Cultivating farmers and ranchers that thrive (CFRT), led by valley food partnership (VFP), is a collaborative project focused on meeting the unique needs of beginning farmers and ranchers in rural,…

Cultivating farmers and ranchers that thrive (CFRT), led by valley food partnership (VFP), is a collaborative project focused on meeting the unique needs of beginning farmers and ranchers in rural, high desert conditions. By delivering a farmer driven model of training in basic production agriculture, financial management and marketing coupled with mentorships and land access, CFRT provides a wrap around, innovative program to nurture and sustain beginning farmers. Our ultimate goal is to increase the number of hispanic, veteran, and limited resource farmers and ranchers that can successfully enter and sustain agribusiness operations to support an improved regional food production system in western colorado. Specific goals are to: increase # of farmers and ranchers successfully engaged in economically viable and holistic agricultural practices in the western colorado; assure that special-emphasis audiences (veterans, hispanics, limited resource and specialty-crop-focused participants) are fairly represented in agriculture professions in our region; and assure that beginning farmers/ranchers have long-term access to land, training, education, markets, and technical assistance. CFRT meets these objectives by delivering an accessible, farmer/rancher-driven, cohesive progression of BI-lingual core courses, continuing education, technical support, and on-site experiences that address production and management topics. Coupled with in-depth mentorship and land access support, the project is geared specifically to the regionally-driven needs of our target audiences. Key partners on the project include: holistic management international, hispanic affairs project, welcome home alliance for veterans, and colorado state university. Additional collaborators include members of our farmer rancher advisory team and various other state and community organizations. The target audiences of this project are the growing pools of latinos, veterans, and limited resource AG-entrepreneurs, eager to establish or sustain small, diversified farming/ranching operations in western colorado. Western colorado represents the third zone of colorado's vast agricultural regions, with mountains and plains comprising the other two. With warm days and cool nights (created by high altitude), we are renowned for olathe sweet corn and palisade peaches due to the concentration of sugars that occur in many crops under these conditions. Western colorado comprises nearly 40% of colorado's agricultural land, in a state whose crop values reach $7.78 billion annually.1 veterans average 9.4% of the population, with some counties reporting 15.1%. Nearly 6% of veterans are unemployed and 21.6% have a service-related disability. Of veterans, 21.5% are hispanic,2 which aligns with the percentage of hispanics in colorado's overall population.3 despite their prevalence, however, out of colorado's 61,444 farm operations, only 5% are operated byhispanics.4 with 28% of colorado's hispanics and 6.4% of veterans living in POVERTY5, along with a population of limited resource farmers who statewide average less than $37,271 in annual INCOME6, the economic, employment, and health disparities experienced by these groups point to the necessity for a program targeted toward their specific needs.western colorado's high altitude, intense sunlight, alkaline soils, dependence on snowfall, complex water laws, distance from large markets, lack of distribution and processing options, short season, and high land prices create distinct environmental, social, and economic challenges for agriculture. These critical barriers are balanced by strong opportunities that attract aspiring farmers. Producers can access high-end markets created by numerous nearby SKI towns. These seasonal, as well as year-round residents, create a demand for high quality, locally grown vegetables, meat, and fruit in their homes, groceries, institutions, and restaurants. CFRT creates the needed bridge for our target audience to meet the demands and access our market channels. This program will be using a third-party evaluator from colorado state university (CSU), department of agricultural and resource economics. This project will draw heavily on CSU's extensive expertise in beginning farmer/rancher efforts, particularly in the arena of market channels training and analysis, and with their colorado building farmers program. Their role as IT pertains to evaluation will be: 1) to provide overall guidance on documenting and evaluating outcomes and impacts; 2) to identify appropriate tools from the colorado building farmers project, and advise on ways to use the farm business health assessment tool; 3) to provide evaluation for market channel training and help with market data analysis; 4) to oversee graduate students' work on qualitative evaluation; 5) to help interpret results each year, and make recommendations on necessary project modifications; and 6) to assist in the summative evaluation process, and how data from this project can help inform others regionally and statewide.CSU graduate students will help with qualitative evaluation: 1) conduct focus groups with hispanic and military veteran participants to learn about project suitability and satisfaction; 2) collect stories from 8 selected participants at the end of the project. The CSU team will also assist holistic management international in their need to RE-evaluate their own curriculum assessments. This project will help to facilitate that work.quantitative tools: 1) core course content attainment tool; class attendance tracking; 2) colorado building farmers tool; 3) farm business health assessment tool; 4) project satisfaction survey; 5) network capacity building measure; 6) land attainment tracking.qualitative tools: 1) focus groups with hispanics and veterans (YRS 2/3); 2) agency interviews with hispanic affairs project, colorado workforce center, and welcome home alliance for veterans (YRS 2/3); 3) collection of stories from 8 special-audience participants (YR 3).1 USDA, national agriculture statistics service, quick statswww.nass.USDA.GOV/quick_stats/AG_overview/stateoverview.PHP?state=COLORADO2 US census bureau, quick facts WWW.census.GOV/quickfacts/fact/table/mesacountycolorado, sanmiguelcountycolorado, deltacountycolorado, montrosecountycolorado, CO/VET6052173 demographic profile hispanics in colorado, 2014, PEW research center WWW.pewhispanic.ORG/states/state/CO/42018 state agricultural overview colorado, USDA national agriculture statistics servicewww.nass.USDA.GOV/quick_stats/AG_overview/stateoverview.PHP?state=COLORADO5 housing assistance council, veteransdata.info/states/2080000/colorado.PDF6 2018 state agricultural overview colorado, USDA national agriculture statisticswww.nass.USDA.GOV/quick_stats/AG_overview/stateoverview.PHP?state=colorado