Conversations

Penny Leff, Agritourism Coordinator of UC SAREP, announced two new guides: Guest Lodging on Your California Farm or Ranch , and The Big Event: Hosting a Festival on your California Farm .

Penny Leff, Agritourism Coordinator of UC SAREP, announced two new guides: Guest Lodging on Your California Farm or Ranch , and The Big Event: Hosting a Festival on your California Farm .

The Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) and the Farmers Guild is hosting a Small Farm Tech Expo December 8-9 in Forestville, where we’ll showcase technology, equipment, and tools useful for small to mid-scale farms through workshops and demonstrations.

We’re looking for farmers and ranchers, technical advisors, and industry folks familiar with solar, irrigation management tools and tech, and/or whole orchard recycling who are interested in hosting or participating in a one hour workshop on December 9. For industry representatives, we’re looking for someone who can speak to specific considerations around choosing and managing a system or technology for the farm without explicitly promoting a specific product. Growers and ranchers, we want to hear about what tools and tech you've used as well!

You can submit a workshop proposal through this link

If you’re interested in being part of the expo or have any questions, please reach out to emily@caff.org.

Howdy Farmers,

I am looking for specific tractor models, old or new (manufacturer, model, and year) that veggie growers have really liked, so that I can search them used on TractorHouse. Our situation is this...

My partner and I are tooling up to break ground on a 6-8 acre, diverse vegetable CSA in Sebastopol. We are researching tractors, and deep into the classic "one tractor conundrum". With the ability to only afford one tractor, we would like to have a versatile one. We'd like it to be able to do primary tillage, as well as has have properly spaced and thin enough tires to get it into our shaped beds to help renovate beds for second-plantings (to undercut, disc, rototill, or spade), to weed the furrows and to possibly flame-weed (if we can find a 60" tractor mounted flame weeder). We will cultivate in-row manually the first years.

Our requirements are: ~50 horsepower, 4WD, 60" center-to-center tread

Howdy Farmers,

I am looking for specific tractor models, old or new (manufacturer, model, and year) that veggie growers have really liked, so that I can search them used on TractorHouse. Our situation is this...

My partner and I are tooling up to break ground on a 6-8 acre, diverse vegetable CSA in Sebastopol. We are researching tractors, and deep into the classic "one tractor conundrum". With the ability to only afford one tractor, we would like to have a versatile one. We'd like it to be able to do primary tillage, as well as has have properly spaced and thin enough tires to get it into our shaped beds to help renovate beds for second-plantings (to undercut, disc, rototill, or spade), to weed the furrows and to possibly flame-weed (if we can find a 60" tractor mounted flame weeder). We will cultivate in-row manually the first years.

Our requirements are: ~50 horsepower, 4WD, 60" center-to-center tread spacing with thin <13" rear tires, a front end loader, and gearing or a transmission that can go slow enough to run a spader. We could pay ~$30k for the right machine.

This tractor does exist new. It is the Kubota M7060 outfitted with a creeper gear and thin 12.6" rear tires. Shone Farm in Santa Rosa and New Family Farm in Sebastopol have this tractor. But at $50k, this is outside of our budget, and is too much tractor for our site and scale.

I have looked at cheaper new Kubotas (L and MX series) and John Deeres (5E series), but while some of them meet many of the requirements, one key element is missed. For example, the John Deere 5055E is the right horsepower and size, 4wd, can have a loader, but it's lowest gear is a touch fast at .9mph, and right now our dealer is essentially saying "not possible" for thin rear tires.

I'm seeking advice, and if farmers could share specefic model numbers and years, of any "Goldilocks" tractors they have used and loved @60" spacing, with low gearing.

Thank you!

David

Small-scale/ Backyard Livestock and Poultry Survey

If you have backyard livestock or poultry or are a small-scale producer of livestock or poultry, this survey is for you. This questionnaire asks about the specific practices and perceptions that you apply to your animals’ health, husbandry, and antimicrobial use. It is being conducted for research and outreach purposes in order to find better ways to serve people and communities with backyard and small-scale livestock or poultry.

