Weekly Events & Opportunities in Sustainable Farming & Foods

2014 Farm Bill Workshops

December 15th. Multiple locations.  Hastings at the Fairgrounds. Scribiner at the Mohr Auditorium. Leigh at the Fairgrounds. For more information contact the FSA or Extension office in the host county.

Agricultural Working Lands: Meeting the Needs of Spring-migrating Waterfowl in the Intermountain West on Working Ranches

December 16. Online. Participants in this 1.5-hour NRCS webinar will learn about opportunities to manage irrigated haylands and pasturelands in the Intermountain West for wetland birds during spring migration. http://www.conservationwebinars.net/webinars/meeting-the-needs-of-spring-migrating-waterfowl-in-the-intermountain-west-on-working-ranches

Haney & PLFA Soil Tests: What, How? Why?

December 16th. 7pm. Do you wonder how soil tests can be used to help improve your soil management? Learn the basics of two increasingly popular tests – the Haney and phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) soil tests – from soil microbiologist Lance Gunderson, including how the results are determined and how to interpret these results. Farmer and grazier Fred Abels will then describe how he’s used the Haney test on his farm to inform his management. They will both discuss the results of tests taken on Fred’s farm. https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/farminar

Farm Financial Planning "Give Yourself a Financial Check-Up"

Tuesday, December 16 at 9:00 am. This webinar will discuss 20 ways that people can assess their personal financial progress and identify areas of their financial life that need improvement. Topics covered include financial quizzes, financial goal-setting, income and expense statements, net worth, debt ratios, marginal income tax brackets, retirement planning, investment performance metrics, investment risk tolerance, insurance needs, estate planning, government financial statistics, and more.  The program will conclude with suggested action steps to put the workshop content into practice. http://tinyurl.com/krtxvn4

Heart of the Farm – Why Women’s Unique Family and Farm Business Roles Matter

Tuesday, December 16 at 11:00 am. Women bring different perspectives, values and priorities to the table. This webinar will focus on what aspects of rural life are important to women, how they learn, and how that influences decision-making with regard to production, marketing and land management practices. Angie Carter is a Sociology PhD candidate co-majoring in ISU's Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture (GPSA). She is currently studying women farmland owners in Iowa and how they make decisions about conservation on their farmland. She also serves as a board member of the Women, Food and Agriculture Network. Angie will be joined by Jenny Barker-Devine, an assistant professor of history at Illinois College, and Sara Shepherd, owner of Sara Shepherd Farms. Join us for a webinar that highlights and celebrates the unique contributions that women bring to agriculture. https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/womeninag

Estate and Transition Workshop

Tuesday, December 16. Concord. Call the Farm Hotline at 800-464-0256 to sign up.

A Certified Organic Winter Nursery for Corn Breeding

Tuesday, December 16 at 1:00 pm. Join eOrganic for a webinar on running a certified organic winter nursery for corn breeding in Puerto Rico! http://www.extension.org/pages/71860

2014 Farm Bill Workshops

December 16th. Multiple locations.  Geneva at the Fairgrounds. Clay Center at the Activities Building. For more information contact the FSA or Extension office in the host county.

Why Cooperative Extension? A New Century for Food and Ag Engagement

Wednesday, December 17 at 8:30 am. Attention ‘CUSTOMERS’ Who Use the Cooperative Extension System!  This is YOUR Opportunity to Provide Feedback! The National Coalition for Food & Agricultural Research invites members and all interested stakeholders to a dialogue with Cooperative Extension Directors. While the meeting is being held in Washington ( National Council of Farmer Cooperatives , 50 F Street, NW, Suite 900, Washington, DC), the discussion will be broadcast as a webinar. These directors will be leading the discussion.  Dr. Tim Cross, Dean of Extension, University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture; NC-FAR Board Member. Dr. Michael Ouart, Vice Provost for Extension and Professor of Animal Sciences, University of Missouri; NC-FAR Research Outreach Committee Member. Please register to attend in person or by webinar at: http://bit.ly/1uTmfrk

2014 Farm Bill Workshops

December 17th. Multiple locations.  Minden at the Fairgrounds. For more information contact the FSA or Extension office in the host county.

How to Use Fruit and Vegetable Market News

December 18. Online. The USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) invites you to take part in a free, interactive webinar on how to use its Fruit and Vegetable Market News to your benefit. This webinar is free and available to anyone with Internet access, however you must register and space is limited. Produce buyers and receivers use Market News when planning purchases to ensure they are paying a reasonable price for product. If you purchase or receive shipments of fruits and vegetables for a school, food bank, hospital, other institution, food hub, or farmers market, this webinar is for you. http://bit.ly/1CZRFCr

Legal and Financial Clinic

Thursday, December 18. Lexington. Call the Farm Hotline at 800-464-0256 to sign up.

2014 Farm Bill Workshops

December 18th. Multiple locations.  Osceola at the Fairgrounds. For more information contact the FSA or Extension office in the host county.

