IN THIS ISSUE... Center Celebrates with 4-H in Open House and Ribbon Cutting

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1 Center for Profitable Agriculture Helping Farmers Quarterly Develop Progress Value-Added Report Enterprises IN THIS ISSUE... Progress Report 83, January 2019 Center Celebrates with 4-H in Open House and Ribbon Cutting Page 1 Final Report Submitted for Managing Risk by Improving Financial Management and Communication Skills Program Page 3 Dugger Receives Additional SARE Funds to Enhance Sustainable Ag Efforts Page 3 Holland Recognized for 25 Years of Service Page 3 Fourth Annual Farmers Market Manager Training Page 4 Report Developed to Summarize Value-Added Agriculture Workshops Targeting Most Rural Counties Page 4 Facebook 101 Workshops Implemented Page 4 Interesting Changes in Tennessee Beverage Industry Page 5 Leffew Leads Nationally Recognized Program Page 5 Daylilies, Pumpkins and More The Center Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Makers Page 5 Center Celebrates with 4-H in Open House and Ribbon Cutting The official ribbon cutting and open house were held for the new location of the Center for Profitable Agriculture and the Ridley 4-H Center Offices on November 30, The ribbon-cutting ceremony was led by Maury Alliance staff member Kara Huckaby. Kathy Morrow, administrative specialist, Ridley 4-H Center, had the honor of cutting the red ribbon as the invited guests looked on.

2 Following the ribbon-cutting, comments were made to the group by Tim Cross, chancellor, UT Institute of Agriculture; Rob Holland, director, Center for Profitable Agriculture; Terri Quillen, 4-H Center manager; Dean Dickey, mayor of Columbia; and Andy Ogles, newly elected Maury County Mayor. An open house was held immediately following the ribbon cutting as more than fifty guests took time to look through the new office space, meet staff members, and enjoy refreshments provided by the Ridley staff members. Tim Cross, UTIA chancellor, and Tiffany Howard, director of Advancement, sign their names on the red ribbon. Commissioner of Agriculture Jai Templeton adds his name to the list of visitors to the ribbon-cutting ceremonies as Rob Holland, Mike Buschermohle, Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles, and State Senator Joey Hensley look on. CPA staff members, (left to right) Hal Pepper, Troy Dugger, Rob Holland (director), Kim Giorgio, and Megan Leffew. Megan Leffew, marketing specialist with CPA, and daughter Clara, visit with Dan Wheeler, former Commissioner of Agriculture and former CPA director. Tim Cross, UTIA chancellor, visits with Scott Cepicky, 64 th District, state representative. 2 P age

3 Final Report Submitted for Managing Risk by Improving Financial Management and Communication Skills Program Hal Pepper and Megan Leffew recently submitted the annual report for a project funded by the Southern Extension Risk Management Education program. The project addressed unique financial and other business risks faced by producers marketing value-added products through direct marketing, processing, and agritourism. A total of 216 Tennessee producers received training through thirteen workshops on how to keep records to aid in making financial management decisions and through five workshops on how to implement new communication skills to improve interpersonal, family, and business relationships. Twenty-seven of the recordkeeping workshop participants received additional one-on-one technical assistance and training with their individual records. Recordkeeping workshop participants learned how to record, categorize, and analyze financial information to help them to track revenue and expenses and evaluate farm profitability and cash flow. Upon workshop completion, several producers requested assistance in using specific recordkeeping systems to set up their farm financial information, enter transactions for their accounts, and generate reports that track cash flow and income and expenses. Other workshop participants learned how to understand human behavior and improve empathy, communication, and teamwork by exploring temperament styles. Participants learned skills needed to handle challenges often faced in working with family members, managing employees, and developing and maintaining business relationships. Dugger Receives Additional SARE Funds to Enhance Sustainable Ag Efforts The Tennessee SARE Program received an additional $10,000 in Enhancement Funds from the Southern Region SARE Administrative Council. This funding will benefit the Professional Development Program (PDP) within the state SARE model program by helping to train area farm management specialists in financial analysis. The specialists will receive training on long-term financial planning, crop insurance, economic considerations for land transactions, and sustainable agriculture opportunities. The Enhancement Funds also will be used to help Extension agents attend the Pick Tennessee Conference in February 2019, where they can learn more about fruit and vegetable production, producing and marketing organic crops, and direct marketing. Each of these trainings will equip agriculture educators with the ability to deliver educational information to local producers, allowing farm families to evaluate their financial situation and make informed management decisions to improve their quality of life. The proposal requesting the SARE Enhancement Funds was prepared by Troy Dugger. Holland Recognized for 25 Years of Service Rob Holland recently participated in activities on the UT Knoxville and UTIA campus in celebration of twenty-five years of employment with UT Extension. Rob began his Extension career in 1993 serving as an area farm management specialist in East Tennessee. He then moved to Knoxville to join the Agricultural Development Center (later renamed the Center for Profitable Agriculture) in In 2002, Rob relocated with the Center to Middle Tennessee where he became director in The photo below was taken at the UTIA service awards reception of UTIA employees recognized for twentyfive years of service. 3 P age

