Are you ready to become a farmer? Then this is the course for you!

Register Here!

This free, six-week  workshop series is joint project between CLEDA, the USDA, and the NRCS to offer an overview on how to start a small farming operation. Topic areas include how to create a business plan for your farm, record keeping, how to grow crops, how to test your soil, how to know when to plant, and how to market your yield.
The first course of this workshop will be on Tuesday, September 27 and continue through the next 5 Tuesdays- October 4, 11, 18, 25, and Nov. 1 from 5:30 pm till 8 pm. These courses are generally aimed at new and beginning farmers but existing farmers can benefit from each of the courses as well:
 

1. September 27: Assessment of your small farm dream (Why do you want to be a farmer?)- This course will help those interested evaluate their farm goals, vision, knowledge and skills, available time, level of production, and finances.

 

2. October 4: Researching the landscape (Get to know your land and what it is good at) - This course teaches participants to research and get a feel for what they are working with, i.e. soil quality and water quality kits collected, market research, what they want to grow, potential revenues, and talking to existing farmers about scale, inputs, market development, who are you looking to sell to, etc…

  

3. October 11: Developing a Farm Business Plan and Enterprise budgets (A farm is only as strong as its plan) - This course will review the importance of developing a farm business plan, how to do it, what is involved, and the impact a good business plan can have on a farming operation. We will also go over how to develop enterprise budgets and examples of existing budgets.

 

4. October 18: Markets and Presentation (Who are you going to sell to tomorrow, next year, five years from now?)- This course will review what farm certifications are available, when they are  right for the farm, how to gauge if certification is worth it to the farm and how to market the farm via news, social media, branding, etc…

  

5. October 25: Assess your resources (What are you working with and what do you need?)- This course helps participants review what they have available to run a small farm business- financially, physically, and other start-up costs. This workshop will also include information on land acquisition.

  

6. November 1: Making decisions and next steps (Ready? Set? Go!)- In this course participants will learn about different farming approaches (high tunnel farming, hydroponic, organic, etc…), review their research, plan their next steps, and create an action plan/calendar. After course completion, participants will receive follow-up training and consulting as they launch their farming operations. 

Given the time the workshops take place, dinner will be provided.
 

Register Here!