NCR-SARE's 2013 Professional Development Call for Preproposals is now available online.

NCR-SARE’s Professional Development Program provides funds for professional development projects that provide sustainable agriculture training to agricultural professionals and educators in the Cooperative Extension Service (CES), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), other governmental agencies, and educators in the profit and non-profit sector serving the food and fiber system.

Projects can be up to three years in duration, and funding level is capped at $75,000 for each project, but projects...

This news story features SARE grantees, Maryam Hjersted, Steve Moring, and Charles NovoGradac, who received an NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant in 2009 to establish permaculture training centers and provide farm training sites for the practice of permaculture principles. The SARE grant gave the group the resources to create an effective permaculture educational program and promotional venue through their website. It supported the development of resources for the establishment of training sites for permaculture in the Kansas and Missouri area.

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Source: Lawrence...

On March 14, 2013, NCR-SARE Graduate Student Grant Program Coordinator, Beth Nelson, will conduct a webinar about the 2013 Graduate Student Grant Program from 1-2pm CST.

Highlights:

• Graduate students enrolled at colleges or universities in the North Central region can submit proposals for up to $10,000 to fund sustainable agriculture projects that will be part of their educational programs. NCR-SARE expects to fund about 15 projects in the twelve-state North Central Region.
• New this year, NCR-SARE will be accepting online submissions for the Graduate Student Grant Program using our online...

The 2013 NCR-SARE Graduate Student Grant Call for Proposals is now available online.

Graduate students enrolled at colleges or universities in the North Central region can submit proposals for up to $10,000 to fund sustainable agriculture projects that will be part of their educational programs. NCR-SARE expects to fund about 15 projects in the twelve-state North Central Region.

New this year, NCR-SARE will be accepting online submissions for the Graduate Student Grant Program using our online submission system. More information about the online submission system can be found in the call for...

This story features NCR-SARE Graduate Student Grant recipient and Iowa State University graduate student, Stefan Gailans, and his work on investigating different crop rotations that include canola and winter cover in order to provide farmers with recommendations about establishing alternative systems in Iowa.

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Source: Iowa Farmer Today, Gene Lucht

AMES — Imagine an Iowa that is not completely brown and drab in November and March. 

That is the Iowa Mary Wiedenhoeft and her fellow researchers at Iowa State University are checking out through their experiments...

Julia Klienschmit

The Nebraska SARE Program is sponsoring a workshop on privilege, power and difference as a part of its plan of work for 2013.  The workshop will be held on Friday, April 19, 2013 from 9:30am – 3pm in Grand Island at the Hall County Extension office, and will be presented by Julia Kleinschmit, MSW Clinical Associate Professor, University of Iowa School of Social Work and the...

The Administrative Council of the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program (NCR-SARE) will meet from 1:30pm on Wednesday, Feb. 27 until noon on Friday, March 2nd.

The meeting is open to the public and will be held at the Ramada Inn in Bloomington, MN.

Written comments can be sent to NCR-SARE at 1390 Eckles Avenue, Suite 120, St Paul, MN 55108.

CONTACT: Marie Flanagan, 612-625-7027

Source: Corn and Soybean Digest

SARE grant recipients, Keith and Brian Berns, were recently profiled in Corn and Soybean Digest for their innovative cover-crop seed operation, Green Cover Seed.

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The Berns, Bladen, Neb., added Green Cover Seed cover-crap-seed production to their corn, soybean and rye/triticale three years ago when they had trouble sourcing cover crop seed. They've doubled their on-farm storage, altered some rotations and expanded their marketing radius in the process. Employing more family members and diversified revenue streams...

The University of Nebraska Lincoln Extension and eXtension will be hosting a series of "Bioenergy Friday Web Seminars" on the last Friday of every month. These webinars will cover a number of bioenergy and renewable energy related topics.  Webinars are free to attend. At the time of each scheduled webinar, you can connect using this link.

2013 "Bioenergy Fridays" Schedule:

• January 25, 10am CST:  Myths and Facts Surrounding Greenhouse Gasses, Climate Change, and Global Warming
• February 22, 10am CST: Current and Emerging Biodiesel Feedstocks 
• March...

NCR-SARE Professional Development Program grant recipient, Tonya Haigh, in association with the National Drought Mitigation Center will be conducting a series of webinars about drought management and planning on ranches. The webinars will occur on a monthly basis, from January through May, 2013.

Each one‐hour session will include a briefing on current drought status, followed by a session on a specific topic or tool related to drought planning. The information that will be presented is meant to be used as a part of a complete ranch drought planning process. 

The...