A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
OZ Gravel > Rural Recreational Roads
Johnny Gunsaulis serves as the staff chair of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Research & Extension office. Having grown up on a farm, Johnny brings history and authenticity to our conversation about the new Arkansas Rural Recreational Roads program and the Ag Extension office’s involvement with the project. He speaks to the intersection of farmers and gravel cyclists and how both parties can continue cultivating a relationship based on respect and safety. Start planning your next gravel ride in OZ by utilizing any of these curated routes.
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Hello and welcome to Visit Bentonville's A New American Town podcast. I'm your host, Stevie, and today's episode is sponsored by Oz Gravel. Did you know you can find hundreds of miles of curated gravel cycling routes at ArkansasR3.com. We hope you'll feel inspired to ride them after listening. Today, Our guest is Johnny Gonzalez, Benton County Extension Agent and Staff Chair. Johnny oversees livestock and forage programming. There are also five other county agents in the Benton County office covering agriculture, 4-H and family and consumer science. We'll also talk about Johnny's work and his involvement in the Arkansas Rural Recreational Roads Project launched earlier this year. Before we get into all of that, I wanted to say hello and thank you for being here, Johnny.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. It's good to be here with you.
Speaker 1:Now I just said a lot about who you are and what you do. Could you please give a little more personal introduction of yourself to our listeners?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. So I grew up at Silo Springs on a beef and poultry farm, went to school at Silo, later went to the U of A, worked there After I got out of graduating, went to work for Simmons for a while and then for Tyson Foods when they had hogs in the area, and then later I signed on with the Extension Service, which is a part of the U of A division of agriculture and there's an office in every county. So I've been with them for 25 years now and that's kind of my background.
Speaker 1:Wow, so you're an expert here. At that point right.
Speaker 2:Well, I know more than I did originally. I'd go at least that.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, that's a good sign. So what is the Benton County Ag Extension Office and what is your role there? You know, as the Extension agent and the staff chair. What is it that you do?
Speaker 2:So, being part of the U of A division of ag system, we're the public's office to that university system so we help. I most often help people with questions about livestock or forages, weed control, fertilization, planting recommendations, livestock health, those type programs. I have another agent in the office that's the more of the horticulture type works with our master gardener program helps folks with their gardens, with their lawn, with their shrubs, the all those type issues. We have two agents in the office who work in family and consumer sciences and they cover a broad range of things nutrition programs, exercise program, family finances, those type issues that go on more inside the home. And then we have two agents that are with 4-H. That's our youth development program with the division of ag for kids five to 19 years old. It's a very strong 4-H program in Benton County.
Speaker 1:That sounds like a very broad and incredible resource for people. Do you find that a lot of people know who you are and how to reach you, or do you find that oftentimes maybe some people are kind of surprised to hear about your office and what you all do?
Speaker 2:We still get that a lot that folks didn't know that we were there and that we could do all the things for them that we do. A lot of people will know us because that's where you take your soil samples to get them tested for your garden, your lawn, your hayfield, whatever. So a lot of folks will know us for that. Some will know us through 4-H. Some are familiar with our Master Gardener program. There's still a real nice extension homemaker club group in the county so some folks will know us through that. But we still get it all the time that I didn't know that you were here and didn't know you did that.
Speaker 1:The main reason we're here today is to talk about how the Benton County Ag Extension office came to be and is currently involved with the Arkansas R3 program. So I want to ask you Arkansas Rural Recreational Roads, or R3, is a program that was launched in spring 2023 to designate specific gravel cycling routes on county roads throughout Northwest Arkansas and, eventually, the state, to preserve them and maximize their value. Now, how did the Ag Extension office get involved in this program? I hear there's a little bit of a history.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it does seem like an odd fit, maybe from what I've described so far, that our office does. One of our other program areas that I didn't mention is community and economic development. It goes back a couple years. Tim Summers, who was formerly on the Quorum Court and was familiar with our programs, had been involved with Katie Howe at the time and came to us with thoughts about increasing our 4-H Bicycle Program.
Speaker 2:As we sat around the table and talked, I also thought about incidences that I had heard about between bicycles and people in the rural areas of our county, and some of those were not very positive, just to be honest with you, and so it occurred to me that there was also maybe equally a lot of education that could go on in the adult segment. So we started talking about that a little bit and I met more people with the runway group, got them introduced to some of the farmers. The county judge is also very supportive of what we're doing, and out of the rural recreational roads part, what we actually worked on is the Respect Rural Roads Campaign, which is to improve safety on our county roads in trying to just let the bicycle people know why farm people do the things that they do and trying to prevent an accident in those rural areas.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And these people who you're talking about, who work on the farms and ranches, they do such important work that a lot of people may not think or know about.
Speaker 2:Yes, and as the bicycle people talked with ag folks in those meetings, they found some common ground and they're both in the category of slow moving vehicles. So all of the other regular vehicle transportation causes both of those groups some safety concerns. Also, and you look at the rural roads in Benton County and the variety of traffic that is on those, it's amazing. We've got Amish families traveling in a tractor and a wagon behind it for their transportation. We've got bicycles, we've got horses, we've got professional drivers and semi trucks moving poultry products to and from the farm. And the county road supervisor, he's also been very interested in the program because they deal with the same safety issues with their county maintenance equipment.
Speaker 1:I think that's safe to say that safety really is the number one priority here and for those of us who live here or maybe even visit here, like our visitors who might be listening on our podcast today, we do want them to know that safety is of the utmost concern for everyone involved.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then then, once you get past a little safety, we also just hope to do a little ag education for the urban audience. People have told me since I came here to this job in Benton County that they, the ag people, said we want to educate the urban audience about the importance of agriculture in Benton County, and so our event this evening, I think, is finally moving toward that, and I'm real excited about the what we have going on this evening.
