Progress 09/01/23 to 08/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the Maine New Farmers Project includes new farmers (anyone who has been farming for less than 10 years) who want to learn about production practices (for livestock or market garden production) and agricultural business techniques (such as record keeping, writing business plans or filling out tax forms). Our outreach efforts encourage everyone, but especially women and veterans, to start farms by visiting active farms run by women and Veterans and invitingwomen and Veterans to speak at our events/webinars/etc. Our new farmer participation list currently has 464 new farmers, 42% of whom are women and 6% are Veterans. Changes/Problems:1. Instead of hiring outside professionals toproducevideos, wehired internally to produce lesser-quality videos and more of them. This stretchedour video budget further and created content that more closely resonated with our audiences. Thisincluded purchasing video equipment to enhance our equipment and hiring anInstructional Design Professional and Video EditingAssistant. We produced 5 videosfor the Maine Farm Sitting Course that launchedthis spring. Parts were asynchronous and were largely enhanced by the informative videos. The video equipment was also used to produce other livestock videos including pasture management, lamb birthing, feed analysis, and more. 2.In 2022 the cost of the GenerationNext course, taught by Farm Credit East, was reduced from $1,100 to $199/farm. With this drastic reduction, it became clear we would not be able to spend all of this budgetlineas intended. We used some of these funds to give scholarships to participants of theMaine Meat Cutting School.One of our co-PIs of this grant is Colt Knight. Through his Grazing Behavior Lab, he organizes and teaches the Maine Meat Cutting School which teaches the history of US meat production, consumer trends, humane handling and slaughter of livestock, meat quality, food safety, labeling, customer service, and hands-on training for butchering and sausage making. This course has been running for a few years and has been very popular with new farmers in Maine because there is a noted lack of livestock processing facilities here in Maine. Due to this, livestock growers are turning to butchering on their farms, not an easy skill to master on your own. Colt ran this Meat Cutting School in January for Lamb producers and in May for pork producers. He charges $350 per person. Weoffered 5 scholarships this year for a total of $1750. 3.Our budget (under "Honoraria/Stipends) says: "$1200 per year is included for farmer advisory committee members stipends. An annual stipend of $200 will be provided to 6 commercial farmers serving on the Equipping New Farmers Advisory Council." Our advisory council has farmers on it, but all of them were also attending our advisory meetings as agricultural service providers and declined the stipends. This past winter our third-party evaluator interviewed four experienced first-generation farmers. Our goal was to choose farms to interview who had started their business from the ground up. We used this money to pay these experienced farmers for their participation in our interviews. We will use the information to inform our future new farmer programming in Maine. 4.We have a budget line for purchasing QuickBooks software: "Funds are requested for QuickBooks software (desktop version) and will be made available to participants of the QuickBooks training (limited to 10 participants per training twice each year). 20 x $200 each = $4,000 per year."Since this grant was written (back in 2020) the price of QuickBooks software has increased so much that it has priced us out of the market. Our grant (and farmers in general) can't afford to buy the software for $550-$1500/each. We had budgeted $200. So, instead, we transitioned our programming to teach the online version of QuickBooks and we are getting the participants a 30-day free trial for the online version if they participate in our QuickBooks program.We used the QuickBooks software funds togenerate other resources. We used these extra fundsto publish a publication about Small Fruit Production that includes information about keeping clear sales records and why that is so important for farmers in New England. 5.The Non-Employee Travelsection has a line "$7000 per year in travel costs will be included for 10 growers to tour out of state." Because of the pandemic, this type of travel was not possible this year and we aren't sure demand for this type of travel will rebound during this grant cycle. We used some of this money to bring in experts to speak to growers.Our Livestock Specialist organizeda Cattleman's College andbrought in speakers about low-stress animal handling and other pertinent topics. 6. We applied for an received a no-cost extension to continue to run our New Farmer programming for another six months. We have many courses/events planned including GenerationNext (three workshops around the state), QuickBooks (two different workshops, both virtual), Maine Meat Cutting School (with scholarships), and other webinars and workshops on various new farmer topics. We also have more videos and factsheets in the works, to be published this winter. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The MNFP held a beginner QuickBooks course in November 2023 and an intermediate QuickBooks Course in March 2024. The November course was a four-session course geared toward introducing new farmers to recordkeeping on farms and teaching them how to use QuickBooks in a farming application. Farmers logged in to Zoom from all over the state of Maine. With help from USDA NIFA BFRDP funding, all participants received a full scholarship to attend the course. They learned about QuickBooks basics, including keeping track of customers' information, documenting and organizing sales data, printing out receipts, documenting purchases, and depreciating equipment. In the "Intermediate QuickBooks for Farms" Course, farmers learned to record fixed assets & depreciation, record new loans & payments, reconcile year-end loan balances with lenders, and use journal entries in QuickBooks Online. The 26 participants (15 were women) had plenty of time to ask questions in class and had access to the instructors outside of class time. One participant had this to say when asked what was one thing they learned that will be useful right away on their farm: "I learned the difference between a tag and a class. Mike taught me a lot about the nuances of creating reports. I appreciate all you do! Thank you for the opportunity! I am new to [QuickBooks] online; it is so different from the 2015 desktop version I had." The MNFP held an 8-session online GenerationNext course in January of 2024. This course is designed to advance the farmer's management skills and business knowledge when starting a farm or taking over an existing farm. Each session included group discussions, idea sharing, and networking opportunities. We had 17 (12 of which were women) farmers join who were interested in starting operations in logging, vegetable production, tree fruit production, or hay and forage production. The course costs $199 per person, but all attendees from Maine were able to attend with a scholarship from this grant funding. One Maine participant offered this feedback: "Thank you for your sponsorship of the GenerationNext class through Farm Credit East. While we are only a few classes in it has been very helpful to hear others talking about similar issues and perspectives that we have in our operation. The course material is very relevant and I'm sure I'll take much more away from the class in the