Feedback Sought on New Resource for New and Beginning Farmers at 2024 GLEXPO

Dec 04, 2024

By Jonathan LaPorte

Running a farm business involves passion, vision and drive to be successful. These qualities are especially important for new or beginning farm managers as they face a number of challenges early in their careers. Common challenges include knowledge of production, finding land and financing. Recognizing the significance of these challenges, Michigan State University Extension and USDA are working on a joint resource and need your input on its creation.

At the 2024 Great Lakes Expo (GLEXPO), MSU Extension and USDA will be holding a feedback session on the Beginning Farmer Resource and Decision-Making Guide. The Guide is being created to provide a pathway to all the resources a new farmer or decision maker may need to get started and support their production journey. Starting with production in mind, resources will include direction to education and decision-making tools and how to connect with agricultural partners.

The feedback session will be held from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. on Tuesday, December 10. In the session, the developers of the guide will be looking for your input to help ensure it meets your needs. They’ll also be sharing the guide design, what's currently included, how to use it and where you’ll be able to access the guide once completed.

The session will start with a presentation followed by a sneak preview of example content. Attendees will have the ability to explore these examples and provide feedback via a Qualtrics survey. Members of the development team will also be on hand to answer questions and capture any suggestions from attendees. The presentation will be repeated at 3 p.m. to accommodate attendees who may be taking in other educational sessions at the conference.

Source : msu.edu

Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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