Jerry and Jane Wohletz received a NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher grant to do on-farm research trials of different weights of row cover cloth for berry production. Since the Wohletz’s were the first to try plasticulture in the region, researchers and specialists were previously unsure how heavier or lighter weights of row cover would affect berry production. For that winter at least, a one-ounce row cover produced the best results.

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Source: Lawrence Journal World, Jennifer Smith

At Wohletz Farm Fresh, 1831 North 1100 Road in rural Lawrence, strawberries are about to hit the big...

SARE grantee, Barry Lonik, contributed this feature to the Ann Arbor Observer about his ongoing project to preserve undeveloped farmland. Lotnick received a SARE grant in 2009 to develop the Connecting Landowners, Growers and Markets Using Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) group. They endeavored to connect the owners of smaller farmable properties in Ann Arbor Township, MI with producers interested in small-scale agriculture to provide fresh produce and other commodities for markets in the Ann Arbor area and surrounding regions by utilizing the Township’s agricultural purchase of development...

SARE grantee, Diane Doud Miller, is an apple geneticist and researcher at Ohio State University. She is also the special advisor for the Midwest Apple Improvement Association, a grassroots apple breeding program. Doud Miller and her team conducted SARE-supported research to determine if consumers would purchase/select apples based upon labeling by fruit characteristics (such as mild-sweet; spicy-tart; predominately tart), production method (sustainable), and/ or growing area (locally grown), with or without variety name.

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Source: January 1st 2013 issue...

Source: Sleepy Eye News, Troy Krause

Education is not passive.

Students learn most effectively by being involved, and that involvement often takes its best shape in hands-on activities.

For students in the Wabasso Public School District, their science education is going to be taken to the next level through a recent donation of some state-of-the-art, high-tech equipment.

This past Tuesday morning, representatives from the U of M’s Southwest Research and Outreach Center (SWROC) were in the Wabasso school library presenting science equipment to one of the school’s educators. That equipment,...

NCR-SARE is seeking nominees* for two seats on its Administrative Council (AC) as follows:

• Producer representative**
• State Department of Agriculture representative ***

*Council members must be from one of the 12 states that comprise the North Central SARE region. Those states are IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, MN, MO, ND, NE, OH, SD, and WI.

**Should be actively engaged in farming or ranching in one of the twelve North Central states.

***Should be an employee of a state department of agriculture in the North Central region.

The term for each of these SARE Administrative Council slots is four years. Council...

SARE is at the forefront of supporting the innovative producers, educators and researchers who are making cover crops one of the most indispensable cost-saving tools in the soil-health toolbox. This story from Corn & Soybean Digest features several SARE projects, including Jim Hoorman's Graduate Student Grant project in Ohio.

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Source: Corn & Soybean Digest

Many farmers want to improve soil quality, but because they operate in a competitive, rotation-intensive environment, any soil-building practice they are likely to adopt needs to be backed by solid data.That...

This story features Jon and Jamie Yoachim, a beginning farming couple who enrolled in Community CROPS's SARE-supported Growing Farmers Training Program. Through the project, Community CROPS provides training and technical assistance to limited resource farmers in Southeast Nebraska to grow and sell sustainable agricultural products.

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Source: National Young Farmers' Coalition

Jon and Jamie Yoachim live on a 160 acre, off-grid, diversified farm near Unadilla, NE that they call Open Sky Farm. Although not certified organic, Open Sky Farm uses organic practices as part of their...

This Columbia Daily Tribune article features NCR-SARE's Chapter 3 Regional Coordinator and Director of Professional Development Programs, Rob Myers, who recently spoke about pseudograins like amaranth, buckwheat, millet and quinoa at during a seminar at the University of Missouri.

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Source: Columbia Daily Tribune, Jan Wiese-Fales

Move over wheat, there are some new grains in town. Members of this group of plant seeds, more specifically pseudograins, include amaranth, buckwheat, millet and quinoa (pronounced keen-wah). They are cautiously inching their...

Bill Wilcke, photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota

NCR-SARE is pleased to announce that William F. Wilcke is the first person to receive the “NCR-SARE Hero Recognition.”

Coordinated by the NCR-SARE Alumni Organization, this recognition recognizes the leadership, vision, contributions, and impact that these heroes have made in the field of sustainable agriculture in the North Central...

The Associated Press wrote a July story on the UMCA-sponsored elderberry workshop held this summer in Hartsburg, which was sponsored by the University of Missouri’s Center for Agroforestry through an ongoing grant from NCR-SARE. The following article was widely circulated around the U.S. Check out the Elderberry Financial Decision Support Tool, which was developed as part of this project.

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Source: Journal Gazette

Missouri farmer Terry Durham is among those willing to bet the next hot food crop will be a berry now more commonly found in roadside ditches...