Speaker 1:So what can you touch on about that? There might be some listeners who maybe don't live here. They don't know what this event could be. What can you tell them about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so in developing relationships and West Evans and the Farm Bureau have been real involved with this also. So our office, the Farm Bureau, the county judge and the runway folks have all worked on this project and getting the runway folks in those ag conversations. We brought in Farm Bureau and they've been real supportive. So we invited Andy out to an event that was held at West Evans Farm. Andy's been just really interested in connecting with learning more about the ag community and as he listened to Jeremy Jackson talk and West talk and and sat there he said I'd like to invite some of the bicycle people out just to hear you guys talk and learn what goes on out here. And we were just kind of sitting around the table and said, yeah, that'd be cool, let's do that. So we scheduled this event which is going to be this evening and and groups are going to ride from Bentonville out to the farm at Hyfalle. Jeremy's cooking hamburger sliders out there, the Simmons bunches came on their cooking wings and we're going to talk a little bit about ag in the county.
Speaker 1:We're just going to have with then a little discussion between the bicycle groups and some of the farm community and try to develop that relationship a little bit more and it's funny how some of the cyclists turned into over 250 people who are registered to come out and learn and see how we can foster this community and just be safer around one another. I think that is a true testament to the work that you and everyone have been doing to try to get this message across and invite people you know to the proverbial table right, right, exactly, exactly, and so you know.
Speaker 2:In the in the front it seemed like there was interstitial, I guess, areas of conflict between bicycle and ag groups. But Kevin Kevin Smith made the observation that out of all the groups moving into northwest Arkansas the one group that's most interested in still some open space and some farms being here in the county is the gravel bicycle group and ag needs friends. Benton County farmers need friends. There's just not as many farmers as there once were. They still control a lot of land but they need other groups that appreciate what, what they do and they share out there the people who appreciate what you do now.
Speaker 1:Admittedly this, johnny, this next question is a little bit off script, but I remember going to the sign unveiling for the respect Royal Roads campaign and you and Wes Evans and a few other folks who I don't know personally, but I've seen you know through work and through this program, a lot of people had a lot of positive things to say about meeting in the middle on a lot of this. Can you talk about some of the comments, if you remember them?
Speaker 2:yeah, and and I think you know, if once you get the farmer out of the tractor and you get the biker off the bike and and they're just sitting there, two people, you know, I think they can discuss and appreciate each other and learn, learn more and have respect for each other, and so that's, that's kind of where we've been and it's been. You know, I know we'll never reach all the farm community, we'll never probably reach all the bicycle community, but the more of them that we can and and develop that appreciation for each other, I think the better that we're going to get along in the future. Of ag in Benton County amazing.
Speaker 1:We've talked a lot today about safety and appreciation and community. Is there anything else that you hope riders and farmers get out of the Arkansas R3 program?
Speaker 2:well, you look at Benton County. A lot of folks don't know, but when the last ag census was done, benton County came out number one in the state in terms of total gate sales in agriculture. That's because of the protein business, that's the poultry primarily. So you look at cyclists they do a lot of exercise. They probably a lot of protein. That's right, there you are. That's what we do in Benton County. We grow cows and chickens. Primarily is the is the two big ag sources of revenue in our county. So so there's really kind of if you look at it that way, kind of a logical fit between the ag people in the bicycle groups. We just want to develop a you know in Andy kind of put it this way a wave. Sometimes a wave can go a long way as far as acknowledging that the other person sees them on the road and also developing a better relationship with each other absolutely the visual kind of came to mind of if you drew a Venn diagram where both sides have something in the middle.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, it's protein yeah, that's the middle of the diagram.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mm-hmm, is there anything that you hope to get out of working on and with the Arkansas R3 project, either personally or professionally?
Speaker 2:yes and like so. Like I mentioned, one of our program areas is community and economic development. A lot of places around the state, economic development is a big part of what they need in that area. When you look at ours, I'm like I don't know where to jump on this train and and, but I but I see this as a real community development project and in a place that I think that we can really do some good.
Speaker 1:Johnny, we've covered a lot today and hopefully our listeners have learned quite a few things. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about before we start wrapping up?
Speaker 2:It's been great to be here. Northwest Arkansas is a great place to live and it's been had a strong ag production for a long time. You look back in the history at one time this was the apple capital of the world.
Speaker 1:I did not know that.
Speaker 2:It was, and one time Washington and Benton County had more apple trees than what Washington state does today.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that kind of went by the wayside. Then Benton County kind of peaked in hog production. That lasted a few years and that kind of went by the wayside. Then the dairies were giant in Benton County and there were dairies everywhere. Those have all gone away. Then beef cattle 1974 would have been in peak numbers of beef cattle in Benton County. Today poultry is the big business. But what's happened through history is either economics of that ag production or the environmental factors that it faced has caused different waves to come along in agriculture. Where we're at today and you look 20 years into the future, this is one of the environmental factors that will determine whether farms are in business or not.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that, Johnny. Where can people, if they have any questions, where can they find you online or on social media and how can they contact you?
Speaker 2:So our state website is wwwuadaedu. We're also on Facebook at UAEX Benton County.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Thank you so much, johnny, for being our wonderful guest today. Thanks to you, our listeners, for tuning in. You can learn more about Arkansas R3 at ArkansasR3.com. That's Arkansas, the letter R, the number three dot com. Be sure to follow Visit Bentonville, oz Gravel and Arkansas R3 on social media and tag them in your pictures from your gravel rides. And remember a wave goes a long way. Catch you next time on Visit Bentonville's, a New American Town Podcast.