; confidence in skills by 51%; their value of importance of topics by 31% and planned to implement recommendations by 57%. Objective 3: Regional mentoring networks: Develop the mentoring capacity of regional leaders to strengthen and facilitate the development of local mentoring networks. We held 3 events with 68 total attendees. Carolyn, include the exercises you did from the engagement book you did last year. Objective 4: Specialty farmer mentors: Build leadership capacity and foster relationships between specialized farmer mentors and new and beginning farmers. We held 3 trainings for 15 people. The mentors had interaction with mentees through on-farm field days, farminars, phone, email, Facebook specialty groups and farm visits. Although impossible to count all contacts, there were over 500 mentor contacts with other farmers through all avenues. Objective 5: Organizational partnering: Enhance partnerships with non-governmental and governmental organizations as well as other new and beginning farmer programs to deliver educational programs and create greater information access. We added new partners Dickinson College, Wilson College, DCNR, PA Farm Link, Next Generation Farmers Advisory Group, PA Young Farmers, PA Farmers Union, BFLN, Philadelphia Urban Farming Extension, PSU Extension Agricultural Entrepreneur and Horticulture Teams, PA Dept. of Agriculture, NCAT, and Women and Their Woods.
Publications
- Type:
Books
Status:
Awaiting Publication
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Women Farmers on The Rise in Sustainable Agriculture. University of Iowa Press.
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Progress 09/01/13 to 08/31/14
Outputs
Target Audience: Our target audience are new and beginning farmers, especially women farmers. We also reach out to new and beginning men farmers (15% of our attendees are men). Changes/Problems: We found that farmers preferred learning in groups and field days rather than one-on-one contact with mentors through phone, email or social media. PA-WAgN plans to address this through diversified avenues of promotion of the program via newsletter, blog and press releases to advertise the availability of assistance with skills embodied in our individual mentors. We plan to try to identify mentees that we can connect with the mentor in either group or one-on-one connections depending on the needs of the mentee. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? All of the activities reported above under goal one, two, three and four provided professional development opportunities. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results of the research on the needs of new and beginning women farmers have been disseminated to our steering committee members and at our annual day-long symposium. We also use the results of our research and evaluations to develop topics and pedagogy for all of the field-days and events. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue with our successful efforts as we move forward to the next year. We will select five mentors who will each conduct a field day, a farminar, and a workshop at our day-long symposium. We expect to conduct at least 5 on-farm field days, 3 webinars, provide leadership training for 5 new mentors, and conduct a day-long symposium. We identified one challenge that we plan to address. The women farmers participating in our events preferred mentoring opportunities in a group networking setting vs. one-on-one interactions with a mentor. They preferred collaborative discussions with mentors or other women farmers so that they could learn what others have experienced and tried and thus, they had more options to consider. People attending our events tended to be second- or third-career stage women who had already been farming for a few years. Because of this experience level, they were more receptive to programs and presentations that address specific skill sets vs more generalized topics. PA WAgN will adjust both Field Days and the One-Day Networking Symposium to include more directed networking time where participants can ask questions of others in a group setting. We will investigate ways to develop more group networking activities to allow for mentoring to occur in this preferred setting. We will experiment with a session within our field days where participants can “test the waters” of mentorship and try to work through hesitations they have with asking mentors questions. Finally we will network with other programs targeting women to better understand how their programs are structures, and what successes and challenges they have faced.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project achieved the goal of improving the sustainability of agricultural businesses for new and beginning farmers, especially women farmers, through providing networking and educational opportunities. 1. On-farm Education: Develop and deliver on-farm, hands-on, and participatory educational events for new and beginning farmers focused on sustainable production in three topical tracks: production practices, value-added practices and food security. PA-WAgN’s first objective of providing on-farm education addressed three tracks: 1) production practices – organic fruit & vegetable, sheep, hardy kiwi, honey bees, and shiitake mushrooms; 2) value-added practices – farm stays, on-farm events, on-farm restaurant and store, specialty crops, special events such as “adopt-a-sheep;” and 3) food security – organic production, on-farm processing, youth education, and developing partnerships to make a small operation sustainable. We held ten on-farm field days and one day-long workshop during this period for 246 participants. 58.1% noted they were already farming and another 31.8% planned to begin farming within the next two years. 