Agroforestry Assistant

Trainer Experience: Growing chestnut trees here for nine years I believe there's a need for practical hands-on agroforestry education in Iowa for growers interested in getting started growing chestnuts or other tree crops but are having a hard time finding useful guidelines on how to do so. I think my short time farming has leant me to a few useful techniques I'd like to pass along to the next farmer. I've been growing chestnuts for nine years and had many helpers, volunteers and some paid labor along the way. I teach tree planting and care as well as grafting and nursery work to many people (employees, volunteers, family, customers, friends) including hosting a grafting workshop and some educational farm visits. I provide informal training to my tree nursery customers through short demonstration, written instruction and text "how-to" videos. In working with the Savannah Institute's Mentorship program, I utilized their skills checklist to communicate on areas of improvement and desire for focusing on certain areas with my mentee. We utilized Google spreadsheets for task and hour communication. I do my best to communicate with my employee about work hours, start times, task priorities and more. As a fairly new farmer and employer, these are still skills I am actively developing.