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Exploring Funding Opportunities with Special Guest Maddie Grider
209 Plays3 years ago
In this episode, we'll talk about finding funding for your small and large commercial horticulture projects. We'll also have a special guest, Maddie Grider, communications and marketing associate with the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD). She'll share some tips and resources on how to apply for grants, loans, and other financial assistance. Tune in and learn how to grow your green dreams with Hort Culture!
Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (KCARD)
Maddie Grider, Communications and Marketing Associate: mgrider@kcard.info
Questions/Comments/Feedback/Suggestions for Topics: hortculturepodcast@l.uky.edu
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Hort Culture Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to Hort Culture, where a group of extension professionals and plant people talk about the business, production, and joy of planting seeds and helping them grow. Join us as we explore the culture of horticulture.
First Guest Excitement
00:00:18
Speaker
Hello, everybody, and welcome back. I am very excited today because we have our first guest. We have our first guest. I'm just like pumping air right now. I'm really excited. Yeah, Brett, what fantastic human have you brought on the show with us
Meet Maddie Grider
00:00:33
Speaker
today?
00:00:33
Speaker
Well, Maddie Grider from KCard, the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development has agreed to join us today. And as we were getting a little warmed up, I think she may have been both excited by the prospect of joining and a little concerned by how just absurd we are. But she's going to roll with the punches, I think, today. And if you're not familiar with KCard, we'll get into that a little bit here in a few minutes. Probably the number one most referred to organization
00:01:00
Speaker
when I work with producers, have a lot of respect for the work that that organization does, but we get a double feature today. She's going to be talking about KCar, we're going to be talking about producer grants, but Maddie's also a plant person, and as any good, reasonable person is. She a true leaf? Yeah, she's a true leaf.
00:01:19
Speaker
And so, Maddie, welcome. Maybe just say a little bit about yourself, what you like about plants, you know, being outside. I know you maybe have tuned into a couple of the previous episodes, so you kind of get the drift, but we're so glad that you're here to share with us today.
Maddie's Role at KCard
00:01:35
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for having me. I'm very happy to join today. A little bit about me.
00:01:42
Speaker
Currently, I am the Communications and Marketing Associate at KCard. My background, I grew up on a cattle and tobacco farm in little old Monroe County.
00:01:57
Speaker
I was always active in FFA, ended up going to Western Kentucky University. I studied originally ag education, eventually followed my love for plants into studying horticulture and also studied literature and professional writing on the side. Oh man. Cool. It's a great combo. I love it. I love it. Monroe County represent. What is your high school mascot?
Fun with Mascots and Falcons
00:02:25
Speaker
The Falcons.
00:02:26
Speaker
Oh, is that the random question of today? We always have these random intro questions for conversation generation. Alexis, Alexis is low key looking to get into falconry. So maybe, I mean, I wouldn't call it low key, but primary objective. One day I'll have hobbies and that will be my hobby. Awesome. That was my elementary school mascot was the Falcons. And then I grew up and went to high school and then it was the Eagles. You see what they did there?
00:02:55
Speaker
You see, I see that. I know. I know. Like a Pokemon evolution kind of situation. Exactly. I've got to catch them all.
Landscaping and Plant Passions
00:03:05
Speaker
So, Maddie, what's your you mentioned you like to get into kind of gardening stuff, you house plant person. What's your what's your interactions with the horticulture world?
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah. So all of the above, I really enjoy landscaping. Um, I did an internship at an arboretum in Baldwin green during the fun college years. And that's where I already had a love for plants, but that's where I found kind of the real life world of plants and learned more about them. So landscaping house plants,
00:03:48
Speaker
Though I don't always treat them well, sadly. It just means those plants aren't hardy if they die. It's their fault, not yours. Right. It's basic horticulture principle, not your fault. It's liver dying in the background. What was the arboretum called?
00:04:06
Speaker
I know that this is not a video podcast, but we see that Maddie has a plant, but she just gave herself away. I would have never have known the difference. We didn't have the kind of resolutions. What was the Bowling Green Arboretum called? Give them a little shout out. It's the Baker Arboretum. Oh, thanks. I haven't been there. I don't think I've been there. My brother lives in Bowling Green, so I feel kind of guilty for not having visited that.
00:04:34
Speaker
Arboretum there. I'm going to have to check that out next time. I think I've heard that they have really great collections, just like of different pines and stuff like that. I'm a pine boy. The pine boy. I am a pine boy. Rhett just wants to be some sort of boy, and then boy has a BOIS boy. BOIS, PINE BOYS.