67% responded that they met someone that they planned to stay in contact with in the future. Participants reported their main reason for staying connected was overwhelmingly (83.3%) to network and share information on farming. 40.9% stated they would stay in contact for technical information. The majority of people attending field days were age 45-64 (59.4%) and 77.6% were female. This audience is primarily women who are getting into farming at a later period of life but without the skills needed for farming. They prefer peer-to-peer learning ingroups where they feel safer to ask questions and get to know others who they can continue to network with and learn from after the event.Our one-day networking event attracted a more equal number of people in the 25-34 age group (28.6%) compared to 42.8% in the 45-64 age groups that allowed for intergenerational networking and sharing. Post field day evaluations showed that 51.9% of respondents had a ‘considerable’ increase in knowledge. 32.4% felt they had a ‘moderate’ increase in knowledge. When asked their confidence in implementing new skills, 62% felt ‘confident’ in implementing new skills and 20.4% had ‘moderate’ confidence. Attitudes about ideas put forth during the field days improved in two or more areas by 39.3% and 69% of respondents felt this improvement in attitude was ‘considerable.’ 62.3% of people learned new ideas that they planned to implement in their own farming operations. 66.7% noted that there were 7 or more outcomes that improved in the overall knowledge covered in the field day. 2.On-line education: Continue to improve and deliver participatory, interactive on-line curriculum in the program subject areas with the new addition of event-related "farminars" (our version of webinars), which strengthen our virtual learning community. PA-WAgN’s second objective, development and delivery of “Farminars” (webinars), an on-line education program, continues to progress. Each specialty mentor conducted a one-hour webinar on their area of expertise. PA-WAgN hosted five Farminars during the months of January through March to accommodate farm production schedules. The subjects presented in 2014 were: Diversify Your Farm: Sharing Land with Neighbors and Trial Farmers (An Agricultural Incubator); Keys to Success with Pastured Pigs; Building Strong Roots for the Next Generation: Farm Succession Planning; Building a Children’s Garden; and Farm-To-Table: On-Farm Dining as a Value-Added Enterprise. Each Farminar was attended by10-12 participants and 156 follow-up inquiries tracked. 3.Establish mentoring networks: Develop the mentoring capacity of regional leaders to strengthen and facilitate the development of local mentoring networks. PA-WAgN experienced success meeting its third objective by developing regional mentoring networks. In this reporting year, four regional representatives organized and facilitated meetings where farmers gathered and shared their experiences and encouraged each other. These events were potlucks which focused on particular topics such as certified kitchens, chain saw use and safety. Representatives reported that mentoring was accomplished through theis peer-to-peer networking where women shared their challenges and successes. One hundred and sixteen people attended regional events. 4.Develop seasoned farmer mentors: Build leadership capacity and foster relationships between seasoned farmer mentors and new and beginning farmers. We assigned five new farm mentors in the areas of livestock, value-added, fruit and vegetable production. We provided a day-long workshop on leadership training to new mentors that was also attended by the mentors from the previous year. These five new mentors each help a field-day on their farms, presented a workshop at our day long symposium, conducted an on-line webinar on their subject matter, and had a facebook page. Our page for mentors on our website had 393 hits and our events page had 1,171. Our Facebook page had 788 likes at the end of this reporting period. 5.Engage in organizational partnering: Enhance partnerships with non-governmental and governmental organizations as well as other new and beginning farmer programs to deliver educational programs and create information access for new and beginning farmers into the future. PA-WAgN’s final objective to enhance partnerships with non-governmental and governmental organizations was also met. PA-WAgN collaborated with three grant partners, PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture, PA Certified Organic, and Rodale Institute, as well as with Women and Their Woods, Penn State Extension, Natural Resources Conservation Service, USDA-ARS, and Penn State Ag Farm Safety Team. PA-WAgN continues to foster relationships with Vermont Women's Agricultural Network; Women, Food, and Agriculture Network; Community Partnerships Resource, Conservation & Development; Beginning Farmer Learning Network; and FarmLink. PA-WAgN has expanded its cooperation with Penn State Cooperative Extension and initiated collaborations with AgConnect; Farm-to Table; Regional Latino Community IPM Partnership, Department of Health Policy and Administration at PSU; and National Young Farmers Coalition. PA-WAgN has also joined a new initiative at Penn State through their StartFarming program to bring multi-disciplinary educators together across the state with numerous agencies and partners to educate new and beginning farmers. This initiative will launch with a focus on fruit and vegetable production.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Brasier, Kathy, Carolyn Sachs, Amy Trauger, Nancy Ellen Kiernan, Mary Barbercheck, Anna Rachel Terman. 2014. Capturing the Multiple and Shifting Identities of Farm Women in the Northeastern United States. Rural Sociology.
