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Winter Webinars
Winter Webinars
Winter webinars are 60-minute, online presentations that are FREE for everyone. We encourage attendees to come with questions for the chat box.
Webinars are held on Tuesdays, from noon to 1 p.m. Central Time from January to April.
Missed joining a webinar live? View recordings from this year’s webinars.
2025 Schedule
April 1
Watering Systems for Graziers
Dave Schmidt
Dave Schmidt and his wife, Meg Schmidt, own Troublesome Creek Cattle Co. near Exira, Iowa. Their goal is to produce high-quality, wholesome meat by ensuring the well-being and long-term health and productivity of their livestock while maintaining the most basic resources: soil, air and water. As experienced graziers, they use management-intensive grazing, bale grazing and stockpile grazing techniques.
Based on his popular session at the 2022 PFI Annual Conference, Dave Schmidt is reprising his talk for a new and broader audience. Access to water can be a barrier to grazing – but installing watering systems can seem daunting. In this webinar, Dave will share his experiences with different types of watering systems. Over the years, he has experimented with a range of fixed and mobile water sources. Tune in to learn from an experienced grazier, learn about your options and gain a clearer view of what might work for your grazing system.
April 8
Getting Going With Grazing
Olivia Pacha
Olivia Pascha grew up on a beef cattle and row crop farm in southeastern Iowa and always knew she wanted to return to the livestock industry after attending ISU. After graduating, she started raising cattle, sheep, goats and a handful of crop acres while working at Premier 1 Supplies. Olivia has an avid interest in year-round grazing and how to rotationally graze and co-graze her three species. Her goals are to improve pasture quality and raise healthy animals.
It can be overwhelming to start rotationally grazing. Olivia Pacha has just reached the end of her “first full-blown year” rotationally grazing cattle, sheep and goats. She’s also a participant in PFI’s grazing cost-share and Savings Incentive Program. In this webinar, Olivia will share what she’s learned, from what to invest more in and buy less of to navigating rental agreements and contract grazing. Come hear some insights, reflections and how-tos from a beginner who’s in the midst of figuring it out.
April 15
Preparación para las Reuniones de Acceso a la Tierra
Joe Klingelhutz
Joe Klingelhutz trabajó como especialista agrícola a tiempo completo para Sustainable Iowa Land Trust entre 2018 y 2022. Actualmente trabaja a tiempo parcial para SILT, y para PFI como navegante de acceso terrestre. Joe vive en Iowa City, Iowa, donde está involucrado con la agricultura de verduras orgánicas, abejas y plantas perennes. Dirige su propia operación apícola independiente y ha trabajado para varias otras granjas.
Los navegantes de acceso a tierras agrícolas apoyan a los agricultores principiantes que están buscando terrenos. El navegante Joe Klingelhutz te explicará cómo prepararte para el acceso terrestre. Compartirá estrategias para acceder a la tierra, ofrecerá consejos para arrendamientos de tierras y le ayudará a entender cómo el mantenimiento de registros y las finanzas de negocios pueden ayudarle a prepararse para el acceso a la tierra.
2025 Winter Webinar Recordings
Using CRP To Foster Biodiversity on a 160-Acre Iowa Farm
Join Bill Anderson, a farmer in northwest Iowa, and Clarissa Bruns of Pheasants Forever as they share their experiences with the Conservation Reserve Program. You’ll learn about a CRP option called Gaining Ground for Wildlife, which is part of the CRP State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement initiative. Bill has enrolled 100 acres in the program, which aims to support threatened and endangered grassland bird species. Bill and Clarissa also discuss eligibility requirements, planning, planting and maintaining CRP acres, and you’ll learn how this program can be tailored for your specific farm needs.
Farmers and Food Hubs: A How-To Guide for Getting Started
Food hubs can help local food farmers expand their markets. But for farmers new to working with food hubs, figuring out the process and finding answers to questions can be barriers to getting started. In this webinar, Nicole Jonas of Red Granite Farm talks with a food hub manager and a farmer who sells to food hubs. Watch to learn how to get started with food hubs, how food hub operations work and what successful famer-food hub relationships look like.
How Do Small Grains Grow and Develop? Harnessing This Knowledge To Improve Management
Thinking about adding small grains to your rotations? Have you recently started growing small grains but would like to know more? Get oriented with the agronomic essentials. Learn about small grains physiology, growth and development, and learn how to identify growth stages that are key for management interventions.
How To Sell 300 CSAs in 48 Hours: Cultivating Online Engagement and Converting It to Sales
In late fall 2024, farmer Steve Strasheim watched in awe as all 300 CSA pre-sales from Corinna Bench’s Shared Legacy Farms, of Elmore, Ohio, sold out in about two days. In this webinar, Steve will talk with Corinna about her promotion formula, how the process works and why she thinks it did so well.
Exploring Creative Residue Management and Soil Amendments in a Four-Crop Rotation
Over the past 10 years, Norm Lamothe and the team at Woodleigh Farms have made many changes to improve soil health, including adding wheat and oats to the farm’s corn-soy rotation and adding cover crops and using no-till on most of their acres. These changes have pushed Norm and his team to find creative ways of managing residue, including by grazing sheep and composting the residue. Watch this webinar to hear what the Woodleigh team has found about the impacts of extended rotation, cover crops and organic amendments on soil health.
Dying To Start Dyeing? Raising, Processing and Marketing Wool
In this webinar, Emily Tzeng discusses the value chain for wool, the benefits and potential difficulties of producing natural-dye crops, and ways to market these items. Tune in to learn how small-scale farms can add value to their wool by processing the fibers into roving, yarn and finished goods and by dyeing those products.
Building Partnerships for Conservation: A Farmer-Tenant Collaboration in Northeast Iowa
Join Mary Damm, owner of Prairie Quest Farm near McGregor, Iowa, as she discusses her successful partnership with her current tenant farmer, who practices rotational grazing with beef cattle. Since purchasing the farm in 2015, Mary has worked with neighboring farmers to graze cool-season pastures with cattle in a manner that creates habitat for nesting grassland birds, whose populations are in steep decline.
Watch more webinars (formerly farminars)
Acknowledgements
Thank you to the organizations, business and agencies who provide funding for PFI’s 2025 winter webinar season:
- This project is supported in part by the Conservation Innovation Grants through the Natural Resources Conservation Service no. NR223A750013G028 through a subaward with Pheasants Forever.
- This project is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with support from NRCS and ADM.
- This project is made possible through a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, with support from NRCS, Cargill, Inc, and Nestle USA.
- This project is made possible through a grant from The Builders Initiative.
- This work is supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grants Program Sustainable Agricultural Systems (SAS) grant no. F9000315202081 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
- This project is supported in part by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Division of Soil Conservation and Water Quality.
- This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under agreement number NR236114XXXXG003. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In addition, any reference to specific brands or types of products or services does not constitute or imply an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for those products or services.