4 Fourth Annual Farmers Market Manager Training Two all-day workshops for farmers market managers were recently conducted in Nashville (November 28) and Memphis (November 29). Forty-one farmers market managers, Extension agents and stakeholders attended the workshop that featured presentations from specialists about how to form partnerships and collaborations that will position and grow farmers markets. This manager training included presentations about UT Extension resources available to market managers, Main Street and Tennessee Downtowns, Tennessee Ag Enhancement Program for farmers markets, Farmers Market Promotion Program, food safety and how to track data that show the economic impact of a farmers market. A panel of market managers and a Chamber of Commerce executive director shared their stories of struggle and success in establishing farmers markets in rural communities. Report Developed to Summarize Value-Added Agriculture Workshops Targeting Most Rural Counties Beginning in the fall 2016, the Center for Profitable Agriculture began an initiative to work with county agriculture Extension agents in the state s most rural counties to deliver educational workshops on various value-added agriculture topics. The topics and subject matter in these workshops addressed fifteen subject matter topics. From September 2016 to September 2018, specialists in CPA pitched workshop ideas to the agriculture agents in three categories of the state s most rural counties. In addition, some educational programs were also planned and scheduled under the direct coordination of CPA specialists. In some cases, a registration fee was charged to help defray costs associated with the programs. In other cases, sponsorship and external departmental funding was used to provide a meal and cover the costs of delivering the programs and developing the educational materials. Within the 25-month period, 42 educational programs were delivered to 993 participants for an average of 24 participants per event. In several of the workshops, 100 percent of the participants indicated in post-workshop evaluations that the information they learned increased their understanding of the knowledge and skills needed to analyze and develop a food manufacturing business. In one workshop, 83 percent of participants indicated that the program helped them gain knowledge and skills to increase sales revenue, reduce costs, prevent losses, increase payroll, or make one-time capital purchases for their direct marketing enterprise. In another session, 97 percent of participants indicated that the workshop increased their knowledge of social media/digital marketing strategies to increase and/or enhance their online marketing efforts. On a scale of one to 10 (where 10 indicates an excellent program), 100 percent of the participants rated one workshop as a 7 or better, and the overall average rating was a 9.3. Workshop participants often noted that the educational sessions were comprehensive and provided helpful information. An educational program was conducted in eleven of the nineteen economically distressed counties (58 percent). Eleven of the thirty-two at-risk counties (34 percent), including the nineteen economically distressed counties, are listed in Table 1 and shown in Figure 1. An educational program was conducted in eleven of thirty-two (34 percent) of the at-risk counties. The thirty-two at-risk counties are listed in Table 2 and shown in Figure 2. An educational program was conducted in twenty-seven of fifty-three (51 percent) of the StrikeForce counties. Facebook 101 Workshops Implemented Four Facebook 101 for Direct Farm Marketers Workshops were held in November A total of 68 people participated in the workshops held in Blountville, Knoxville, Nashville and Jackson. Of 60 post-workshop evaluation respondents, 60 increased their knowledge of marketing fundamentals, tools or techniques and 58 developed goals for implementing new or improved marketing strategies. Fifty-one participants indicated the program helped them gain knowledge or skills to increase sales, increase savings, reduce costs or make one-time capital purchases for their value-added agriculture enterprise (or a value-added enterprise they plan to start within one year). The workshops were partially funded by a grant awarded by the Southern Extension Risk Management Education Center (SRMEC) and United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. 4 P age