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Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13
Outputs
Target Audience: Women farmers, new and beginning farmers, potential farmers, farmers who want to diversify or add value to their products. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Two professional development opportunities were provided for steering committee members and mentors in January 2013 and March 2013. In January we held a one-day training for mentors and mentor committee members. A professional leadership coach led the group through an exercise to assess the needs of new & beginning farmers and how the mentors can help to meet those needs. A staff member from the Wallace Center at Winrock International spoke to the group on leadership in international agriculture. The group assessed the comparisons and differences of women in agriculture in the United States and other continents like Africa. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? 311 people attended 11 field days during this period. 124 attended the One-Day Networking symposium and approximately 65 attended other regional events. Evaluations were conducted at all of the field days. We asked questions about improved knowledge, confidence, attitudes, and actions. In terms of improved knowledge, 61% improved their knowledge on three topics, 25% improved their knowledge on two topics, and 5.6% improved their knowledge on 1 topic. For confidence, 50.7% improved their confidence in at least three topics, 25.4% in two topics and 15.5% in one topic. For attitudes, 69% of respondents improved their attitudes. Of all participants, 72.2% plan to implement an idea in their operations based on their participation in the events. In terms of networking, 79.1 % of people met someone with whom they will stay in contact with. Of these contacts, 28.6 % expect to benefit from business leads, 46.9 % expect to exchange technical information, and 89.9 % expect to share ideas and interact. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Select new farm mentors. Each mentor will hold a field day, conduct a farminar, and serve as a mentor in a specialty area. We will also partner with other organizations to hold field days.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We expanded our new and beginning farmer education by focusing on developing a women farmer-led mentor program. A committee of women farmers and PAWAgN staff members selected five specialty mentors in different areas of interest to new& beginning women farmers including: 1) Livestock Production; 2) Fruits & Vegetables; 3) Urban Agriculture and Nutrition; 4) Dairy and Cheese and 5) On-farm Education and Value-Added Products. Mentors participated in a one-day training that included instruction on Adobe Connect, assessing the needs for the coming year, and setting a five-step plan to implement the action plan. Then mentors conducted a roundtable discussion on their specialty topic at our one-day networking symposium in December. Each mentor conducted an on-farm field day during their spring or summer season. The field days consisted of a farm tour and in-depth discussions of specific topics within their specialty. Experts from Cooperative Extension, NCRS and other agencies also taught at the field days to supplement information provided by the farmers. The combination of farmer and expert knowledge deepened the experience of participants. Each mentor conducted a one-hour webinar or “Farminar” in their specialty area. PA-WAgN staff created a discussion group under the PA-WAgN Facebook page for each specialty mentor topic. The mentors invited people to join this discussion and provided answers to questions or directed questions to someone else with more experience. We met all our goals and exceeded our expectations for the first year of the mentor program. We also met our goals for the on-farm education program. We held 11 events. The topics covered included “Organic Vegetable Production: From Seed to Field to Plate” where participants learned about production geared for an organic CSA and wholesale business. Planning for a CSA season, planting cycles and marketing were discussed by the farmer, CSA manager and Penn State Extension personnel. In November we held “Whole Diet CSA” in which participants learned about marketing and customer relationships and how this farmer supplies her CSA members with vegetables, some small fruits, dairy, meat, flour, baked goods, eggs and soap. The next event, “Value-Added Goat Dairying,” covered topics of goat species selection, health care, feeding, milking and housing as well as requirements for raw milk production and cheese making. In April, “Organic Vegetable Production and Heritage Seed Saving,” held in western PA, focused on high tunnel production and assessing and nurturing soil health. Soil entomologist Dr. Mary Barbercheck led participants through an exercise to assess soil quality and percolation. Farmer/mentor Jen Montgomery discussed how she and her husband started their Heritage Seed saving company. A workshop on “Animal Handling” was held in conjunction with The PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture. Dr. Brenda Coe demonstrated numerous animal handling tools and then led the group though moving and sorting sheep, moving cows, handling sheep for foot care, proper handling of poultry and rabbits. Dr. Dave Wolfgang showed the participants proper haltering techniques