Michigan Farmer Field School 
Helping to cultivate viability for new and beginning farmers  

September 14, 2015  Monday, 8 am – 6pm 

Field Based Pest and Disease Management: For Sustainable Outdoor and Hoophouse Vegetable Production – Student Organic Farm - Lansing, Michigan.  NEW PRICING!:  $150 for the first person from your farm, $30 for the 2nd ($90 per person).

Participants will spend most of the day in the field and hoophouses seeing and learning about the pests, diseases,  disorders, beneficials, and reactive measures associated with different crops as well as discussing the practical and financial aspects of management strategies. 

Outcome goals: Participants will learn how to identify and scout for major pest and disease challenges to their farm, articulate management responses to identified problems and become familiar with resources for problem-solving.

Includes: Overview of a systems approach to pest and disease management, identification and exploration of lifecycles and common thresholds for action for pests and diseases. Also includes hands-on response strategies, field training for hoophouse and field pest and disease scouting and helpful record keeping.

Presenters: Ben Werling – MSU Extension, Nicole Quinn – MSU Graduate Research Assistant, Vegetable Entomology Lab, Jeremy Moghtader – Farm Manager, MSU Student Organic Farm, Director MSU Organic Farmer Training Program

October  - 18, 2015 Sunday, 8am-6pm 

Holistic Soil Management: Fertility, Cover Cropping, Weed Management and Tillage – Student Organic Farm – Lansing, Michigan.  

Includes: Proven strategies, planning, and tools at various scales for building and maintaining the healthiest soils while managing weeds and prepping fields for crops.

Presenters: Lee Arboreal- Live Edge Growers (formerly of Eaters Guild Farm), a 15 year veteran organic farmer focused on larger scale organic production and Jeremy Moghtader - Farm Manager, MSU Student Organic Farm & Director, MSU Organic Farmer Training Program.
 

November - 14, 2015, Saturday, 8am - 6pm

Year Around and Seasonal CSA Success: Strategies and techniques for improving profitability and satisfaction  – Student Organic Farm – Lansing, Michigan.   

Learn about proven strategies and different approaches to CSA startup and growth from the experiences and exploration done by the Organic Farmer Training Program and Sunseed Farm.  Leave with new tools and new ideas about how to live, work and grow your CSA.

Presenters: Tomm Becker - Sunseed Farm,  Jeremy Moghtader - Farm Manger, MSU Student Organic Farm, Director MSU Organic Farmer Training Program.
 

Additional Upcoming Workshops:

Business Planning – Finding and Focusing on Profitability (Jan/Feb 2016), Scaling Up your Farm Business (April/May 2016),  Planning for Better Pest and Disease Management(Feb./March 2016)

 

For information on workshop details, upcoming workshops and the Michigan Farmer Field School Series, or to register go to http://www.msuorganicfarm.org/farmer-field-school.html and fill out the registration form.

ABOUT THE FARMER FIELD SCHOOL 

The MSU Farmer Field School is comprised of intensive one and two day hands-on workshops. They are tailored to deliver in-depth, practical information building on the decade of farmer training on-going at the MSU Student Organic Farm and the wealth of knowledge in Michigan’s farming community.  

Experienced farmers and premier agriculture educators from our region are teaming up to co-lead and deliver workshops in the Farmer Field School. Each workshop also includes group-based learning processes where diverse approaches to farming challenges can be shared and discussed by both participants and workshop presenters and demonstrated at host farm sites. For the current cycle, workshops will take place on select farms in southern Michigan with a goal of expanding the workshops to other regions of the state as the program develops.

With an emphasis on vegetable production, the Field School is designed to help improve the profitability of diversified, sustainable, Michigan farmers in their first 10 years of farming who serve local and regional markets. The Field School is part of a broader vision and collaboration among statewide organizations including the MSU Center forRegional Food Systems and Michigan Food and Farming Systems to help increase new farm success by working to make farming a more prosperous, secure, and sustainable career choice for the many beginning as well as future farmers here in Michigan– to keep farmers farming, farmland in production, and food local and regional.

The Farmer Field School is organized through the collaboration of MSU Student Organic Farm, Michigan Food and Farming Systems (MIFFS). and the Center for Regional Food Systems (CRFS).To learn more, visit www.msuorganicfarm.com.

This material is based upon work that is supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 2015-70017-22856.