On Saturday, June 22, SARE grantee Matt Sweeny, of Simple Earth Hops, will be hosting a 2013 Hop Growers Roundtable at Simple Earth Hops, 4352 State Road 23, Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

This commercial hopyard event will feature:

• 9am-Noon, two hops presentations by Matt Sweeny titled: "Marketing Hops" and "Sustainable Hopyard Establishment"
• Noon-1pm, a reception
• 1-3pm, a hop growers forum discussion with a panel of 2 commercial hop growers from Wisconsin

Tickets are $45 per attendee. Order tickets online at http://2013hops.eventbrite.com/#.

Simple Earth Hops operates a 1/4 acre...

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...

Source: Edible Madison, Vanessa Herald 

This story features NCR-SARE grant recipient, Julie Engel, and her Coney Garth rabbits. With her SARE project, Engel developed a system for raising rabbits on pasture and built handling equipment that consistently and efficiently herds her rabbit does in a stress-free manner.

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“The rabbits and the project have stretched me way beyond where...

The Midwest Value Added Agriculture Conference will be holding its 14th Annual Conference December 12-13 at the LaCrosse Center in LaCrosse, WI. The event, which attracts over 300 individuals from Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin is being presented by River Country Resource, Conservation and Development Council and Wisconsin Farmers Union.

The theme for the 14th Annual Event, "Cultivating Profitability," highlights the conference’s focus on creating sustainable and profitable agricultural systems throughout the Midwest.

The Midwest Value Added Agriculture Conference is...

A series of ten webinars is planned for this winter starting with a December 4^th webinar.

This series of webinars is open to the public but pre-registration is required. If you don’t have access to internet, check under the descriptions below to see if your local University Extension office is hosting it. The topics covered include crop operations, dairy, swine/poultry housing, greenhouses, grain drying, lighting and irrigation. The series will start with a presentation giving an overview of world, US and local energy use and how we might reduce our need from a macro...

Mrill Ingram and Karl Hakanson of UW-Madison created a website, "A Farmer's Guide to Sustainability," to share the results of their NCR-SARE Research and Education grant project comparing the sustainability of several farm environmental programs.

This research project studied six dairy farms managed under six different environmental programs. The main objective was to learn from successful farmers what the necessary conditions for bringing about a more sustainable agriculture might be.

On their website, you can watch a video about their project, view a PowerPoint presentation they...

Source: Lisa Kivirist, Inn Serendipity Farm and B&B, Midwest Organic & Sustainable Education Service (MOSES), Rural Women’s Project, Email: lisa@innserendipity.com

Celebrate local agriculture on August 5 by visiting small family farms as part of a tour led by Wisconsin women committed to a healthy, fresh future for our children. From eggplants to emus, sheep to solar energy, bed & breakfasts to beef – these seven farms on the tour offer a unique diversity of farm experiences showcasing the summer’s bounty in one afternoon. This event is supported, in part,...

The public is invited to a day of learning and celebration at Hilltop Community Farm, a small, diversified, community-supported agriculture farm and orchard near LaValle, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 14. This event features Erin's Schneider's NCR-SARE Farmer Rancher Grant project, which assessed the sustainability of growing non-traditional fruit tree crops on Hilltop Community Farm, a community supported agriculture operation, on the eastern edge of Wisconsin's Driftless region.

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Source: Reedsburg Times-Press,

On July 14, visitors to Hilltop Community Farm will be able to celebrate fruit...

Will Allen, an NCR-SARE grant recipient, and founder and CEO of Growing Power, was featured by the Post Carbon Institute for the publication of his 2012 book, "The Good Food Revolution." 

For more information on Allen's SARE projects, see the related SARE grant(s) FNC01-359, Farm City Market Basket (FCMB), ENC03-071, Building with Community: Professional Development Training in Sustainable Food Systems, and ENC05-087, Building a Diverse Food Web: Professional Development Training in Sustainable Community Food Systems with a focus on Appropriate...