Utah Report

SARE Professional Development Program Annual Report for Utah
January 1-December 31, 2010

State SARE Coordinator:

Summary of 2010 PDP Activities and Results  

In 2010, Utah’s sustainable agriculture professional development encompassed many educational events which included: Rangeland Biomass Demonstrations, Pinion/Juniper conference, Sustainable Ecological Services conference and Youth education training.  Mini-grants co-sponsored by the Western SARE Utah Professional Development Program and the Utah Integrated Pest Management Center went to six Extension professionals. In total 519 participants were trained as a result of these efforts. An estimate of the contacts of these participants in the next year (2011) is 16,800.

Context and Overview:

As the Land Grant University of Utah, the Western SARE Professional Development Program provides excellent opportunities for in-service training in sustainable agricultural topics to extension educators. In order to provide “research-based” information to the general public, our extension educators must have the opportunity to learn the newest techniques and information available on a wide variety of subjects. We have spent fifteen years providing sustainable agricultural training opportunities for these professionals in different aspects of sustainability. We have also formed partnerships with many non-extension agricultural professionals: NRCS, Conservation Districts, Utah Department of Agriculture and Food and other agricultural/natural resource professionals. This allows a multitude of agricultural professionals to become trained and acquainted with sustainable agricultural systems and the Western SARE program goals. By training these agricultural professionals, it is hoped that they will utilize their new skills and knowledge within their agencies’ programs to better assist the producers to continue to achieve sustainability in their operations.

 Utah State University Extension Service

 Utah NRCS Home Page

 Utah Association of Conservation Districts

Utah Department of Agriculture and Food 

Activities and Methods

Specific Sustainable Agricultural Training

1.  Animal behavior training
2. Youth education (soils/range)
3. Grant writing and reviewing
4. Range restoration conferences and field days 
5. Professional development trainings

Competitive mini-grant program in conjunction with USU IPM Center

1.  Applied Methods to Control Beet Leaf Hopper and Lessen Incidence of Curly Top Virus on Tomato’ – Year 2
2. ‘Utilizing back yard poultry production to reduce weeds and insects while providing soil nutrients and home grown food’ – Year 2
3. ‘Comparison of cultural and chemical treatments to deter infestations of flat headed borers in young peach trees’ – Year 2
4. 'Using IPM techniques to Improve Cooperator Effectiveness to Mitigate Damage Caused by Townsend’s Ground Squirrels (Spermophilius townsendii) in Irrigated Alfalfa’ – Year 2
5. ‘Split Applications of Potassium on Alfalfa’ – Year 1

PDP-funded Publications/Educational Materials and Products

Utah Integrated Pest Management Webpage

Changes in Ag Professionals’ Knowledge, Skills and Action

Our survey instrument used is designed to assist in measuring short- and medium-range impacts of our yearly professional development program efforts. All 2010 participants were given the survey; unfortunately not all filled it in.

 (1) Acquisition of new knowledge and development of skills (everyone):

Questions 2 and 3 of the questionnaire specifically ask about these impacts. From the results of the survey, 100% responded that they had acquired new knowledge and 94% had gained new skills.

(2) Change in attitudes or understanding (ag. professional’s awareness):

Questions 1 and 4 of the questionnaire addressed these impacts. 99.4% improved awareness of the topics addressed in the trainings. A modified opinion and/or attitude change was reported by 97.7% of survey respondents.

(3)  Change in behavior and action (ag. professional’s awareness):

Questions 10 thru 13 of the survey reflect willingness to change and possible action. The action and behavior change here is reflected in assisting producers and other professionals with some aspect given from their training. In improving advice to producers, 92% showed a positive response. Questions 10, 11, and 12 of the survey specifically ask about using some aspect of the training in an educational endeavor. As some of the surveyed participants in this year’s trainings do not specifically have educational trainings as part of their job descriptions, I would not expect to have as high of percentages from respondents. However, the data suggest a very high proportion will use their training in some training they will participate in. In Question 14 of the questionnaire, how many estimated people will receive some aspect of their training during the next 12 months, 16,800 were suggested. Although only an estimate it does show the potential impact of the program.

Unintended Outcomes

We continue to see new faces at these professional development events. However no concerted effort is utilized to describe these types of outcomes. We will continue to strive to increase total number of completed surveys from participants.

Involvement of others in state PDP planning and implementation:

Utah’s Professional Development Program Advisory Committee:

USDA-NRCS (Utah)           USDA-ARS-Forage & Range Research Lab.

Utah Association of Conservation Districts  Utah Dept. of Agriculture and Food

USU Cooperative Extension Service     Utah Conservation Commission

USU Agricultural Experiment Station    Utah Partners for Conservation & Dev.

The members of the PDP Advisory Committee are contacted several times a year, but not collectively as one group. The transportation and travel costs have been minimized by meeting when these groups have scheduled events, or by my visiting them in conjunction with my extension, experiment station or Western SARE duties. For the year 2010 these committee members wanted me to continue with a broad sustainable agriculture mini-grant program and to have funds available for special requests (such as to attend conferences, workshops and such).

Slides and Photos

1. Materials from Specific IPM/SA mini-grants

Look under the right box titled Grants 2010 section (Utah IPM & SA Mini-Grant Program)