5 Interesting Changes in Tennessee Beverage Industry There have certainly been some changes to the beverage industry in Tennessee over the years. As of November 6, 2018, there were 219 cow dairy farms permitted in Tennessee (plus 6 sheep/goat dairies). Interestingly, there were 2,096 dairy farms reported in the 1997 Census of Agriculture. We estimate there are currently (November 2018) 203 brewers, distillers, and wineries in the state (96 brewers, 63 wineries, and 44 distilleries). In 1998, it is estimated there were 3 distillers, 20 wineries and less than 10 brewers in the state. Leffew Leads Nationally Recognized Program The Southern Risk Management Education Center has announced its top three Projects of Excellence for 2018, and one of the three programs was led by University of Tennessee Extension specialist Megan Leffew of the Center for Profitable Agriculture. Advanced Online Marketing Strategies for Tennessee Farmers, a project directed by Leffew, helped 567 people to efficiently and effectively reach potential customers by understanding e-commerce options, advanced social media/digital marketing, and video content creation and marketing. The program targeted Tennessee farmers involved in value-added, direct marketing, and agritourism enterprises. It included the development and delivery of three curricula via twenty educational programs to help participants efficiently and effectively reach potential customers and make sales transactions. According to Leffew, fifty-two participants completed a follow-up evaluation six months after attending a workshop, and each of them indicated they had implemented at least one practice or procedure learned. The mission of the SRMEC is to help agricultural producers manage risk and grow the markets for their products. The awards were based on project innovation and positive outcomes for producers. Daylilies, Pumpkins and More The Center Celebrates 20 Years of Helping Makers Article by Patricia McDaniels for the Tennessee Alumnus (Winter 2019) Value-added agriculture can be just about anything you envision related to plant and animal production, as long as you can convince others to buy your product. Take the Oakes family of Corryton, Tennessee. They ve had a thing for daylilies dating back to the 1960s. Ken Oakes took his family s passion one step beyond his grandfather Bill and his father Stewart s hobby. The men s breeding and dividing of new flower cultivars morphed from a greenhouse pastime, to selling a few plants locally, then into Oakes Daylilies, a thriving catalog business that today markets the beautiful flowers nationally. I still can t believe I talked Dad into springing for our first catalog, laughs Ken, Knoxville 90. Ken was fresh out of school, but believed the family could make a go of selling the daylilies to more than just neighbors and the Knoxville area community. We spent more on our first catalog than the nursery made the previous year, Ken says. That investment paid. Ken is among a community of agricultural entrepreneurs in Tennessee and across the nation that has worked to establish a niche where their businesses and families can thrive. Agricultural producers are perhaps the ultimate entrepreneurs the original makers. From prehistoric times when humans fashioned tools to chop crops or mash grains or to start fires to clear land and to construct terraces to create arable space, farmers have used their knowhow and ingenuity 5 P age

