Showing 41-48 of 48 results
Dryland Cover Cropping Boosts Yields
Every drop of water counts for farmers who practice dryland cultivation, a practice that relies on rainfall without the benefit of irrigation. So, when it comes to incorporating cover crops into a dryland rotation, many farmers hesitate, wondering: “How much moisture is the cover crop going to demand, and will I pay for it later […]
The Lucrative Sweet Potato Takes Root
Small-scale tobacco farmers in eastern Kentucky who are looking for alternatives due to changes in the tobacco market are discovering that a relatively easy, often profitable transition lies in sweet potatoes. With relatively low input and capital costs and a short learning curve, they are able to earn gross returns of up to $7,000 per […]
Food Hubs: The Next Evolution in Local Markets?
If you think the local foods movement is just a fad, think again. For the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has included restaurants and grocery store sales in its local food markets survey, and the sales are hard to ignore: nearly $5 billion a year in fruits and vegetables from local farmers. That […]
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 regions. […]
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 […]
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 […]