The Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), North Carolina State University and partners recently received two grants from Dogwood Health Trust to support our longstanding work in Western North Carolina. These two new grants include:

• A two-year, $500,000 grant to support Western North Carolina (WNC) Sustainable Agriculture Workforce Initiatives, a collaborative effort between CEFS, NC Choices, Warren Wilson College and Organic Growers School. This grant will fund a series of regionally-rooted, farm-based training efforts to prepare a skilled agricultural workforce needed to build a more climate-resilient food system post-Hurricane Helene. Funds will be used to continue the WNCStrong Youth Service Corps, pilot the first registered apprenticeship in pastured livestock production in North Carolina and implement a Western NC cohort of CEFS’s Sustainable Vegetable Production Registered Apprenticeship. We are currently composing our 2026 cohort of schools, teachers, youth and farms for the WNCStrong Youth Service Corps and recruiting host farms and apprentices for the CEFS Sustainable Vegetable Production Registered Apprenticeship. The pastured livestock production apprenticeship is planned to launch in the fall of 2026. Learn more here. Stay up to date on project activities on the CEFS website or by joining the CEFS Career Pathways email list.
• A two-year, $145,200 grant to support a collaboration between CEFS Farm to Senior Services (F2SS), Empowering Mountain Food Systems and N.C. Cooperative Extension. The project, “Piloting Community-based Farm to Senior Services Strategies to Improve Food Security for Older Adults in Rural Western North Carolina,” will build on existing work in McDowell County and support new F2SS local food purchasing pilot efforts in Burke County, Yancey County and the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). Learn more here. 

CEFS is grateful for the opportunity to partner with Dogwood Health Trust and expand our impact in Western North Carolina.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, NC Choices has collaborated with Extension livestock and forage partners to develop NC Hay Finder, a new website to help connect farmers needing hay with those who have hay to sell. Read more below…

NC State Extension, with the generous financial support of NC Farm Bureau and NC Cattlemen’s, has launched a new tool for connecting those needing hay with those who have hay to sell.  The newly launched website, nchayfinder.com, allows you to search for hay by your zip code.  You can then sort by distance, type of hay, or price.  If you have hay for sale, you can create a listing by creating an account.

For livestock production, forage is the primary source of feed and nutrition.  Simply, forages are the plant material that animals eat, whether the animal harvests it themselves through grazing or it is harvested mechanically (hay, sileage, baleage) by the farmer. Feed is the most expensive cost of a livestock enterprise.  Farms that can extend their grazing season through management (rotational grazing, improved pastures, etc.) can help reduce this cost.  Even with the best management practices, there is still a need for feeding stored forages (hay, baleage, silage).

In 2023, 119 million tons of dry hay was produced nationally. Based on the 2022 Census of Agriculture, North Carolina harvested over 1.2 million tons of dry hay.  Many variables affect the quality of hay. These include, but are not limited to: the species of hay (fescue, orchardgrass, alfalfa, etc.), stage of maturity of the plant at harvest, amount of weeds in the forage, and how the hay is stored. There are visual inspections that you can make to help assess the quality of the hay. However, the best way to assess the hay is to have the forage analyzed.

Your forage analysis results are only as good as the sample you submit. Be sure to collect a representative sample of the hay you want analyzed and keep the sample clean from contaminants. Sample each unique lot of hay, or hay from the same field and same cutting. If possible, use a core sampler to obtain your sample from various bales from the lot.  Always sample from the end of square bales or the round side of a round bale.  It is best to remove the outer half inch of the bale before sampling to help limit contamination.  Mix the samples in a clean plastic bucket.  Typically, a gallon-size portion is needed.

You can send your sample to the NC Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services Feed & Forage Laboratory or you can choose a commercial lab for testing.  For more information about the NC Hay Finder website or how to collect a forage sample, contact your local livestock agent.

Download this one-pager about NC Hay Finder.

EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems (EMFS), an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), works to strengthen the local food system across 12 Western North Carolina counties and the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

The arrival of Hurricane Helene underscored the importance of this work. Severe disruptions to farms, local businesses, and food hubs threatened food security and farm viability across the region. Immediately after the storm, EMFS distributed 40 grants totaling $101,092 to support emergency recovery needs. Working with the Mountain Horticultural Research team and Country Farm & Home in Pittsboro, the initiative also supplied replacement fencing to 12 livestock farmers. For many farms, this support was not only financial but was especially important in a moment when the overwhelming destruction brought by the storm made many feel hopeless. Thanks to the EMFS grant program, these farmers were not only able to recover some of the losses they sustained, but they were also able to imagine a new future for their business.

Big Bottom Milk Company in Rutherford County, co-owned by Stuart Beam and Preston Green, lost 85% of its corn crop but managed to keep its 70-head dairy operation going after the hurricane with its generators. They collaborated with the Rutherford County Cooperative Extension office and other agencies to serve as a distribution site for hay and fencing and helped deliver fuel, water, fencing, and feed to small farmers in coves and valleys where aid had not arrived. While Big Bottom Milk Company had crop losses over $200,000, a grant awarded by EMFS allowed them to keep their payroll going, supporting essential staff to keep Big Bottom milk on shelves. EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems is grateful to the Community Foundation of WNC for their grant to support meat processors and dairies damaged by the storm.