6 to make their lives and the lives of those around them better. For the last half of the twentieth century, however, that has been a tall order for the small family farm. In a world where farms were expanding to manage thousands of acres of crops and herds that easily numbered hundreds of head, the number of traditional producers working small plots of land has diminished. Twenty years ago, the UT Institute of Agriculture set out to address how that cultural shift would affect the preponderance of Tennessee producers. The average size of a Tennessee farming operation then was about 132 acres, and that number remains at 164 acres today. In 1998 UTIA created the Center for Profitable Agriculture, then called the Agricultural Development Center, an initiative dedicated to helping Tennessee farmers evaluate and develop enterprises that enable them to compete and thrive. The CPA was formed within UT Extension, with momentum and support from the 1995 Governor s Council on Agriculture and Forestry. In 2002, CPA gained the support and endorsement of the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation. The present director, Rob Holland, has been with them from the beginning. Holland is actually the third leader of CPA, following two other UT Knoxville alumni: Ray Humberd ( 59, 65), retired associate dean of UT Extension and Dan Wheeler ( 64), former Tennessee Commissioner of Agriculture. Humberd launched the Center and Wheeler served as the first director until he retired in Holland (Martin 91, Knoxville 93) took the helm in Holland says the mission has not waivered. Our mission is to help farm families evaluate and develop farm business ventures that can be sustainable sources of income. We specialize in value-added enterprises that allow producers or growers to earn a greater portion of consumer expenditures by processing; packaging; or marketing crops, livestock, or other farm resources directly to consumers or users. Their work includes assisting in the evaluation and development of agritourism enterprises and direct-marketing ventures. While the mission is the same, Holland says the CPA s method of assisting farm families has changed greatly over the years. In the beginning, we spent 90 percent of our time one-on-one with a producer and maybe the family at the kitchen table evaluating their idea and working through a complete business analysis, he says. Now the emphasis is on education and training. We ve shifted from individual project management, to teaching the masses. The reasons are simple, Holland explains. The demand is growing and the Center consists of just Holland, three other specialists, a program coordinator and an administrative assistant. Together they present numerous workshops annually on topics involving everything from direct marketing, packaging, and handling of meat products; regulations; social media marketing; to how to write a business plan and recordkeeping. They are known for their long-standing series of farmers market boot camps. And they write manuals and publications that present seminar topics in greater detail. I can t tell you how many times a producer has come up to me after a presentation to tell me our publications and workshops are the reason their business is thriving. Many of them come to multiple classes. Although their efforts have moved from the kitchen to the classroom, the CPA staff members still offer individual consultations and in-depth assistance as time permits. To date the Center boasts an impressive list of successful clients with agritourism enterprises as well as many who sell ag-related goods like jams, baked items, produce, meat products, dairy products, and wines. That list includes Oakes Farm. The daylily catalog operation is not the family s only endeavor. For the past eighteen years, the Oakes have welcomed the public to their farm each autumn to enjoy corn mazes, pumpkin patches, hot apple cider, and clean family fun. Ken s wife, Dena, proposed the idea of developing the agritourism venue to add value to their property based on the reaction of their own young children to a pumpkin patch visit in Ken and Dena, and Dena s brother David Black (Knoxville 99), were among the first entrepreneurs to attend CPA workshops. 6 P age

7 After further visiting with CPA staff and other agritourism operators, the Oakes and David put their plan in motion and an idea became a reality. Today, thousands of people visit the farm for fall recreation. I don t really think of myself as a maker, Ken says. That term calls to mind hands-on crafting and making your own tools. But we did build the farm business ourselves. We started with an idea and an empty field. Now we have barns and concessions. And plenty of achievements. The combined success of the businesses enabled Ken and Dena to remain on the farm full time, as opposed to holding regular jobs and farming part time, as his grandad and dad had done. Who knows? Perhaps their daughter Kennedy, a 2018 graduate of UT Knoxville who studied hotel, restaurant and tourism management, or son Joshua, who currently is studying plant sciences at UT s Herbert College of Agriculture, will become the fourth generation of Oakes to farm in Corryton. And who knows how they might re-make the businesses to suit their own visions. For the full text of this article, visit the Tennessee Alumnus website: alumnus.tennessee.edu. The original text will appear in the Winter 2019 issue, scheduled for online publication by February 1. AG.TENNESSEE.EDU Center for Profitable Agriculture 850 Lion Parkway, Columbia, TN ag.tennessee.edu/cpa 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. 7 P age