Hands-on Learning with Livestock
We hosted two sustainable livestock workshops in October: one in Cedarville, AR, and one in Canehill, AR. At both workshops, Southeast Regional Director Margo Hale presented sessions on business planning and recordkeeping. The Cedarville workshop took place on Cedar Creek Farm at Windset Ranch, where farmer Jeremy Prater gave a great presentation on the operation, farm history, marketing, and production. He also led an informative tour of the farm where participants learned about pasture set-up, fencing, watering, pastured pork, meat goats, and beef cows.
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In Canehill, participants helped Roger Remington of R Family Farm complete the farm chores, including moving fence, gathering eggs, moving nest boxes, clipping wings on turkeys, and cleaning eggs using the egg washing machine. Participants also saw the milk barn, forested pigs, pastured ducks and broilers, and the farm's delivery trailer. Participants gained a realistic look at the work involved with such a diverse operation. In addition, Margo led participants through goal-setting exercises, and fielded questions about regulations and various other aspects of farming.
FoodCorps News
FoodCorps Service Member Allyson Pon (third from right) attends the School Garden of the Year award presentation. FoodCorps Service member Trey Cochran (fourth from left) attended as well.
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FoodCorps service members in Arkansas have been hard at work this fall expanding school gardens, teaching innovative nutrition and cooking lessons related to school district curriculum, leading cafeteria taste tests, and bringing together coalitions of community members to build healthier school environments. Allyson Ponn is one FoodCorps member serving in Searcy County. The school where she serves, Marshall Elementary, just received the School Garden of the Year award this December. The award was presented by Governor Asa Hutchinson and the Arkansas Agriculture Department. The school also received a $1,500 check from Farm Credit to help continue the great work they are doing there!
You can follow the FoodCorps Arkansas team on Facebook. For more information about FoodCorps, visit https://foodcorps.org.
Out and About
• Luke Freeman traveled to Ozark, AR, to attend the Arkansas Association of Grape Growers annual meeting and conference. He learned about two new wine grape cultivars that have been released by the University of Arkansas, Opportunity (white) and Enchantment (red), which have been almost 15 years in the making and have a lot of potential to benefit the wine industry in the Southeast. For more information about growing grapes, see the ATTRA publication Grapes: Organic Production.
• Luke also traveled to Fort Worth, TX, to present a session titled Sustainable and Organic High Tunnel Vegetable Production at the third annual Texas High Tunnel Conference. Visit the ATTRA website to find more information on high tunnels, including the publications High Tunnel Winter Growing Using Heat Recovery Ventilation, High Tunnels in Urban Agriculture, and High Tunnel Tree Fruit and Grape Production for Eastern Growers.
Upcoming Events
Southeast office staff members will participate in the following events:
Horticulture Industries Show
Jan. 13-14, 2017
Fayetteville, AR
More info
Kentucky State University's Third Thursday Thing
Jan. 19, 2017
Frankfort, KY
More info
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group Conference
Jan. 25-28, 2017
Lexington, KY
More info
West Virginia Small Farms Conference
Feb. 12-14, 2017
Charleston, WV
More info
Event listings are added regularly to the ATTRA Workshops page at:
https://attra.ncat.org/allworkshops.php.
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