00:04:56
Speaker
Just boys in general. I have no idea what a pine boy would be, but it probably smells fresh and clean. So not a terrible thing. He's a bonsai boy. Oh yeah. That's cool. I like that a lot. It's kind of plant-themed. A little pine boy. Oh my gosh. How do we give from arboretum to boys? This podcast I just don't know. We just ad lib a lot. Matty, you're going to have to save us here.
Exploring Producer Grants
00:05:25
Speaker
I think we'll launch in here and a little bit into the discussion of producer grants because I know I'll speak for myself and I think everyone else to say that there are producers. One of the first questions they come in is they're new or they're trying to get into a new enterprise. They say, is there money for that? Is there a grant for that? Is there grants that I can, you know, can I just ask, put a quick email into Uncle Sam and they'll just send me a check to buy this farm and the tractors and everything else that I'll need for it?
00:05:50
Speaker
And so I guess when people are interested and they come to KCard or they approach KCard and they say they're interested in that kind of thing, what is the onboarding process? What's the resources that you have? Do you have resources available? Summary documents of all the things that are out there, the different grants that people can go and look and take a look at. How would you respond to somebody asking that kind of thing? Yeah, great question. So we get that a lot to nobody's surprise.
00:06:19
Speaker
So the first thing that we kind of do is encourage them to think about it more specifically. You know, what are you looking for funding for? What's this specific project? Do you have an amount in mind? And also realize that there may or may not be opportunities out there for that.
00:06:42
Speaker
We definitely do have some resources. We have a grant facilitation program where kind of all of this plays into that. So we have a page on our website where we try to keep up with the active grants out in the world and break down that difficult language into here's what it's for, here's who can apply, here's how much.
00:07:08
Speaker
just to give an idea of what's even out there. We also have a monthly newsletter that goes out with upcoming grant deadlines and things that have recently been announced. So I would encourage you to sign up for that if you're interested in grants. Is that funding matters? That is funding matters.
00:07:31
Speaker
Yeah, that's the name of it. I like that a lot. That newsletter has saved my butt more than one time, Maddie. So thank you for putting that out because it is read, at least by me. Great to hear. Yeah. I noticed on your resources page and that link, it looks like, is the first thing under the resources is your facilitation program. Is that how folks sign up for the funding matters, you said?
00:07:54
Speaker
Yeah, so people can just reach out to us and let them know that. Let us know that you want to sign up for it. And there's also a form on our website as well where you can directly sign up. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I refer a ton of people to that page in particular that you just now referenced that it starts out with a facilitation program, then goes into areas like FSA conservation service and on and on. And usually when people come
00:08:24
Speaker
to the office, that's one of the first pages that I mentioned to them, if they just have general questions and they've not really narrowed down their focus. You other guys, do you guys get calls like that? And you too, Maddie, when folks come to you, do they have a narrow focus or are they more just testing ideals? Like what's the common scenario there? It seems like when they stop by our office, we have more that just are looking in general. They don't have specific things narrowed down.
00:08:51
Speaker
Yeah, that's definitely I think what we find as well. You know, a lot of the time it's I've heard in the general world that there's grants out there. Maybe they saw money. Yeah, free money. Of course, we all want that. Oh, we all want that. There's nothing wrong with that. Free money is good. If it if it exists. I'm not for sure that free free free money exists too often. But yeah,
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, I think one of the things I wanted to ask or bring up is the perception that there's sort of like there's money available to
00:09:26
Speaker
for everything. There's just money out there. I'm flashing back to that guy with the question marks all over his suit that used to sell books on late night TV about there's free government money out there and everybody's not not picking up on it. And like I think a lot of times folks are frustrated because I have to give the answer or say or pass it off to K-Guard sometimes to say, well, no, there's not just money straight up available for you to buy a farm, you know, for you to buy that big nice new
00:09:56
Speaker
Kubota, John Deere, Massey Ferguson, whatever tractor. There's not necessarily straight up money, grants available for that kind of thing. Now, the broader conversation of funding, I think it opens up opportunities for things like lower interest loans or other types of programs like that. But, Matty, am I off base here to say that sometimes the funding isn't quite as carte blanche, whatever you need. There's free money available for that. Is that kind of the conversations you all have to have?
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, I would definitely agree with that.
