Upcoming Field Days and Workshops
Click the titles to learn more and to register.
Whole Farm Planning: Making Your Farm Work For You
Postponed, Date TBD | Urbana, IL
In this all-day workshop, we will begin the business planning process, exploring your goals, beliefs, and values; crafting your mission and vision statements; and analyzing your resources, products, and markets.
Farm Finances Webinar Series: A Practical Guide to Quickbooks
February 6, 2019 | Online
Managing financial records and bookkeeping is challenging. Accounting software like QuickBooks can make the process much easier. Learn how to set up and use QuickBooks to streamline bookkeeping for your farm.
Organic Grain Conference
February 13-14, 2019 | I Hotel & Conference Center | Champaign, IL
The Organic Grain Conference is the largest event in Illinois dedicated solely to organic grain education and networking! The 2019 conference will build upon the first two amazing years by increasing the number of break out sessions from two to four and growing the trade show to 25+ vendors.
Writing a Farm Food Safety Plan
March 8, 2019 | Westchester, IL
Writing a food safety plan for your farm can help you organize and manage the task of complying with the law and managing your food safety risks. In this workshop, we will provide you with a template for crafting a food safety plan for your farm, walk you through the process of developing your plan, and provide you with access to experts who can answer your burning questions about managing food safety.
Farm Workplace Safety: Caring for your Body while Caring for the Land
March 27, 2019 | Atlanta, IL
When imagining a farm, many will conjure a picture of an idyllic landscape, but a farm can be a dangerous place. All too frequently, farmers and their employees are injured on the job, both by accidents and by wear and tear on their bodies. In this workshop, we will learn about best practices for maintaining a safe farm workspace and explore the ergonomics of common farm tools and equipment. Prevention is the best protection against a farm workplace injury.
Our teaching philosophy
In designing our training programs, we follow the mantra “Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.” We strive to give our students access to learning in the classroom, in the field, and in their hands.
We take advantage of our greatest educational assets: the people actually doing the work. If you come to us to learn about growing large-scale organic grains, we bring in a farmer who has 2000 acres of certified organic grains. If you need to know more about legal issues for farmers, we bring in a lawyer who has dedicated her life to those issues. If you want to know how to raise your own honeybees without chemical treatments, we bring in the guy who is innovating those practices in Illinois.
And finally, we provide resources to put you in charge of your own learning. From video tutorials to printed resources to access to other training programs from around the country, we empower you to learn and grow.
