Goals and Outcomes Achieved. The UVM Extension research hopyard has led to an initial report on the suitability of commercially available hop varieties to the Northeastern climate. As hops are a perennial crop, future research is needed to determine the suitability of these varieties over time, as the plants mature and as they are exposed to different pest and disease cycles. Through this initial funding we were also able to conduct preliminary trials on organic pest controls. Scouting data collected in the hopyard has also lead to the discovery of varietal trends in potato leafhopper predation, something that has previously not been researched. Future work is needed with this particular pest, but also with hop pests in general. Pests that attack hops in the Northeast are different than those that are an economic threat in the Pacific Northwest. Through regular scouting in the experimental hopyard pests and diseases are being identified and information is shared with growers through our web resources. The goal was to develop local and relevant research for Northeast hop growers. The outcome from this project is the establishment of a research hopyard and the initiation of a variety trial. In addition, the hopyard has allowed us to collect valuable information on fertility and pest issues in hopyards. Lastly, we are advisers to 3 growers that were awarded USDA SARE Farmer Grants to investigate fertility, trellis design, and harvesting questions on-farm. The goal was to develop relevant and practical educational programs and material. The outcome has been the development of a diverse array of materials and events that have been accessed by more than 1000 stakeholders. Based on post conference survey data we have found that stakeholders are improving their hopyard production by accessing the materials. Future work needs to be done to document long term impact of the hops outreach program. The annual Winter Hops Conference was full to capacity in both 2010 and 2011, with over 100 participants each year, bringing together brewers, hop growers, and those interested in hops. In 2010, Xxxxx Xxxxxxxx, a fourth generation hop farmer and hops geneticist was featured, and he gave an overview of hops production and hops breeding. Xxxx Xxxxxxxx from Xxxxxxxx Farms in Seneca Castle, NY has been growing hops for over a decade, along with over 1000 acres of vegetables. He shared his knowledge and experience on producing hops in the Northeast. Also invited was Xxxxxxxx Xxxxx from the Quebec Ministry of...
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. We like to think that our marketing and promotional program affect prices however we have learned over 60 years of promoting peaches that environmental factors like frost, winter injury and wet weather during the growing season as he affect supplies of fruit in our markets, have a greater influence on price than our promotional program. This may be the case in 2013 when demand was slow and prices were lower and yet we had a strong promotional program. We continue to believe that we need to advertise and promote because we level out these peach and valleys in price and sustain our industry The expected outcome was to see a substantial 5-10% increase in wholesale peach prices, increased sales volume, and timely and regular movement during the 2011 shipping season. According to data from the New Jersey Agricultural Statistic Service (NJASS) 68,000,000 pounds of peaches were produced and sold at an average wholesale price of 46 cents per pound. In 2011 New Jersey produced 60,000,000 pounds of peaches and sold for an average wholesale price of 61 cents per pound. In 2012 New Jersey produced 60,000,000 pounds of peaches which sold for an average wholesale price of 66 cents per pound. We have no retail price data for 2013 yet or have no retail data from NJASS. In 2013 data collected from our supermarket survey in August and September showed retail prices from 89 cents per pound to 1.99 cent per pound. It is always difficult to measure the impact of consumer advertising from studies and surveys. We have learned that even though we have limited influence on wholesale buyers with this advertising we do keep our name in front of the public. We know we have this exposure to the public as you can see from the circulation. We focus on areas of New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia. This helps us put pressure on retailers to purchase local Jersey Fresh peaches in these areas We also know we have an increasing number of members and other growers that retail directly to the consumer. This is done by farm markets, community farmers markets, CSA's and U-pick operations. Our membership requires this advertising. We know we do not have nearly enough funding to make the impact we need to increase peach prices but we do know from personally visiting supermarkets and other retailers that they hear about NJ peaches from our advertising and the exposure we get in the editorial media. The survey of commercial growers and shippers to quantify their experience was not conducted b...
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. How the performance goals and measurable outcomes were achieved for each project(s). If outcome measures were long term, summarize the progress that has been made towards achieve- ment.
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. Out peach industry continues to hold steady at about 5,000 to 5500 acres according to 2016 statistics. Production was up in 2017 although somewhat early maturing. Because we have so much in store pressure from other commodities including apples this earlier maturity helped us market our peach crop profitably. Producers and shippers from Georgia and South Carolina had approximately 15 percent of a crop in 2017. They are out major peach market competitors in eastern markets where we have been selling most of our peaches. Since 2017 was the final year of our grant it was wonderful for our industry to experience good fruit movement, strong prices and even with rising costs most growers and those involved in fruit movement were still able to have a profitable season Year Utilized Production (tons) Season Average Price ($ per ton) Value of Utilized Production ($1,000) 2010 34,000 $ 920 $ 31,280 2011 30,000 $ 1,220 $ 36,600 2012 30,000 $ 1,320 $ 39,600 2013 18,120 $ 1,501 $ 27,200 2014 21,000 $1,320 $ 27,891 2015 21,170 $1,310 $ 27,732 2016 20,000 $1,440 $ 28,800 2017 24,000 ? ? The final USDA-NASS and USDA-Market News Services Price Data was not available yet for 2017 and informal survey of our growers and UDSA Market News reports has helped us draw this conclusion in achieving our major goal of a viable industry viability. We have members that sell both fruit on the wholesale and retail markets, Just having the New Jersey Peach Promotion Council and keeping our programs on promotion on going and visible enables us to had many inquiries from potential buyer on where they can buy peaches in New Jersey. Our buyer information we publish and the trade magazines in which we advertising keep our growers and shippers names For all retail and wholes marketing the increase in in Facebook, Instagram and Twitter usages has helped increase our peach industry exposure. We continue to have effective press releases that are published and utilized to get our name in front of the public or more implanted Jersey Peaches and Jersey Fresh Peaches. We did increase our retail promotions in all three years of the grant by trying to be more efficient and by training more volunteers to coordinate these promotions. We used the peach queen more in 2014 and 2015. We had more special peach market promotions called peach promotional parties and our Perfect Peach Pie Contest became more popular and garnered great publicity for the peach industry (see accomplishment data); We also started in 2...