00:10:30
Speaker
Like I said, a lot of the time when we get questions, it's just, I've heard there's grant money out there. I want some of that. And it's not quite that easy. Unfortunately, these grant programs are very specific, typically as to what they will fund. Sometimes it may be equipment, but often not. It's essentially never land purchases. So that's why often,
00:10:59
Speaker
If you can come to us and already have an idea of what you're looking for, what you're looking for funding for, we can really make that process easier on you especially.
00:11:13
Speaker
I'm glad you made that point, Maddie. We get that question a lot through county offices, it seems like, is, you know, we'll get the question, boy, is there any money for land? And I always tell them not that there's certain classifications of things that I don't see money available for. And that's
Business Plans and Grant Success
00:11:28
Speaker
one of them. So yeah, that's a great comment. When people come in looking for that, if they've never looked at grants before, so they don't know.
00:11:37
Speaker
that's the first point of realization is what is typically available and what is not. It seems like that's a really good jumping off point when I discuss with people, since I don't know a lot about, in some cases, the specific grants, but I do know the basics like that. Yeah. Then there's grants versus loans. I think we're mostly talking about grants today, but there are some loans, little interest through FSA and different things like that. You all can help people
00:12:02
Speaker
guide them to the right area, depending on what they're coming to you for. Is that right, Maddie? Yes. So we definitely try to work very one on one. And, you know, if you come to us with a specific idea, or even if you don't have a specific idea, we can kind of help you narrow that down and then really help guide to the right program, whether that be alone, a grant, and then really help along with that process.
00:12:32
Speaker
Did we kind of formally, I think sometimes we take advantage of an extension knowing what K-card is, but for our listeners out there, Maddie, can you give us your elevator speech for what K-card does? I mean, you all do so many things, but what's the down and dirty?
00:12:49
Speaker
Of course, so in a nutshell, K-Card, the Kentucky Center for Agriculture and Rural Development often referred to as K-Card because we do love our acronyms in that. In a nutshell, we focus on helping agribusinesses with business development.
00:13:10
Speaker
So that can be anything from working on a more formal business plan, which is key going back to the grant conversation and loans that is often key for those programs.
00:13:22
Speaker
We can help look at financials, just connect to general resources, refer to other organizations and partners within the state if we may not be the best one to work with in that particular situation. And then we also have a couple more specialized programs such as the AgVets program, which helps connect veterans to opportunities in the ag world. And then we have a local food program as well.
00:13:52
Speaker
where we can help connect growers and buyers of local food. You mentioned business plan. That's interesting to me. Is that a requirement for a lot of programs that you guys see? Is that a good starting point for a lot of those programs as a business plan? And it sounds like you guys have services available to help out with that.
00:14:13
Speaker
Yes. So often, especially if it's a substantial grant or loan program, a business plan will be required just to show that you've thought through the project is going to be beneficial and bring additional revenue to the farm. Even if it's not required for that particular program, it's still a good idea because you really need to think through all of the key components of the business and really think about
00:14:44
Speaker
where you're at if that's right for you at this moment. And we do have services to help with that. We have a team of business development that can help with the business plan and ask those key questions that need to be on there. And then we also can help tailor the business plan to what the purpose of it is.
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's an awesome resource. And I know for those of us, particularly in the horticulture world, a lot of times we've joked before that we're kind of on the, we're a fringe case in horticulture. A lot of times we're trying different things. I mean, there's folks here in this room on this podcast from the center of crop diversification. So you're oftentimes trying things that may be on the edge of things and
00:15:31
Speaker
You know, that may be one of the things that you really need to start with. It sounds like as a business plan. So that service to me, particularly in horticulture and agriculture as well.
00:15:41
Speaker
in any endeavor that you're undertaking, but particularly in horticulture, that's an awesome service because I work with a lot of people that haven't thought to that level yet. Even if they've sold in the farmer's market for a couple of years, they've maybe never looked for a grant or never had any occasion to develop a true business plan and looked at budgets and all the other components that go into a business plan. So that's exciting. That's an awesome resource. It really is. It's great.
