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New Livestock Integration
There is an old adage among livestock raisers that holds that blue ribbon-winning animals seldom make good parents, but generally make crackerjack grandparents. The one word answer for why this...
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Tractor Time Episode 10: Mark Shepard and Water Control on the Farm
In this week’s podcast, we are featuring Mark Shepard’s talk from the 2016 Eco-Ag annual conference in Omaha, Nebraska, where he spoke to a very full hall on his sustainable water practices he uses on...
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Farming Success: Salatin’s Top 10 Markers
Farming success can be measured in myriad ways, but sustainable farmer Joel Salatin shares 10 keys that can help farmers stay on the right track. The market is here. The knowledge, thanks to decades...
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Corn Mazes as Profit Generators
“If you build it, they will come.” Several years ago, these words seemingly fell upon the ears of John Kondilis-Hashem, an ambitious young farmer whose skills have graced Bella Organic Farm since...
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Order vs. Wildness: The Land Management Question
The idea, perpetuated by Thoreau, that farming order and wildness were mutually exclusive and therefore required segregated and designated areas allows landscape managers to be lazy about wildness....
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Wild Farm Alliance Supports Connections Between Farmer, Ecosystems & Community
Wild Farm Alliance reports that 37 percent of the Earth’s land is dedicated to agriculture, making farmland a top priority for Earth regeneration and wildlife conservation. While they assist farmers,...
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Be Counted: 2017 Census of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture has started sending out the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Sadly, in a world filled with scams attempting to gain your personal information for nefarious...
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Farmer Health: Preventing Pain
The animals that should be treated with the greatest care on most farms aren’t getting the attention they need, and farmer health should be a priority. Farmers start out young and strong, but as they...
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Taking on Food Justice with Soul Fire Farm’s Leah Penniman
As a creative educator, regenerative farmer, writer and activist, Leah Penniman is an exceptional leader for food justice. She is best known for her work at Soul Fire Farm, which she and husband Jonah...
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Farm Smarter: Time Management Tips
Even if we don’t expect to get paid for all the hours we work on the farm, tracking how we spend our time, in order to employ smart time management strategies, provides incredibly valuable...
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Book of the Week: Beyond the Chicken by Kelly Klober
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from pages 12-15 of the book, Beyond the Chicken, which was published by Acres U.S.A. Copyright 2014. #7309. Softcover. 216 pages. $24.00 regularly priced. By Kelly...
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In Support of Small Cows
By now most people know that more revenue and more pounds do not automatically equal more profit, which is why I am going to show you that small cows can be profitable. I believe that you can...
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The Huge Impact of Mycorrhizal Colonization on Plant and Soil Health
Leonardo da Vinci remarked, “in order to be a successful farmer one must know the nature of the soil.” Even today in the age of hydroponics, most of our food, over 98 percent by some estimates, is...
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Pasture Vs. Shed Lambing
Profit margins are slim in livestock operations; it only makes sense to match the sheep and lambing system we use with our goals, objectives, resources and market. Shed lambing and pasture lambing...
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Transitioning to Organic: Strategies for Success
With conventional prices for corn, beans, wheat and dairy really low right now and both prices and demand for organic products high, a lot of growers are thinking about transitioning to organic. For...
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7 Keys to Dairying, Cheesemaking Success
No one becomes a dairy farmer or dives into cheesemaking because they are looking for a simple, easy life with a large pot of gold at the end the rainbow. But if a cheesy (I like to think of that as a...
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How to Build a Portable Chicken Tractor
When building a chicken tractor, keep in mind that in any type of poultry containment the old rule of thumb is to provide at least 4 square feet of floor space per bird, although up to 6 square feet...
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Biointensive Growing for Smart-Scale Farming
Conventional thinking holds that vegetable farms must be fully mechanized and produce on a certain scale to provide a livelihood, except in extraordinary circumstances, but Les Jardins de la...
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Post-Harvest Crop Losses
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released the results of on-farm measurements taken to assess post-harvest crop losses. The report, No Food Left Behind: Underutilized Produce Ripe for Alternative Markets,...
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Superior Farm Staff Leadership
Effective farm staff management can make all the difference. A long-time organic farmworker named Jessica told me, “When you are the boss there is not much incentive to change.” I’d like to prove that...
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