I wanted to take this opportunity to review a little bit about the class project. Some of you may have already noted there is a class project that hopefully at least most of you will, will try to, to deal with. The project has been designed to allow you to dig in a little bit deeper on some of the concepts we cover in the course and also have an opportunity to make something. That will apply to you and be usable or useful to you, whether you're looking to improve some practices on the farm or whether you're working with farmers and would like to help them look at their operation with the idea of overall improvements of best management practices. So, I've set this project up more or less along identifying a problem dealing, coming up with a strategy to deal with the problem and then, coming up with a plan to implement your ideas. And then trying to think a little about how you would engage a team to help you identify and, and also implement a plan. So the first thing I think we're asking you to, to do or to think about might be embodied here in this picture. Identify a problem you would like to address. So, maybe you've worked with agriculture, with farmers in your area. Maybe you know some farmers or maybe you're looking at more of a bigger picture in your particular watershed for example and you've thought about some, some problems. Maybe there's water quality issues, maybe you've observed soil erosion on the farms, and you would like to, to dig in a little bit deeper. So, I think I would try to focus on, on something pick a problem that is easy to identify and, and develop a plan to attack and, and focus on that. Not try to do too many things at once. So for example you may make tackle irrigation management on, on a farm or in a an area you might look at in this case here manure management. I found this particular picture intriguing, because here's a manure spreader that I spent a lot of time working with, but it's being drawn by oxen. That was kind of an interesting photograph. You might be interested in cropping systems. You know, what kinds of crops and what kinds of rotational patterns farmers use in your area and you like to learn a little bit more about, about them. So, identifying some kind of a problem or an issue is the first step. And we've asked you to do that and sort of describe that in a short few paragraphs. And, so, in identifying the problem what are some of the things about that particular situation that you think could be better? There could be more use of soil testing for example, by farmers. There could be adoption maybe of what we'll learn about conservation tillage practices. So, maybe you think that a particular cropping system could be modified. Somewhat to maybe improve the, the farm's productivity and, and profitability, but also contribute to less soil erosion or loss of sendiment from the farm. So, describe the situation a little bit. And, in your guidelines that are on the website, I've given you more details of some questions that might, might, you know, to help to serve to get you thinking about it. So, what then is the preferred situation? And I, again, on the, in the guidelines I've given you a few ideas about, about some questions that you might ask. Remember, back to the triple bottom line. What are some of things that you think are, are most important about agriculture in your area? Is it an issue of profitability that might be enhanced by more efficient production practices? Is it a water quality issue? So that soil erosion instituting conservation practices might help. So, where would you like to be, where would, you know, like, like agriculture to be five years down the road, ten years down, down the road. And then probably the more detailed part of the project is going to revolve around your specific plan that you're, you would like to use to achieve that goal to get to where you, you need to be. So, provide a little bit of description about some of the, the practices that might change need to change on the farm. And how would you go about getting farmers to adopt different practices? So, you know, provide some, some detail about how you think you would have to go about making change or achieving change with the, the agriculture in your area. Would it be, for example, to adopt more efficient irrigation systems? We're going to talk a lot about irrigation management as we go through the course. So maybe conservation practices. Certain contour planting for example, in, in this example. So, once you take a look at the big picture and you identify the, the problems that you, you think are present, and sort of what is the situation that you would like to change. And then some steps and some procedures for, for getting and achieving those changes. Once you develop a plan obviously, identifying a problem, identifying where you would like to be and outlining a plan to get there is part of the is part of, of achieving the goal. Probably, the big part is going to be finding out if there are other if there are other team players out there. How will you convince people that your plan is a good plan? How will you convince farmers that adopting this particular practice is going to improve their bottom line? And also increase the capability of protecting the environment from nutrient leaching or, or erosion for example. So, you're going to have to think about how you get to that more human aspect and get people to buy into your ideas and, and the fact that there is a problem in the first place. Sometimes it's very hard to convince people that there really is a problem. So, what kinds of research for example, can you draw on that's been done in your particular area? Maybe your watershed to show that there, there is erosion happening, that there are nutrients getting into the water body that nutrient levels in the water body have increased. So, you've got to convince