Organic Farming Roundtables
April 10. 6:00 pm–9:00 pm. UNL's East Campus in the Plant Sciences Hall Room: 280 – Goodding Learning Center. Contact, Chuck Francis,402-472-1581, cfrancis2@unl.edu. The public is invited to attend and participate in this 14-week series led by Chuck Francis, professor of agronomy and horticulture. The series runs every Monday, Jan. 9 to April 24.
Where has all the farmland gone?
April 11. 6:00 pm–9:00 pm. UNL's East Campus in the Plant Sciences Hall Room: 280 – Goodding Learning Center. Contact, Chuck Francis,402-472-1581, cfrancis2@unl.edu. How to deal with the urbanization and conversion of productive farmland will be the topic of discussion in a 15-week series of courses taking place on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln East Campus. The series will be led by Chuck Francis, professor of agronomy and horticulture, and Amy Swoboda, farm and ranch staff attorney at Legal Aid of Nebraska.
Getting started with aquaculture
Monday, April 10 at 6:00 pm CDT. Location: https://events.anr.msu.edu/BegFrmWeb2017/. Aq uaculture, or ‘fish farming’ is finding a place on more Michigan farms. Elliot will explain the options, techniques, opportunities and challenges of this unique enterprise.
Entomology Seminar on Pathogenic and Viral Transmission Among Bees in Different Landscapes
April 11. 4:00 pm–5:00 pm. UNL's Nebraska East Union. Contact, Jeri Cunningham, 402-472-2123, jcunningham1@unl.edu. A graduate student in the Department of Entomology, will present the seminar, “An Examination of Pathogenic and Viral Transmission Among Bees in Different Landscapes.”
Use of High Glucosinolate Mustard as an Organic Biofumigant in Vegetable Crops
Tuesday, April 11 at 1:00 pm CDT. Location, https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/ register/8878799766349704962. Join eOrganic for a webinar on April 11, 2017 on using high glucosinolate mustard as an organic biofumigant in vegetable crops. It's free and open to the public, and advance registration is required.
Principles of Aquaponics for the Small Producer
April 11. Online. Free webinar with Adam Harwood of Lily Pad Farms. http://www.smallproducersinitiative. txstate.edu/Webinars.html
Soil Health for Non-Operator Land Owners
April 11. Online. This free, one-hour webinar presented by the USDA NRCS Soil Health Division will focus on educating non-operator land owners on how improving soil health can increase the value of their land, and that it takes a solid working relationship between the landowner and farmer (often requiring changes in leasing structures) to obtain changes in soil health. This webinar will discuss efforts that American Farmland Trust is using to encourage non-operator owners to improve soil health through long-term leasing, innovative soil health evaluation methods, and placing value on the aesthetics of many soil-health activities. http://www.conservationwebinars.net/ webinars/soil-health-for-non- operator-land-owners
Thinking like a searcher: Strategies for creating quality content to market your website
Tuesday, April 11 at 10:00 am CDT. Location: https://extension.zoom.us/j/625183331. Presenters: Samantha Nash and Megan Wecker. This webinar will cover strategies to use quality, keyword friendly content to market your website. Learn tips to help organize, stylize and optimize your content and page structure to appeal to your target audience, gain traction on social media and boost your site’s “link juice.”
Poetry Reading with Twyla Hansen
April 12. 7:00 pm–8:00 pm. UNL's Nebraska Union. Contact,Shelby Janke, 308-224-4470, shelbymjanke@gmail.com. Earthstock and the UNL Women’s Center welcome Nebraska State Poet and UNL alumna Twyla Hansen to share her poetry inspired by the natural world. This event will relate the humanities to environmental sustainability.