00:16:06
Speaker
Yeah, I think one of the things sometimes people don't recognize or aren't familiar with is that the grant world
00:16:15
Speaker
For the most part, it's not a matter of, I would like that money. And they say, okay, here it is. It's a competitive process. And so to make yourself competitive, if you think back to, you know, if you applied to college or you apply to a job or whatever, you aren't just gonna say, hey, I'd like that job, please. Or I'd like to be admitted to that college, please. You're gonna have to, on some level, explain how and why you should be there. Or in this case, you should receive the funds. Now there is, the way I said it earlier,
00:16:44
Speaker
I was talking, explaining to Maddie the room she's walking into. One of the things I said was that there's grants and then there's grants and there's variable levels of commitment and reporting and everything like that. And so Maddie, do you all have in Kentucky, for instance, or maybe even more, more generally, do you all have other particular things that you all steer people to if they're beginners or they have particular interests that aren't quite as
00:17:11
Speaker
As arduous and then on the flip side are there some of them that are bigger money bigger competitiveness?
Types of Grant Programs
00:17:17
Speaker
Is there a spectrum there and and how do you all kind of walk through walk people through that or orient them to that that spectrum?
00:17:26
Speaker
Definitely. So that's something that we kind of try to gauge in those first couple conversations. So if you're just starting out really kind of just needing some startup, maybe smaller equipment, things like that, fencing, there are some smaller, maybe statewide or even local programs out there. For example, the County Ag Investment Program is one that we refer people to a lot.
00:17:54
Speaker
And for that, you typically just go to your local extension office. It's a smaller, still important, but smaller and less
00:18:07
Speaker
arduous program. And then, you know, you can go from that all the way to you've been in business quite a few years. You're needing some more substantial work in capital, maybe to expand, whether that's your customer base or, you know, add a completely new product. Maybe you consider the USDA value added producer grant, which is actually open right now and closes on May 16th.
00:18:36
Speaker
And the application process for that is pretty intense. We typically tell people consider 60 to 80 hours of work on the application process itself. So yeah, that's a pretty big program. And then after you get the grant, your work is not done. There's lots of paperwork, lots of reporting. So that's something else to consider.
00:19:04
Speaker
when it comes to applying for grant programs is how long are you willing to stay committed to this? Are you willing to, after you receive the grant, you know, work on these reports, keep all of your receipts, really keep up with your records? Because, of course, in the ag world, we're all great at keeping records, right?
00:19:29
Speaker
Oh yeah, everyone loves records. Record keeping. I remember that was one of my first programs I ever did in Extension was I think Dairy Record Keeping and it was a great program with some economists from UK. We were ready for the big crowds and we did not get it because I did not understand as a brand new Extension agent that maybe people are passionate about record keeping even though it's very important.
00:19:54
Speaker
It is an important aspect, so yeah, that's a great point. I was looking down, Maddie, some of the resources on K-Card, and it's a great mixture, it looks like, of, as you mentioned, of county programs. That looks like they're smaller.
00:20:10
Speaker
And then there's the state level programs. I see a lot of state programs on here like KSU, Grow Appalachia, SOAR, and some other programs. And then you guys go all the way up and you do a good job listing those federal programs. And some of those federal programs look like they're bigger, more expensive programs. That'll take a little bit more, looks like maybe time and commitment. But a good variety of resources you guys have listed.
00:20:33
Speaker
One thing I feel like I have to mention because I deal with this as a county agent that you mentioned the CAPE funding, which is how most people know it, CAPE funding.
00:20:45
Speaker
County agriculture improvement and those are available to horticulture. So I think historically they have only agriculture and I mean agriculture as in most of the time it's like cattle, corn, soybean, people have applied for it. That is available to you in horticulture. All you need is a farm number.
00:21:08
Speaker
And you can get one of those from your FSA office if you can show that you're producing a crop. And so I just want to point that out because I think a lot of the time people think, at least in my county, people think that that is not applicable to them because it has historically only been ag producers that have applied and received that.
00:21:27
Speaker
But I think the Kentucky Department of Agriculture is really hoping for more horticulture enterprises to start getting awarded that. So just a little slide in there I got for you.
00:21:38
Speaker
And for any, for any of our listeners outside the state of Kentucky, uh, that, that Cape money comes from what we call Ag development board money, Ag development funding. And so it is from originally from the tobacco settlement period. And so that may not be available in your state. This is a, that's a very Kentucky specific thing of the way that that money has been invested, but it's, um, excuse me, it's.
00:22:05
Speaker
a really great program that we have available.
