Alabama A&M University
OCT.– DEC. 2014
VOLUME 6, ISSUE 4
S M A L L FA R M S R E S E A R C H C E N T E R
NEWS UPDATE
COLLEGE OF
AGRICULTURAL, LIFE
AND NATURAL SCIENCES
United States Department of Agriculture
Office of Advocacy and Outreach (OAO)
NEW AND BEGINNING FARMERS AND RANCHERS WORKSHOP
Inside this Issue
New and Beginning
Farmers and Ranchers
Workshop
The Small Farms Research Center at Alabama A&M University will host its New and Beginning
Farmers and Ranchers Workshop on the campus; November 19 - 21, 2014 at 10 a.m.
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SFRC receives funding
from SRMEC to assist
producers
USDA FSA
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USDA NRCS
DFDSFINSIDE
SFRC
Efforts
3
T HOutreach
IS ISSU
E:
Editor’s Corner
The Small Farms Research Center has developed the New and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers
(NBFR) Program at Alabama A&M University to improve opportunities for new and beginning
farmers to establish and sustain viable agricultural operations in Alabama through the development and
enhancement of innovative educational programs, services and social networks. The purpose of this
project has been to deliver outreach and technical assistance, so that beginning farmers and ranchers
can successfully acquire, own, operate and retain sustainable farming and ranching enterprises.
Participants will be provided with in depth training from the following topics: 1. Production Practices
and Management, including Sustainable Agriculture, 2. Marketing and 3. Business Planning/Financial
Management. Each topic will cover a case study, hands-on illustrations, Q&A sessions and distribution
of material of the subject area chosen. Registration Begins Now!
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Quote of the Quarter
The Facts About Organic
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Upcoming Community
Hopewell and
Women
In
Activities
Events
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Everyone must pre-register online at http://www.aamu.edu/sfrc and submit your $15.00 fee to reserve
your spot for this event. Please make checks or money orders payable to the Small Farms Research
Center Foundation and mail to the Small Farms Research Center, P.O. Box 700, Normal, AL 35762.
SMALL FARMS RESEARCH CENTER RECEIVES FUNDING TO
ASSIST URBAN GARDENERS, INNER CITY YOUTH AND
BEGINNING VEGETABLE GROWERS
The Small Farms Research Center at Alabama A&M University has received funding from the
Southern Risk Management Education Center (SRMEC), for the project titled Business Planning and
Marketing Education for Hard to Reach Urban Gardeners, Inner-City Youth and Beginning Vegetable
Growers. This one-year project addresses the unique business planning and marketing education needs
of urban community gardeners, inner city youth and beginning producers, who are transitioning or
converting to vegetable production.
Small Farms Research Center
Alabama A&M University
4900 Meridian Street
James I. Dawson Building
RM #219
P.O. Box 700
Normal, AL 35762
A business plan is critical to ensuring that producers have aligned their marketing, production, and
financing capacities/strategies in ways that minimize risk. The project will provide targeted marketing
educational and business planning training for inner-city youth, hard-to-reach urban gardeners, and
socially disadvantaged and beginning producers converting/transitioning to vegetable production. The
training involving workshops, group meetings and one-on-one mentoring sessions, will be based on
modules developed early in the project. The target audiences are individuals in and around four urban
centers, including Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile, Alabama.
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USDA FARM SERVICE AGENCY (FSA)
FSA is equitably serving all farmers, ranchers and agricultural partners through the delivery of effective, efficient
agricultural programs for all Americans. Please see below many of their programs available.
Livestock Disaster Assistance Sign-up Underway - Livestock disaster program enrollment opened on April 15, 2014.
These disaster programs are authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill as permanent programs and provide retroactive authority to
cover losses that occurred on or after Oct. 1, 2014. Eligible producers can sign-up for the following livestock disaster
assistance programs:
Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP):
LFP provides compensation to eligible livestock producers that have suffered grazing losses due to drought on privately
owned or cash leased land or fire on federally managed land. Eligible producers must physically be located in a county
affected by a qualifying drought during the normal grazing period for the county. Producers who suffered eligible grazing
losses should submit a completed CCC-853 and supporting documentation by January 30, 2015.
Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP):
LIP provides compensation to eligible livestock producers that have suffered livestock death losses in excess of normal
mortality due to adverse weather and attacks by animals reintroduced into the wild by the federal government or protected
by federal law. Producers who suffered livestock death losses should submit a notice of loss and an application for payment
to their local FSA office by January 30, 2015.
Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP):
The enrollment deadline for the 2014 Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees and Farm-Raised Fish Program
(ELAP) is Nov. 1, 2014. The deadline for 2012 and 2013 ELAP has already passed.
ELAP provides emergency assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees and farm-raised fish that have losses
due to disease, adverse weather, or other conditions, such as blizzards and wildfires. ELAP assistance is provided for losses
not covered by LFP and LIP. For 2014 program year losses, the notice of loss and an application for payment must be
submitted by November 1, 2014. For more information, please contact your local FSA office.
USDA NATURAL RESOURCE CONSERVATION SERVICE (NRCS)
NRCS provides America’s farmers and ranchers with financial and technical assistance to voluntarily put conservation on
the ground, not only helping the environment but agricultural operations, too. Please see below some of their programs.
October 17 is Signup Deadline for AL NRCS Conservation Programs - USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) announced that October 17, 2014, is the signup batching date for producers for 2015 funding for the
following conservation programs:

Environmental Quality Incentives Programs (EQIP) which includes energy retrofits, wildlife, forestry, cropland
erosion, cropland irrigation, grazing land, and water quality concerns.
 Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)
 Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) which has two options:
1. Agricultural Land Easement (ALE): includes the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program and Grassland
Reserve Program.
2. Wetland Reserve Easements (WRE): open land that has wet soils and was drained.
Applications are accepted on a continuous basis; however, selecting applications for funding is completed periodically
through batching periods with specific cutoff dates.
In the EQIP programs, eligible producers may receive a payment based on the statewide average cost of the installation of
the conservation practice.
Special emphasis participants like socially disadvantaged, limited resource, and beginning farmers and ranchers are eligible
for a higher payment rate. In addition, socially disadvantaged, limited resource, and beginning farmers and ranchers can
receive up to 50 percent advanced payment for purchasing materials or contracting. Interested producers should visit their
nearest USDA Service Center to determine eligibility. For more information, please contact your local NRCS office.
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SMALL FARMS RESEARCH CENTER OUTREACH EFFORTS
The Small Farms Research Center strives to educate our producers, farmers and landowners but moreover provide outreach
training and technical assistance. This quarter has been centered towards educating our producers through various outlets
such as: training workshops, farm field days and one-on-one consultations. See below our outreach efforts.
Huntsville, AL—The Small Farms Research in collaboration with the AAMU’s Department of Biological &
Environmental Sciences and Alabama Cooperative Extension System held the Vegetable Production, Management and IPM
Field Day and Workshops, Wednesday, August 6, 2014. The concurrent sessions focused on the following: Growing Ethnic
Vegetables, Building Raised Bed & Benefits, Ornamental Plants for Farmscaping & Pollinator Enhancement, Starting
Shitake Mushroom Production & Water Catchment, Disease Management for Vegetables, Integration of Livestock and
Vegetable Productions, Crop Rotation as IPM Tool, Soil Fertility and OMRI (Organic) Pesticides & Pesticide Safety. This
event featured 60 plus producers, farmers and gardeners who were enriched with knowledge from the concurrent sessions
above. From the great turnout of this event, it will continue for summer 2015.
Mobile, AL—The Small Farms Research Center in collaboration with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System held the
2014 Risk Management and Business Development Training Workshop on August 20-22, 2014 in Mobile, AL. This
training workshop consisted of a farm field day on August 20, 2014 at Humming Star Alpaca Farm in Silverhill, AL; The
concurrent sessions August 21st-22nd at the Jon Archer Agricultural Center in Mobile, AL. The farm tour was an overview
of alpacas including their origin, the processing of alpacas fleece, the annual care and yearly cost. The concurrent sessions
featured in depth topics that includes the following topics: Seasonal High Tunnel Management, NRCS & FSA Cost Share
Program for New and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers, FSA Overview, Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Garden,
New and Beginning Farmers and Rancher Program Capital & Access to Capital (Part I.), (Part II.), Sustainable
Agriculture, Enhancing the Safety of Locally-Grown Produce, Gulfport Resource Conservation and Development and Marketing Value-Added Agriculture Products. The results from this event shows most of the producers, gardeners and
landowners (80 plus) gained the most wealth of information from the following areas: Marketing Value-Added Agriculture
(77%), Grants and Funding Opportunities for Producers and Landowners (76%) and Sustainable Agriculture (75%).