Learning from Our Observations of Pastures & Livestock: Preventing Pasture Problems on the Organic Dairy Webinar

December 18. Join eOrganic for a webinar on preventing pasture problems on the organic dairy farm by Sarah Flack. This webinar will review the key grazing principles that help your cattle maximize dry matter intake from pastures and avoid potential problems. It will also look at examples of how to observe the livestock, their manure, soils, and pasture plants to determine how well your pasture management system is working. http://www.extension.org/pages/71819/

New Year’s Resolution for Direct Marketing

December 19th. 12pm. The webinar will be led by Christie Welch, director of the South Centers’ Ohio Cooperative Development Center and farmers market program, and will focus on tips farmers and producers can take to set a good marketing business foundation for the new year. https://carmenconnect.osu.edu/r59accaqtk2

Direct-Marketing Grain-Finished Beef

December 23rd. 7pm. Shanen and Beau Ebersole, of Ebersole Cattle Co., will share their expertise raising grain-finished beef cattle with no hormones or antibiotics. Learn about issues from production to marketing methods, then listen in as the Ebersoles answer beginning farmer Dave Hill’s questions on starting up this type of enterprise. https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/farminar

Opportunity

BarnRaiser at Darby Springs Farm

Deadline Friday December 19th. As you may know, we have been slowly growing our farm, Darby Springs, over the past several years. We have launched a crowdfunding campaign with Barnraiser and are asking you to join us in building a creamery barn to create farmstead ice cream, featuring local flavors, and space to learn and grow as a food community. Click here to skip the rest and get right to it: https://www.barnraiser.us/projects/building-the-barn-at-darby-springs-farm. We already sell pastured meat, milk, and eggs, but want to grow to bring you farmstead ice cream and opportunities to experience all our farm has to offer. To do this the Barn will have: The Loft: event and classroom space; Community Kitchen: a certified kitchen for use by all; Farm Store: featuring our ice cream and homemade baked goods as well as other area farmers & artists; Creamery: where the wonderful desserts are made; Milking parlor. Click here to check out our video, get full project details and support our project if you can, or spread the word to your friends: https://www.barnraiser.us/projects/building-the-barn-at-darby-springs-farm

Upcoming

Hosting Safe, Legally Secure Farm Events

January 5, 2015. Online. Make sure your farm isn’t left with the short end of the stick after a good-intentioned event goes bad. From zoning compliance to guest injuries and serving prepared food, this Farm Commons webinar will work through a checklist of things a farm should address before hosting an event. http://farmcommons.org/hosting-safe-legally-secure-farm-events-0

Farm Commons Webinar: Adding Value Without Adding Legal Liability to Farm Products

January 6. Online. Although starting a processing operation, improving packaging, and developing new products are great ways to make the farm more profitable, these activities have a huge legal impact, says this Farm Commons webinar. Employment laws, liability potential, state/federal regulations, and tax factors all change when a farm begins to process product. Farms relying on cottage food laws should make sure to attend- this webinar will talk about what these laws do not do to protect farms.http://www.farmcommons.org/adding-value-without-adding-legal-liability-farm-products

Health problems with the digestive system of poultry

Tuesday, January 6 at 1:00 pm. As the first in a four part webinar series on poultry health, Dr. Frame will start this webinar with an introduction to chicken health programs. The remainder of the webinar with discuss problems with the digestive system. The digestive system of poultry is exposed to a variety of pathogens on a daily basis. Dr. Frame will be discussing how some of these digestive-related diseases are manifested in poultry. https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/poultry

Building the Capacity of Small Meat Processors:

January 7. The Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network presents this free one-hour webinar at 10am PST / 1pm EST. NC Choices, an initiative of the Center for Environmental Farming Systems at North Carolina State University, spent two years working with a set of small processors in North Carolina, providing a range of technical assistance and support. On this webinar, NC Choices and three processors who participated in the project will tell us how they did it, what they accomplished, and why it matters. To attend: Go tohttps://connect.extension.iastate.edu/nichemeat 5-10 minutes before start time and log in as a guest.

Great Plains Growers Conference

January 8-10. St. Joseph, Missouri. This three-day conference for beginning and experienced growers features presentations by knowledgeable speakers from throughout the nation. The conference showcases educational information from all five states: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota, along with vegetable specialists and growers from those states. There is also a trade show with more than 50 exhibitors. http://www.greatplainsgrowersconference.org/

Specialty Crop Producer Workshops – Farmer Training

January 13, 14, 15, 16: GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices) Level 1: GAPs are production and farm level approaches to ensure the safety of fresh produce for human consumption. GAPs Level 1 will cover education training in preparation for a self-audit and on farm food safety plan.  A USB Drive will be provided with the materials needed for the training. Our Farmer Training series will consist of training in 5 Nebraska Cities: Grand Island, Norfolk, Lincoln, Scottsbluff (Via Video Conference) and Omaha.  We will be using local producers as well as national trainers to offer a unique farmer training program that is unlike anything NeFU has done before.  Our goal is to help producers move to the next level of production by providing the skills necessary to increase efficiency and profitability.  These trainings are open to any speciality crops producers, beginning or experienced,  that are producing for markets. http://Nebraskafarmersunion.org/farmertraining 

Organic Production Round Table Discussion

January 10th @ 1:30pm. Learn More about Organic Agriculture and Marketing: If you want to learn more about organic farming, here is the opportunity where you will get farmer to farmer answers and information. A panel of certified organic Nebraska farmers and grain elevators managers will answer questions about the following topics. The event is free and open to the public.  No registration is needed, refreshments will be provided.  Location: Columbus Community College, Columbus. For more information contact: Kim Mosel @ 402-620-2701  ociane1@yahoo.com