00:22:08
Speaker
You mentioned the horticulture producers as, I mean, there was a point where there was some thought that maybe horticulture would be the heir apparent to tobacco in the state as far as diversified labor intensive production. Of course, the markets for those things are very, very different. And so it hasn't gone necessarily exactly according to that plan. But just in case there's anybody out there saying, well, I'm in Georgia, how do I get access to those Cape funds? Well, you may not have those available to you, but they are available here.
00:22:38
Speaker
I just want to recap what Maddie said just a second ago, because I think it is important to explore those local and statewide grant programs as you're getting started, a little bit of a simpler kind of process, and it might be a good starting point. And then over time, as you build your business, as you develop and revise your business plan, you might consider some of those federal-level grant programs, the value-added producer programs and the other local food-related programs that might be of benefit.
00:23:08
Speaker
I think my internet was choppy, so I just wanted to make sure we got that audio out clearly. And all of that whole network, that whole range of things as Maddy can contribute and K-Guard can help you figure that stuff out. Alexis, you have more kind of questions from the producer agent side of things.
00:23:27
Speaker
Yeah, so I think that a lot of time people think they have to have it all together before they go visit K card or visit even an extension office. So, you know, what, what do people have to have when they come to you? What they have to absolutely have? What can you, and you hit on this a little bit, what you can help them with, but I think there's an intimidation factor that people
00:23:52
Speaker
feel like they don't know what they're doing so they can't go to the people who can teach them how to do things. So it's kind of a catch-22. So talk to us a little bit about, okay, I'm a new grower. I bought a farm. I'm trying to start fresh. What do I do, Maddie? Yeah, so truly all that anyone needs to contact us is a way to contact us. There's no right or wrong time, honestly.
00:24:21
Speaker
And that's another reason that we try to work very one-on-one with producers because
00:24:28
Speaker
You need different things. If you've been in the business for 10 years, you might need something different than somebody who's just starting out. So even if that doesn't look like a business plan, maybe it's general advice or just listening. Sometimes it's good to talk to us just to get our input on things. So like I said, there really is no wrong time because we do really tailor our work
00:24:58
Speaker
with producers to what they need at that point in time. So what you're saying is you could have been in business for 10 years or you could be someone who has never sold some, you know, a plant product, product in general, and both of those people can get help from KCard.
00:25:20
Speaker
Yeah. So at any point, even if it's just something that you're thinking about starting, you know, you don't really know how to go about it. We can help at any point.
00:25:32
Speaker
oftentimes that's kind of working through, even if not a more formal business plan, at least pieces of it to think about who your competitors might be. You know, if you have the funds to commit to this, what that's going to look like. You said something, I'll go back to first base on this conversation. Uh, and I think it's an important distinction to make.
00:26:00
Speaker
because it comes up from time to time. Most people have an understanding that most of these programs, whether loans or grants or other programs, are geared towards commercial production, production for profit. Every now and again, we get folks in that have some sort of recreational ideal and they're looking for funding sources. Is that correct, Maddie, that most of these programs are more on the commercial end of things?
00:26:24
Speaker
Yeah, I would say so. Funders typically want to see some amount of revenue generation in the product, in the producers that they invest in. So that is typically the case. And that's another reason that working with us on your business plan and financials can be important just to have that backup whenever you do complete your application.
00:26:54
Speaker
To me, when people start to explore this, they're getting usually more serious and they may be brand new people or folks that are looking to level up. But I find that people, as I talk with people that have applied for either state or federal programs before, they say one of the things that helps them is that quality of being able to look forward into the future and plan ahead a little bit.
00:27:19
Speaker
because some of these programs, they run on certain cycles.
Grant Planning and Cycles
00:27:24
Speaker
I don't know if you have any common cycles that these, whether it's a calendar year or a federal year, you guys, anybody in the podcast today, especially you, Maddie, but what's some of the typical funding cycles for these programs, whether calendar or other? Yeah, so there's some programs that,
00:27:47
Speaker
are pretty reliable year by year. I would say some of the USDA programs like the Value Added Producer Grant you'll be looking for every year in the spring and then some programs that we've seen in recent years have been the result of pandemic and you know some funds dedicated to that so some of those we may not see again but
00:28:14
Speaker
Yeah, a lot of those USDA programs that we see so often, you would be looking for in the spring. Got you. So it's a good place to look forward to, probably in a little in advance too, just to prepare yourself and your documents and your mindset and do all the other preparations if you're going to involve yourself with these things, sounds like. Yeah, there's a couple of grants that I work with.