coming weeks." another participant offered this: "I thoroughly enjoyed the GenerationNext course and found it incredibly valuable for my business. One key takeaway was learning effective financial management strategies, which I plan to implement to improve profitability and sustainability. I appreciate the opportunity provided by The Maine New Farmers Project and look forward to participating in future programs." We collaborated with Maine AgrAbility and the Boots to Bushels veterans' educational program to invite new farmers to attend educational farm visits this summer. The farm visits took place in Damariscotta, Penobscot, Bowdoinham, Farmington, Hinkley, Newcastle, Alna, and Thomaston Maine. We covered various topics including seed starting, post-harvest care of vegetables, no-till vegetable systems, Agritourism, lavender production, small tools for small farms, tractor safety, cut flower production and beginning dairy production, poultry production, and swine production. A total of 62 new farmers attended the farm visits this summer, 62% women and 15% Veterans. When asked if they learned anything that they will use to start or improve their farming operations right away, the participants offered this feedback: "I learned a lot at Morning Dew Farm, but I really took a lot from her speaking about planting and managing the seedlings inside the greenhouses." "One thing I learned from the workshop: the benefits of heat treating seed! I'm planning to heat treat our spinach seed this fall for our winter high tunnel production. Thank you for this amazing summary and list of resources, so helpful!" "One change I plan to make on my farm because of what I learned today: Thinking more about terracing and making more up front costly earthwork investments to mitigate potential erosion on steep slopes." "From talking with Ian, we're definitely going to be orienting our beds down contour and building our beds up high to deal with drainage. It was really heartening to learn how much the no-till system has helped Ian deal with the challenges that clay poses. We were initially planning on trying to do living pathways, but Ian's strategy of building up pathways with slab wood and woodchips seems like a better way to encourage drainage and prevent bed erosion than our initial plan." "It was a worthwhile visit. While we don't have a train, never considered winter sleigh rides, so plan to investigate that opportunity. Also plan to have a small lavender planting." "I really learned lots at Grace Pond Farm. The tours are valuable. I hope the University can secure future funding." Rebecca Long and other Extension educators developed the Maine Horticulture Apprentice Training (MHAT). The MHAT is a 3-part, comprehensive curriculum designed to supply learners with a foundational horticulture education suitable for skilled entry-level positions in the horticulture industry. Developed with input from horticulture industry leaders, this self-paced asynchronous program will prepare learners with the practical horticulture knowledge and skills desired by employers. Learners were also required to complete a 200-hour apprenticeship. This course was offered in the fall of 2022 and 2023 and will be offered again this fall. 52 participants have completed the course and 20 of them have gone on to complete the apprenticeship. The economist on our team, Jonathan Malacarne created the Maine Farmers Market Price Report. The report has up-to-date and market-specific price data that is important to farm businesses as they refine business plans, apply for financing, and manage day-to-day operations. The report has had over 6,725 views (1,141 unique users) so far this season. Dr. Colt Knight, our livestock specialist, has created a podcast called "Maine FarmCast" www.extension.umaine.edu/podcasts/maine-farmcast/. The Maine Farmcast features weekly conversations with experts from across the country sharing insights and advice for both new and seasoned farmers running operations of any size. Dr. Knight has published 21 episodes of FarmCast which has been downloaded 861 times. Dr. David Handley, our small fruit specialist, launched a virtual, synchronous course on small fruit production in Maine. He recorded the modules and plans to develop them into an asynchronous online course for new farmers in Maine who want to start small fruit production on their farm. The learning objectives include: Commercial Strawberry production in Maine, Commercial Raspberry Production in Maine, Commercial High Bush Blueberry Production in Maine, Commercial Grape Production in Maine, and IPM for Small Fruit in Maine. We had 11 participants (27% Women). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?In year three, we continued to improve our web presence. We added a list (updated every other week) of grants and loans appropriate for new and beginning farmers in Maine. We also added a webpage about our Maine Farm Sitters Course (see below for more details). We have added many videos and factsheets to our "Build Your Skills" section and increased our Newsletter signups by 93% to 253. Our webpage has had 50,783 views since the project started. We also added a Maine Veteran Farmer Outreach page to our website and hired a Maine Veteran to build and oversee this page. Our team publishes six different newsletters that reach a total of 5,086 farmers in Maine. Maine Farm News, the Oxford County Farm and Garden, and the Maine New Farmer Newsletter go out bi-monthly or monthly throughout the year and the Maine Strawberry Integrated Pest Management News, the Maine Sweet Corn Integrated Pest Management News, and the Maine Spotted Wing Drosophila Alerts go out for ten weeks during the growing season. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We received a no-cost 6-month extension and plan to provide business planning and production educational sessions for growers including: QuickBooks for Farms (beginner and intermediate workshops) GenerationNext Farm Business Workshops (in person and virtual) Webinars focused on Ag Business and Production themes Livestock seminars with experts from other Universities Risk Management workshops including Crop Insurance Education We will also continue to create resources including: Keeping the website up to date with current events and resources Videos and Factsheets about relavant topics pertaining to Ag Business and start-up production agriculture We also plan to apply for future funding this winter.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1.Equip new farmers and farm workers with practical skills and knowledge to improve their chances of success in managing a sustainable farming operation:Beginning farmers will increase their knowledge and skills in business planning by participating in both group and one-on-one business planning education and assistance. Our team developed and launched a course for new farmers called Business Planning for Producers. In the fall of 2023, we had 30 participants, 47% female and 17% Veterans.At the end of this course, participants felt comfortable evaluating potential land-based businesseswith the core concepts of business planning including market research, marketing, funding, financial record keeping, risk management, writing a business plan, and sustainability. Successful completion of this course qualified students for USDA Farm Service Agency Borrower Training Credit. Some feedback from the participants: "The course helped break down the different aspects of the business planning process into manageable chunks. It also helped connect me with potential sources of funding that I wouldn't have otherwise considered." "An extensive amount of helpful information was