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. Development and dissemination of an on-farm food safety manual: 500 English and 200 Spanish language Bridging the GAPs Farm Guides, also available for download at xxxx://xxx.xx.xxx/inspection/GAPGHP The guide captures the many diverse lessons learned during the delivery of the education and outreach activities included in the project. Over three years the content evolved to include queries from on-site gardens at a university that serves garden-grown produce in its food service, to start-up farmers that are unclear about not only how to comply with GAPs, but what the value of compliance might be in the marketplace. Farmer Questions, Auditor Tips, and On-Farm Examples are woven into the guide, detailing real-world examples of best practices for growers working to improve their on-farm food safety. WSDA will distribute 500 printed guides in English and 200 printed guides in Spanish. Each guide includes fill-able templates that can be used to begin writing, implementing, and documenting on-farm food safety practices that will comply with Good Agricultural Practices. This guide is provided at no cost to specialty crop producers and is intended to assist fruit and vegetable growers as they begin to implement and document good agricultural practices for on-farm food safety, and as they prepare for a third-party audit of those practices. The information in this guide is based on the USDA Good Agricultural Practices and Good Handling Practices Audit (GAP/GHP) standards. In order to provide accurate, useful information, the WSDA team worked closely with WSDA auditors, who provide the audits in Washington State through a cooperative agreement with USDA. WSDA’s Bridging the GAPs project engaged auditors and educators to identify tips and best practices that will be cost- effective on small, mid-sized, and diversified farms, including those with livestock and other farm animals. The guide captures that information in order to help growers implement good on-farm food safety practices and provide auditors with a basic guide for issues of most concern to growers with smaller, diversified farms. The guide generally follows the flow and structure of the USDA GAP/GHP Audit Checklist which provides a comprehensive look at the kinds of risks to consider when creating a tailored on-farm food safety plan. The checklist will be the guiding document followed by an auditor when conducting a GAP audit. Four WSDA GAP Auditor trainings: WSDA’s licensed USDA GAP/GHP auditors—experts o...
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. The goal of this project was to determine cultural practices necessary for the off-season production of blueberries in Mississippi. Specifically MSU wanted to:
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. The goals of the project were: 1) to increase the pounds of sweet potatoes sold in Mississippi by at least 10% and 2) to increase the number of growers/packers GAP certified in Good Agricultural Practices. Five activities were performed to address the first goal: exhibiting at the PMA Tradeshow, radio ads, recipe brochure, billboard ads, and the “Produce News,” trade publication ads. Pounds of sweet potatoes sold increased from 1,265,000 in 2009 to 3,520,000 in 2012; the goal was exceeded.
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. Students gained and increased their knowledge of agriculture through the Mississippi Department of Education’s Custodial Caretaker Curriculum, training sessions provided by the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi, field trips made to Xxxxxx State University and the MSU Truck Crops Experiment Station, and the actual hands-on care of the garden. While the Oakley Youth Development Center is located a large agricultural plot, the land was never utilized to produce vegetables for the facility until the Garden Project was implemented. The project got off to a slow start due to limited resources. Therefore, the benchmark set was from the crop yield from the first year. During the first year (2011), students planted only six crops including: okra; tomatoes; squash; peppers; blueberries; and watermelons. The blueberries did not produce a crop, as it typically takes two-three years for blueberry bushes to yield berries. However, the okra, tomatoes, squash, peppers, and melons produced enough to feed 62 students for approximately 12 weeks. In the second year (2012), students increased the number of crops to 11 including: greens; lettuce; onions; cabbage; peas; squash; cucumbers; peppers; tomatoes; watermelons; and eggplant. This represented an 83% increase in the number of crops planted. The crops yielded enough to feed 75 students; this represented a 21% increase in the number of students feed with the crops planted. During the third year (2013), the excessive rain destroyed approximately 75% of the spring crops, so this had an impact on the amount of food yielded from the crops. The students were able to harvest the greens, cabbages and onions. They also added two additional crops, peach and apple fruit trees. These were maintained in the greenhouse until the appropriate planting time. The progress from the third year could not be calculated due to the timing of the harvest and the lack of control over the weather. The target to increase the number of crops by 10% was achieved from 2011 to 2012 as planned. The second goal was to increase the student knowledge of healthy eating and living through the work of this project. When the initial benchmark was established, the length of time each student would be detained at the facility was not taken into consideration. While there are students at the facility year round, they may not be there the entire year; it is often different student throughout the year. The Partnership for A Healthy Mississippi and the Mississippi...
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. There were four major goals set in the grant proposal for this project along with a target for participation. As a result of this project and seminars we were able to measure most goals.
Goals and Outcomes Achieved. Because no work was completed on this project, the outcomes and goals were not achieved.