and discussed health issues that may require certain handling techniques. At the field day, “Education as a Value-Added Product,” participants learned how to access grant monies for renewable energy education; shiitake logs as a learning tool; herbs and various educational opportunities and how to set-up educational events, get funding, liability and engage participants. In June we partnered with Rodale Institute for a tour of their organic crop and vegetable trials, composting facility, honeybee conservancy, Japanese garden and heritage pigs. At the field day on “Urban Farming at Joshua Farm,” attendees learned how to look for space, partners and funding; assess and build soils; market produce; and work with inner city youth and neighbors. At the field day on “Transitioning to Mob Grazing, the farmers and a grazing expert from NRCS led the group on a farm tour and discussed weed identification, fencing, stocking rates, pasture rest needs and options for reseeding. We finished the year with field days on “Organic Dairy and Mentoring for Transitioning Farmers” that was held in cooperation with PA Certified Organic and “Assessing Honeybees for Overwintering”. Gary Zimmer, a nationally known speaker on pasture health spoke at the dairy field day. In the honeybee field day, Penn State entomologist Maryann Frazier led participants in working in the hives to assess queen health, count Varoa mites and condense hives to increase hive strength. We held a one-day networking symposium in December with two keynote speakers: Heather Retburg from Maine and Lyn Garling, Over the Moon Farm, Rebersburg. Heather spoke about her food sovereignty project. Lyn spoke about the challenges and joys of being a woman farmer and how to maintain your spirit and enthusiasm. Workshops at the symposium included “Mob Grazing for Beginners”; “Mentoring on a Girls Farm Camp”; “Keeping Fresh Produce Safe Using Good Agricultural Practices”; “Social Media for Effective Marketing Connections”; “Infrastructure: How to Design It, How to Build It, How to Finance It”; “Strategies for Streamlining Your Marketing Plan”; “Ewe Can Do It! And We’re Here to Help”; “Are You Ready for Market?”; “Challenges on Bringing a Life Partner on Board with a Farming Lifestyle”; “Field to Florist: Growing & Marketing Fresh Cut Flowers”; “Together We Market: Why Banding Together to Sell Farm Fresh Products Works”; “It’s Your Path, It’s Your Life, It’s Your Farm: Create Your Identity”; “You’re an Activist? Me? Making Change in Your Community”; “Introduction to Holistic Management”; and “Engaging Children on the Farm”. PA-WAgN expanded our new & beginning farmer partnerships internationally with two regional events. In October, OXFAM farmer of the year, Susan Godwin, and other OXFAM staff joined with PA-WAgN members at Yeehaw Farm in Duncannon to tour the farm and discuss farming in Nigeria compared to farming in Pennsylvania. Then a policy writing discussion was held at Village Acres Farm in Mifflintown in March. Food safety legislation was a key topic. At this event there were ten African researchers, farmers and organizers on Borlaug fellowships. This led to a discussion comparing policy making in different countries. Other PA-WAgN women farmers hosted this group of Borlaug fellows to share their experience in canning excess produce, poultry processing, making and marketing value-added products, cheese making and operating a girls’ farm camp. Another PA-WAgN regional event was a workshop on Fitness as Responsible Motion at Stoney Creek Iris in Halifax. Katie Mace, a personal trainer, took the attendees through every day farming movements and taught them how to build strength and flexibility to decrease potential injury from these movements. Stoney Creek Iris also hosted a potluck supper following a Twilight meeting on high tunnel IPM. This event was a partnership with Penn State Extension. We held two other twilight meetings with PSU Extension: one in Centre County on tomato trellising and one in Berks County on berries and cut flowers. In February we co-sponsored a full day workshop at the annual PASA conference for New & Beginning Farmers. The training covered the topics of designing pasture systems and fencing equipment; installing irrigation equipment; finding the right hand tools for the job; assessing used equipment to purchase; finding financing and available government loans; and following your passion no matter what the obstacles.
Publications
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Barbercheck, Mary, Kathy Brasier, Nancy Ellen Kiernan, Carolyn Sachs, Amy Trauger. 2013. Use of Conservation Practices by Women Farmers in the Northeastern United States. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems.
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Brasier, Kathy,Carolyn Sachs, Amy Trauger, Mary Barbercheck, Nancy Ellen Kiernan, "Capturing the Multiple and Shifting Identities of Farm Women in the Northeastern United States" Rural Sociology.
- Type:
Books
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Women and Sustainable Agriculture
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2012
Citation:
Kiernan, Nancy Ellen, Mary Barbercheck, Kathryn Brasier, Carolyn Sachs, Anna Rachel Terman. 2012. Women Farmers Pulling Themselves Up By Their Own Educational Bootstraps. Journal of Extension 50(5). http://www.joe.org/joe/2012october/rb5.php
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