Conducted by the University of California Cooperative Extension and the School of Veterinary Medicine and funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, this survey will take about 20 minutes to complete. Provided information will be kept strictly confidential. We will not connect your name with your responses.

Originally created as part of the Healthy Animals,Healthy Peopleworkshop series in California, the

Small-scale/ Backyard Livestock and Poultry Survey

If you have backyard livestock or poultry or are a small-scale producer of livestock or poultry, this survey is for you. This questionnaire asks about the specific practices and perceptions that you apply to your animals’ health, husbandry, and antimicrobial use. It is being conducted for research and outreach purposes in order to find better ways to serve people and communities with backyard and small-scale livestock or poultry.

Conducted by the University of California Cooperative Extension and the School of Veterinary Medicine and funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, this survey will take about 20 minutes to complete. Provided information will be kept strictly confidential. We will not connect your name with your responses.

Originally created as part of the Healthy Animals,Healthy Peopleworkshop series in California, the survey is now open to all owners and small-scale producers of livestock and poultry in California regardless of workshop attendance. We would appreciate your time and participation in this survey, accessible here.

Thank you,

Alda Pires

apires@ucdavis.edu

With the California wildfire season already heating up, the Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture is teaming up with CAFF & The Farmers Guild to host an online fire resilience course for farmers and ranchers in 2019.

Are you actively farming or ranching? We want to create a course that serves you and those threatened and impacted by fires, so we're seeking your feedback to help us best develop this program.

It takes less than 5 minutes! We take your feedback seriously - your responses will shape the content and design of this course.

Take the Needs Assessment Here

Thank you in advance for your support building fire resilience,

Katie and The MESA Team

Questions? Email katie@mesaprogram.org

For our records! ~ The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the results of the 2017 Census of Agriculture, spanning some 6.4 million new points of information about America's farms and ranches and those who operate them, including new data about on-farm decision making, down to the county level.

Information collected by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) directly from farmers and ranchers shows both farm numbers and land in farms have ongoing small percentage declines since the last Census in 2012. At the same time, there continue to be more of the largest and smallest operations and fewer middle-sized farms. The average age of all farmers and ranchers continues to rise.

“We are pleased to deliver Census of Agriculture results to America, and especially to the farmers and ranchers who participated,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “We can all use the Census

For our records! ~ The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the results of the 2017 Census of Agriculture, spanning some 6.4 million new points of information about America's farms and ranches and those who operate them, including new data about on-farm decision making, down to the county level.

Information collected by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) directly from farmers and ranchers shows both farm numbers and land in farms have ongoing small percentage declines since the last Census in 2012. At the same time, there continue to be more of the largest and smallest operations and fewer middle-sized farms. The average age of all farmers and ranchers continues to rise.

“We are pleased to deliver Census of Agriculture results to America, and especially to the farmers and ranchers who participated,” said U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. “We can all use the Census to tell the tremendous story of U.S. agriculture and how it is changing. As a data-driven organization, we are eager to dig in to this wealth of information to advance our goals of supporting farmers and ranchers, facilitating rural prosperity, and strengthening stewardship of private lands efficiently, effectively, and with integrity.”

“The Census shows new data that can be compared to previous censuses for insights into agricultural trends and changes down to the county level,” said NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer. “While the current picture shows a consistent trend in the structure of U.S. agriculture, there are some ups and downs since the last Census as well as first-time data on topics such as military status and on-farm decisionmaking. To make it easier to delve into the data, we are pleased to make the results available in many online formats including a new data query interface, as well as traditional data tables.”

Census data provide valuable insights into demographics, economics, land and activities on U.S. farms and ranches.

