Beginning Farmers
Beginning Farmers - Practical Tools for Successful Family Farming
Upcoming Farm Webinars from Practical Farmers of Iowa (PFI) - Spring 2020
March 3 – “Livestock and Cover Crops as a Solution to a Changing Climate” – Monte Bottens
Monte Bottens is unwavering in his quest to incorporate livestock back onto the land. Monte farms in Illinois but works with farmers across the Midwest and western states to improve soil health and mitigate climate change through on-farm research. With his team, he runs Project MOO, an integrated grazing project that develops tools, systems, management and marketing to support profitable stacked grazing enterprises. The project’s current research is looking at crop rotations, crop row widths and mobile grazing solutions for issues such as fencing, water and shade.
- Monte Bottens farms near Cambridge, Illinois, and encourages farmers to integrate livestock back onto the landscape using high-diversity cover crops and on-farm research.
March 10 – “Trusts: Keep the Family a Family and the Farm the Farm” – Doug Thesenvitz, Amy Williams
Traditional estate planning offers simple outright distribution patterns or purchase options but typically fails to meet the realities of modern-day farming. An alternative approach is the use of trusts. In this farminar, Doug Thesenvitz (Thompson Law) and Amy Williams (Cornerstone Private Asset Trust Company) explain what a trust is, how trusts work and how they can be used to create a legacy plan that transitions assets to the next generation in a smart and protective manner.
- Doug Thesenvitz is an attorney at Thompson Law, based in in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and helps farm families navigate estate planning using trusts.
- Amy Williams is a trust officer with Cornerstone Private Asset Trust Company based in Bloomington, Minnesota, and has over 15 years of experience in banking, trust and investment banking.
March 17 – “Pork Marketing: Relationships and Regenerative Agriculture” – Russ Kremer
Since his childhood, Russ Kremer has been passionate about raising pigs. Today, this fifth-generation farmer is the founder of Heritage Foods – the most prominent supplier of Non-GMO Project Verified pork in the country. He is a longtime advocate for sustainable and regenerative agriculture and its benefits for rural economies. In this farminar, Russ will discuss his journey developing relationship marketing, the value of regenerative agriculture and a payment system he uses with farmer members to ensure annual opportunities for fair profit and return on investment.
- Russ Kremer farms near Frankenstein, Missouri, and is the founder of the Heritage Foods producer network, a nationwide supplier of Non-GMO Project Verified pork.
Questions?
Contact Maggie Norton at maggie_n@practicalfarmers.org or by calling the office at (515) 232-5661
Find tons of archived farm webinars from PFI at https://practicalfarmers.org/category/farminar/
- Find information on programs that aim to train the next generation of farmers at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/beginning-farmer-training-programs/
- Find loads of other great production resources at https://www.beginningfarmers.org/additional-farming-resources/