By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

FRANKFORT, Ky. — At a time when farmers are working to keep their businesses going, many have turned to diversification projects to enhance or, in some cases, replace their current operations.

With those changes come challenges, but producers do have ways to help with the transitions. The Kentucky Agribusiness Entrepreneurship project has been designed to encourage that free enterprise spirit in agriculture, bringing community agriculture leaders together to promote agribusiness entrepreneurship.

“The idea for the entrepreneurship project began in 2008 when the Department of Agriculture brought together organizations to look at what could be done to help Kentucky agribusiness entrepreneurs,” explained Rich Laing with the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD).

“The main outcome of those early meetings was that we identified that we all could work together to improve the environment for agribusiness entrepreneurs in Kentucky.”

KCARD is a nonprofit organization established to facilitate agricultural and rural business development in Kentucky providing educational opportunities, technical assistance and business support services to new and existing agribusinesses. The group has led the way in producing a 12-month plan to focus on providing assistance to agribusiness entrepreneurs.

In fact, KCARD received $59,000 in Ag Development Funds last August to kick-start the program.

According to information from the Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy, the agency that oversees the Kentucky Agricultural Development Board, “The goal of this pilot project is to develop an efficient and effective turnkey process that supports the development of agribusiness entrepreneurs and ideas, using 10-15 agribusiness entrepreneurs as a test group.

“Additionally, the program will help build skills, inspire innovation, build networks and expand opportunities to utilize nontraditional financing methods.”

The project has two key components, said Laing; First, to focus on the development and implementation of a provider referral network, consisting of business advisory, technical and financial lending services.

The second component will focus more on the assistance to the individual agribusiness entrepreneurs, providing a structured, designed program process that proactively plans their developmental path.

“My responsibility for the next 12 months is to take these projects through the due diligence of feasibility, test the idea and validate the ability of the implementer to make it work,” said Laing. “Then at the end, we will go back and determine if the idea could work, define the gaps and define internal and external business requirements, including funding (both from the originator and external sources) that may be required to take the project forward and be sustainable.”

The Kentucky Dairy Development Council (KDDC) is one of the first organizations to become involved in the project, by way of the recent dairy microprocessing seminar cosponsored by the KDDC and the Kentucky Sheep and Goat Development Office (KSGD).

“We had worked with KCARD in the past on other projects, and so it seemed like a natural fit to include them in the dairy microprocessing seminar planning process,” said Maury Cox, KDDC executive director.

“We didn’t want this to be a seminar that just gave farmers the steps for setting up a dairy microprocessing operation, but we also wanted to give them tools to first evaluate if the endeavor is a good fit for their farming operation, and KCARD was a big help in that component.”

Laing helped get that seminar started with a presentation called “Dairy Microprocessing, What Are You Thinking?” He challenged those attending to look at how to evaluate a microprocessing operation in order to determine if it would work on their farm from a financial, operational and personal perspective.

“People can have a great idea or a great product they make in their kitchen, but taking it off the paper or out of the kitchen isn’t an easy task,” said Laing. “Everything has to fit to make a project work, so people need to take the time to evaluate before diving into the investment. There is no guarantee if you make it, they will buy it, in this business.”

Cox also said he wanted the participants to walk away from the seminar with information and contacts they would need if they decide to pursue a dairy microprocessing facility.

“I think with KCARD’s help we were able to do that, and we are working with KCARD to do another seminar in the future to take the discussion to the next level,” he said.

The KDDC event will become one of the main projects KCARD will use to evaluate the agribusiness entrepreneurship initiative in Kentucky. The results from the 12-month study will be used to further develop, strengthen and improve business advisory and technical support services provided to agribusiness entrepreneurs that originate through KCARD or other network providers.