you've gotta be convincing about the, the need for a, an action plan. So, some thinking about how you, you convince people. Also, a little bit about how you might convince others to join in to address the problem getting farmers on board. Getting people that work with farmers to help out. Maybe getting some of the local agencies to join into the team, maybe there's a source of resources that you might be able to tap into. So then, does that speak to coming up with a defined, plan a research plan, a demonstration plan, education plan, that might need some resources? So then, where will you find those resources? What kinds of grant proposals might you write to get there. And then, I think also very important to all of this process is how, how will you document whether or not you're being successful. Let's say that a farmer agrees that, yes, I'd like to implement some practices, and, but I'd like to do it on a small scale on my farm and, and try this and get used to it. So along the way, you have an opportunity to document the success of, of your ideas. So if you get growers to adopt a certain particular soil management practice or soil testing. How will you document that you're having a positive impact on the bottom line for the farm or for improving water quality. So, you've gotta think a little bit about that. Maybe you would do a video where the grower is showing other growers the success that they're having in adopting new production practices or soil conservation practices. So you've got a lot of opportunities to document your project and the success. And keep in mind that changing, changing practices, and long term adoption, and impact of best management practices takes time, sometimes years. So, looking down the road what are going to be some of the mileposts that you'll have to come back and check and see if things are still progressing along the path towards success. So, I've given you an outline. In the In the project area on the website, there's a lot of other information and questions that you might ask along the way. You're going to have to get feedback from your peers out there. So you'll design and develop the project and there'll be mileposts at which time you'll have your colleagues who are also taking this course take look at your project and how, how your development. They, they'll provide you some feedback that you'll be able to, to evaluate and incorporate some of that thinking from your, your colleagues from your classmates in developing your plan. And I hope that by going through this, at least for those of you that choose to, to start this project, and stick with it, and follow through to the end, that you'll come up with a product that will be of value to you, if you're a farmer. For example, that you've been able to go through this process and come up with some ideas that you would like to implement on the farm. You may be a policymaker that has taken a good hard look at this particular situation and you now have some plans. Some ideas that will be implemented in a, in a way that will help assist farmers adopt good nutrient and water management practices. So hopefully, you'll come out of this with a usable, workable document. Here are some the best management practice documents that we'll talk about as we go through the course but these have all been written with a lot of the, the research that's been done over decades prior. Bring all that research together, analyze the problem, analyze the current situation. What would we like to, to have as a, as a new situation as it were? And how will we get there? And then, how will we document that? So hopefully, I can see many of you out there would go through this process and be able to come up with a, a best management plan just like these that have been done in Florida. And just two other points as I leave you about the, the particular project try to incorporate as much available information that might be out there, particularly, research that might have been done in your area. Try to involve extension specialists, researchers, scientists other people who have expertise bring them into helping you design your plan. And then, finally, think about the triple bottom line as it goes through this. As you develop your plan and your ideas about, perhaps, new practices that agriculture might adopt in your area keep in mind the economic aspects of what that means to adopt. And maybe off to the side, do some thinking about some plans that you might have for helping encourage farmers to adopt. What are some incentives that you might build into your plan that will help get agriculture, get farmers to see an easy path to adopting if there is a, a change that you think is needed and everybody agrees would be a good idea. So, I hope the project will useful to you. I've sure tried to come up with a, a project that will embody most of the, the things that we talk about in this course. And give you an opportunity to take some of those and, and plug them into a project that's going to be meaningful to you. I really think that the project can be, can be useful to anyone whatever, whatever size farm you're dealing with, whatever type of watershed area you might be dealing with. Whatever kind of expertise in terms of agriculture that you're dealing with. So I think the questions are general enough that you can pick and choose the, the kinds of questions that you really feel are important to your particular situation. So I hope everybody will have some fun with the project and I hope it'll be very useful. And I look forward to seeing what everybody does with the project and especially the discussions and the interactions that go on as people who may not be doing a project. How they might also help the, the colleagues that are, have chosen to work on the project. So good luck with the project and I look forward to seeing the products. Thank you.
