The Project

Partners include: Pennsylvania's State Cooperative Extension, Conservation Districts, Farm Bureau, PA Farm-A-Syst, and PennAg Poultry Council.

Pennsylvania has a significant and species diverse poultry industry spread across the state. This producer environmental assessment program can highlight agriculture's environmental stewards and enhance the state's environmental status. Partners will identify ten cooperating producers from each of the broiler, turkey, and layer industries to test the ability of the assessment tools to serve different poultry enterprises. The evaluation process includes interviews and surveys to determine the assessment tools' strengths, weaknesses, and effectiveness in supporting voluntary actions to reduce environmental risks.

Updates

Final Summary - December 2005:

View the Final Report Summary.

March 2004:

View the Summary Interim Project Report.

January 2003:

Pennsylvania has completed 17 of the 30 farm assessments so far. We are in the process of writing up evaluations of the assessments to provide to the producers. We are hoping to complete the assessment process by the end of January to early February.

November 2002

The Pennsylvania pilot is being led by PennAg Industries and Penn State University. The pilot test will be 3rd party-assisted assessments conducted on 30 poultry farms. Pennsylvania has completed 16 of the 30 farm assessments so far. We are in the process of writing up evaluations of the assessments to provide to the producers. We are hoping to complete the assessment process by the end of January.

September 2002

PA has 10 assessments completed, evaluations are in the process of being written, now partially on hold until Amanda returns from maternity leave. The other 20 will be tested once she is back to work. Things have been going very well with the assessments so far.

The Pennsylvania pilot is being led by PennAg Industries. The project plans on conducting 3rd party-assisted assessments with 30 producers (10 each broiler, layer, and turkey) using the online or CD version of the assessment tools (paper version backup). Producers will list their aspects of concern in a pre-assessment, to compare with aspects revealed by the assessments. The project is offering growers $100 to participate, and interest is high. Expect to be on farms in spring 2002.

© 2006 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.