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Women in Agriculture Supporting One Another
According to the 2012 census, at least 30 percent of all farm operators in America are women, and women are currently the fastest growing group of organic and sustainable farmers. According to the...
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Adding to Your Farm Crew: How to Hire and Keep Employees
I also ask them why they want this job. If their immediate response is, “I love working with plants,” then you probably have a winner. Remember, this is your livelihood and small mistakes can create...
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Calculating Income and Business Projections for Your Farming Operation
Any way you go, breaking down your costs is a very healthy exercise and reality check. Unfortunately people who get into the plant business are generally not number-oriented folks, but it really is an...
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Operating A Subscription System Farm
Let us assume you have been through the start-up activity and have two or more years of experience selling at a farmer’s market. You will have some idea of how you do things, what you do best, what...
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Direct Marketing and the Small Farm
To make a living on a small farm, we must cut out the middlemen who today make virtually all the profit between farm harvest and ultimate sale to the consumer. Subscription farming and good use of a...
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How to Brainstorm a Successful Business System for Your Farm
What are your short-term and long-term goals and needs? Just for supplementary income or to start a whole new business? Do you want steady year-round income or will a seasonal operation meet your...
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Opinion: Making the Case for Organic Certification (Terrance Layhew)
The kind of certification you receive verifies to the customer that you have been proven to hold the same values they care about. Source
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Common Forage Pests and Problems
If your soil is not yet in good condition, or if the weather isn’t cooperating, and your plants are under stress and are attacked by a disease or pest, all the Utopian theories in the world will not...
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Nutrient Deficiencies in Alfalfa
Severe sickness is usually easy to spot because of visible discoloration or dying of above-ground parts. Less severe deficiencies and toxicities are harder to diagnose. Often the plants look healthy,...
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How to Measure Alfalfa Quality
One of the keys to keeping the right balance of nutrients is to have well aerated soil with plenty of humus, for humus and its associated microorganisms tend to provide balanced nutrition to plants....
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Brix Measurement Standards
Thus, the total advantage of high-quality alfalfa goes beyond that indicated by digestible nutrient content and is compounded by a potential for being consumed at higher levels, a faster rate of...
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Forage: When to Harvest
The first cutting of a new stand should be delayed until the plants are strong and vigorous and have a good root system, generally 70 to 90 days after germination for a spring seeding. Source
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Planting Density for Forage
Whether you want to use broadcast, drill, or band seeding methods may depend mainly on your situation and available equipment. With good soil conditions, any seeding method can give good results. Source
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Seedbed Preparation for Forage
It is impossible to give definite recommendations regarding fertilizers without knowing what your soil needs, but the soil should have a high level of available calcium and phosphorus. If your soil...
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Choosing Seeds for Your Forage
The percentage of grass in legume-grass mixtures should generally be less than 25 – 40%, up to 50% in pastures, because too much grass will lower the protein content of the hay and may require more...
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The Perks of Self-Serving Silage
The site of the heap varies from year to year, so there can be no question of concrete sides or base. And though straw bales might be possible, we don’t use them because they make no difference to the...
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Paper Pot Transplanters for Organic Operations
The paper pot transplanter is a specialized tool in small-scale farming used for high-density plantings of cut greens, scallions and other row crops. They are generally used as a labor-saving...
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Dealing With Herbicide Drift
The degree to which crops are damaged from drift depends on the level of the susceptibility of the crop, its growth stage, environmental conditions, herbicide formulation, droplet size and the spray...
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Alternative Poultry: Getting Creative
Plenty of today’s small farmers have found productive and profitable means of pasturing chickens and turkeys, but sometimes chicken (or turkey) just isn’t enough. Heritage breeds expand a business’...
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Book Excerpt: Talking Chicken
Commonly seen on many small farms now is a reworking of materials at hand to create a brooder unit adequate to house chick lots of fifty to one hundred head until they are three to five weeks of age....
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