Showing 41-50 of 50 results
Low-Till Forage Production
To fill their need for year-round, inexpensive forages, California dairy producers typically plant and harvest a series of forage crops – small grains, corn for silage, milo and sorghum sudan. While this requires considerable tillage and seed-bed preparation ahead of each successive crop, the production systems lend themselves to conservation tillage approaches developed in other […]
Vegetables All Year in Northern New Mexico
Thanks to the effort of two New Mexico State University faculty members and a SARE grant, the farmers of northern New Mexico are finding that vegetables can be successfully grown year-round in high tunnel greenhouses. Del Jiminez and Steve Guldan of the Alcalde Research Center received a SARE grant to construct different designs of high […]
Rural Revitalization through Farm-Based Enterprise
The 10 U.S. counties with the greatest population losses between 2000 and 2003 are located in the western United States, and small towns are scrambling to save what is left of their communities. Like many other parts of the nation, western farmers are discovering that sustainably raised livestock and crops can help revitalize economies. And […]
New Mexico Grower Saved by the Sun
Perched at the edge of the Sonoran desert, Don Bustos' family farm has always been endowed with ample sunshine and daylight. However, the New Mexico grower had long been bedeviled by cool temperatures that limit the growing season to four or five months. With the short season and rising fuel costs threatening his ability to […]
Experimental Farm Helps North Carolina Farmers
Specialty crop farmer Alex Hitt hesitated when a team of scientists asked him to help launch a research project. Designed to test sustainable practices under the same skies and soil conditions as North Carolina's working farms, the 2,100-acre experimental farm would truly be a long-term commitment. Major results couldn't be expected for about seven years. […]
A Toolbox of Innovations to Control Small Ruminant Parasites
The growing ranks of ethnic groups across the South have spurred a sudden demand for specialty meats, particularly goat and sheep. Sales have been brisk. A wrench in the works, however, threatens the new businesses: widespread invasion of Haemonchus contortus, or barber pole worm. The blood sucking parasite lodges in the animals' intestines, causing anemia, […]
Bringing Viable Pastured Poultry to the South
YaSin Muhaimin started farming late in life after Hurricane Katrina ended his career as educator. At a time when he should have been looking at retirement, this urban dweller took his insurance money and bought a few rural acres to start an organic farm. In a few years, he went from novice to savvy farmer […]
Farmer/Researcher Team Makes Organic Peanut Breakthrough
In 2007, Georgia organic grower Relinda Walker produced a historic crop of peanuts. The bounty—6,000 pounds grown on two acres—was significant because it represented the first crop of certified organic peanuts raised in the Southeast. Even though the Southeast produces 79 percent of the country’s peanuts, more than 99 percent of organic varieties are raised […]
Helping Appalachian Farmers Tap New Markets
Gary and Cindy Laws’ journey to successful organic farming started in the tobacco fields of western Virginia’s hill country. Both raised on tobacco farms, they saw the crop’s pitfalls firsthand: a declining market, health risks associated with smoking and, most importantly to the Laws, the myriad chemicals used in tobacco production. But, like hundreds of […]
Land Management Training for America's Fastest Growing Farmer Group
In recent decades, the United States has seen a new migration—from urban centers to cities’ verdant fringes. Modern-day homesteaders are settling on relatively small plots carved from larger-acreage farms and ranches—a trend borne out by the 2007 Census of Agriculture, which showed that from 1997 to 2007 the amount of land occupied by farms of […]