Small Farm Family Program
Location:
About one-half of the counties located in the Southeast, South central and South west region of the state of Missouri.
Background Information/ Rationale:
Missouri with more than 98,000 farms is only second to Texas in total number of farms. According to our definition, a large percentage of these could be classified as small farms. However, because of scarcity of funds, the Program is now active in only 16 counties in the southern part of the state. Thirteen SFFP Education Assistants or EAs deliver Program assistance to the collaborating farm families. These EAs are hired from the same county where they work, and they generally possess good farming and people skills. They receive initial job training from the fellow EAs, and from the three Regional SFFP Coordinators who are full-time employees of the University of Missouri Extension (UME), with extensive farm management training, and devote 20 percent of their times to SFFP.
Project Objectives:
The overall Program goal is to assist the small farm families, especially the disadvantaged minority families, to improve their quality of life. The EAs provide information, training and technical assistance to the collaborating families, mostly on a one-on-one basis. At any given time, each EA works with 50 or so farm families. The types of assistance they offer could be as diverse as, …helping farmers with taking soil samples, sending these for analysis and interpretation of the data, buying and selling of livestock, providing information on government programs, getting a bank loan, starting a farmers’ market or a beekeeping operation, conducting workshops on pruning fruit trees, canning vegetables and so on.
Summary of Work:
The SFFP EAs assist the small farm families with all aspects of farm operations and family life. For a first time collaborator, the EA will visit the family farm, make a first-hand assessment of their available resources, and based on the families’ goals and priorities, would discuss some possible options. The EA will tell the collaborator what the Program can and cannot do for them. The EAs provide information and education, and to a limited extent provide technical advice and direct assistance. For the latter part the EAs usually put them in touch with other Area Extension Specialists and/or the USDA field staff who are more knowledgeable and qualified to offer technical guidance.
On an average and at any given time, each of the 13 SFFP EAs works with 40 to 50 farm families. Some families come to us with a specific problem or a question, and we may not see them again for months; while there are others who call the EAs 2-3 times a week.
We describe here some of the more prominent activities undertaken by the SFFP Program staff during FY 2004. It should be emphasized that the SFFP serves as a primary vehicle for delivering assistance by several other projects/programs to our collaborating families in the Counties where we operate. A few cases in points are: 1) the Sheep & Goat Program delivered by LUCE, 2) the AgrAbility Program run by UME, 3) the Missouri Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Award, and 4) UME and LUCE’s Community Food System & Sustainable Agriculture (CFSSA) Program. We welcome these collaborations as these Programs also bring much needed assistance to the same families we are trying to help.
Selected Program Impacts:
#1) Honey production in Douglas County has increased 131 percent in just one year, from 3,500 lb in 2001 to 8,090 lb in 2002 (which translates into an increase in gross sales from $4,375 to $10,112). Mr. Larry Tucker, the SFFP EA for the County, has offered Workshops in West Plains, Houston and Lebanon. Larry estimates that since 2001, honey production throughout the South Central region has increased almost four fold.
#2) Ms. Donna Gimlin first solicited Program assistance about two years ago when her son Amos, a high school student joined the Future Farmers of America (FFA). Donna is legally blind which limits her own options in life. She was thinking of starting a small greenhouse operation but did not know where to begin! So, when her son asked her ideas for a good FFA science project, she talked him into doing a project on the greenhouse production of crops. They got in touch with the SFFP EA Mr. Ray Feldt, who was able to obtain a small grant for Donna from the Missouri Foundation for the Blind. Now, two years later, Donna has built up a clientele for everything she produces in her covered structure.
#3) Cheryl Berry, the Laclede County EA, is working with one small farm family to get a goat dairy started. The head of household is a woman, and she is already making goat milk cheese and selling the product at a local farmers’ market.
#4) Cheryl Berry is also working with Paul Smith who has started fresh water shrimp farming two years ago. Although Paul had lost his entire shrimp crop the first year because of sudden drop in the water temperature, he had a successful harvest this summer. He had organized a field day and harvested shrimp in the presence of big crowd. He sold his entire harvest of 200 lb at $8.00 per lb (12-14 count per lb) right at the pond site.
- #5) Dwight Holmes, the Oregon County EA, had received a request from Vocational Agriculture teacher at the Alton School, to hold a Ham Curing demonstration for his class. So, Dwight obtained a slaughtered hog from an area butcher in mid-January and showed the class step by step the preparation of the carcass and then hanged it in an open building at the school. It was taken down during the last week in May and sent it to a local butcher shop for slicing. Fourteen students and two teachers benefited from this demonstration.
For More Information Contact:
Dr. Kamalendu B. Paul
Lincoln University Cooperative Extension
109 Allen Hall
Jefferson City, MO 65102-0029
Phone: (573) 681-5584
Fax: (573) 681-5546
E-mail: K.B. Paul paulk@lincolnu.edu
Links to Additional Small Farm Family Resources
- What is the Small Farm Family Program
- Who is Eligible
- Projects
- Staff
- Small Farm Technical Outreach Program
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