00:28:37
Speaker
In addition to the Center for Crop Diversification, I also work with the Sustainable Ag Research and Education Program, SARE, which is a part of USDA, and the Southern SARE region, which Kentucky's a part of, there's other regions, every state in the country is a part of a region, but they have producer grants and on-farm grants, which are kind of for doing some on-farm research, and it depends on who's leading it and how it's structured, but their deadlines are kind of all over the place. I think one of them's in December, another one's in,
00:29:06
Speaker
June and they have other ones as well that are kind of spreading throughout the year. And I think in their case, they're trying, they have the same core people processing all the applications. So they're kind of spreading out the love a little bit rather than it just being on a fiscal cycle. So in general, I think, yeah, check in with the program that you have and make sure you know the deadlines. And yeah, one other thing I just wanted to touch on before we move on to some, I know Josh had a couple of questions.
00:29:36
Speaker
is about the farm number thing. Alexis, you and I have been talking a little bit about farm numbers and getting some clarification. And I'll be the one who goes out on the limb to say that my understanding is that the former requirement of 10 acres, which I think existed, I don't know how long ago, not that long ago, I believe has been adjusted to the point where to get a farm number, which is a key, it's sort of like your,
00:30:05
Speaker
It's kind of like your social security, but for your farm business. Yeah, that is often a requirement. Specifically, farm business in this case.
00:30:15
Speaker
Uh, yeah, I think my, my understanding, and again, I'm also feeling a little bit like I'm going out on the limb and the people who will know at your FSA office. So if you want clarification, please find your local FSA office for anybody in the U S you have one, but the, I think you can have a farm number. Like if you're maybe not doing a business, you know,
00:30:38
Speaker
you can still get a farm number if you have a certain amount of acreage. And that's, I think, for like tax purposes, schedule Fs, things like that. But if you're smaller than 10 acres, when you're doing business, which a lot of people in horticulture production are because, you know, an acre of intense and vegetable production is a lot of vegetables. And you just have to show that you have sold, I think it's like $1,000 or? $1,000 worth of income, I believe. Yeah, $1,000 worth of income. And Maddie, feel free to jump in and correct us if we say anything wrong here. Yes, please, Maddie.
00:31:08
Speaker
It's a, it's kind of a prerequisite thing. It's like getting registered to be able to access some programs or certain programs and insurance programs, grants, loans, et cetera, that are going to require you to have a farm number. And so if you've been putting off, putting that off.
00:31:25
Speaker
That's just another thing to consider. And it's really easy to get like, I mean, I just got one a couple of years ago and it's, it took, you know, like a sheet of paper and 10 minutes at the office kind of thing. Cause they are actually already have your plot of land probably like on file somewhere and they're just waiting for you to come claim your number, so to speak. Yeah. Oh, and you need your deed. So I guess there's that. Indeed.
00:31:50
Speaker
I was waiting for it, Brett. We were waiting for it. We were waiting for it. Bum, bum, bum. Just when I took out the sound effect for drums, I missed that. And we're going to have to put that back in. I thought it stood on its own. You know, we didn't need any. It really did. It needed no situation at all. None at all. None at all. So Maddie, I had a question.
KCard's Free Services
00:32:10
Speaker
Are there fees associated with using KCard services?
00:32:15
Speaker
So the best majority of KCard services are completely free to access. We are funded by some different programs from USDA, Kentucky Ag Development Board, things like that. So the majority of the work that we do, such as that typical business planning and things like that, and the grant facilitation program are completely free. Well, that's great.
00:32:42
Speaker
I also noticed on your resources, you know, it looks like aside from just working with individual growers, you do work with groups, like whether it's the kind of helping a group of people come together and develop a co-op or a cooperative. But I was also kind of curious about, do you help facilitate or help organizations within counties, like let's say, for example,
00:33:09
Speaker
you know, say a conservation district is looking at acquiring a new piece of equipment that they can use in the kind of shared equipment program. Do you, do you help groups within counties come together and kind of apply for those funds or do you have a role in that sort of coming together of people to, to access state funds? Yeah. So oftentimes the,
00:33:37
Speaker
grant applications that we help with our producers, but we can also help other programs in the state, other organizations with those applications as well. It's pretty diverse as to what that can look like. And we also do some work with like farmers markets across the state. And like you said, we are the
00:34:05
Speaker
Cooperative Development Center in the state as well. So yeah, I mean all of that to say that our work is very diverse and really just applies to what the situation calls for. Sure, that's really neat.