Florence, AL—The Small Farms Research Center in collaboration with the Northwest Alabama Resource Conservation
District (NW AL RC&D), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Alabama’s Mountains, River, and Valley
Resource Conservation and Development (AMRV RCD) held a “From the Soil Up” event for the producers in Lauderdale
County at the Lauderdale County Farmers Market on August 30, 2014. This meeting consisted of an on-site soil testing,
one-on-one consultations to producers of programs and services and readily educational materials available. This meeting
served as a recruitment opportunity to reach the underserved farmers and producers within the Lauderdale county area.
Meridianville, AL— The Small Farms Research Center hosted the First Tuesday Farm Field Day held at local farm, Bill’s
Honey Farm with expert Bill Mullins on September 2, 2014. This farm tour featured an overview of the honey farm,
demonstration on how to extract honey, beeswax candles and a farm tour of muscadines, blueberries and blackberries. In
addition, many of our producers were enthused with the information received from the process, different types of bees and
how to start on a small scale for beginning farmers.
For more information on each of our outreach efforts, programs, services, please refer to our website
http://www.aaamu.edu/sfrc
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Cooperating Units: USDA Office of Advocacy and Outreach (OAO), USDA/NIFA/ Beginning Farmers and Ranchers
Development Program (BFRDP), USDA/OAO/Outreach Assistance for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers
(OASDFR) Program, Alabama Cooperative Extension System, and Alabama A&M University.
EDITOR’S CORNER
Greetings!! PLEASE SAVE THESE DATE.
 New and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers (NBFR) Program Workshop on
November 19-21, 2014. Huntsville, Alabama;
 2014 Farm Bill Meetings– October 7; November 6th; November 19-21;
December 2; January 12, 2014.
If you would like to submit articles related to agriculture issues, or would like to make
an announcement of your upcoming event(s), please forward your information to:
QUOTE OF THE
QUARTER
“Agriculture is the
most healthful, most
useful and most noble
employment of man”
George Washington
Mr. JaMarkus Crowell, B.S.
jamarkus.crowell@aamu.edu
Office: (256) 372-4424
Fax (256) 372-5517
_______________
UPCOMING COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS
October 7th 2014 — 2014 Farm Bill Meeting, Alabama A&M University, James I. Dawson Building RM #240, 4900
Meridian Street, Normal AL, 35762; 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. hosted by the Small Farms Research Center (AAMU).
October 9th, 2014— Successful Aging Initiative: The Journey of Aging, Union Chapel Missionary Baptist Church, 315
Winchester Road NE, Huntsville, AL 35811; 8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. hosted by the Alabama Cooperative Extension
System.
October 9th, 2014 — Alabama Cottage Food Law Class in Lauderdale County, 802 Veterans Drive, Florence, AL; 5:00 6:00 p.m.; hosted by Alabama Cooperative Extension System.
November 6th, 2014 — Hoop Houses vs. Greenhouse Program Event, Charles Stone Agricultural Center, 819 Cook
Ave, Huntsville, AL 35801; 10:00 a.m.; hosted by Tennessee Valley Women in Agriculture (TVWIA) in collaboration
with the Small Farms Research Center (AAMU).
November 19-21, 2014 — New and Beginning Farmers and Ranchers Program Workshop, Alabama A&M
University, James I. Dawson Building, 4900 Meridian Street, Normal AL, 35762; hosted by the Small Farms
Research Center (AAMU)
January 12, 2014 — 2014 Farm Bill Meeting, Hale County Extension Office, 701 Hall Street, Greensboro, AL 36744;
hosted by the Small Farms Research Center (AAMU)
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