presented in a variety of formats by knowledgeable speakers. Many additional resources were shared." "A well-rounded class full of detailed information to help the students with creating a plan rather than just headed into an enterprise blind. I appreciated the wide range of information presented." "The instructors were very helpful and available to answer all types of questions. The classes moved along quickly and covered a wide range of business planning that we would not have considered Ifwe hadn't taken this course. Thanks!" "This course taught us to take a holistic approach to our farming operation. It covered all aspects of the farming operation including planning, crop management, financial, future planning, and developing obtainable goals for our farm." Our team held four farm business-themed webinars by request of the New Farmers. The themes included cut flower production, the Schedule F tax form, how to accept EBT at farmers' markets and farm stands, and how to interact with carnivores on your farm. Overall we had 52 participants (42 of them being women). In "Don't Fear the Schedule F", UNH's Mike Scibarrasi spoke about the different parts of the tax document for farmers, how to keep good records leading up to tax season, and answered many farmer questions. In "Farming in the Presence of Carnivores", Jeri Vistein explained how to cultivate relationships with carnivores that coexist on your property and how to use that to your advantage as a successful farmer. In "Getting Started with Commercial Dahlia Production", Erica Berman talked about how her farm purchases seed, plants, cultivates, harvests, and stores Dahlia tubers and flowers. She also spoke about how to market your cut flower crop. In "Accepting Alternative Forms of Currency for Farm Products", G Cherichello - Maine DACF Maine Senior FarmShare Program Manager, Jamie Pacheco - Brunswick/Topsham Land Trust, Ana Pedre - Maine WIC Vendor Manager, and Lynne Holland - UMaine Extension Horticulture Professional spoke about how to receive EBT, WIC and other forms of payment and coupons from the public at their farm stands, stores and market stands. They also talked about food donations to the food banks in Maine. Goal 2. Establish and develop a qualifying system for farm workers and farmers when knowledge or skills are proven: Beginning farmers will learn about, observe, participate in, and experience aspects of crop and livestock farming. Livestock production programming was held all over the state with topics including meat-cutting basics, beef handling, grass-fed beef operation basics, GPS tracking, advanced grazing skills, farm sitting, livestock handling, sheep shearing, poultry production, and raising pork. Fruit and vegetable production programming was held in Penobscot, Monmouth, Bethel,Farmington, Hope, and Waldo. Topics included climate change and farm planning, small fruit and vegetable variety trials, small fruit production basics, and vegetable pest and disease updates. We had a total of 319 new farmers attend the in-person programming this past summer. 92% of the participants indicated "I plan to implement at least one thing I learned today on my farm within one year." Goal 3. Establish a farm relief service so that competent individuals can obtain employment on farms and work alongside older and experienced farmers. Our team developed the Maine Farm Sitters Course. The purpose of this course is to equip individuals with the tools to serve as effective farm sitters and to understand the general responsibilities of helping an animal-based farm enterprise successfully continue in the absence of the farmer or manager. We launched this course in March of 2024 as a hybrid course (some parts synchronous, some asynchronous) with the Brightspace platform. We hired UMaine Professor Emeritus Richard Brzozowski to coordinate the launch of this course. We had 17 participants (76% women, 12% Veterans). Some feedback from the participants: "I found [The Maine Farm Sitters Course] helpful as I had zero idea where, how and what to do to get [my own farm sitting business] started." "[I] enjoyed the business aspects [of farm sitting] and thinking about [farm sitting at] bigger farm operations. I was thinking more about [farm sitting at] hobby type farms." "[The Maine Farm Sitters Course] helped me understand what exactly farm sitting entails. I came to this course with no knowledge and I appreciate it starting from square one. I think the best part of this course for me were the resources. I saved all of the website and documents and plan to reference them in the future. I look forward to the in-person sessions." "[The Maine Farm Sitting Course] helped me think of things I hadn't thought of before like biosecurity and budgeting." Goal 4. Create a sustainable beginning farmer program in Maine:Existing resources and networks for beginning farmers will be strengthened and refined. Our team publishes six different newsletters that reach a total of 5,086 farmers in Maine. Maine Farm News, the Oxford County Farm and Garden, and the Maine New Farmer Newsletter go out bi-monthly or monthly throughout the year and the Maine Strawberry Integrated Pest Management News, the Maine Sweet Corn Integrated Pest Management News, and the Maine Spotted Wing Drosophila Alerts go out for ten weeks during the growing season. In year three, we continued to improve our web presence. We added a list (updated every other week) of grants and loans appropriate for new and beginning farmers in Maine. We also added a webpage about our Maine Farm Sitters Course (see below for more details). We have added 34 videos and 10 factsheets to our "Build Your Skills" section and increased our Newsletter signupsto 561. Our webpage has had 50,783 views since the project started. We also added a Maine Veteran Farmer Outreach page to our website and hired a Maine Veteran to build and oversee this page.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the Maine New Farmers Project includes new farmers (anyone who has been farming for less than 10 years) who want to learn about production practices (for livestock or market garden production) and agricultural business techniques (such as record keeping, writing business plans or filling out tax forms). Our outreach effortsencouragewomen and veterans to start farms through visiting active farms run by women and veterans, and inviting women and veterans to speak our events/webinars/etc. Our new farmer participation list currently has 230 new farmers, 66% of whom are women. Changes/Problems:The GenerationNext course cost much less than what was written in our budget, so we allocated some of those funds to holding the QuickBooks course, which has increased in price. We had a couple of changes to our QuickBooks course offering for this past year (from what we had detailed in our budget). We asked SCORE Maine to provide the QuickBooks training course in collaboration with this project. They did a fantastic job and also handled the registration and internet logistics. Also, USDA NIFA gave permission for years two and three for us to use excess monies from the GenerationNext budget line to purchase QuickBooks software for class participants. But, Intuit increased the price of QuickBooks so much, that we were not able to purchase any subscriptions this year. It would have cost over $500 each. The out-of-state tour for new farmers didn't draw enough interest from New Farmers (we suspect the hesitation from New Farmers represents a hold-over emotion from COVID worries about being around people for an extended amount of time,) so USDA NIFA gave us permission to reallocate those funds to bring in speakers from out of state for the Maine Cattlemen's College. This event took place last fall and will be held again this coming winter. This past year, the United Farmer Veterans of Maine group disbanded. They were supposed to help this project with outreach to veteran farmers. To supplement this void, we collaborated with Maine AgrAbility's Boots 2 Bushels program. This is a 9-month intensive course that introduces New Farmers to the business and production sides of starting a market garden in Maine. Because of the collaboration, we have many more veterans and their families exposed to the MNFP and our networks and resources. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The MNFP heldQuickBooks courses for farmers in November of 2022 andJanuary of 2023. These were four-session courses detailing appropriate recordkeeping for farms. Thirty-one farmers logged into Zoom from all over the state of Maine. Through our funding, all participants received a full scholarship to attend these courses. They learned about the basics of QuickBooks includingtrackingof customerinformation, documenting and organizing sales data, printing out receipts, documenting purchases, and depreciating equipment. The participants had plenty of time to ask questions in class and had access to the instructors outside of class time for follow up questions and discussion. Please note: USDA NIFA also gave permission for years two and threeto apply excess monies from a different budget line to purchase QuickBooks software for class participants. Unfortunately, Intuit raised the price of QuickBooks($800/unit) beyond what we could purchase with the funding available, so we were not able to purchasesubscriptions this year. The MNFP held a 3-session in-person GenerationNext course in December of 2022 and a seven-week online GenerationNext Course in January and February of 2023. Thesecoursesare designed to advance the farmer's management skills and business knowledge when starting a farm or taking over an existing farm. Each session included group discussions, idea sharing, and networking opportunities. Twenty-twofarmers participated, with interestsin starting operations in logging, vegetable production, tree fruit production, or hay and forage production. The course costs $199 per person, but all attendees from Maine were able to attend with a scholarship from this grant funding. Our team held two farm business-themed webinars by request of the New Farmers. The first was "Don't Fear the Schedule F" in which UNH's Mike Scibarrasi spoke about the different parts of the tax document for farmers, how to keep good records leading up to tax season, and answered many farmer questions. The session was recorded and has had over 850views on our webpage. The second webinar was "Cultivating Compliance: A grower's guide to complying with the agricultural-related worker protections.". In this webinar, Brian Cleasby from the Federal Department of Labor spoke about the changes to the new H2A labor laws and how they may affect New Farmers looking to hire help. Rebecca Long with several other Extension educators developed the Maine Horticulture Apprentice Training (MHAT). The MHAT is a 3-part, comprehensive curriculum designed to supply learners with a foundational horticulture education suitable for skilled entry-level positions in the horticulture industry. Developed with input from horticulture industry leaders, this self-paced asynchronous program prepares learners with the practical horticulture knowledge and skills desired by employers. Learners are required to complete a 200-hour apprenticeship. This course was offered in the fall of 2022 and will be offered again this fall. Some feedback we got from participants: from a greenhouse that hosted an apprenticeship: "She is an amazing asset to our greenhouses. Excellent customer service and very knowledgeable. We have hired [MHAT apprentice] to a full-time position." Also: An incarcerated individual was able, through assistance from staff at their facility, to complete the program. The individual was able to get over 500 hours of hands-on experience and an additional credential for their resume when they are able to reenter the workforce. We collaborated with Maine AgrAbility and the Boots 2 Bushels veterans' educational program to invite new farmers to attend educational farm visits this summer. The farm visits occurred in Damariscotta, Penobscot, Bowdoinham, Farmington, Hinkley, and Thomaston, Maine. We covered various topics including seed starting, post-harvest care of vegetables, no-till vegetable systems, small tools for small farms, tractor safety, and beginning poultry production. We also held a farm visit in Alna, Maine to discuss Agritourism with new farmers. A total of 65 new farmers attended the farm visits this summer, many of them veterans and women. Our team regularly participates in one-on-one consultations with new farmers interested in livestock, vegetable, and/or small fruit production in Maine. Combined, we have counseled 294 individual new farmers so far in the project. These farm business-themed (or production) discussions usually center around topics including setting farm business goals, writing a business plan, applying for loans/grants, and keeping annual sales records. These meetings span one to three hours each and usually end with us directing the growers to many useful resources to meet their goals. The economist on our team, Jonathan Malacarne, collaborated with the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Maine Farmland Trust, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry, and the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets to create the Maine Farmers Market Price Report. The report has up-to-date and market-specific price data that is important to farm businesses as they refine business plans, apply for financing, and manage day-to-day operations. The report has had over 1,500 views (231 unique users) so far this season. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our team publishes six different newsletters that reach a total of 4,938 farmers in Maine. Maine Farm News, the Oxford County Farm and Garden, and the Maine New Farmer Newsletter go out bi-monthly or monthly throughout the year and the Maine Strawberry Integrated Pest Management News, the Maine Sweet Corn Integrated Pest Management News, and the Maine Spotted Wing Drosophila Alerts go out for ten weeks during the growing season. In August of 2022, we sent out a survey to recipients of these newsletters to ask how valuable the newsletters are to them. 18% of respondents (n=90) said they will increase their profits due to the information provided in these newsletters. 60% of respondents said they improved their soil quality due to the information provided. 