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Every summer, the Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES) organizes on-farm field days to give farmers the chance to see how organic farming work and to get ideas they can use on their own farms. With concerns about COVID-19 this year, these organic field days will take place online.
Each virtual event will include background information (podcasts, videos, and more) posted in advance and a 90-minute live meeting with the farm hosts and other experts hosted on Zoom. Participants will need to register to join the Zoom meetings. See details and register at mosesorganic.org/organic-field-days.
– Do the Numbers: Organic Dairy, June 24, Bossie Cow Farmat Random Lake, Wis. Thelma Heidel-Baker and Ricky Baker have a small, diversified organic dairy farm in the rolling hills of southeastern Wisconsin. They’ll share how they manage their grass-based operation, covering pasture management, conservation practices, pollinator habitat, and livestock health. For the Zoom meeting, they’ll be joined by Jon Winsten, an ag economist with Winrock International and The Pasture Project. He will talk about the economics of grazing and share financial case studies from Upper Midwest dairy farms—from confinement operations to pasture-based farms.
– Do the Numbers: Organic Crop Transition, July 8, Jovaag Family Farm in Austin, Minn. Jon and Ruth Jovaag have been gradually transitioning their crop and livestock farm to organic since 2014, aiming to have their entire 400-acre farm certified organic by 2022. They’ll discuss their rotation for soil-building and weed control, the equipment they’ve needed to add, and the challenges they faced. Paul Dietmann from Compeer is the co-author of Turning Grain into Dough and Fearless Farm Finances. He will talk about how to crunch the numbers involved in the transition to organic row crops.