According to Beam, “…Ingles could not get milk to the stores, and Ingles could not get any milk out. The milk situation made us realize how big of [an] this event was; the stores asked us to bring milk straight to them. We were able to do that. Our distributor was washed away, their warehouse and coolers were destroyed and their trucks were washed away. We became a distribution center and delivered milk to Knoxville. The only way we could do this was with our generators – all dairies have to have a generator at this level of production. We had one for the dairy and one for the milk plant. A store in Asheville asked if we could bring water – we started bottling water on Monday and we ran through every milk jug we had that day, 3,000 jugs. We started a fundraiser to buy more jugs. We were bottling milk in the morning, during the day, then at 4pm we would start bottling water until midnight. People heard what we were doing and showed up to help. We ran that operation for a month and a half. We were sending cases of water to the relief stations, then we got a permit from the Department of Agriculture to use water from the milk plant for public water use…

Altogether, we moved 45,000 gallons of water in a month. We bottled over 25,000 gallons. Our truck yard was used by the Department of Agriculture and Extension for supplies. We had NCDA and USDA employees helping us unload, reload, and distribute ag supplies. Jeff Bradley, Rutherford County Extension Director, and I figured out we had 500k of supplies that came through here. We were the delivery and distribution point for thousands of bales of hay and fence supplies. I am so proud of what our employees and friends did during that period…The support from EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems helped us meet recent payroll and keep our operation running. We had $245,000 loss due to Hurricane Helene. Every bit of support helps keep this farm in operation.”

Another farmer, Angel Page of Shiloh Farms & Homestead, LLC, noted:

“Hurricane Helene caused us to lose about two-thirds of our chicken products. Our gasoline-powered generator did the best it could. Getting gasoline was extremely difficult. We were without power for 12 days and only permitted to purchase 5 gallons of gasoline each day for the first 3-5 days. We couldn’t keep 200lbs of chicken frozen. With this generous grant, we have been able to procure another freezer and more portable coolers. Therefore, we can store more chicken. We have also been able to acquire our own poultry processing equipment. This saves the cost of equipment rental fees, allows us to raise and process more birds each month, and now we can offer turkey. With this equipment, we can expand our business. It allows us to increase revenue. With increased revenue, we may be able to recoup some of the loss from Helene.”

The ongoing work of EMFS of building capacity, resilience, and connections in the Western North Carolina food system remains vital one year after the storm. Hurricane Helene revealed vulnerabilities, but it also reinforced CEFS’ commitment to a strong and adaptive local food system.

To learn more about Hurricane Helene’s impact on regional food and farming communities please see the recently released Supply Chain Assessment and recording of the SCA webinar here.

Learn more about EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems, their business development and financial support services, and upcoming events.

[Mills River, Jan. 21, 2025] – In the wake of Hurricane Helene’s devastating impact on the mountain region, organizations across NC are rallying to support their farmers and rebuild resilient food systems.

Laura Lauffer, EMFS Project Director (middle), stands with grantees Meadow Cove Farm after their pickup of grant supplies which included wooden posts, metal T posts, and mesh fencing to rebuild their goat enclosure which sustained damage during the storm.

In response to the devastation of the WNC region, EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems (EMFS), an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), awarded $100,000 of its small business grant funds to assist farmers impacted by Hurricane Helene. This award cycle was launched earlier than planned due to the hurricane and will provide crucial support to local farms struggling to recover from the catastrophic storm. This funding is part of the larger pool of funds (over 400k) planned for regional supply chain support over the next three years.

So far, the EMFS Hurricane Helene Recovery Grant has distributed 35 award letters to farmers from 10 different WNC counties, for a total of $81,085.98 worth of necessary agricultural supplies. This grant serves as a beacon of hope for the affected communities, demonstrating that even in the face of adversity, collaboration can lead to remarkable recovery and a brighter future for all. EMFS will have a second round of farmer mini-grants later in the spring.

With the naturally steep terrain of the Appalachian mountains, many WNC farmers utilize the low-lying flatlands for agricultural production, including as pasture for livestock, or for fruit, vegetable, and silage fields. As the flooded rivers crested, they swept away much of the vital equipment and infrastructure these farms use everyday.

On Thursday, January 9, 2025 EMFS, in collaboration with Country Farm and Home of Pittsboro, NC, AgCare of Candler, and the facilities team at the NC State Mountain Horticultural Crops Research and Extension Center, distributed $6,234.39 worth of supplies to four Buncombe County farmers. This partnership provided farmers with high-quality equipment from Country Farm and Home, while the station staff generously lent their expertise and manpower to assist with the loading and transportation of heavy equipment such as wooden posts, metal fencing, barbed wire, and more to help get these farms back up and running. Find photos of the distribution here.

This collaborative effort across public and private organizations from each end of the state exemplifies the strength of community spirit and the importance of supporting local food systems. By working together with these organizations, EMFS is not only helping farmers recover from the hurricane but also strengthening the resilience of the entire mountain region.

CEFS and EMFS will continue to work in the region with Extension and Small Business Centers and other regional partners to be part of the rebuilding process through training, grants and collaborative work projects. For more information, please sign up for the EMFS newsletter here. 

EmPOWERing Mountain Food Systems is a Center for Environmental Farming Systems/NC State Cooperative Extension project. Funding support is generously provided by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Dogwood Health Trust, and the WNC Bridge Foundation.

Find more Hurricane Helene news and resources here.