Some key highlights include:

• There are 2.04 million farms and ranches (down 3.2% from 2012) with an average size of 441 acres (up 1.6%) on 900 million acres (down 1.6%).
• The 273,000 smallest (1-9 acres) farms make up 0.1% of all farmland while the 85,127 largest (2,000 or more acres) farms make up 58% of farmland.
• Just 105,453 farms produced 75% of all sales in 2017, down from 119,908 in 2012.
• Of the 2.04 million farms and ranches, the 76,865 making $1 million or more in 2017 represent just over two-thirds of the $389 billion in total value of production while the 1.56 million operations making under $50,000 represent just 2.9%.
• Farm expenses are $326 billion with feed, livestock purchased, hired labor, fertilizer and cash rents topping the list of farm expenses in 2017.
• Average farm income is $43,053. A total of 43.6% of farms had positive net cash farm income in 2017.
• Ninety-six percent of farms and ranches are family owned.
• Farms with Internet access rose from 69.6% in 2012 to 75.4% in 2017.
• A total of 133,176 farms and ranches use renewable energy producing systems, more than double the 57,299 in 2012.
• In 2017, 130,056 farms sold directly to consumers, with sales of $2.8 billion.
• Sales to retail outlets, institutions and food hubs by 28,958 operations are valued at $9 billion.

For the 2017 Census of Agriculture, NASS changed the demographic questions to better represent the roles of all persons involved in on-farm decision making. As a result, in 2017 the number of producers is up by nearly 7% to 3.4 million, because more farms reported multiple producers. Most of the newly identified producers are female. While the number of male producers fell 1.7% to 2.17 million from 2012 to 2017, the number of female producers increased by nearly 27% to 1.23 million.

Other demographic highlights include:

• The average age of all producers is 57.5, up 1.2 years from 2012.
• The number of producers who have served in the military is 370,619, or 11% of all. They are older than the average at 67.9.
• There are 321,261 young producers age 35 or less on 240,141 farms. Farms with young producers making decisions tend to be larger than average in both acres and sales.
• More than any other age group, young producers make decisions regarding livestock, though the difference is slight.
• One in four producers is a beginning farmer with 10 or fewer years of experience and an average age of 46.3 years. Farms with new or beginning producers making decisions tend to be smaller than average in both acres and value of production.
• Thirty-six percent of all producers are female and 56% of all farms have at least one female decision-maker. Farms with female producers making decisions tend to be smaller than average in both acres and value of production.
• Female producers are most heavily engaged in the day-to-day decisions along with record keeping and financial management.

Results are available in many online formats including video presentations, a new data query interface, maps, and traditional data tables. All information is available at http://www.nass.usda.gov/AgCensus.

NASS sends questionnaires to nearly 3 million potential U.S. farms and ranches. Nearly 25 percent of those who responded did so online.

Hello there!

Not sure how many of you are familiar with drip irrigation and how efficient it is to be able to utilize so little water to achieve so much more yield.

N-Drip (http://www.n-drip.com) is designed to benefit farmers as a cost-effective alternative to both flood and high-pressure drip irrigation.

We are looking for farmers who are willing to trial our drip system on a 5-10 acre field. If you FLOOD irrigate your field and interested in participating in our program and save money, please contact me directly.

We are not commercial yet, just looking for partners for success.

Take a look at this video from Dell City: https://www.facebook.com/1672075250/posts/10210910789960391?sfns=mo

Feel free to call me and be a part of an amazing, simple and cost-effective system!
Roy

roy.bachrach@gmail.com
713-446-3251

I am a lifelong organic farmer who comes from a family tradition of land stewardship. I have been farming and teaching regenerative farming on the Island of Hawaii for the last forty years. Thirty years ago, I established Malamaki Farm School for the specific purpose of sponsoring/mentoring people who choose to save our planet by means of right livelihood; specifically regenerative farming and associated trades. The post you are reading is a plea for suggestions as to how we can connect with folks who have the appropriate motivation and experience to benefit from what we offer. You might think it preposterous but our biggest challenge is finding qualified beneficiaries for the program.

Apprentices pay no tuition and their room & board is provided. The program also connects apprentices with well-paying work so they have income during their apprenticeship.

Hawaii is rife with agrotourism, permaculture

I am a lifelong organic farmer who comes from a family tradition of land stewardship. I have been farming and teaching regenerative farming on the Island of Hawaii for the last forty years. Thirty years ago, I established Malamaki Farm School for the specific purpose of sponsoring/mentoring people who choose to save our planet by means of right livelihood; specifically regenerative farming and associated trades. The post you are reading is a plea for suggestions as to how we can connect with folks who have the appropriate motivation and experience to benefit from what we offer. You might think it preposterous but our biggest challenge is finding qualified beneficiaries for the program.