00:34:23
Speaker
I have my own little thought for those of you listening. I think it's easy to say, well, I want to get a grant or can I find some money to buy this or install this or something like that. There's smaller ones available, there's larger ones available, but there's a lot of people doing those.
00:34:45
Speaker
you know, maybe looking for help getting some plants in or something like that. Look at a research grant and you don't have to be, you know, an expert researcher. You just have to be someone who is good at taking records. You know, just saying, you know, how much you harvested or when you did applications and a lot of those things you have to do anyways for pesticide license, organic, you know, all kinds of things like that. But
00:35:12
Speaker
look into those research things and if it's something that can help someone else in the future, a new variety comparing them or I was looking at some native plantings and using them
Innovation with Research Grants
00:35:23
Speaker
as cuts. There's various things that if it's something you're interested in,
00:35:29
Speaker
But you'd be taking a risk, maybe doing it. You could probably apply for some research funding. And I think that those are, I don't want to say they're easy to get, but not everybody's going to apply for them in the same way of just someone saying, oh, can I get $500 for this bush hog?
00:35:45
Speaker
sort of thing. Would you all, I mean, Brett, you dabble with the Sayers, not dabble. You're very involved with the Sayers stuff. Would you say that? He messes around with it. Dabbles, he dabbles. He peddles around. Dabble with the Sayer programming a little bit. I get into passion project. Yeah. I would say that those programs are, they're sometimes harder to, for anyone reasonable to wrap their head around exactly how this is supposed to work. Cause it's like,
00:36:12
Speaker
I want to do a thing and I want money to do the thing. Why is this complicated? And the way that those things are phrased and framed is typically that there's a problem that you may be facing that others may be facing as well. And so what we would like for you to do is to conduct the assessment of this thing in a way that will help others to learn from the lesson that you're figuring out.
00:36:37
Speaker
And so that can be things like putting cover crops in an orchard, using some ground cover in an orchard or something like that. It could be different biological approaches to controlling mites in bee colonies. It could be, like you mentioned, kind of comparing different varieties or different systems and approaches for saving. In the case of SARE, it's sustainability related in some way, which is a pretty broad brush.
00:37:04
Speaker
But I do agree if you can figure out the way that you can make a research program that's actually answering some real questions and
00:37:14
Speaker
it can actually, it can end up covering some components of what you were maybe planning to do anyway. And as you very astutely mentioned, it's a way to take some of the risk, the financial risk and sting out of trying something new within in the horticulture, we've got a million and one different angles for doing trying something new, because we have so many different systems and crops and market channels and everything else, which we'll talk about
00:37:40
Speaker
Market channels in the next episode, maybe, we'll see. If you're lucky. I like this conversation today. I know that we have probably hit, we do have listeners outside of the state. I know that K Card, Mattie is primarily, it sounds like a
00:37:57
Speaker
Kentucky-focused organization, but a lot of the programs that you have discussed today, I've noticed they're nationwide programs. So even if you're not in the state, there may be other organizations, there's definitely programs that you can work with. But Maddie, do you know if there's other organizations like yourselves that are based in other states or outside of Kentucky, or are you guys just a unique one-off operation?
Connecting with Resources
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm sure there are. I know there are some other cooperative development centers.
00:38:31
Speaker
across the country as well. And if anybody ever reaches out to us that's not in Kentucky, you know, we're not going to just completely wrap them off. You know, one of the things that we focus on. Yeah. So one of the things that we focus on is, you know, helping people connect to the right people. So even if that's not us, because we do focus on, you know, businesses in the state, we can help make those connections and provide any of our resources that might be helpful.
00:39:01
Speaker
It's good to hear. Great. Yeah. There are definitely other organizations, not just because KCard works with the cooperatives. Those cooperative development centers function differently in different states. I end up in a lot of different states talking about some of this stuff. And so it could be, don't assume that the cooperative development center in your area does everything the same that KCard does, but there may be other parallel organizations that
00:39:25
Speaker
that do offer support in similar ways. Now, I would like to say nobody's quite as good as K-card, but so sorry. I'm a Kentucky boy. I'm a Kentucky boy. Andy brings back the boy. A bald Kentucky pine boy. So I got my Kentucky pride and my K-card pride and we got some Monroe County pride in the house.
