Weekly Events & Opportunities in sustainable farming & foods

USDA NOP Organic Processing Standards

September 17 and 20. Online. This IOIA webinar is a two-part series, with each session three hours in duration. This basic 100 level webinar training course will prepare participants to verify compliance with the NOP Processing Standards. The course is designed as an essential session for the Processing Inspector or Reviewer. This course is comprised of three components: self-study, webinar, and evaluation. : http://www.ioia.net/schedule_web.html#SeptProc

Lane Systems for a Grass-Based Dairy

September 18. Garnavillo, Iowa. Attend this afternoon Northeast Iowa Graziers Field Day to learn about Phil Wille's improved lane system for an intensive grazing dairy. http://practicalfarmers.org/events_detail.php?eid=574

Short Grass Prairie Grazing Basics and Research

September 17. Hays, Kansas. In this Amazing Grazing event, tour KSU Agricultural Research Center and learn from various research trials that have been conducted in the short grass prairie area of Western Kansas. Topics for the day will include perennial cool-season grasses for grazing in western Kansas, stockpiled native rangeland for winter grazing, distillers grains supplementation for late-season stocker production on native rangeland, precipitation effects on animal production and forage yield from native rangelands, early weaning of calves as a drought-management strategy, results of the early-weaned calf performance studies, along with a tour of the facilities and forages grown there. http://bit.ly/14NuI56

State of the Food Hub National Survey Results NGFN Webinar

September 19. This National Good Food Network Webinar presents the results of the 2013 National Food Hub Survey of over 100 food hubs. It addresses the questions of how profitable food hubs are, what their impacts are, and what challenges and opportunities they face. https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/333510970

Organic Vegetable Production Farminar

September 19. PA-WAgN is now hosting FARMINARS - a virtual field-day that can be viewed from the comfort of your own living room. Specialty Mentor Jennifer Montgomery will facilitate a FARMINAR to review the events of the Blackberry Meadows field day and to offer a question and answer session. Jennifer will describe the farm at Blackberry Meadows and discuss the Heritage Seed Initiative that has recently been launched. She will discuss seed-saving, packaging, and marketing. http://agsci.psu.edu/wagn/events/Organic%20Vegetable%20Production%20Farminar

Fall 2013 Grassland Seminar Series

Monday, September 16th. 3:00 pm-4:00 pm. Jerry Volesky, professor, Dept. of Agronomy and Horticulture, West Central Research and Extension Center, UNL, will speak on “Annual Forages to Complement Grazing Programs.” http://grassland.unl.edu/upcoming-seminars

Department of Agricultural Economics Seminar Series

Friday, September 20th. 3:00 pm-4:30 pm. Nathan S. Kauffman, Economist, Omaha Branch, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. “Farm Investment and Leverage Cycles: Will This Time Be Different?” Filley Hall on the campus of UNL in Lincoln. 

UNL Expo and Harvest Festival

Saturday, September 21st. 8:00 am-Sunday, September 22nd 4:00 pm. UNL Panhandle Research and Extention Center Expo will join with the Harvest Festival to showcase projects and programs in western Nebraska. This will take place Sept. 21 and 22, 2013 at the Farm and Ranch Museum, Gering, Nebraska. Activities and exhibits will revolve around this year's theme of forage and livestock.

Legal and Financial Clinic

September 18th, or 19th. Norfolk, Valentine, Lexington. Call the Farm Hotline at 800-464-0258 to sign up.

Permaculture Design Workshop

September 19th. 5:30pm. Council Bluffs. Permaculture is the pursuit of agricultural and cultural permanence. It is the design and implementation of land use systems that are energy efficient, low maintenance, productive and non-polluting. This workshop will empower students to live more sustainably. Topics include Permaculture theory and design techniques, soil building, water use, organic agriculture, forest farming, natural building and appropriate technology. Fee $25 http://www.iwcc.edu/Continuing_Education/work_related/environmental.asp

Opportunity

Organic Farm Opportunity

Belgrade, NE. Auction of approximately 20 acres on September 28th.  It would be a great property for someone who would like to have a property that has been chemical free and already includes a 2400SF organic garden – plus a lot of other nice features.  They’re having open house times on Saturday, 9/21 and Monday, 9/23 from 1pm to 6pm both days. The link to the information is here: https://www.proxibid.com/asp/Catalog.asp?aid=70876 (it’s the 2nd property listed on the page)

Heritage Breed Roosters

We have 5 Buckeye cockerels available, 4mo old. $10 ea or $30 for all 5. http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/buckeye.html Contact Crystal at darbysprings@gmail.com

National Conference for Women in Sustainable Agriculture Scholarship Opportunity

SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education) of Nebraska has committed to help up to 20 female  environmental or sustainable agriculture educators from Nebraska attend the 4th National Conference for Women in Sustainable Agriculture to be held Nov 6-8th in Des Moines.  http://wfan.org/cultivating-our-food-farms-and-future-2/

The applicant need not be a formal teacher - field personnel, community sustainability facilitators, grad student TAs. -  we'll consider a range of vocations and avocations from committed women. Please see the scholarships link on the website.  These 20 scholarships will be for $250 ( $125 will be deducted from registration costs up front and the remainder will be rebated after attendance and evaluation forms are received.) This conference has not previously been held west of Pennsylvania; do NOT miss this local chance to enjoy, 42 breakouts, the company of like-minded, dedicated women, arts events, fantastic field trips, locally grown food, and inspiring national keynote speakers. Contact Gary at gary.lesoing@unl.edu to see how you qualify

Upcoming

Tweet Chat - Managing Drought

September 24th. 3pm Central. Join the Extension Disaster Education Network for a one-hour tweet chat, a chance to share resources that can help people and communities respond to an ongoing drought or reduce vulnerability to a future drought. Co-hosts are New Mexico State University Extension, the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the National Integrated Drought Information System. The chat starts at 3 p.m. Central, 2 p.m. Mountain time. Presenters, Virginia White, H. Marissa Stone, Jerri Caldwell Hammonds, Abby Hostetler, Sonja Koukel, Tom Dean. Event Location, http://twubs.com/drought