Beginning Farmers And Ranchers Find One-Stop Shop In Farm Answers

Apr 28, 2016

By Scott Elliott

FarmAnswers.org is a clearinghouse of information to help farmers and ranchers better manage their operations.

Farmers and ranchers, like owners of other start-up companies, face serious challenges, including the need for easy to access, reliable information and technical assistance for getting their businesses started.

FarmAnswers.org is a website clearinghouse where farmers and ranchers can find online courses, videos, presentations, apps, and other materials – more than 3,175 at this time – to answer farming and ranching questions. FarmAnswers is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) through its Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP).

“There is a lot of great info published by universities to help educate farmers and advance their businesses. Sometimes it can be very hard to find, though,” said Carl Lippert of Grass Ridge Farm in Pittsville, Wisc. “FarmAnswers.org is the only place I know where you can find and search it all.”

Farm Answers library items can easily be filtered to the specific information the user wants. Its programs section helps beginning farmers and ranchers find educational programs in their state or area on topics of particular interest to them. In addition, “toolboxes” give producers tools on topics like business planning, marketing products locally, and accessing land. Farm Answers was developed by the Center for Farm Financial Management at the University of Minnesota.

“Farm Answers is an essential hub of our large and growing portfolio of over 200 BFRDP projects providing education, mentoring, and assistance to new farmers and ranchers,” said BFRDP National Program Leader Dr. Jill Auburn, NIFA’s Institute of Food, Production and Sustainability. “Not only does it help farmers find what they need, it helps educators share knowledge and tools to avoid “reinventing the wheel.”

Farm Answers is a key partner of the USDA-wide effort to make it easier for people to find USDA programs and services for new farmers through a streamlined web site and discovery tool at usda.gov/newfarmers. In addition to new farmers, the NewFarmers website provides information specifically for women in agriculture, youth, and veterans.

NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education and extension and seeks to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges.

Source:usda.gov

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.