Apprentices pay no tuition and their room & board is provided. The program also connects apprentices with well-paying work so they have income during their apprenticeship.

Hawaii is rife with agrotourism, permaculture internships and every other sort of groovy "farm experience". What we lack is any viable means for serious young farmers to get started. Everyone wants to come to Hawaii to pursue their utopian organic fantasies; however, in the forty years that I have fostered apprentices, I have had few opportunities to teach anyone who could endure the daily rigors of the profession for more than a few months. A lifetime commitment is something beyond the imagination of most folks. We are not teaching people and sending them on their way. When someone completes our apprenticeship program, they are given a stake in the farming enterprise.

Perhaps you know of networks/websites/organizations where we can connect with people who have spent enough years engaged in daily farm toil to know that they cannot imagine doing anything else with their lives. In my experience, these are the only people worth teaching.

Please do not share details of this opportunity directly with anyone you think might be interested. Over the years, we have been inundated with people who heard about it and came thinking they were going to "get" something. There is no limit to the deceit in which humans will engage when they believe they can acquire wealth without working. When such people infect the school, everyone suffers. We have an extremely rigorous application process which all applicants must pass. Please do not share any details except our email address. We will take it from there.

We are not limited to sponsoring folks whose focus is regenerative farming. We welcome anyone who is committed to doing whatever is necessary to save our only planet. That could entail anything from regenerative energy to sustainable building, farm mechanics, whatever.

We also welcome skilled people in any relevant trade who would like to teach. Be aware, 90% of our instruction is experiential, in the field. You will not be giving lectures in an air-conditioned classroom. You will be teaching/leading by example. Also, we are non-hierarchical. Everyone is a teacher and everyone is a student. You would have no authority beyond what you establish by demonstration of your competence.

Eddie Clark

Malamaki Farm School / Stewardship Services

Cell: 808-938-4844

eddie@stewardshipincorporated.org

P.O. Box 1929

Kea'au, HI 96749

I wanted to ask folks a couple questions about Rust in garlic. I treated early with Horticultural oil and sulfur. I even cut the heavy stuff out. But now two weeks later the whole patch is rusted! Question #1 Is there a PCA that specializes in organic solutions in the Solano/Yolo area. And question #2, at this late stage in the garlic life will it effect the final product. The plants are just now setting out flowers of which i will be cutting back. Thanks in advance.

ben

Cal Ag Roots is looking for people from rural California who want to partner with them in 2019 to produce a podcast that tells a story about their community--and an important moment in the history of farming in California.

Selected story co-producers will be paid a $2000 stipend for working with the Cal Ag Roots Team from June-December, 2019, to produce a twenty-minute podcast that will be released in the fall of 2019. Story co-producers will identify a potential story and work with Cal Ag Roots to conduct interviews, write podcast scripts, record narration and edit audio for the piece. No podcast or audio production experience necessary! Time spent on the story will vary, but we anticipate each podcast will require a time commitment of approximately 4-6 hours/week, over roughly 6 months.

To apply to be a story co-producer, please send an email to Project Director Ildi Carlisle-Cummins at

Cal Ag Roots is looking for people from rural California who want to partner with them in 2019 to produce a podcast that tells a story about their community--and an important moment in the history of farming in California.

Selected story co-producers will be paid a $2000 stipend for working with the Cal Ag Roots Team from June-December, 2019, to produce a twenty-minute podcast that will be released in the fall of 2019. Story co-producers will identify a potential story and work with Cal Ag Roots to conduct interviews, write podcast scripts, record narration and edit audio for the piece. No podcast or audio production experience necessary! Time spent on the story will vary, but we anticipate each podcast will require a time commitment of approximately 4-6 hours/week, over roughly 6 months.

To apply to be a story co-producer, please send an email to Project Director Ildi Carlisle-Cummins at icarlisle-cummins@cirsinc.org that includes: 1) a brief introduction of yourself, 2) your interest in this project, 3) a story idea (or ideas) about a key moment in California farming history that is related to your community.

Please feel free circulate widely and have interested folks reach out to Ildi by email or phone (831-345-2109), with any questions.