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The top three priorities beginning farmers at PFI are requesting assistance with for 2012 are:

1. Marketing
2. Production
3. Financing
4. Pricing my products
5. Financial Recordkeeping

Just 50% have a business plan with annual sales forecast and a budget of expenses and the rest are eager for a little help completing one.

Beginners of all enterprises come together at PFI to learn and share ideas to overcome numerous challenges. The most common enterprises of 2012 beginners are horticulture (33%) followed by integrated crops and livestock (20%), grass-based livestock (15%), and rowcrops (9%).

36.7% of survey respondents are Adding An Enterprise by 2016. The next enterprises beginners are looking to add are:

1. Grass-based livestock
2. Horticulture
3. Rowcrop (grain)

Beginners love to network face to face, meet new neighbors that care about sustainable agriculture. In the survey they told us that PFI Field Days/PFI workshops are the most important, followed by farminars, and the PFI annual conference.

66.7% of our beginners have watched a live Farminar presentation or viewed a recording.

Finally, our beginners are of all ages (including young people) and 38.5% of our network are females. A great thing for the future of agriculture in Iowa.

• 19-28                      29.8%
• 29-38                      29.8%
• 39-48                      16.3%
• 49-58                      15.4%
• 59-68                      7.7%

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At the 2012 PFI Annual Conference, 25 graziers (pasture-based livestock ranchers) came together and talked about the numbers behind their business.

Farms from around the state used round numbers and put real production costs to paper about raising livestock, marketing it, and holding a profit for the farmer.

“What still sticks with me is the sheer difficulty of making ends meet,” recalls Margaret Dunn, graduate student at Iowa State University where she studies rotational high stock density grazing. “Stacked enterprises are the way to bring in more money on the same amount of land. This makes ecological and financial sense; however, it’s hard for the two people often running these farms to procure and balance all of those things.”

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37 live viewers attended the March 13, 2012 Farminar led by experienced farmer Ron Rosmann and beginning farmer Nathan Anderson.

The goals were to analyze a farming system that uses more local inputs produced on the farm, such as manures from cattle or swine and green manures like cover crops, and longer rotations by adding small grains, hay, and pasture.

Nathan had some great questions to ask including:

• How do you efficiently manage the manure composting process?
• Do you add longer rotations, or build livestock first?
• Why use animal manures from your farm?
• How do you decide the rotation for your farm?
• What crops do you plant and what varieties are key to success?

To view the complete recording, go to: https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p7e7gvlwmef/

Supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21843

62 participated in the recent Farminar led by beginning farmer Grant Schultz and experienced farmer Chris Blanchard.

Creative ideas were shared about how to:

• Decide when you should invest in a piece of equipment
• Save time and reduce stress with streamlined bookkeeping tricks
• Design a profitable business aided with experience on farms
• Collect data and use it to make business decisions

To watch the complete recorded online meeting, go to https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p13p8buygvf/

Supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21843

On Tuesday, February 28, 2012, Practical Farmers of Iowa held another new online seminar or Farminar. Available now for viewing, hear from experienced pastured poultry farmer, Kim Alexander, and beginner, Garrett Caryl.

Learn how to earn $30/hour raising pastured eggs, broilers, and turkeys.

• Tale of two seasons – pitfalls to avoid while scaling up production.
• Prevent predation of livestock with bird guard dogs.
• Get your MBA (Masters of Barnyard Agriculture) lessons from an experienced farmer.

To watch the recorded farminar, go to: https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p2batqwvsuj/

New Farminars continue March 6 and March 13, 2012. More than 50 Farminars are available for free download in our recording archive. For more information, go to www.practicalfarmers.org/farminar

Supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21843

Tuesday February 21, 2012, a 90-minute farminar was held hosted by Practical Farmers of Iowa. Beginning farmer, Wade Dooley, of Albion, IA led questions to experienced farmer Tom Frantzen of New Hampton, Iowa. 20 others joined in to hear more about extending the rotation, adding more value to the same number of acres of land.

This latest Farminar was focused on adding a small grain crop to a a corn and soybean crop rotation.

• What markets are best for Iowa small grains?
• Oats, Barley, and Wheat are typical “small grain” crops, what ones work best on different soils?
• What equipment is needed to produce and harvest them?
• Can you improve marginal land with adding a small grain to the rotation on those soils?
• Can you grow your own seed for your farm?

Tom Frantzen highlighted the importance of small grains in this statement:

If fossil fuels go away, I’m still here, if combines and big tractors go away, I’m still here, but if you remove my small grains, my farm system doesn’t work. That is how important they are to my weed management strategies and alfalfa establishment.

View the complete farminar recording at https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/p8fs4ln0tzi/

Next week, February 28, 2012, Kim Alexander and Garrett Caryl will lead a new Farminar on Pricing Poultry: Eggs, Broilers, and Turkeys. Join us online at 7:00PM CST! www.practicalfarmers.org/farminar

Supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant # 2010-49400-21843