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Because farming is so central to our nation’s identity—and its idea of itself—this future can feel fraught. In 2012, the USDA forecast that most (70 percent) familyfarms would transfer hands over the next 20 years. Will familyfarms as we know and love them survive, and how do the ones that are thriving now do it?
At Farm Credit of Southern Colorado, we take great pride in supporting the families who shape agriculture in our region. The Mattive family of Worley FamilyFarms has spent generations cultivating success in the San Luis Valley, and their story is one of resilience, dedication, and innovation.
Trisha and Nolan Zachman farm in a small town two hours west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This was soon after the Zachmans founded Feathered Acres Learning Farm & Inn with substantial startup expenses. They began adding cover crops on their fields to build soil health, helping reduce their need for added fertilizers.
Cropland to Pastureland As discussed in part 2 of this series, many conventional cropping practices acidify the soil unnaturally quickly. In fact, from 2008-2016, croplands expanded at a rate of over one million acres per year, with the eastern half of the Dakotas leading the charge. In 2022, the farm averaged 8.7%
Kava has endured a long history of adversity, said Lakea Trask, a Hawaiian farmer and local activist who cultivates kava and other Native crops for Kanaka Kava , his familysfarm-to-table restaurant in Kailua-Kona, on the Big Island. As kavas allure grows, so, too, have local restrictions. In Florida, the so-called U.S.
Farmers utilize a range of modern toolsfrom task management applications and drones that monitor crop health to sensors and software that help forecast yields. This shift to a data-driven approach not only enhances farm operations but can significantly improve harvest outcomes, turning a good year into an exceptional one.
I had to rely on others to eat, and it was really difficult,” says Bista, who is one of six refugee farmers employed by New Leaf Agriculture, a 20-acre organic operation located in Manor, Texas. Krishna Bista grew up on a diversified farm in her native Bhutan. The farm is a community of immigrants, mostly from Africa and Asia.
Instead, the Wall Street Farm Bill directed most of the subsidies to incentivize overproduction of a handful of key commodities, particularly corn and soy. Under the New Deal Farm Bill, a farmer faced with low corn prices could switch to another crop or even idle a portion of farmland in exchange for financial support.
An example from our familyfarm is shown below. To determine the cost of erosion, I used the NRCS tolerable soil loss or “T” value for our farm of 5 tons per acre. The Daily Erosion Project and other research has shown that this is roughly the average soil loss per acre in the Midwest. What’s the value of that?
“Of 400 farms in our county, only five are organic,” says Matt Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Organics in Hutchinson, Minnesota. His 2,500-acrefamilyfarm is patchwork across 40 miles of land the family owns and leases, and grows organic corn, soy, wheat and specialty crops such as beans and peas.
Enjoy our conversation about postwar trucking culture, crop insurance, and English perspectives on the countryside, below. I was born and raised in rural southwest Wisconsin, where I attended a high school located in the middle of a 30,000 acre seedcorn field. Photo by Christopher Paul High on Unsplash. And are those things related?
Agroforestry—the integration of trees and shrubs into crop and animal farming systems—has been used since ancient times to produce fruits, nuts, coffee, cocoa and medicinal herbs. Wendy Johnson’s ‘natural savannah’ Wendy Johnson and her husband, Johnny Rafkin, own Jóia Food & Fiber Farm, in Charles City, Iowa.
Whether our crops come to harvest or our livestock make it to market is directly tied to the cycles of nature that we try our best to work within. tons of American agricultural soil per acre, costing farmers and ranchers US$44 billion annually and taxpayers nearly US$100 billion. As farmers, we are concerned. Each year, we lose 4.6
Our food & farming reviews of 2025 are here what’s been cropping up this past year and worth watching? The farm is now a Site of Nature Conservation Interest and a testament to the value of farming with nature. Withers does not own all of the land on the farm, and this has left her vulnerable.
“We lost 10 percent of our saleable Christmas trees that year,” says Leanna Anderson, owner of Aldor AcresFamilyFarm in Langley, British Columbia and treasurer of the BC Christmas Tree Association. Photo courtesy of Aldor AcresFarm. Photography courtesy of Aldor AcresFarm.
Upon leaving her familyfarm to study agriculture at Stanford, she took up a work-study program investigating the economic viability of grass-fed beef. “It The same year that Carman returned to her familyfarm, a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, was detected in the US.
As Brian Paddock walks through his 12-and-a-half acres of almond trees, he’s taking in everything. For Paddock, maximizing “ crop per drop ”—getting the most yield with the least amount of water—is important. It’s also because he’s on a mission to prove that almonds are a viable crop, now and into the future.
America’s farmers, especially beginning and Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) farmers face insurmountable challenges, yet 87 percent of young farmers are dedicated to regenerative, climate-smart farming practices. Across the country, farmland is being lost to development at a rate of more than 2,000 acres per day.
The ice cream shop is an extension of the Nicholson family’s sixth-generation, 120-acrefarm in nearby Ferndale. More Eyes Per Acre As one of California’s oldest cheesemakers, Rumiano Cheese has a storied presence in the North Coast’s dairy shed. But that hasn’t been the PCC’s focus, Pheasant says.
Prime farmland, it attracted countless farmers, including the Black farmers seeking to fulfill the promise of “40 acres and a mule” that followed the American Civil War. But Black farm ownership has dropped dramatically over the years, with just 1,500 estimated to remain in Arkansas today. But the process hasn’t always come easily.
Kendra Altnow shares the history of the LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards. On December 5th, the Community Alliance with FamilyFarms (CAFF) held a field day at the LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyard in Acampo, CA. We’re trialing grazing now which is awesome.
