The Fentress Center for Profitable Agriculture is celebrating its 25th year helping Tennessee farmers.
Program Director Rob Holland said that the anniversary is a big achievement for the relatively young center of agriculture. Holland said the anniversary serves as an opportunity to pause and reflect on how far the center has come in its time.
“Our work is with farmers and farm families across the state of Tennessee,” Holland said. “We provide assistance and educational information as it relates to value-added farm ventures.”
He said that he and his staff have been celebrating the anniversary all year, but have a special event planned next week. Holland said the event will be a special celebration hosted by the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation to thank those who contributed.
“Our center has grown, we started 25 years ago with two folks that were devoted to value-added agriculture,” Holland said. “We have grown that through a variety of external partnerships and different funding channels, we now have nine different folks who are available to assist.”
Holland said that the primary mission of the center in all its time has been to help Tennessee farmers with value-added farm ventures. He said that this help includes education for farmers and other forms of assistance as needed.
“Being part of the University of Tennessee system our primary goal and objective is education,” Holland said. “We achieve that through a number of different teaching methods working directly with farmers and farm families.”
Holland said that his help can include things such as the packaging of certain meat or the branding of the farmer’s products. He said that they also help with general assessments regarding the financial feasibility of a particular farming venture.
Holland said the celebration next week will be held at the Tennessee Farm Bureau’s headquarters in Columbia. He said that the Center has had a working relationship with the Farm Bureau for the past 20 of their 25-year existence.
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