Summary of Accomplishments

Dr. Marcia ShannonChair, Extension NTT Committee

Tab V

Transfer of Knowledge and applied research Criteria

Demonstrates excellence in creating and transferring research-based knowledge

Incorporates current and appropriate research in educational efforts

Organizes, presents, and implements high quality educational programming

Produces scholarly work

Tab V

Transfer of Knowledge and applied research Suggestions:

Provide a summary of contributions Brief narrative of responsibilities Description of key programming

Named programs New or innovative programming Level of involvement

Other programming

Summary of Extension Contributions

Description Missouri Regional National International

Trainings 5 4

Workshops 6

Publications 14

Presentations 38 28 19

Grants/Gifts/Fees $ 546,350 $ 45,670 $ 5,000

Refereed Pubs 6

Non-refereed Pubs 2

Invited Presentations 3 1

Projects/Teams 2

Description of Extension Responsibilities: (MH)

• I serve as Director of the Food Circles Networking Project and directly supervise two regional extension specialists in St. Louis and Kansas City. In addition, I serve as Associate Director of the Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture Program. My extension responsibilities are to assist Missourians in building alternative food systems that reflect their economic, environmental and social values. In particular, I have concentrated a great deal of time in connecting rural and urban areas by building relationships through food. I serve as a resource for extension specialists in agriculture, community development and nutrition who are assisting farmers seeking new markets, helping consumers find food that reflects their particular values and needs, and providing communities with economic development alternatives.

• My extension work grows from the project that my colleague, Bill Heffernan, and I established in 1998. The Food Circles Networking Project was a special project of University of Missouri Outreach and Extension in the West Central Region. The project’s main goal was to create more direct links between farmers and local consumers, as well as to help low-income clientele become more food self-reliant. The project was based on a thorough analysis of how local food systems could operate in the Kansas City area, and the potential benefits to farmers, consumers and communities. ………

Description of Extension Responsibilities:

• To date my work in the Food Circles Networking Project and Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture has:

• Created connections between local farmers and over 30 restaurants in the Kansas City area by researching the demand for locally grown food with area restaurants and coordinating programs that helped farmers connect with these restaurants. Programs ranged from sessions helping farmers and chefs to understand each other’s language, constraints and needs to coordinating a market fax that provided information on area farmers to chefs on a weekly basis. From this initial program, we helped create a statewide database of chefs featuring local foods.

• Trained over 500 farmers across the state on the basics of selling through wholesale markets, accessing differentiated markets and improving their marketing efforts.

• Introduced the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” campaign to local farmers and one grocery chain in the Kansas City area. By helping the farmer cooperative and retail chain executives adapt an existing campaign, and working with them to implement it in the Kansas City area, several million dollars worth of locally grown product was sold through the retail chain in 2005. Sales of locally grown product have increased by 35% annually since the program was introduced in 2003. ……….

Description of Extension Responsibilities:

• Beyond Missouri

• The Food Circles Networking Project was one of the first extension programs on community food systems established in the country, in line with institutions like University of California-Davis, Cornell University, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Pennsylvania State University. In addition, it marked the early movement of sustainable agriculture programs into the realm of community food systems when the Community Food Systems and Sustainable Agriculture Program formed in 2001. 

• The impact of this extension program has been felt beyond Missouri’s borders. Based on my research and experience with farmers, processors, retailers and communities, I was selected to be part of a national task force on Agriculture of the Middle, e.g. those farmers with too much product for direct marketing and not enough to participate in global commodity markets. The principles of partnership, transparency, relationships and fair sharing of the returns – key elements of my initial research on agricultural alternatives and cemented through six years of extension experience – helped to form the basis for the marketing organization, the Association of Family Farms, that emerged from this task force. ………….

Description of Extension Responsibilities: (RM)

• My appointment is 100% extension. I conduct research and publish in peer reviewed outlets on topics that support my extension program. The general focus of my programs is “the impact of production agriculture on the environment.” My goals are 1) to assist farmers, agri-business persons and certified advisors to make reasoned, integrated financial decisions and 2) to inform government agency personnel of the resources, constraints and incentives facing agricultural decision makers. While this section emphasizes my role in accomplishing these objectives, most of my work is done in teams with other scientists.  

