Direct Marketing, Pastured Poultry & CROPP (organic certification)
The Sustainable Farming Association of Southeast Minnesota will hold
its annual meeting and an afternoon marketing workshop on Saturday,
February 7, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Immanuel Lutheran Church
(Silo), 2.5 miles from Kwik Trip on Cty. 25 outside Lewiston, MN.
Allen Moody of the Coulee Region Organic Produce Pool (C.R.O.P.P.), a
farmer cooperative located in LaFarge, Wisconsin, that markets dairy,
egg, vegetable, beef and potentially pork products nationwide under
the brand name of Organic Valley will give us a general background on
how C.R.O.P.P. formed and the advantages of organic certification and
membership.
Allen has been a certified organic farmer and grains buyer for 10
years. He has also done organic certification reviews for several
years. He will speak on the process of becoming organically certified.
If you have been considering organic certification in order to get
better money for what you already produce, Allen is the ideal person
to answer your questions both about C.R.O.P.P. and organic
certification.
After the noon lunch, Pat Slattery will speak on Innovative Poultry
Production and Marketing. Pat is a dynamic farmer and writer. He is a
columnist for Acres USA, and also writes for the Wisconsin State
Farmer and the La Crosse Times Review. He is nearly finsished writing
a book titled: Handbook for Homegrown Chicken: A
Farmeršs/Entrepeneuršs Guide to Earning a Modern Wage by Raising and
Selling Homegrown Chickens. Pat has spoken with farmers from across
the nation and is a reservoir of information on chicken production and
innovative marketing strategies.
Whole Farm Management in practice and direct marketing from the farm
will be the focus of Dennis Rabešs presentation. Rabe is the
owner/operator of Eagle View Farms near Lake City, Minnesota. He is
known for his innovative management style which is based on whole farm
valuation versus enterprise budgeting. Rabe is knowledgeable in
pasture farrowing of hogs, direct marketing, low input crop production
(zone tillage), beef roational grazing, as well as other important
areas of sustainable agriculture. He will give us a brief description
of how he now farms, why and the difference it has made in his
familyšs quality of life on the land.
Rabe direct marketed over $20,000 in beef and pork products last
year. He has two products ready to go to the grocery store shelves. He
will detail how he makes more money per animal by direct marketing. A
fascinating farmer who is making more money producing less. A question
and answer time will be available after each speaker.
The meeting and workshop are open to the public. The presentations
are free to SFA members with only a $7 charge for the catered lunch.
The morning C.R.O.P.P. presentation is open to nonmembers for $5; and
the afternoon marketing presentations are open to nonmembers for a $5
admission. Please send a check for the $7 per person catered lunch by
Feb. 1st to: SE MN SFA, P.O. Box 53, Lewiston, MN 55952.
The Sustainable Farming Association is a farmer to farmer education
network based on sharing and fellowship. For more information on SFA,
this meeting, or to reserve lunch, please contact Bev Sandlin, SE MN
SFA coordinator, at 1-507-689-2988; email: storm@rconnect.com.
END
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with "unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".