The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is pleased to announce the creation of the Big Horn Sheep Coordinator position in conjunction with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) to help protect the growth of the indigenous wild sheep populations in Utah and prevent the spread of disease in domestic sheep and goats. Current UDAF employee, Phil Crowther, has been selected to fill this position.

“Protecting both wild and domestic sheep and goat populations from intermingling and spreading disease is the goal of this program and we feel Phil Crowther is a great choice to bridge the gap between wildlife coordinators and livestock producers” said Leann Hunting, UDAF director of Animal Industry.

The Big Horn Sheep Coordinator will seek out domestic sheep and goat producers in proximity to occupied and unoccupied bighorn sheep habitat and will work with producers to reduce the risk of disease transmission while providing mutual benefit to producers and their livestock.

Phil Crowther has been serving and will continue to serve as the Domestic Elk Program manager and has experience working with domestic and indigenous wildlife and will be able to further use his experience to improve the situation with wild and domestic sheep and goats.

If you are a producer of domestic sheep and goats and would like to be part of this program or have a concern about contact with wild sheep and goats, please contact the Animal Industry Division at udaf-animaldivision@utah.gov.

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The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) has been awarded $3,043,040 through the USDA AMS Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure (RFSI) program. The purpose of the RFSI program is to build resilience in the middle of the food supply chain, to improve markets for small farms and food businesses, to support the development of value-added products for consumers, and develop new job opportunities.

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“We are excited to continue to improve Utah’s food supply chain through this new RFSI grant program,” said Caroline Hargraves, Director of Marketing and Economic Development for UDAF. “This is a great opportunity to serve small-to-mid sized producers and food businesses and address the significant processing and distribution gaps in our local food supply chain.”

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Through this program UDAF will be issuing competitive sub-award grants to support the development of the middle-of-the-supply-chain for Utah-based food and farm businesses. Grant projects may include activities that support the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, storage, transportation, wholesaling, and distribution of locally and regionally produced food products. Eligible food products include dairy, grains for human consumption, fruits and vegetables, aquaculture, and other food products (excluding meat and poultry products and animal feed products). The grant application window is anticipated to open in late 2023 or early 2024.

UDAF is seeking public input via a brief online survey to help determine priorities for this program. The survey will be open through August 18, 2023.

To complete this survey and sign up for updates about this program, please visit https://tinyurl.com/RFSI-Survey-Utah. Learn more at ag.utah.gov/rfsi.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is pleased to announce the recipients of the Spring 2023 Agriculture Water Optimization Grant. This round funded 93 projects, totaling over $20 million in grant money awarded.

“We are excited to continue the charge to help Utah’s farmers and ranchers better optimize their water use on their farms,” said Agricultural Water Optimization program manager, Hannah Freeze. “The response from the agricultural producers to optimize and save water has continued to grow with each application period for this program, showing they are stepping up to be part of the solution.”

The newly funded 93 projects have an estimated water savings of 61,599 acre feet of water annually. All of the previously funded projects to date have an estimated yearly water savings of 172,847 acre feet or over 56 billion gallons of water.

The $20 million awarded to the Spring 2023 applicants was provided by the Utah Legislature in the 2022 legislative session as part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds provided to the state of Utah. Additional funds were appropriated for this program in the 2023 legislative session and future application periods will be available.

The Agricultural Water Optimization program was initially funded in the 2019 Legislative Session with the purpose of reducing consumptive water use while maintaining or improving agriculture production; improving water quantification to provide real-time, accurate measurements; and to improve and protect surface and ground water quality by reducing the overwatering of crops.

Recipients can receive up to $500,000 for their projects and a 50/50 cost share is required. For additional information on grant and application requirements, please visit https://ag.utah.gov/ag-water-optimization.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) announces that the following recipients have been approved to receive funding under the 2023 Utah Food Security Processing Grant Program:

• Mountainland Apples
• Heber Valley Meat
• Springville Meat Co.
• Cache Valley Custom Meats
• Uintah Packing Company
• Sunbow Distributing
• Bingham’s Custom Meats
• Premium Meat Company
• Farm Creek Meats, LLC.
• Ashton Farms Custom Meats
• Fowers Fruit Ranch
• Beehive Pack LLC.
• Monsons Quality Meat Processing
• Bell Mont Meats
• Hollow Tree Honey
• Circle V Meat Inc.
• Davis Custom Meat Processing
• Prime Cuts Meat Processing
• Wall Brothers Orchards
• Cache Canning Co.
• Solstice Spices

During the 2023 Legislative Session, UDAF was appropriated $1,000,000 by the Utah Legislature to provide grants to small meat, poultry, and fruit and vegetable processors to make immediate impacts to processing capacity to improve local food security.

In total, UDAF received 89 applications with over $10 million in requests. The department will continue to work with the legislature and hope to make this a continuing grant program that will strengthen food security for the people of Utah.

For more information on the grant and to view application requirements, visit https://ag.utah.gov/foodsecuritygrant.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is now accepting applications for the 2023 Soil Health Equipment Grant to help farmers and ranchers access equipment to implement soil health practices.

“Implementing soil health practices such as planting cover crops and no-till farming has shown to improve the overall health of the soil, but many of these practices also require the purchase of specialized equipment that can be costly,” said Tony Richards, UDAF Soil Health Program Manager. “In an effort to overcome some of these barriers and allow Utah’s farmers and ranchers the opportunity to try these practices, the Utah Soil Health Program is offering grants to organizations that work directly with farmers and ranchers to help purchase equipment related to implementing soil health practices around the state.”

Eligible equipment is required to have a tie to implementing one of the following soil health principles:

1. Keeping the soil covered
2. Minimizing soil disturbance (physical or chemical)
3. Maximizing biodiversity
4. Keeping a living root as long as possible
5. Integrating livestock.

Grant awards will be capped at $50,000 maximum with a minimum of 20% matching funds. The match requirement must be in the form of a financial contribution (no in-kind match). All applications are required to have at least one conservation district as a fiscal partner. All reimbursement payments under the grant will be made to the conservation district. Projects and equipment must be in Utah.

All applications must be received via email or postmarked by August 18th, 2023. For more information, interested applicants can visit here or contact Tony Richards at tdrichards@utah.gov.