By Don Niles, president
Greetings once again from PPF. I hope all is going well for you. The ideal conditions of last fall have carried over into the new year and for most of us spring work went smoothly. This has been a great fall and spring in terms of trying new practices and seeing the results without Mother Nature throwing curve balls at us. It has been a confidence building year for innovation.
I find it very exciting that most of you are using your PPF cost sharing dollars to try new things. By far and large, most members will cost share a practice once or twice. After that they feel confidence in the practice and move on to something else. That it exactly the spirit of innovation that will make our organization successful. Keep an eye on the various cost shared practices available to you. Also, if you are thinking about a practice that is not currently cost shared and would like it to be let us know. Contact a PPF board member and share your idea, we may be able to help.
As mentioned in the last newsletter, the “New Member Cost Share” program, which was first introduced last year thanks to an additional grant from The Nature Conservancy, was very well received. We plan on something similar for this year. Let us know of any individuals that you think may be interested; we would be happy to hear from them.
It is interesting to have also received several requests lately from non-ag groups to discuss what PPF is up to. There is a lot of interest among people who do not farm, to find our how and why things may look different in neighboring farm fields. I am happy to accommodate these requests to spread the message of what we are doing and why we are doing it. Also, our cost share field signs are helping. However, there is nothing more effective than you, yourself, taking the time to answer a question or two as to what you are doing and why you are doing it. Theses are great opportunities when they happen. Nobody can tell your story better than you can.
Don