Center for Crop Diversification

Brett recently toured Western Kentucky with the office of Land Grant Engagement. Check out his reflections here:

Brett Goes West | Center for Crop Diversification I was fortunate to attend the recent Land-Grant Engagement Bus Tour through Western Kentucky. The trip focused on community and economic development, as well as the initiatives, successes, challenges, and opportunities shaping the region. Here are the places we visited:

Don't forget, we are looking for someone to join our CCD team as a full-time Extension Associate focused on specialty crop marketing support.

This role supports specialty crop producers through workshops, webinars, training, technical assistance, outreach materials, and data-driven resources. It contributes to Center for Crop Diversification programs focused on direct-to-consumer and intermediary sales channels, price reporting, enterprise budgets, data management, impact tracking, and project coordination. The position also supports Market Ready programming and CSA innovation projects in collaboration with university, farm, Extension, wellness, and national partners.

Full details and application here 👉 https://ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/632267

Last month, some of the CCD squad got to hang with Hort Agents at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens! We enjoyed great views, yummy food, and even better conversations.

Join Community Farm Alliance & the Kentucky Horticulture Council for a High Tunnel Crop Planning Field Day in Booneville on June 24th.

Register here 👉 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdyWNETbNKxBr4wJ_Q7NgqonQgdufL5uaG42fd2v5NZxroRag/viewform

Ready to scale up your propagation system? The 2026 Appropriate Technologies Field Day gives you a chance to see things in action and ask suppliers and technical assistance providers questions.

When: Aug 25, 2026
Where: UK Horticulture Research Farm
Time: 8 AM - 4 PM, ET
RSVP 👉 https://ccd.uky.edu/atfd

Meet the 2026 CCD Summer Fellow:

Hi! My name is Eliana Lee; I am a rising senior at the University of Kentucky pursuing an agriculture economics degree with a business minor. I grew up in Versailles Kentucky and have been surrounded by agriculture my entire life. In my free time I love baking sourdough bread and all kinds of sweet treats! I am hoping to have a future career in farm management and work within the farm to table industry. I am super excited for my fellowship this summer with the CCD where I can further develop my agriculture economics knowledge and skills.

🫐🫐🫐 It's BLUEBERRY TIME! 🫐🫐🫐

Save the Date! The 2026 Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association's Green Industry Summer Conference is August 12th at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens.

More info & registration here 👉 https://knla.org/event-6629876's Green Industry Summer Conference is on August 12th at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens.

❕❗ New Publication Alert ❗❕

Setting up a demonstration or experimental plot is a great way to share production technologies and techniques with potential and existing growers (and enthusiasts) to establish a foundation for success or improve productivity by resolving a specific production challenge. This guide is intended to help you set up an impactful local cut flower demonstration area. Give it a read here 👉ccd.uky.edu/sites/default/files/2026-05/ccd-ta-05_cutflowerdemo_accessible.pdf

We are one week away from our next Hort Agent Update. This training will focus on updates from our Consumer Values Survey. Agents 👉 register in KERS to attend! Registration for our 09/14 and 12/14 training is also available on KERS. One hour of KERS credit will be given to attendees.