Taylor and Zac Jones brought in their first harvest with just 278 tomato plants. Their grandfather had given them a couple rows in his garden and the pair had been experimenting with the idea of starting their own farm.
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Around the third week in November, several Kentucky farm families open their gates, barns, and fields to folks who appreciate the experience of cutting a fresh, homegrown Christmas tree. A tree grown and nurtured in Kentucky soil, with Kentucky hands.
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Carrie Knott, a Daviess county native, thought after high school she would get an associate’s degree and enter the workforce. A bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D later, she is working as an extension agronomist for the University of Kentucky.
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Nearly 3 million acres in Kentucky and 50 million acres across the United States contain a naturally-occurring soil layer called a fragipan. This cemented, silt loam soil found 20 to 24 inches below the surface stops water movement and root growth, which can reduce crop yields.
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For most folks, a career in government comes by chance rather than pursuit, and that is exactly how Kimberly McDaniel became an agricultural statistician with the National Agricultural Statistics Service 28 years ago. She works out of the Eastern Mountain Regional Field Office in Louisville, Ky.
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Nestled in Hodgenville, Kentucky sits Fresh Start Farms, owned and operated by Ryan Bivens, a first-generation farmer.
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Managed bees and native pollinators are necessary to agriculture, and Kentucky is working to protect them with the Pollinator Protection Plan.
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If you would have told Dr. Tammy Potter ten years ago, that she would be the state apiarist (fancy word for beekeeper), she probably would have laughed at you. Potter attended college to become an English professor and was one for many years until her grandfather called her back to the farm that she was determined to get away from, to help him take care of his bees.
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At Murray State University, outside Oakley Applied Science building stands a man wearing cowboy boots, an old ballcap, drinking a cup of black coffee and smoking a Marlboro cigarette. That man is Dr. O.L Robertson.
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Seedless watermelons were invented over 50 years ago, and they have few or no seeds. When we say seeds, we are talking about mature seeds, the black ones. Oftentimes, the white seed coats where a seed did not mature are assumed to be seeds.
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Fungal diseases are one of the leading causes of crop loss around the world. And not only do these diseases cause loss in yield (amount of crop produced), many fungal diseases produce toxins that cause severe sickness or death to humans and livestock.
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Dr. Carl Bradley is a plant pathologist for the University of Kentucky. In his role, he studies diseases in field crops (corn, soybeans, and wheat), researches ways to manage those diseases, and then passes the information on to farmers across the commonwealth.
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TreeSnap, new phone app developed by the University of Kentucky Forest Health Research Center and the University of Tennessee Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology for Android and iOS cell phones is designed to connect scientists with foresters, landowners and interested citizens in an effort to protect and restore the nation’s trees.
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Lee County residents are learning low-cost methods they can use to improve their health through gardening. Ted Johnson, a University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service agent in the county, installed several raised bed gardens at the extension office. He offers classes to residents throughout the growing season to show them how raised bed gardening is easy, economical and healthy.
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As if owning and operating eight chicken barns wasn't enough, Campbellsville farmer John McLean is turning waste into wattage–literally. McLean owns two very different anaerobic digesters. Anaerobic digestion is a series if biological processes in which microorganisms break down biomass in the absence of oxygen. One of the end products is biogas, which is combusted to generate electricity and heat, or can be processed into renewable natural gas and transportation fuels.
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Will and Maggie Bowling are the future of Kentucky Agriculture. They are also the present. The two biology graduates are using their educations, hands-on experience, and participation in the Kentucky Agricultural Leadership Program (KALP) to bring locally-grown and produced food to Clay and surrounding counties.
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Had someone told Nancy Hayes that at age 59 she would be known as "The Singing Goat Lady," she would have told them they had to be kidding.
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Reading, writing and... rice. The young girl in the blue cotton dress, her feet clad in dusty sandals, has come to school for all three. At the Kentucky Academy in Ghana, students have learned an important equation: education=food.
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In the early 2000s, sheep producers started looking to hair sheep breeds to make their meat flocks more adaptable. Unlike wool breeds, hair breeds naturally shed their coat, so farmers could produce a quality meat animal and not have to worry about the costs and labor associated with shearing.
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Grow Kentucky is cultivating seeds for success. An economic gardening program, it is a partnership between the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky and the Kentucky Small Business Development Center.
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