Food Tank

MAY 3, 2024

Iowa is the number-one pork producer in the United States, but it has relatively few hog farms. Large factory farm facilities have replaced smaller family farms. The state lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census data.

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Food Tank

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

Today, he’s a sixth-generation pig farmer partnering with Niman Ranch. By his senior year, Williams was trying to figure out how to return home and take over the family farm. The best thing about Niman Ranch is how transparent they are. Now, he enjoys a healthy balance of time between farming and his young family. “It’s

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Food Tank

JULY 19, 2024

Today, 22-year-old Roberts is enlisted with the Nebraska Army National Guard while working as a fifth-generation farmer with his parents at Roberts Family Farm in Southwest Iowa. The family’s farm serves as a model for how smaller-scale, humane hog farming can be both environmentally and economically sustainable.

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Modern Farmer

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Upon leaving her family farm to study agriculture at Stanford, she took up a work-study program investigating the economic viability of grass-fed beef. “It Driving the I-5 between LA and San Francisco, I was like, ‘Oh, this is what people think cattle ranching is.’” It seem[ed] so simple, 20 years ago,” she says. “‘We

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Food Tank

MARCH 28, 2025

Larry Banowetz has raised pigs on his family farm in eastern Iowa for 45 years. Unfortunately, after his first couple of years pig farming, Caleb hadnt been able to show bankers he could profitably raise his animals on a small scale outdoors. Companies like Niman Ranch lower the barrier to entry for young farmers like Caleb.

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Caff

JANUARY 7, 2025

As a second-generation rancher, Rizpah honors her family’s agricultural traditions while confronting systemic barriers in a predominantly white, male-dominated field. Assemblymember Wilsons tireless efforts exemplify her dedication to supporting Californias family farms and ensuring a sustainable agricultural future.

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Food Tank

OCTOBER 4, 2024

In 2016, they began working with Niman Ranch, a network of over 600 small to mid-sized, independent U.S. family farmers and ranchers that uphold high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices. With fewer from the next generation taking over family farms, they are often bought by large-scale farmers and consolidated.

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Food Tank

JANUARY 5, 2024

Eric and Mikala both knew that they could raise hogs outdoors, but it wasn’t until they started partnering with Niman Ranch that they could make it work financially and begin to grow their business. “I Niman Ranch is a network of more than 600 small and mid-size farmers and ranchers across the U.S.

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UnderstandingAg

DECEMBER 31, 2024

In the following discussion, I would like to share some thoughts on how to add net profit into a grazing operation, as well as share my own experiences reducing hay inputs with the grass-finished beef herd that roams across our northern Michigan family farm. Hay is a traditional way of feeding livestock at the cost of net profit.

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Caff

MAY 31, 2023

Chris and Christy Locke share the history of Locke Ranch and their participation in the original BIOS project. Photo by Nolan Kirby) The Community Alliance with Family Farms (CAFF) held a Biologically Integrated Orchard System (BIOS) field day at Locke Ranch on May 23rd. Previous slide Next slide Photos by Nolan Kirby.

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Western FarmPress

JANUARY 31, 2024

Group decries radical animal activists and reaffirms commitment to protecting family farms and ranches.

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Trimble Agriculture

OCTOBER 30, 2024

agriculture is a hot one, but it’s primarily discussed at the farm and processing level. Both are critical topics, as monopolies in the meatpacking industry or the disappearing American family farm have significant impacts on the present and future of our food system. The topic of consolidation in U.S.

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Farmbrite

NOVEMBER 11, 2023

Running a successful farm or ranch is about more than just tending to the land and animals. Farmbrite, a powerful farm and ranch accounting software, is designed to help agricultural businesses streamline their financial processes and gain valuable insights into their operations, ultimately increasing profitability.

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Trimble Agriculture

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

It was in this role that her passion for supporting the agricultural community truly took root, as she realized how much was required of producers outside of their day-to-day farming and ranching responsibilities. AgAmerica largely values family farms and strives to set up each client for lasting success.

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Food Tank

OCTOBER 6, 2023

The Wahls partner with Niman Ranch, a network of more than 600 small and mid-size farmers and ranchers across the United States. Niman Ranch farmers and ranchers adhere to high standards of sustainable and humane farming practices, and in exchange, they receive a guaranteed market for their product and access to a network of resources.

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Food Tank

JULY 14, 2023

Steven and Alaina Imhoff knew they wanted to expand their hog farming at Triple Creek Farms in southeast Iowa. In 2019, they connected with Niman Ranch, which is a network of more than 600 small and mid-size farmers and ranchers across the United States. Right now, Steven and Alaina both work off-farm jobs.

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National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

DECEMBER 4, 2024

Joshua Cave, Cave Family Farm in Pilot Mountain, North Carolina. While the number of farms selling fruit and tree nuts directly to consumers remained steady (just over 19,500 farms), the value of fruit and tree nuts direct sales increased by 48% since 2017.

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Civil Eats

JANUARY 14, 2025

Farm advocates, often farmers themselves, help their neighbors navigate codes and regulationspertaining to things like zoning, food safety, and property rightsthat can save their operations. Bunting, now 79, runs a family farm with his son in Oak City, North Carolina, where he once raised poultry and hogs and now grows hemp and corn.

