BFRDP Projects

Free-Range & Pastured Poultry Training & Outreach Innovation Hub for Beginning Farmers in California & Oregon
[Progress Report]

Award Amount: $793,732
Grant Program: 2017 Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program Awards
Project Director: Maurice Pitesky
Email: mepitesky@ucdavis.edu
Organization: UC Davis School of Vet Med-Cooperative Ext

Return to Project Search

 

  • Overview
  • Results
  • Materials
  • Delivery Area
  • Comments

Project Overview

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.

Number of Participants: 113

Results

Promotional Materials

There are no promotional materials available for this project.

Educational Materials

There are no educational materials available for this project.

Reports & Evaluations

There are no reports or evaluations available for this project.

Delivery Area

Describe any unexpected results of the project:

How would you improve the project if you were to do it again?

What were the keys to success for your participants?

Individual Stories / Examples of Success