50% responded that they improved their pest management on their farm. 55% of respondents responded that they added at least one full-time, part-time or seasonal job on their farm. This year we revamped our web presence. When you choose the "Build Your Skills!" option, you can then choose "Learn With Us" or "Learn On Your Own." Under the "Learn With Us" heading you can now find information about past programs that run annually (within UMaine Extension and statewide) as well as current programming with open registration. All events are searchable by categories: Livestock, Farm Business Management and Vegetables and Fruit. The "Learn On Your Own" webpage has resources (factsheets, videos, webinars, etc.) searchable by the same three categories (Livestock, Farm Business and Vegetables and Fruit). We learned that new farmers want to search by the farm enterprise they are working on, so we put that information front and center. We have added many new resources on this page including videos, factsheets and links to other organizations. Also on the website, farmers can sign-up for the monthly Maine New Farmer Newsletter. We also have a page called "Connecting with Others" where we highlight how New Farmers can network with peers in Maine including our Facebook Group (650 members and growing): Maine New Farmers Project. Other sections of the website include pages for "Ask the Experts", News, Cultivate Wellness (ways to deal with farm-related stress), Find Funding For Your Farm, a self-assessment for new farmers, past survey results, Find Crop Insurance, and a calendar of events geared toward New Farmers in Maine. All of these categories are updated consistently throughout each month. Our webpage has had 20,821 views since the project started. Members of our team regularly attend and speak at national conferences. We have presented our programming at these national conferences and won multiple awards for the work that has been done. Dr. Colt Knight is the state winner in 2023 in "Search for Excellence in Livestock Production", "Education Video Recordings" and "Fact Sheet." Anne Martin spoke at the AgrAbility National Training Workshop about her work on the Boots 2 Bushels program. David Handley spoke at the New England Vegetable and Fruit Conference. The project manageris part of the Maine Farmer Resource Network (MFRN) which connects this project to most of the agricultural service providers around the state who work with new farmers. She attends their monthly meetings and regularly reports on MNFPprogramming and collaborates with other members to create new programming. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our team is developing a course for new farmers on how to write a business plan called Business Planning 4 Producers. At the end of this course, participants will feel comfortable evaluating potential land-based businesses and understand the core concepts of business planning including: market research, marketing, funding, financial record keeping and sustainability. Successful completion of this course qualifies students for USDA Farm Service Agency Borrower Training Credit. This course will launch in October 2023 with a maximum of 50 participants. Our team is developing the Maine Farm Sitters Course. The purpose of this course is to equip individuals with the tools to serve as effective farm sitters and to understand the general responsibilities of helping an animal-based farm enterprise successfully continue in the absence of the farmer or manager. We plan to launch this course in March of 2024 as a hybrid course (some parts synchronous, some asynchronous) with the Brightspace platform. We have hired UMaine Professor Emeritus Richard Brzozowski to coordinate the devlopment and launch of this course. Dr. David Handley, our small fruit specialist, is launching a virtual, synchronous course on small fruit production in Maine this coming fall. The course content was piloted in a college-level course last fall. He plans to record the modules and develop them into an asynchronous online course for new farmers in Maine who want to start small fruit production on their farms. The learning objectives include Commercial Strawberry production in Maine, Commercial Raspberry Production in Maine, Commercial High Bush Blueberry Production in Maine, Commercial Grape Production in Maine, and IPM for Small Fruit in Maine. The project manager continues to recruit new farmers in Maine to participate in the MNFP. She will have tables at fairs and farm conferences around Maine, speak at conferences, and develop more new farmer programming. She will also keep attending meetings with other Ag Service Providers around Maine to make sure they all know what the MNFP is and how farmers can be part of the network.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In year two, beginning farmers participated in a comprehensive, individualized training program to increase profitability, improve decision-making, and consider life balance. Farmers are building a portfolio of knowledge and experience for successful farming through hands-on and classroom training, one-on-one support, and text and video materials. After year two, we found that at least 44% of the participants are women and 10% were veterans. To help prepare beginning farmers to start or advance their farm businesses, the project has enacted four initiatives: 1. Intensive Business Planning. Two hundred thirty-five beginning farmers increased their knowledge and skills in business planning by participating in group and one-on-one business planning education and assistance in year two of the project. One farmer recalls: "I got connected with Rebecca Long, who is awesome.The "So You Want To Farm In Maine?"course was hugely instrumental in helping me become an LLC and to get farm insurance. I sort of knew what I should be doing - but it was so helpful to be directed - to answer things like why do I want to do the things I am doing?" 2. Filling the Gaps in Production Knowledge. Beginning farmers learned about, observed, participated in, and experienced many aspects of crop and livestock farming. Activities were held around the state that included hands-on experience on University and commercial farms. Participants learned from established, successful farmers through on-farm tours and informal mentoring. This year 28events were held with 610 participants in attendance. As one farmer tells it: "I've raised pigs all my life, but I didn't know a lot. Learned a lot about the breeds of swine. Colt's a very good teacher, he doesn't come across as an academic, but as a farmer." 3. Establishing a farm relief service.The development of the Maine Farm Sitters Course is underway. We will cover the components of effective Farm Sitting, what to consider when setting up a Farm Sitting business, Best practices for animal husbandry, and more. The launch of the course is scheduled for March 2024. The growers are looking forward to the course launching: "I have farm-sat a few times in the past. I have had chickens for nine years now. Been owned by numerous cats and owned dogs most of my life. I really enjoy being around and taking care of various critters. I will be taking the course come [spring] to learn more about farm sitting." 4. Increasing Access to Resources and Networks. Existing resources and networks for beginning farmers were strengthened, augmented, and refined. We developed 10 videos posted to our webpage and distributed to our network via newsletter and social media. We introduced new farmers in Maine to many new networking opportunities and ag service providers including SCORE Maine, Farm Service Agency, United States Department of Agriculture, Nature Resources Conservation Service, and the Maine Farmers Resource Network. One new farmer says: "These sessions are wonderful in helping us network. I will miss Donna, she's been so helpful with my chickens. (Right now I have 35 hens, 2 roosters, 16 pullets, and 16 chicks). All for eggs." Goal 1:Equip new farmers and farm workers with practical skills and knowledge to improve their chances of success in managing a sustainable farming operation We held many farm business-themed courses helping new farmers understand the basics of farm business and farm management. We reached 53new farmers with these courses. Most of these new farmers participated in free, one-on-one, farm business planning with an agricultural business advisor. Goal 2. Establish and develop a qualifying system for farm workers and farmers when knowledge or skills are proven. Beginning farmers will learn about, observe, participate in, and experience aspects of crop and