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RR2CS

NOVEMBER 18, 2021

By Trina Moyles Tim Wray grew up on his family’s cattle ranch in Irricana, a small town located 50 kilometres northeast of Calgary in southern Alberta. The dugouts remained low throughout most of the summer, not only on their family farm, but on the majority of farms in southern and central Alberta.

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Civil Eats

DECEMBER 10, 2024

In the months before Patrick Brown was born in November 1982, his father, Arthur, lay down on a road near the familys farm to prevent a caravan of yellow dump trucks from depositing toxic soil in his community. Patrick currently operates Brown Family Farms on the land that Byron worked as a sharecropper once he was freed.

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Agwired

JANUARY 29, 2025

Recognizing the vital role that four-legged friends often play on family farms and ranches, Farm Bureau launched the Farm Dog of the Year contest several years ago now a popular feature of the American Farm Bureau Federations Convention.

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Food Tank

AUGUST 30, 2023

I just returned from one of my favorite events, the Niman Ranch Hog Farmer Appreciation Celebration in Des Moines, Iowa, at which Food Tank is honored to co-host an Educational Summit. I have been fortunate to call Niman Ranch Founding Hog Farmer Paul Willis a friend for many years, and I still get emotional at this event.

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Daily Yonder

MARCH 4, 2024

Finding adequate, affordable health insurance can be a huge challenge for people who run small, family farms or ranches, said Alana Knudson, director of the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ranks farming and ranching as some of the nation’s most dangerous occupations.

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Modern Farmer

AUGUST 24, 2023

Nut farmer Benina Montes of Burroughs Family Farms 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 family farm has been organic certified since 2006, but it only adopted the ROC standards in June 2022.

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UnderstandingAg

SEPTEMBER 26, 2024

Now let’s take a look at some of the economic costs and benefits of addressing erosion on farms and ranches. An example from our family farm is shown below. Currently, many farming and ranching practices are allowing soil to erode away and water to become polluted.

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UnderstandingAg

FEBRUARY 27, 2025

By: Brian Dougherty Understanding Ag, LLC I recently attended a Ranching for Profit (RFP) school where one of the instructors asked a very simple but thought-provoking question: Do you control your business, or does your business control you? That got me ruminating about who is really in the drivers seat on a typical farm or ranch business.

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Farmbrite

DECEMBER 12, 2024

Monitor Livestock: Many ranches utilize livestock RFID tags to track their herd movements and easily scan and understand their health and wellness. The Small Farm Case Study A small family farm in the western U.S. The superior wine quality led this vineyard to elevate its market standing with award-winning products.

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Civil Eats

JULY 2, 2024

Some regions have expanded their focus to include climate-smart ranching practices, including managed grazing and resilient cropping systems , which can mitigate the environmental and climate impacts of industrial livestock production. But that hasn’t been the PCC’s focus, Pheasant says. “As

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National Young Farmers Coalition

OCTOBER 4, 2023

It holds the potential to empower and support small-scale farms and ranches that are actively implementing cutting-edge sustainability. Up until now, many small Colorado farms have been paying out of their own pockets to implement these practices due to the exclusion of small farms from the EQIP program.

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Agwired

FEBRUARY 7, 2024

Preserve family farms and ranches for future generations by advocating for essential tax relief for cattle producers. Defend the U.S. cattle industry against radical animal activist groups that want to end cattle production, including the Beef Checkoff.

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Modern Farmer

JULY 10, 2023

For Joseph Goni, a fourth-generation dairy farmer in Tulare County, California, the region’s historic floods were part of family lore. But the epic flooding this past March was simply unprecedented, says the owner of Lerda-Goni Farms. Despite the resilience of family [farms], the mega-trend is undeniable,” says Raudabaugh.

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NASDA

JULY 25, 2024

Georgia Wildlife Federation Ginkgo Bioworks Golden Sands Resource Conservation & Development Council , Inc.

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National Young Farmers Coalition

JUNE 28, 2023

It holds the potential to empower and support small-scale farms and ranches that are actively implementing cutting-edge sustainability. Up until now, many small Colorado farms have been paying out of their own pockets to implement these practices due to historic exclusion of small farms from EQIP programs.

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UnderstandingAg

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Our family farm in Northeast Iowa with 3% SOM in the top six inches has about 67,000 lbs. The box represents the carbon stored in your soil. The actual amount will vary depending on your soil organic matter (SOM) percentage and how deep in the soil you measure. of carbon per acre in the top two feet of soil.

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Caff

JULY 27, 2021

Thank you for helping spread the word about the 2021 California Family Farmer Emergency Fund. The first section is aimed at farmers and ranches who might apply for the fund. Donate to the #CaFamilyFarmerEmergencyFund to make sure our farms are still here for us next season.

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Agritecture Blog

MARCH 10, 2023

Heffernan coaches family farms in a course for small agriculture entrepreneurs, helping them set up a website and start selling directly to consumers. Heffernan coaches family farms in a course for small agriculture entrepreneurs, helping them set up a website and start selling directly to consumers.

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Farm Credit of Southern Colorado

MARCH 28, 2024

We want to thank each and every one of you cooperative members for being part of our family by sharing a little fresh taste of local coffee. To give you that product we journey with real coffee farmers and purchase single-family farm lots when we can.

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