• Traditional farm management extension programs have emphasized assisting decision makers in several standard marketing and management areas. These efforts are important because of the multitude of times that farmers face the routine decisions of input selection, commodity pricing, capital acquisition, risk management, etc. Improving efficiency a little in decisions made millions of times results in large impact. I have chosen to use the excellent resources of other extension specialists (other states’ and regional specialists within the state) to address these routine economic issues. This has allowed me to emphasize decisions that are made less frequently but have a high long-term impact on agriculture and the environment…………

Description of Extension Responsibilities:

• New Program Development

• I have created several programs that are designed to assist farmers in gathering information necessary for successful decision making. The following are notable developments:

• Business Environmental Risk Management (BERM) – I obtained a grant from the North Central Risk Management Education Center to develop an internet tool called BERM located at http://www.cares.missouri.edu/berm. The tool allows Missouri producers to get customized reports for their land detailing several environmental concerns of which they should be aware. The report enables the farmer/user to learn about the environmental impact of his/her land and management. BERM mostly uses data layers that were already created but also created several data layers that were available no where else before the program. Restricted Use Pesticides for all states except Missouri are handled with paper descriptions that are found in the county extension offices. These paper descriptions are difficult to obtain and understand. BERM used the GIS capability of the Center for Agriculture, Resource and Environmental Systems (CARES) site to reduce the transaction cost and improve the accuracy of the information…………..

Description of Extension Responsibilities:

• New and Innovative Program Delivery

• I have a history of being an early adopter of advanced educational and dissemination technologies for extending the resources of the University to citizens across the state. I was among the first of my colleagues to use computer projection panels for teaching computer skills, phone bridge conferences, satellite conferences, video productions and Internet distribution of written materials and computer programs. My worksheet for replant decisions (co-authored with William Wiebold) was one of the first interactive web-based worksheets on the University of Missouri Outreach and Extension webpage. Several recent examples of continuing use of advanced technologies and innovation are noted below.

• Use of internet-based GIS to deliver educational, regulatory and resources awareness to land managers. –The Center for Agriculture, Resource and the Environment Systems (CARES) website contains all of the data layers used in BERM and AFOSITE (discussed in programs). The CARES site requires advanced computer skills to operate and at least some knowledge of what the user is looking for. My leadership in developing BERM and AFOSITE made access to the information easier by allowing users to obtain a report for a particular piece of property with the click of a single button. ………….

Description of Extension Responsibilities: (MS)

• My responsibilities include development of a progressive statewide educational program in swine nutrition that increases the understanding of current nutrition principles, and evaluates feed products that enhance animal performance. Particular emphasis has been on phase feeding recommendations, nutrient management of growing pigs, and the development of future pork producers. There are three main components of the extension program. Those components are: A) MO-Pork, B) Comprehensive Nutrient Management Planning (CNMP), and C) Swine Youth Education.

• I. PROGRAM EMPHASIS AND DESCRIPTION• Background. The U.S. swine industry is extremely large and currently is the third largest producer of

pork in the world. Americans consume an average of nearly 70 pounds of pork per year. More then $10 billion in pig sales per year supply this demand for pork. The U.S. swine industry utilizes 78,000 full time employees and spent more that $6 billion in feed purchases last year. 

• Agriculture continues to be a solid base for the economy of Missouri. Missouri is one of the leading livestock producing states in the nation. Ranking second in the U.S., Missouri has more than 108,000 farms that produced nearly $5 billion of agricultural products. Swine operations are major contributors to the Missouri economy.

• Missouri ranks 6th in the U.S. in the total number of pigs and markets more than 3 million pigs from nearly 3,100 operations (Figure 1). …………..

Description of Extension Responsibilities:

• A. MO-PORK. The role as the State Swine Nutrition Specialist is to educate and evaluate feeds, ration management practices as well as provide detailed recommendations for their implementation on their specific pork operations. Adopting more efficient feed management practices will assist Missouri pork producers to enhance the profitability and viability of their operations. The ability of pork producers to adopt feed management recommendations and implement the associated technologies depends on the genetic background of the pigs, facility design, labor required, financial constraints and the management goals of the pork operation. Therefore, working together with the Swine Focus Team and the development of the MO-Pork program has provided a comprehensive evaluation of Missouri pork operations.

• As the Swine Focus Team Leader and nutrition specialist for the MO-Pork Program, nutritional programs established are aimed at optimizing nutrient requirements for pigs during all phases of the life cycle. Regional extension livestock specialists and progressive swine producers in Missouri request programming efforts in the area of optimizing nutrient requirements with particular emphasis on phase feeding practices.

• The MO-Pork program is designed as follows:

• The Missouri Swine Enterprise Manual (Version 1.0)

• On-farm consultations and research to determine farm specific nutrient requirements of pigs

• Professional development of Regional Extension Livestock Specialists

• Evaluation of feeding co-products such as locally produced distiller grains

• Providing dietary specifications and recommendations to a buying cooperative that consists of 50 pork producers

• Development of life cycle phase specific educational conferences.  

• Rationale. Feed costs are approximately 60 to 70% of pork production costs………………………..

Questions?

• Outcomes and Impacts to follow…