29th NAFDMA Convention to be Held in Kansas City.

The 29th Annual NAFDMA Convention (North American Farmers Direct Marketing Association) will be held January 31 - February 5, 2014 right in our own backyard in Kansas City, MO.  The theme of the convention will be “Makin' Hey in the Heartland”.

There will be opportunities galore for you to see, learn, and experience firsthand and I am speaking from experience.  I attended this convention twice and feel it is THE direct marketing and agritourism conference to attend.  This convention moves across the US and Canada and you won’t find it this close again for quite some time.

The convention includes a conference with great nationally known keynote speakers, breakout sessions with producers from all across the country, pre- and post- conference farm tours with chartered busses and a fabulous trade show where you can see and order just about anything you might need to direct market your farm products.

The actual agenda is not posted yet but here is a peak at some information to give you an idea of what this convention will offer.

Educational Breakout Sessions

Educational Sessions are the heart of the NAFDMA Convention. While you wish to enjoy your time away from home and your business, we know you attend the convention to learn, network, and get the inspiration and tools you need to meet the challenges of your business. The Sessions and Workshops will bring a variety of subjects including social media, cutting edge agritourism, and business management. Keep an eye out for the announcement of our Keynote Speaker and additional topics. In the meantime, here are some of the sessions we are working on:

Colleen Newvine Tebeau on Social Media Strategy
Rachelle Wegele on Haunted Rides and Zombie Paintball
Tim Vala on the “Best Little Things”
Erin Pirro on Pricing Profits

Farm Tours

The Bus Tour Farm Visits for the 2014 NAFDMA convention will bring you to the operations of some of NAFDMA’s long time and most giving members. These folks have been attending the convention alongside fellow members for years. They know what you want to learn – and they know how to throw an event on the farm to welcome you with open arms. Their hospitality and willingness to share is sure to delight you. There will also be stops that you may not have heard of yet, but you will certainly learn plenty from them, too!

Carolyn’s Country Cousin Pumpkin Patch, Liberty, Missouri
Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead, Overland Park, Kansas
Gieringers Orchard, Edgerton, Kansas
Renyer’s Pumpkin Farm, Wetmore, Kansas
Shatto Milk Company, Osborn, Missouri
Walter’s Pumpkin Patch, Burns, Kansas
Weston Red Barn Farm, Weston, Missouri

Trade Show

This year our host hotel gives us the unique opportunity to transform the Trade Show into a Business Exchange. The vendors and their products and services will be integrated into the meeting space and events that happen at the convention.

Keep an eye out for more information about this fabulous direct marketing and agritourism convention.

 

 

Agricultural Safety Featured on New Channel

NOTE:  Most beginning farmers seek production and marketing information which is vital to farming success. However farm and farmer safety must also be at the top of the list for farm success.

The best agricultural safety videos are one click away on the new YouTube channel, “U.S. Agricultural Safety and Health Centers”. The channel is a joint project of the 10 Agricultural Centers funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Extension agents/educators, agricultural science teachers, producers/owner/operators, first responders and agricultural families would all find value in the videos, says project leader Amanda Wickman, Southwest Center for Agricultural Health, Injury Prevention and Education (Texas). Videos can be used during job orientation, safety/health education, 4-H meetings, high school or college classes. One benefit of YouTube is that videos can be accessed from a mobile device to conduct tailgate trainings in the field.

“The channel is an inexpensive way to reach millions of people with safety and health information,” said project administrator Allison DeVries, High Plains Intermountain Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (Colorado).

DeVries said that the Centers also hope to get valuable feedback on their videos through the YouTube comments. “Anyone can quickly establish an account and post a comment,” DeVries said.

“NIOSH established the Centers to protect the safety and health of more than 5.5 million full- and part-time contract and seasonal workers in agriculture, forestry, and fishing, as well as farm family members,” said Wickman. “Many Centers have created videos for this purpose, and we’re trying to enhance dissemination to people who can benefit most from them.”

The channel launched on November 1st with 8 educational videos. Each video has been produced and reviewed by experts in agricultural, forestry and fishing occupational hazards. More videos are being added weekly and it is expected that nearly 60 videos will be on the site by the end of the year. Viewers are encouraged to check the site regularly for new content and fresh ideas about how to stay safe while working in agriculture, forestry and fishing, said project technical administrator Aaron Yoder, Central States Center for Agricultural Health and Safety (Nebraska).

Topics include: respiratory protection, livestock safety, tractor and machinery safety, child development, emergency response, grain safety, pesticide safety, heat illness prevention, ladder safety and hearing protection.

For more information visit the website or contact Project Administrator Allison DeVries.

Food Entrepreneurship: A New Way of Thinking about Local Food and Jobs

A one day workshop on Food Entrepreneurship:  A New Way of Thinking about Local Food and Jobs will be held Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013 from 9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m. in Cape Girardeau, Mo.

This workshop will explore issues and roadblocks with regard to local food systems, beginning with a scope of opportunities and challenges including three key aspects: place, product and promotion. Participants will also learn about the benefits and challenges of shared processing facilities (commercial kitchens, incubators and food hubs) as strategies for regional business development and job creation.

A local food system must also expand relationships between food producers and food consumers, and focus on producing food and developing alternative marketing channels that connect farmers and consumers.

