Cole Ehmke¹, John Hewlett¹

¹University Of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming, United States

ABSTRACT

Wyoming and other states in America’s West are experiencing rapid changes in land ownership patterns. The individuals and families now living and working on the land typically own smaller acres, manage them for other than traditional purposes, and are less familiar with land and animal management techniques. As a result, they are searching for ways to reach and improve sustainability, often with a desire to connect with the end user of food and other agricultural products.

The Living and Working on the Land project responded to this need over a period of years by targeting these often underserved audiences in Wyoming and the surrounding region. The project offered participants a better understanding of the risks they face and suggested techniques for becoming more knowledgeable about alternatives available for management in Western agriculture using a multidimensional approach. The two primary outputs used to inform and connect with the target audiences included: 1) a series of conferences and 2) extended distribution of educational material associated with the events (publications and a website). This poster describes the project aims, outputs, funding, impacts, and lessons learned.

BIOGRAPHY

Cole Ehmke is an Extension Specialist with University of Wyoming Extension based in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. His work covers agricultural entrepreneurship topics as well as personal financial resource management. Recent projects have included coordinating the Annie’s Project program of management classes for women in agriculture, creating a regulatory guide for foods ventures, creating a business startup guide for value-added food producers, and helping business managers transition ownership and management to a new generation. John Hewlett is a Ranch/Farm Management Specialist at the University of Wyoming where his interests include risk management, integrated management, enterprise assessment, financial analysis, recordkeeping, and applications of technology in agricultural. He is a member of the several regional teams including Ag In Uncertain Times, RightRisk, and Risk Navigator. He grew up in Washington State, where he worked eight years (four as foreman) on a large stocker-cattle/crop operation. John holds a B.Sc. degree in Agricultural Business from Montana State University and a M.Sc. degree in Agricultural Economics from Oregon State University. He came to the University of Wyoming, Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics in 1987 and has been involved in a number of state and regional extension programs, receiving numerous awards.