(Leitchfield, KY) – Whitney Carman has been awarded the 2018 Achievement Award from the National Association of County Agriculture Agents during their Annual Meeting and Professional Improvement Conference held in Chattanooga, TN. This award is given to agents with 10 years or less of service in cooperative extension and have exhibited excellence in the field of extension education. This award is only presented to 2% of the County Extension Educators in Kentucky each year.
Carman, Grayson Co. Extension Agriculture & Natural Resources Agent, has developed a diversity of programs in grain, horticulture, beef production, forages, and youth agriculture. Through her work with extension research demonstrations, hay quality education, and community leadership engagement, her goal is to extend research based information from the UK College of Agriculture Food and Environment to the people of Grayson County.
Carmen said her efforts are “grass roots” in nature, and she approaches programming from learning from the local farmers and community, assessing their needs and then creating programs to fill those void areas. Carmen created the Crab Grass Program with a local farmer -even to some peoples bewilderment that they were trying to grow crab grass – it proved to be a new innovative idea that helped sustain the pasture field for the farmer’s cattle. Listen below:
The Fourth Annual Extension Family Farm Fest – where Carmen worked with the three other extension agents – has proven successful as over 600 people participated last year. The event is held annually on the second Saturday of Oct., and is held at the Grayson Co. Extension Facility for Education & Research at 124 Quarry Road in Leitchfield. The festival involves multiple local agencies (humane society, library, Cattlemen’s Association) and allows the local community to see firsthand the rich agricultural heritage of Grayson Co. This year’s event is Oct. 13th, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., and will offer free hot dogs, barn yard games, pumpkin painting, face painting, farm equipment displays, live farm animals, demonstrations, and informational booths. The event is free.
Starting in Oct., Carmen will start another new program that she said was birthed from several women seeking information about the daily operations of a farm. Carmen said a widow of a farmer sought her helped in how to handle the business side of the family farm, and it planted a seed with her that she needed to offer a comprehensive class for women to teach them how to operate a farm from all aspects. The first annual class will begin in Oct. and run through Nov. If you are interested in participating in the class you can register by calling the extension office at (270) 259-3294. Listen below:
As Carmen looks forward at her career, she said she wants to be a “good agent,” and to her that means hearing and meeting the needs of the local farmer and community members.
Misty Thomas/K105 Staff Writer
