The top 10 enterprises that beginning farmers are interested in starting are:
1. vegetables
2. beef
3. chickens
4. tree fruits/orchards
5. hogs
6. small fruits
7. organic grains
8. turkeys
9. meat goats
10. herbs
As part of the Beginning Farmer Grant, we will be offering short courses and workshops on topics of most interest to beginning farmers. Tell us what your top interests are as a beginning farmer in the post below. This will help us to plan the topics of the upcoming courses in 2011.
The topics of the courses and workshops for 2010 are Small Fruits, Producing Vegetables for the Local Market, Tractor 101, Direct Marketing and Small Ruminants. Be on the look out for dates and locations on this blog. (debi kelly)
As a beginning goat dairy farmer ... an interest I have is this ... finding grant funding that focuses on the individual farmer.
ReplyDeleteMost of the USDA grants I've researched, including the Beginning Farmer Grant, focus on public or non-profit groups that will educate the farmer how to farm successfully. One of the difficult things for a beginning farmer is finding funding to start and sustain the farming operation.
It seems like those benefiting from grant funding are teaching and public institutions instead of the farmers themselves. I'm not disputing the fact that education is very important to sustainable agriculture. But, it would be very helpful if some of the focus of the USDA grants would be directly to the farmer.
Any suggestions along this line would be very helpful. - Thank you - Brenda
I'm looking forward to the ones you've already mentioned. We have goats and are seemingly collecting more and more dairy goats. I'd like to know more about raw milk sales and possibly what it means to be a class C dairy.
ReplyDeleteWe're constructing a greenhouse as well and I would be interested in anything related to efficient greenhouse operations.