Role of the Local Advisory Committee
Dennis R. Frame
June 20, 2002

Introduction:

Each Discovery Farm is asked to develop a local advisory committee made up of respected producers, their advisors, neighbors and the agency/education personnel that they work with. This document outlines the purpose of this committee and identifies the role of the committee members.

What is the purpose of this committee?

The role of the local advisory committee is:

1. To provide guidance to the Discovery Farms Program on the types of issues that need to be researched and resolved for operations that are similar to this particular Discovery Farm. Operations that are similar could include:
1. Farms that have similar location (topography, soil and physiographic settings),
2. Similar enterprises (cash grain, vegetables, livestock),
3. Similar production practices (tillage, grazing, etc.)
4. Similar size of operation

Each farm will have a local advisory committee that identifies issues based on their experiences. There will also be a research team made up of university and agency personnel who know the research issues that these types of operations are facing. The role of each of these committees is to identify concerns and research issues from both a research perspective and a “real world” setting.

1. To provide support and outreach for the individual Discovery Farm. In many cases the operator will be working with several researchers and agency personnel. The directors of this program feel that a local support group of respected producers and advisors may help the producer feel more comfortable in identifying issues and problems.
   
2. Another role of this committee is to include the farm's advisors in the research design. Most farms will make some changes in their management practices based on the information collected during the baseline period. These changes could be in regards to feeding, fertilizing, tillage and/or other production practices. It is very important that the advisors to the farm understand and agree to work with the changes that researchers or specialists recommend for an operation. The time for disagreement is prior to the implementation of a recommendation. It is our belief that the farm's advisors will help design and implement any changes in production practices.


3. The local advisory committee should also be viewed as a means of disseminating information. The advisory committee members should be kept in the loop in terms of data collection and progress with the project. Having others in the area informed about what is happening on a particular Discovery Farm will help get the information out to other operations in the area.
   
4. Another role for this committee is potentially as members of the trained local sampler program. Each farm needs to have two or more people identified as samplers for water quality analysis. These local samplers should be part of the local advisory committee so that they have an understanding of what is being evaluated on this operation and how the water quality monitoring fits into the research program. A current position description for the trained local sampler program is attached.

Conclusion:

The purpose of the local advisory committee is to reduce the chances of conducting research on a farm for a number of years without evaluating an issue that this operation or other similar operations are facing. This committee expands the “real world” knowledge of production agriculture and provides the Discovery Farms Program with a larger base of experiences.

The time commitments should be no more that one or two meetings each year. The local Discovery Farm will determine how often and when the committee should meet. They, in concert with their local advisors, are responsible for the selection of committee members.

Attached are a copy of the local trained sampler position description and a copy of the advisory committee membership for the Bragger operation. The Bragger committee is fairly large, but it is composed of individuals that the Braggers felt were important to the success of their program.

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