00:39:50
Speaker
as well, go Falcons. But there are a lot of great organizations doing this kind of support work. And I think that's a great point, Ray, that just because you're not here doesn't mean you can't go and piggyback on a lot of the resources that K-Cards put together, especially about federal programs and general advice on getting ready to do grants. But yeah, I just wanted to say K-Cards are up in Kentucky hard. I'm just really encouraged from what I'm hearing from you all today, and especially you, Matty, that I don't have to have
00:40:18
Speaker
all of my thoughts put together I can just call you up and even if I don't have a business plan you offer those services and you can kind of help me get started and and that's something we see sometimes people are afraid to approach organizations like yours because they feel like they've not thought through the process enough but it sounds like that's not the case you can folks can call you up and you will help them think through the process yeah that's very true um like I said there's no wrong time to contact us and you know we don't
00:40:48
Speaker
expect you to have all of the answers and it's totally okay if you don't. Even as we work together there may be some things that are still questions and as you work on a business plan if that's right for you it's important to remember that that is a living document so you know you may decide your goals for year one or whatever they are but as you go along in the business you might find
00:41:18
Speaker
you're far surpassing those or maybe some things have happened and those aren't quite attainable or you may completely change the focus of your business. So it's important to remember that anything that you work on as far as a business plan or anything, it's totally changeable and it's whatever your business needs.
00:41:42
Speaker
Well, Maddy, is there anything else about KCard that we want to know, anything about the grants world that we want to know that we haven't touched on yet? I would just say, again, you know, feel free to contact us with any questions, you know, at any point in the life of your business. And we're happy to help. If you want to just kind of get some information, we do have some newsletters. We've got funding matters, the funding one that I mentioned.
00:42:12
Speaker
And then we have a general just K card newsletter with information on, you know, some educational opportunities. And on our website, we have some blog posts about a wide variety of topics that we get questions about pretty often. So if you want to just, you know, do some live reading, you know, maybe go check that out. Awesome. Well, let me, let me see if I
Grant Myths and Realities
00:42:36
Speaker
can recap here. What, what, what I think we've learned today. So I think first and foremost,
00:42:41
Speaker
good business planning, good thinking critically about what your business is, what your goals are as a business before you start jumping into the grant world is always a good
00:42:51
Speaker
place to start, having a sound plan to work off of. From there, making sure if you are going to explore the grant world, go ahead and get your ducks in a row on things like having a farm number, on things like being able to communicate clearly about what your business plan is to others, being able to project for yourself and others what that looks like.
00:43:13
Speaker
If you're just starting out or you're just looking to dip your toe, you might take a look at some local regional and state opportunities for funding. Uh, don't write off the, the loan programs and other things that may be a better fit for what the type of money is that you need at the moment. As you're taking bigger steps and looking toward maybe more ambitious growth in your business, you might consider some of the big federal programs you might consider.
00:43:40
Speaker
some of the more competitive opportunities. And in those cases, it's even more important to have that clear business plan, clear objectives, and I think something we haven't really exactly mentioned, but having a clear plan for actually delivering on all the reporting and all of the work that goes into the grant itself. That's something that you need to be aware of. And if you're in Kentucky, you can go to KCard and you can say, please help.
00:44:06
Speaker
But if you're not in Kentucky, you can go to kcard.info, which is their website, and you can check out some of the resources that they have available to get started in narrowing down. Okay, this is the thing I want to go after.
00:44:18
Speaker
But in general, if you've heard, there's a ton of money out there and it's just going to waste and all you have to do is stick your hand up and they'll give it to you, you're not missing out on those kinds of opportunities. That's not exactly happening here, but there are ways for you to supplement and get some support from Uncle Sam and whatever the anthropomorphized version of Kentucky or your state is to support your,
00:44:44
Speaker
your work, but it has to be a good fit and it has to fit with the program and you have to have your ducks in a row. Does that sound like a pretty decent summary of some of the stuff we've talked about today? I think so. Nailed it. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Maddie. We really appreciate you taking the time to join us and we'll make sure to put all your contact information in the show notes.
Episode Conclusion and Social Media
00:45:04
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you all for being with us today and follow us on Instagram at Hort Culture podcast. I am trying to keep more up on that and posting some fun stuff on there. So please go follow it. So I feel like I'm doing something. I appreciate you. And as we grow this podcast, we hope you grow with us. Join us each next week, each week, and of course next week on talking about some marketing channels. So thank you all so much and have a great one.