Nevada has a dynamic and evolving group of beginning farmers and ranchers that have been assisted by the University of Nevada, Reno Extension service with support from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program. This article discusses the evolution of the program over a thirteen period from 2011 to 2024. By developing relationships with these beginning farmers and ranchers, we were able to assess their highest priority needs. As a result, the program has evolved from a focus on financial education workshops to a comprehensive certification course with an emphasis on mentoring. We additionally expanded from traditional agriculture to encompass small and urban farmers and ranchers in programming and outreach efforts.
The majority of agricultural product sales in Nevada include cattle and calf production, followed by hay and other crops, milk and other dairy products, vegetables, melons, potatoes, and sweet potatoes. The number of ranches may be few in numbers, but these ranches rank third in the nation in size with an average size of 3,500 acres. Alfalfa hay is the leading cash crop with alfalfa seed also being a substantial crop. The additional crops in Nevada include potatoes, barley, winter and spring wheat, corn, oats, onions, garlic and honey (NDA, 2024). There is also a large vegetable producer with thousands of acres in Lyon County, Nevada.
Nevada has seen an increase in the number of individuals beginning specialty crop operations (USDA-NASS, 2024). Local participants that wanted to get involved in their local food system began emerging in the early 2000’s. There was an identified need to assist producers that were on small acreages in Nevada. This population wanted to grow vegetables, local meat, and value-added products. Farmer Markets began to emerge across Nevada. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) also began to put significant resources toward this emerging population (USDA, 2024). The University of Nevada, Reno Extension applied for its first Beginning Farming and Ranching Development program by 2008 and was successful in a grant award by 2011.
Discussion
In 2024, Nevada agricultural statistics reported that 33.90% of their farmers are BFRs (Beginning Farmer Ranchers), which is higher than the national percentage of 29.99%. Table 3 (included in PDF version) details the number of BFRs in Nevada by County showing that over one-third of reporting Nevada producers are BFRs. The UNR Extension agricultural project team discerns that a large percentage of Urban Agriculture BFRs are most likely not counted, as USDA has not yet identified them.
Support for beginning farmers and ranchers is of utmost importance for our nation’s food supply. Nationally, the age of producers over 65 years-old increased by 33% from the 2017 census to the 2022 US Agricultural Census. This statistic showing the trend of an aging producer population combined with a 6.9% decrease in the number of farms highlights the need for new producers. Nevada is one of the top 10 states in the United States for beginning farmers and ranchers at 33.9%. The average age of these producers is 47 years old, which is much younger than the average producer is.
Additionally, almost three-quarters (72%) of beginning farmers reported a primary occupation other than farming. This is probably part of the reason for the success of our online certification.
The 2022 US Agricultural Census shows over 45% of the farms in Washoe and Clark County, which contain the two urban areas of Reno and Las Vegas, were operated by new and beginning producers. The USDA definition of an agricultural producer is the ability to produce and sell $1,000 or more. Traditionally, those of us involved in agriculture in Nevada have not recognized the very small grower that has about $1,000 in sales of an agricultural product, but these small farms are becoming a large part of our urban food supply. Several individuals who attended the Small Agriculture Conference are growing food in these neighborhoods for their communities. One farm had over 50 fruit trees and boxed gardens to support their neighborhood in food access. While program development may be challenging, the expansion of our programs to meet the needs of these urban farmers is imperative.
Another consideration is the water and/or “water right” that accompanies this growing movement in Nevada’s largest city. Water is Nevada’s most precious resource. How do we embrace the different kinds of agriculture in Nevada and how do we preserve the water rights to do it? Moving forward, we hope to build collaborations through water conservation and new technologies that allow small farms in urban areas to flourish. Extension has recently brought on faculty with expertise in hydroponics, low-water-use irrigation techniques and water management.
Conclusions
Nevada has completed enterprise budgets with BFRs, implements an annual BFR tour, and supports BFRs with conference opportunities. The hybrid program development has been successful in utilizing Zoom on Wednesday nights with a program tour and grow-local dinner to complete the certification. This component of our program is working well to meet educational needs, as well as creating opportunities for networking and comradery among each cohort of students.
Nevada has incorporated mentoring into their curriculum since the inception of the program. The participant survey assessment identified mentoring as the number one priority. Mentoring can take various forms and occur in very different formats. Nevada currently has a producer-to-producer mentoring component but is finding that sometimes it is not the right fit to put an older experienced producer with a BFR producer due to liability and patience of the experienced producer for traditional rural agriculture. Nevada needs to continue to investigate the BFR-to-BFR mentorship component and how useful it can be. An unexpected benefit of the agriculture roundtables in Southern Nevada was the manifestation of peer-to-peer mentoring as relationships formed to work toward common goals. Perhaps an online model of this could serve to meet the mentoring needs of traditional BFRs in rural areas.
Nevada is the seventh largest state by area in the United States, with only 11 faculty in Extension to cover all aspects of agriculture throughout the state. The Nevada program needs to facilitate a reciprocal and collaborative approach of integrating all producers and educators together, to provide information by sharing knowledge, skills and experience. The recent formation of a statewide agricultural team to coordinate efforts, as well as the recent hires for this area, should be able to improve the efficacy of our programming.
As the UNR Extension BFR team moves forward, we plan to continue to participate with USDA in their BFR program endeavors, and constantly evolve to best serve our changing client base and support Nevada grown and raised products.
Use the link below to download the PDF version.