Outside of Charleston, South Carolina, in the picturesque marshes of the Kiawah River, sits more than 100 acres of working farmland. Seasonal crops rotate through expansive pastures, cattle graze the rich sea grasses and several colonies of bees hurry about their business. But farming can be a lonely, overwhelming task.
billion proposal that sparked backlash on both sides of the aisle, mostly due to disagreements regarding nutrition spending and crop insurance reform. The farm bill is a safety net for our families and the farmers who feed, fuel, and clothe us. Without crop insurance, supporters worry our food supply may be at risk.
On the back 16 acres of Walla Walla Community College, 30 Red Angus cows stand munching on hairy vetch, ryegrass and other cover crops that were planted to help restore the soil. Those cows are just one part of the closed-loop system the college aims to highlight in its new farm-to-fork program that is rolling out this school year.
Nut farmer Benina Montes of Burroughs FamilyFarms in California says she chose to certify her almonds with ROC because of the environmental and economic benefits of ROC’s practices and brand. “By Her familyfarm has been organic certified since 2006, but it only adopted the ROC standards in June 2022.
For example, at Eckert’s Farm in Belleville, MO, Chris Eckert has seen extreme freezes killing off parts of his peach orchard. They were lucky enough to have crop insurance to cover their losses, but many farmers are not so lucky. Other means of managing weather risk are, like crop insurance premiums, funded by the federal government.
Windbreaks involve planting trees along edges of fields to keep soil in place, enhance crop production and protect motorists on adjacent roadways from snowdrifts and fierce winds. That’s one of the reasons why Adams is enthusiastic about SI’s new statewide agroforestry demonstration farm network that will launch in Wisconsin this spring.
While this does not paint the simple picture some conservationists might hope (that cover crops and no-till consistently out-perform tillage and bare soil) it does show that intentional conservation practices don’t affect the yield nearly as much as conditions of the season. pounds of phosphorous per acre. pounds per acre.
One way to reduce agricultural chemicals is planting cover crops in the Fall after the cash crop is harvested. Winter cover crops could mean using less fertilizer and herbicide in the Spring. According to the authors, there are three ways to eliminate cover crops: 1) herbicides, 2) rolling and crimping, and 3) tillage.
Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund The Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund is a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem that aims to regenerate custodial land ownership, ecological stewardship, and food and fiber economies in the American South.
The Horse Creek Area Farmer-Led Watershed Council will be hosting their annual farmer education forum and lunch on March 23rd from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Carlson FamilyFarm. This year, they have invited Minnesota farmer, Myron Sylling, to speak on what he sees as the Next Steps in Soil Health. million pounds of algae.
For a long time – until production controls were lifted in the mid-2000s – tobacco was a critical crop for smaller-scale farmers. Even by just raising three or four acres of tobacco, families could make a respectable return that helped their farm’s economic viability. We tended the land, crops, and animals together.
Sincerely, AgCountry Farm Credit Services AgCredit, ACA AgGeorgia Farm Credit AgriBank, FCB AgriBusiness Association of Kentucky Agribusiness Council of Indiana Agricultural Leaders of Michigan Agricultural Retailers Association Agriculture Energy Coalition Agri-Mark, Inc.
But the epic flooding this past March was simply unprecedented, says the owner of Lerda-Goni Farms. After a winter of record snow in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, a sudden warm spell melted the lower reaches, unleashing nearly 40,000 acre-feet of water —a volume equal to more than a tenth of Las Vegas’ annual supply—in 48 hours.
We just opted to switch gears into something different to grow a higher value crop,” says Rick. “We Marsha enrolled in the Horticulture Certificate program through Olds College, and they got started in 2003, planting 5 acres of Saskatoon bushes. The following year, they planted another 5 acres, and so on.
As with all programs, NSAC will continue to analyze the RPFSA’s CSP provisions, including a proposed one-time CSP subprogram focused on enrollment of up to 500,000 acres of native or improved pasture land used for livestock grazing in the Lower Mississippi River Valley to address water quality issues leading to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.
When his father, Randy, equipped his combine with a yield monitor in the early 1990s, teenage Ryan thought it was a huge step forward for the familyfarm. The Britts now farm 5,000 acres, raising cattle, corn, soybeans, wheat and hay in Randolph, Chariton and Macon counties.
Steve Ela is an organic fruit grower in western Colorado who relies on compost to nourish his heirloom tomato crop each year. Ela knows first-hand how central compost is to his organic farm—and all organic agriculture. Ela knows first-hand how central compost is to his organic farm—and all organic agriculture.
The retailers and food companies don’t even refer to buying crops anymore. Worse still, many of them have invested large amounts of money in huge buildings to house factory farmed animals, and they are financially exposed with no alternative deployment for the infrastructure they have borrowed on.
” At Anderson Almonds, a small 20 acrefamilyfarm selling its own production directly from the farm, over the phone and through e-commerce, the decicison comes as a great relief.” Preserving that access to households who wish to eat almonds sourced directly from familyfarms is a key element of our business.”
But right now, to assure that our small farms survive to next season, we’re calling on the state of California to #rescuesmallfarms today! As reservoirs and wells go dry, small farmers have abandoned fields, watching crops wither in the ground.
MFA will once again be a primary sponsor of the popular show, which features the latest agricultural equipment and many other attractions for farmers, ranchers and their families. with Brian Scott, a farm influencer based in Indiana where his familyfarms multiple crops.
Background Land access is one of the biggest challenges for young and beginning farmers all across the country – whether small-scale dairy farmers in New England, livestock and grain producers in the Midwest, or specialty crop producers across the South.
According to official figures from the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies, the region lost 94,847 acres of forest in 2021 — almost 15,000 acres more than in 2020, the largest increase in the country. A typical farm in the foothills of the Amazon in southern Caquetá. Image by Antonio Paz.
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