livestock farming. We collaborated with Maine AgrAbility and the Boots 2Bushels veterans' educational program to invite new farmers to attend educational farm visits this summer. The farm visits occurred in Damariscotta, Penobscot, Bowdoinham, Farmington, Hinkley, and Thomaston Maine. We covered various topics including seed starting, post-harvest care of vegetables, no-till vegetable systems, small tools for small farms, tractor safety, and beginning poultry production. We also held a farm visit in Alna, Maine to discuss Agritourism with new farmers. Sixty-five new farmers attended the farm visits this summer, many of them veterans and women. Here's what one farmer says they are doing differently because of the course:"It's been very interesting: we have learned a lot. Recently we have been doing pest management. [Because of what we learned in Boots 2 Bushels], we now pay attention to the seeds we buy... We need the ones engineered to resist pests." Livestock production programming was held all over the state with topics including meat-cutting basics, beef handling, grass-fed beef operation basics, GPS tracking, advanced grazing skills, and raising pork. Fruit and vegetable production programming was held in Penobscot, Monmouth, Wayne, and Charleston. Topics included climate change and farm planning, small fruit and vegetable variety trials, small fruit production basics, and vegetable pest and disease updates. We had a total of 610 new farmers attend the in-person programming this past summer. Here's what one new farmer had to say:"I think they are doing a great job. I've been in contact with the plant disease and pests people, and they are disseminating a lot of great information, Colt is a very good teacher and doesn't come across as an academic - but great for farmers." Goal 3. Establish a farm relief service so that competent individuals can obtain employment on farms and work alongside older and experienced farmers. Our team is developing the Maine Farm Sitters Course. The purpose of this course is to equip individuals with the tools to serve as effective farm sitters and to understand the general responsibilities of helping an animal-based farm enterprise successfully continue in the absence of the farmer or manager. We plan to launch this course in March of 2024 as a hybrid course (some parts synchronous, some asynchronous) with the Brightspace platform. We have hired UMaine Professor Emeritus Richard Brzozowski to coordinate the launch of this course. Goal 4. Create a sustainable beginning farmer program in Maine. This year we revamped our web presence to help new farmers navigate to the programming that is relevant to them (in terms of needing farm business help or production help). We also have continued to publish our newsletter that highlights all of the new farmer programming available in the state.We also are maintaining a Facebook group (650 members so far) where members can interact and network with each other and with UMaine Extension. Other sections of the website include pages for "Ask the Experts", News, Cultivate Wellness (ways to deal with farm-related stress), Find Funding For Your Farm, a self-assessment for new farmers, past survey results, Find Crop Insurance, and a calendar of events geared toward New Farmers in Maine. All of these categories are updated consistently throughout each month. Our webpage has had 20,821 views since the project started.
Publications
|
Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience is new farmers in Maine, specifically military veterans, organic producers, small farms, specialty crop producers, and women. Changes/Problems:Our team took on the challenge of determining if a Farm Relief Service was needed in Maine. We started by conducting a survey of the Maine dairy industry to determine if they were interested in such a service. Most of the respondents expressed the need for extra labor, but the overwhelming majority held the opinion that any available workers in Maine would be under-educated in agriculture and inexperienced in dairy production. Their lukewarm response led us to rethink our approach. We have drafted a "Maine Farm Sitting Course" to educate prospective agricultural workers. The purpose of this course is to train and equip individuals in serving as effective farm sitters and to understand the general responsibilities of helping an animal-based farm enterprise successfully continue in the absence of the farmer or manager. We plan to roll out this course for new farmers in year two of the project. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The MNFP held a QuickBooks course in March of 2022. This was a four-session course geared toward recordkeeping on farms. The 35 farmers logged in to Zoom from all over the state of Maine. With help from our funding, all participants received a free copy of the software and a full scholarship to attend the course. They learned about the basics of QuickBooks including keeping track of customers' information, documenting and organizing sales data, printing out receipts, documenting purchases, and depreciating equipment. The participants had plenty of time to ask questions in class and had access to the instructors outside of class time. One participant said, "I am so very appreciative of this class, the instructors, and the staff. It made transitioning to farming as a business easier regarding keeping financial records. Thank you again!" Please note: the QuickBooks software price increased significantly from when the grant was written to when we purchased the software, so we gained permission from USDA-NIFA to use monies denoted for all three years of the project to cover the cost of the software for this project year. USDA NIFA also gave permission for years two and three for us to use excess monies from the GenerationNext budget line to purchase QuickBooks software for class participants. The MNFP held a seven-week GenerationNext Course in March and April of 2022. This course is designed to advance the farmer's management skills and business knowledge when starting a farm or taking over an existing farm. Each session included group discussions, idea sharing, and networking opportunities. We had ten farmers join who were interested in starting operations in logging, vegetable production, tree fruit production, or hay and forage production. The course costs $199 per person, but all attendees from Maine were able to attend with a scholarship from this grant funding. Here's what one attendee had to say about how the course was helpful to them, "I found the HR and Management topics very applicable to my current role and will help me in the future." We collaborated with Maine AgrAbility and the Boots to Bushels veterans' educational program to invite new farmers to attend educational farm visits this summer. The farm visits took place in Damariscotta, Penobscot, Bowdoinham, Farmington, Hinkley, and Thomaston Maine. We covered various topics including seed starting, post-harvest care of vegetables, no-till vegetable systems, small tools for small farms, tractor safety, and beginning poultry production. A total of 100 new farmers attended the farm visits this summer, many of them veterans and women. We taught the "So You Want To Farm In Maine?" (SYWTFIM?) course this winter. SYWTFIM? is a course to equip participants with the knowledge and skills to start, adapt, and maintain a profitable land-based business in Maine. Participants are introduced to farm business basics and service providers to help them establish a sustainable business from the beginning of their farming career. Free, one-on-one business consultation was available at the end of the course for all of the 