BFRDP Projects

Free-range and pastured poultry operations are gaining increasing popularity and are particularly attractive to beginning farmers because of the relatively low start-up costs. However, there are significant challenges associated with economic viability, animal welfare, food safety, environmental management and training. The UC Davis Pastured Poultry Farm has created the Pastured Poultry Producers Training and Outreach Innovation Hub (3P I-Hub), which focuses on multiple training opportunities for beginning farmers including interested military veterans with respect to five areas: 1) husbandry, 2) housing, equipment and predator management 3) food safety,  4) environmental management and 5) business management and marketing. The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service (ATTRA/NCAT) helped facilitate recruitment of beginning farmers in California and Oregon.  Further recruitment of military veterans who are new or beginning farmers was done via collaborations with the UC Davis Veterans Affairs Office and the Farmer Veteran Coalition. ATTRA/NCAT was involved in course development and teaching in addition to UC Davis faculty. The efficacy of the training program was evaluated via surveys, and Social Network Analysis was used to identify successes and gaps in recruitment. Based on our Social Network Analysis (SNA) surveys, our 2017-2018 workshops resulted in 40% of the attendees increasing their knowledge sharing network following our workshops. One of the primary challenges of beginning farming is developing a knowledge sharing network, so this result is encouraging.