Item No. 1 of 1

INVESTIGATOR: Huttenga, B.

PERFORMING INSTITUTION:
OTTAWA, COUNTY OF
12220 FILLMORE ST RM 331
WEST OLIVE, MICHIGAN 494608986

TRANSFERRING LAND AND DOWNLOADING KNOWLEDGE: CATALYZING NEW FARMER DEVELOPMENT IN WEST MICHIGAN.

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Land access. Mentors. Resources. Capital. These are some of the primary needs that are common among beginning farmers. In Ottawa County in West Michigan, only 8% of farmers are under 35 years old and 30% are over the age of 65. Strong support systems for those farmers exist in this region. The goal of this proposed project is to bring those systems together collaboratively to address beginning farmer needs, resulting in an increase of well trained, well-equipped new farmers entering the industry. This will help to curtail the net loss of farmers, farms, and farmland that West Michigan has been experiencing for decades. This project proposes to establish a sustainable, supportive collaborative that can connect our beginning farmers to the resources they need; develop land acquisition resources that do not currently exist for the region; educate beginning farmers through mentor relationships with experienced farmers; and catalyze the completion of succession plans that protect land needed by beginning farmers. This will be accomplished by engaging the 478 identified members of local young farmer groups in a needs assessment process; incentivizing attendance by 3.5% of our aging farmers at three succession planning workshops; incentivizing the final completion of a succession plan by those attendees; connecting beginning and experienced farmers in a networking format to foster mentor relationships; fully populate our local resource and referral website with new and existing beginning farmer resources; providing technical assistance to access educational and other resources; develop ag land mapping and a related land acquisition web tool to connect new farmers to the land they need. This public-private partnership project will enhance the success of beginning farmers through mentoring, technical assistance, and education.

OBJECTIVES: The overall project goal is to curtail the net loss of farmers, farms, and farmland in Ottawa County (the County). The worked performed under this award will be the first phase of the an ongoing collaborativeproject. Due to the fact that the award is a Simplified Standard Grant, the primary goalfor this one year, $44,885 grant project will be the establishment of a robust collaborative that can accelerate and improve YNBF development and education in the County and the region by achieving thefollowing objectives that have been established:Convene a regional collaborative centered in theCounty that will aggregate its diverse talents to achieve additional objectives listed below, which will be refined by engaging the three YNBF groupsthat are part of the Project.Catalyze the many resources currently available to the 478 YNBFs in the County on learning to farm, land transfer, land acquisition, succession planning, and diversification. Primary resources include Farm Answers (farmanswers.org), the Farmland Information Center (farmlandinfo.org), USDA - New Farmers (newfarmers.usda.gov), MSUE - Farm Management (canr.msu.edu/farm management), and Michigan Farm Bureau - Farm Business Resources (michfb.com/mi/farm-legal-resources). The Partners and Collaborators will commit to assisting each farmer seeking help through these clearinghouse resources to make sure their needs are met, using a customer relationship manager application to track progress and measure outcomes beyond the term of the grant.Connect inexperienced farmers with experienced farmersiv to develop mentor relationships that will increase the number of new farmers entering the industry and help them locate farmland, farm longer, and farm more profitably.Activate the newly developed Ottawa County Focus on Agriculture Plan, which outlines four key objectives identified by Ottawa County farmland owners that can help prevent the loss of farmers, farms, and farmland.