Summary of Accomplishments
Transfer of Knowledge and
Applied Research
Tab V
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Transfer of Knowledge and applied research
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Criteria
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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
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Transfer of Knowledge and applied research
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Suggestions:
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Provide a summary of contributions
Brief narrative of responsibilities
Description of key programming
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Named programs
New or innovative programming
Level of involvement
Other programming
Summary of Extension
Contributions
Description
Missouri
Regional
Trainings
5
4
Workshops
6
Publications
14
Presentations
38
28
19
$ 546,350
$ 45,670
$ 5,000
Grants/Gifts/Fees
National
Refereed Pubs
6
Non-refereed Pubs
2
Invited Presentations
3
Projects/Teams
2
International
1
Description of Extension
Responsibilities: (MH)
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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:
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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:
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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)
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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:
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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:
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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 webbased 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)
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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:
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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………………………..