57 new farmers participants and the majority of them took advantage of this service. When the pandemic restrictions let up in our area, we started holding some in-person events around the state. Livestock production programming was held in Orono, Lewiston, Turner, Dover Foxcroft, Charleston, Augusta, and Thomaston. Topics included meat-cutting basics, beef handling, grass-fed beef operation basics, and raising pork. Fruit and vegetable production programming was held in Brunswick, Monmouth, Auburn, and Charleston. Topics included climate change and farm planning, small fruit and vegetable variety trials, small fruit production basics, and vegetable pest and disease updates. We had a total of 335 new farmers attend the in-person programming this past summer. Our team regularly participates in one-on-one consultations with new farmers interested in livestock, vegetable, and/or small fruit production in Maine. Combined, we have counseled 123 individual new farmers so far in the project. These farm business-themed (or production) discussions usually center around topics including setting farm business goals, writing a business plan, applying for loans/grants, and keeping annual sales records. These meetings span one to three hours each and usually end with us directing the growers to many useful resources to meet their goals. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We established the name Maine New Farmers Project (MNFP) and a media campaign based on the slogan "Build Your Skills!" which denotes our offerings of farm production and farm business educational opportunities for new farmers in Maine. "Learn with Us" is a list of programs that are in-person or virtual and synchronous. "Learn on Your Own" shows our online new farmer resources including recorded webinars, recorded courses, fact sheets, videos, etc. We list all of these on our new website that highlights the purpose of the project and the key audience. Also on the website, we have a sign-up for the monthly Maine New Farmer Newsletter. There's a page called "Connecting with Others" where we highlight how New Farmers can network with peers in Maine including our Facebook Group: Maine New Farmers Project. Other sections of the website include pages for "Ask the Experts", News, Cultivate Wellness (ways to deal with farm-related stress), and a calendar of events geared toward New Farmers in Maine. Our team publishes six different newsletters that reach a total of 3,908 farmers in Maine. Maine Farm News, the Oxford County Farm and Garden, and the Maine New Farmer Newsletter go out bi-monthly or monthly throughout the year and the Maine Strawberry Integrated Pest Management News, the Maine Sweet Corn Integrated Pest Management News, and the Maine Spotted Wing Drosophila Alerts go out for ten weeks during the growing season. We also sent out a survey of participants who receive these newsletters to ask how valuable the newsletters are to them. Members of our team regularly attend and speak at national conferences. We have presented about our programming at these national conferences and won multiple awards for the work that has been done. Tori Jackson presented at the NACAA meeting about the So You Want To Farm In Maine? (SYWTFIM?) Course and won the NACAA Northeast Regional Distinguished Service Award. Donna Coffin presented about her Maine Farm News Newsletter and won aNACAA Northeast Regional award. She also presented about the SYWTFIM? course and won a Search for Excellence in Farm and Ranch Business Management NACAA Northeast Regional Award. Colt Knight won the NACAA Northeast Regional awards for his Educational New Farmers Livestock Video series and the UMaine Livestock Online content. The project manager also is part of the Maine Farmer Resource Network which connects this project to most of the agricultural service providers around the state who work with new farmers. She attends their monthly meetings and regularly reports on programming. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our team took on the challenge of determining if a Farm Relief Service was needed in Maine. We started by conducting a survey of the Maine dairy industry to determine if they were interested in such a service. Most of the respondents expressed the need for extra labor, but the overwhelming majority held the opinion that any available workers in Maine would be under-educated in agriculture and inexperienced in dairy production. Their lukewarm response led us to rethink our approach. We have drafted a "Maine Farm Sitting Course" to educate prospective agricultural workers. The purpose of this course is to train and equip individuals in serving as effective farm sitters and to understand the general responsibilities of helping an animal-based farm enterprise successfully continue in the absence of the farmer or manager. We plan to roll out this course for new farmers in year two of the project. The MNFP team has started work on a micro credential pathway to allow new farmers to get college credit for participating in two of our new farmer education programs. The New Market Gardener Micro Credential will certify that the learner has successfully completed either the SYWTFIM? Course or the Boots to Bushels Course and then follow up that learning with specific applications of the topics learned. We have completed an outline of this work and plan to establish this course in years two and three of the project. Dr. David Handley, our small fruit specialist, is in the process of developing a virtual, synchronous course on small fruit production in Maine. The course content is being piloted in a college-level course this fall and will be developed into a series of webinars this coming winter. The plan is to have the webinars recorded and develop them into an asynchronous online course for new farmers in Maine who want to start small fruit production on their farm. We plan to repeat the SYWTFIM?, GenerationNext, QuickBooks and Boots to Bushels courses in year two, with some minor changes to each. Some will have more in-person components (which will be more possible this year with less pandemic restrictions). We have hired a new QuickBooks instructor to have more farm-based examples and a more organized syllabus. SYWTFIM? will have different speakers, but a similar syllabus. We also plan to hold vegetable, small fruit, and livestock production demonstrations at University and commercial farms in the state. Also, with less pandemic restrictions, we plan to have a cohort of new farmers visit some out-of-state farms next summer. We also plan to reach growers with one-on-one business and crop planning consulting. We also plan to continue to add to the website to keep participants up-to-date and informed with the changes and offerings of new farmer programming in Maine. Weran into challenges when trying to establish a peer-to-peer farm mentorship program. Many farmers were not willing to meet with new farmers due to pandemic social distancing. We had a small group of new farmers who had self-identified as wanting a mentor, but we were not able to recruit qualified mentors to help them this year. In year two of the project, we plan to team up with the Maine Farm Bureau to recruit mentors over the winter to have them matched up with new farmers by spring.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