Prescribed Fires and Burns Workshop
April 12. This workshop will assist women farmers, landowners and land managers in learning more about the practice of prescribed burn, how to participate in a local landowner cooperative burn association and what equipment is needed (and available) to burn associations to conduct burns. Participants will receive individual consultation from conservation and climate change experts and use location-specific climate projections to create or update their existing conservation plans. Lunch is included. Please RSVP. To register and for additional information, please contact Kirstin Bailey by email kirstinb@cfra.org or by phone 402.367.8989. Event information can also be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/1878079329097931/
Building a Better Carrot – for Growers and Consumers
Wednesday, April 12 at 1:00 pm CDT. Location: https://extension.zoom.us/j/329362239
Season Extension Webinar
Wednesday, April 12 at 11:00 am CDT.This webinar will cover season extension techniques and how they can be used to reduce the risk of climate variability and expand market access by expanding the growing season and enabling specialty crop production.For more information and to register: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/wednesday- webinars-registration- 11452674257
Ecologically Based Pest & Disease Management
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Lundgren, ECDYSIS Foundation & Blue Dasher Farm. Friday, April 14th, 2017: 10:00am-noon. West Central Research & Extension Center, 402 W. State Farm Road, North Platte. No Registration Fee, but please RSVP at 308-696-6740
Opportunities
Hoop House for Sale
We have a 30x72 gothic arch hoop house with W truss supports. Apparatus for drop down side curtains included. It's located in southeast corner of Nebraska. lnkrob@gmail.com
Local Food Survey
The Lincoln-Lancaster County Food Policy Council (Lincoln-Lancaster FPC) is a diverse group of farmers, gardeners, businesses, organizations, and individuals with one thing in common: we care about improving the local food system.The Research Committee of the Lincoln-Lancaster FPC is partnering with Lakehouse Farm’s Value Added Producer grant from the USDA to better understand the local food production and consumption patterns of our area. We hope to use this data to better understand how many farmers are serving local markets in our area and then present those findings to city, county, and state officials to educate them on the potential of local food markets for Nebraska. This survey is being conducted by graduate student, Megan McGuffey, from the University of Nebraska at Omaha who is working with the Lincoln-Lancaster FPC. We are asking you to help us to complete this survey so that we can better understand the complex, local food system that gets food to our plates. Please fill it out by April 7th, 2017. https://unomaha.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_efxaRwhJ sxwxThP
Robinette is Hiring
2017 Greenhouse, Micro Greens and Wash Station Lead; This is full-time position working primarily in the Greenhouse and heading up our Micro Greens operation but also with the opportunity to work in the field with the crew. Potential for year-round employment.2017 Field Crew Members; We are offering 2 full-time seasonal Field Crew Member positions on the farm in 2017. Work as part of our crew to harvest, wash, plant and weed all while gaining experience working on a vegetable farm.To learn more about these positions and to apply go to www.robinettefarms.com and click the menu tab "Employment" or click on the Job Title in the above text to take you to the same page.
Employment Opportunity
The Big Garden in Omaha is currently hiring for our New Roots Internship! The New Roots internship is a paid, hands-on learning experience for anyone interested in urban agriculture. Please contact Cait Caughey -- Education Director at ccaughey@biggarden.org for an application.
Health Insurance in Agriculture Survey
How does health insurance affect farmers and ranchers? Help influence rural health policy in upcoming survey. Farmers and ranchers: How does health insurance affect you? Help influence rural health policy by participating in an upcoming USDA funded survey. Your responses will help researchers understand how health-insurance policy affects farmers’ and ranchers’ decisions to invest, expand, and grow their enterprises. Selected participants received a letter about the survey in February. If you would like to participate follow this link: https://survey.uvm.edu/index.php/132344?lang=en
Resource Available
Rural Food Business Toolkit - this resource was designed by the Center for Rural Affairs alongside a USDA Rural Development project in northeast Nebraska which provided in person instruction and support. The toolkit provides resources to growers, processors and food business owners to help them succeed. It can be found and downloaded here: http://www.cfra.org/rural-food-business-toolkit.
New Farm Storage Facility Loan
The Farm Storage Facility Loan (FSFL) Program administered by the FSA has expanded to include some new eligible commodities. The new commodities eligible for facility loans include floriculture, hops, rye, milk, cheese, butter, yogurt, meat and poultry (unprocessed), eggs, and aquaculture (excluding systems that maintain live animals through uptake and discharge of water). Commodities already eligible for the loans include corn, grain sorghum, rice, soybeans, oats, peanuts, wheat, barley, minor oilseeds harvested as whole grain, pulse crops (lentils, chickpeas and dry peas), hay, honey, renewable biomass, and fruits, nuts and vegetables for cold storage facilities. FSA has expanded the FSFL program to include portable equipment and storage and handling trucks. These items can be new or used. Along with these changes in equipment eligibility, the FSFL program now has a Microloan option for producers that have $50,000 or less in FSFL loans. The FSFL Microloan reduces the down payment requirement from 15% to 5% and offers an abbreviated application by allowing the producer to self-certify their storage need. Loan applications should be filed in the administrative FSA office that maintains the farm’s records. For more information about Farm Storage Facility Loans, visit www.fsa.usda.gov/pricesupport, or contact your local FSA office. To find your local FSA office, visit http://offices.usda.gov.
