A tiller and a handful of tools can only take a farmer so far. For beginning producers who want to grow beyond a quarter-acre market garden, learning to operate a tractor is often the difference between staying small and building a sustainable business.
Kentucky State University launched its first Tractor School in August at the Harold R. Benson Research and Demonstration Farm to meet that need. The three-day training gave beginning farmers hands-on experience in tractor operation, maintenance, and mechanized production practices essential for scaling up. It is the newest addition to Farming for Cash, a USDA-funded initiative that has supported producers across the Commonwealth since 2012.
“Many new farmers come from non-farming backgrounds and start small,” said Dr. Siddhartha Dasgupta, professor and associate research director in the College of Agriculture, Health, and Natural Resources.
Source : kysu.edu