Texas

Texas AgrAbility staff member Erin Kimbrough assisted with livestock recovery after flooding along the Texas coast from Hurricane Harvey. Farmers and ranchers were displaced from flooding, leaving livestock stranded. Erin and a crew of volunteers donated their time to assist with livestock rescue and assistance, saving dozens of horses, cattle, and other livestock.

Applications for the second cohort of the Battleground to Breaking Ground Entrepreneurial Training Project opened on August 25th. The training project offers free training for veterans, and beginning farmers and ranchers in starting their own production agriculture businesses. The program offers business plan development, hands-on learning opportunities, funding resource education, mentorship, disability, and assistive technology assistance, veteran transition services, and so much more!

AgriCulture Safe presented an agriculture and farm safety presentation to AgrAbility staff. AgriCulture Safe director Eric Olson presented an agriculture and farm safety presentation to over 45 participants at the Dallas ag workshop. He shared the importance of safety in livestock handling and demonstrated using an ear tag cutter (pictured) instead of a pocket knife to prevent injury.

Texas AgrAbility hosted a farm tour at Bonton Farms, an urban agriculture operation in Dallas, on August 4th. Patrick, Bonton farm manager, guided over 25 participants through the farm and shared their model for urban farming. Bonton Farms was established in the Bonton neighborhood of Dallas, an impoverished, crime-stricken food desert, to provide fresh food for the local community. They are now a community resource that has brought life back to a broken community through agriculture. Check out more about their story here.

Texas AgrAbility hosted a Battleground to Breaking Ground Ag Workshop on August 5th at the Cotton Bowl Center in Dallas. With over 45 individuals in attendance, speakers presented on programs, resources, and opportunities available to assist veterans and beginning farmers and ranchers in starting their own agriculture operation.

Submitted by Makenzie McLaurin