Local food production benefits communities in many ways:

• Increased relationships with consumers and other regional purchasers build alternative market opportunities that can increase sales and farm profits, creating more diversified income for the farmer.
• Stronger relationships with consumers help farmers identify crops that will meet consumer demand and diversify their production and market opportunities for more stable farming operations.
• Supporting local food systems supports local economies by keeping food dollars in the community.
• Local farms employ family members, neighbors, youth and other local workers, providing jobs for community residents.
• Local food systems need productive, innovative farmers; community facilities for processing and packaging products; transportation and marketing infrastructure; and consumers, all of which help build stronger local economies.
• Growing and purchasing food in a local food system increases food security.
• Supporting new farmers and gardeners increases access to fresh food.
• Communities with a strong local food supply are better positioned to maintain a stable, safe food supply.

Date

Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013

Time

9:30 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Lunch will be provided.

Registration

Advance registration is required by Monday, Nov. 11. There is no cost to attend, but space is limited. So, please register early.

Register online by clicking here.

Location

Southeast Missouri State University
University Center
N. Henderson Ave. and Normal
Cape Girardeau, MO 63701

For more information contact Matthew Ashby, 314-444-8891.  Three more one day workshops will be held across Missouri.  Keep watch here for when and where.

Webinar Tonight - Irrigation for Horticulture Crops

Join the Missouri Beginning Farmers Program's monthly webinar this evening, Monday, November 4th from 7-8:30 pm to learn about Irrigation for Horticulture Crops.

Bob Schultheis, University of Missouri Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources Engineering Specialist will be presenting just about everything you could ever want to know about irrigation.

For many vegetable and fruit producers irrigation is a must to reach the crop's potential production which in turn increases your sales and your pocketbook.  Bob will discuss the do's and don't's for irrigation.  He'll even discuss ways you can collect water for those drought times when your crops are thirsting for water.

To join the webinar go to http://univmissouri.adobeconnect.com/debikelly and then click on guest and sign in with your name or farm name.

 

November Ag Opportunities

The November issue of the Ag Opportunities newsletter is now available.  Topics include:

* Missouri Value Added Grant Program Now Accepting Applications
* Local Scientist Studies Goat Silvopasture
* Monthly Beginning Farmer Webinars - Irrigation and Cold Storage
* Farm Commons Webinars (Legal Topics)
* Free Marketing Webinar Series
* Grants and Financial Assistance
* In Print/On-Line/In the News
* On the Calendar

Organic Pastured Poultry Nutrition Webinar November 5

Join eOrganic for a webinar on a nutritional approach to rearing organic pastured broiler chickens by Michael Lilburn of the Ohio State University. The webinar will take place on November 5 at 1 pm Central Time. Registration is free and open to the public and advance registration is required.

 

About the webinar

On small scale organic farms, novel grains and pastured organic broiler chickens could be valuable additions to a multi-year organic rotation program. The chickens would contribute to soil fertility and novel cereal grains produced on the farm could help reduce the cost of organic poultry feed in subsequent years. One such novel grain is naked oats which have been studied extensively in Europe. Naked oats are higher in crude protein, methionine, and lysine when compared with corn and thus would contribute higher levels of methionine to the complete diet. This webinar will discuss naked oats as an ingredient and the results from experiments in which pastured organic broilers (commercial, Red Bros) have been fed diets containing 75% naked oats.

To register click here.

Find all upcoming and archived webinars on organic farming and research here.

13th Annual Iowa Organic Conference

The 13th Annual Iowa Organic Conference, scheduled for Nov. 17-18, will once again bring national experts, the latest in organic agriculture production research, and the voices of local experience together for an educational event. The conference will be held in Iowa City at the Iowa Memorial Union with a reception and movie showing on Sunday evening and the full conference beginning at 8 am on Monday, Nov 18.

Conference organizers are Iowa State University Extension and Outreach organic agriculture, the Office of Sustainability at University of Iowa, and New Pioneer Food Cooperative in Iowa City. “This is the second year this partnership has organized the conference,” said Kathleen Delate, extension organic agriculture specialist with Iowa State University. “There is a great concentration of producer and consumer interest in organic production in eastern Iowa, with Iowa City being the central location for the some of the largest organic producer and consumer communities in Iowa.”

Organic producers, consumers, conventional farmers, and others interested in science-based research in organic agriculture and practical applications for farming systems will find a wide variety of topics and speakers at the 2013 conference. Keynote speaker is Bob Quinn, a Montana organic farmer with 4,000 certified acres producing organic grains, alfalfa hay, vegetables and fruits. He will speak about on-farm biodiversity and the benefits of multiple crops in terms of spreading risk and providing ecological services.

Other conference speakers include Miles McEvoy, USDA National Organic Program, speaking about efforts to increase the understanding of organic; Bill Stowe, Des Moines Waterworks, on curtailing nitrate pollution in Iowa’s waters; experts on many aspects of local food systems; area organic farmers offering tips for best practices during transition to organic farming; and Iowa State researchers – Delate and Cynthia Cambardella – sharing findings from a 16-year comparison of organic and conventional rotations and recent research quantifying carbon sequestration benefits.

A Sunday evening pre-conference reception at 6 p.m. and showing of the moving “GMO-OMG” at 7 p.m. will be held in the Memorial Union Ballroom on Nov. 17. Conference registration begins at 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 18 with a welcome at 8 a.m. and concluding at 5 p.m. An all-organic lunch featuring regional foods will be served on Monday.

Registration options are available on the conference website. Additional details about the conference are available at here.