In year one, beginning farmers participated in a comprehensive, individualized training program designed to increase profitability, improve decision-making, and consider life balance. Farmers are building a portfolio of knowledge and experience for successful farming through hands-on and classroom training, one-on-one support, and text and video materials. After year one, we have found that at least 40% of the participants are women and at least 10% are veterans. To help prepare beginning farmers to start or advance their farm businesses, the project has enacted three initiatives: 1. Intensive Business Planning. One hundred and nineteen beginning farmers increased their knowledge and skills in business planning by participating in group and one-on-one business planning education and assistance in year one of the project. 2. Filling the Gaps in Production Knowledge. Beginning farmers learned about, observed, participated in, and experienced many aspects of crop and livestock farming. Activities were held around the state that included hands-on experience on University and commercial farms. Participants learned from established, successful farmers through on-farm tours and informal mentoring. This year 18 events were held with 335 new farmers participants in attendance. 3. Establishing a farm relief service. A "Maine Farm Sitting Course" was developed in year one of this project with the express goal of helping to alieve the farm labor shortage on livestock farms in Maine. Implementation of this course is scheduled for year two. 4. Increasing Access to Resources and Networks. Existing resources and networks for beginning farmers were strengthened, augmented and refined. We developed 8 documents and 9 videos that were posted to our webpage and distributed to our network via newsletter and social media. We introduced new farmers in Maine to many new networking opportunities and ag service providers including SCORE Maine, Farm Service Agency, United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Maine Farmers Resource Network. Goal 1.Equip new farmers and farm workers with practical skills and knowledge to improve their chances of success in managing a sustainable farming operation We held many farm business-themed courses helping new farmers understand the basics of farm business and farm management. We reached 119 new farmers with these courses. Most of these new farmers participated in free, one-on-one, farm business planning with an agricultural business advisor and 57 wrote business plans. Goal 2. Establish and develop a qualifying system for farm workers and farmers when knowledge or skills are proven. When the pandemic restrictions let up in our area, we started holding some in-person events around the state. Livestock production programming was held in Orono, Lewiston, Turner, Dover Foxcroft, Charleston, Augusta, and Thomaston. Topics included meat-cutting basics, beef handling, grass-fed beef operation basics, and raising pork. Fruit and vegetable production programming was held in Brunswick, Monmouth, Auburn, and Charleston. Topics included climate change and farm planning, small fruit and vegetable variety trials, small fruit production basics, and vegetable pest and disease updates. We held 18 events and had a total of 335 new farmers attend the in-person programming this past summer. Goal 3. Establish a farm relief service so that competent individuals can obtain employment on farms and work alongside older and experienced farmers. Our team took on the challenge of determining if a Farm Relief Service was needed in Maine. We started by conducting a survey of the Maine dairy industry to determine if they were interested in such a service. Most of the respondents expressed the need for extra labor, but the overwhelming majority held the opinion that any available workers in Maine would be under-educated in agriculture and inexperienced in dairy production. Their lukewarm response led us to rethink our approach. We have drafted a "Maine Farm Sitting Course" to educate prospective agricultural workers. The purpose of this course is to train and equip individuals in serving as effective farm sitters and to understand the general responsibilities of helping an animal-based farm enterprise successfully continue in the absence of the farmer or manager. We plan to roll out this course for new farmers in year two of the project. Goal 4. Create a sustainable beginning farmer program in Maine. We established the name Maine New Farmers Project (MNFP) and a media campaign based on the slogan "Build Your Skills!" which denotes our offerings of farm production and farm business educational opportunities for new farmers in Maine. "Learn with Us" is a list of programs that are in-person or virtual and synchronous. "Learn on Your Own" shows our online new farmer resources including recorded webinars, recorded courses, fact sheets, videos, etc. We list all of these on our new website that highlights the purpose of the project and the key audience. Also on the website, we have a sign-up for the monthly Maine New Farmer Newsletter. There's a page called "Connecting with Others" where we highlight how New Farmers can network with peers in Maine including our Facebook Group: Maine New Farmers Project. Other sections of the website include pages for "Ask the Experts", News, Cultivate Wellness (ways to deal with farm-related stress), and a calendar of events geared toward New Farmers in Maine.We believe this one-stop-shop website will be a great starting point for new farmers in Maine for years to come. At the end of this reporting year, we hired a third-party evaluator to interview some participants and identify our project's impacts on new farmers in Maine. The evaluator contacted eight project participants and asked them for their feedback and impacts from the specific courses or events they attended. In conclusion, this report reflects a small, qualitative analysis of the experiences of Maine New Farmers course participants in four program offerings. Interviews with farmers in 2022, demonstrated a positive experience with the four courses examined in this report. In each case, they reported specific ways that they had applied learnings in the course to their farming practices. Respondents spoke very favorably about the content of the courses, and the delivery methods used. For those participants who were new to farming, the So You Want to Farm in Maine? course was particularly valuable in helping them see the broader landscape of their farming enterprise - including a specific focus on the financial underpinnings of their enterprises. For those in the QuickBooks training, there was an appreciation for the ways that the course provided applied examples of how to use the software in the farming arena - and an expressed desire for additional training that provided additional application-based examples. For the respondent who attended the Boots to Bushels event, the opportunity to interact with other farmers and learn in a hands-on way was particularly valuable. That sentiment notwithstanding, the consensus among the rest of the interview participants endorsed the online delivery of courses to make them more accessible to busy (and remote) farmers. For the individual in the GenerationNext training, the course provided critical training in management and supervision (as well as finance and transition planning). These results reflect a broad array of client needs and reflect some of the diversity of farmers in Maine. The Maine New Farmers project has designed a broad set of offerings to address these diverse needs, and the respondents to this evaluation have been successful in meeting participants' expressed needs.
Publications
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Maine New Farmers Project Website
https://extension.umaine.edu/new-farmers/
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2022
Citation:
Website
Maine Farmers Market Price Report
https://extension.umaine.edu/agriculture/maine-farmers-market-price-report/
|
|