Webinars & Conferences

Spread your wings this summer with workshops to help you start and grow your farm business, video replays which give you a taste of the OEFFA conference, and farm tours featuring Ohio’s community of inspiring, sustainable farmers!
The 2021 OEFFA Sustainable Farm Tour and Workshop Series features 10 recorded presentations from the 2021 OEFFA conference, four on-farm tours, and two workshop series designed to help early career farmers build legal resilience and established farmers transfer their land.

Farmers and ranchers: Ever wonder if your farm is at risk because of a lurking legal problem? Do you wish you knew where to turn for the answers? Those answers aren’t always easy to come by — especially for the most innovative, direct-to-consumer farmers. Discovering Resilience is a legal workshop designed just for you. This workshop empowers farmers and ranchers with the legal knowledge and skills you need to resolve legal vulnerabilities. You’ll walk away from this five-session, highly interactive, and producer-focused workshop ready to implement your own legal action plan and find legal answers with confidence. Plus, you’ll have a group of fellow producers to keep you on track.

The College of Natural Science will be recognizing and honoring Native American and Indigenous voices in STEM for this month’s Amplify NatSci series. Please join us on Monday, November 29 at 6 PM (EST) via Zoom. We ask that you register (and submit a question for our panelists) at the link. You can also find information about our panelists at the registration link.

In these workshops, we will explore what three different farmers do on their farms to reduce risk and ensure success. NCAT Agriculture Economist Jeff Schahczenski will be discussing the pros and cons of crop insurance for different types and scales of farming operations, with special emphasis on Whole Farm Revenue Protection.
Join us to hear from Travis Appel of Appel Farms, a sustainable, diversified specialty crop and livestock operation in Springdale, Arkansas. Travis will talk about his production and marketing strategies at his diversified farm.

Migrant women farmworkers, have often been an invisible yet essential labor force. As recent census numbers show an increase in female producers, education will focus on all women including farmworker women and their employers on reporting violent incidents to authorities, making employees aware of their legal rights, safe work practices, medical referrals, treatment, and options including counseling if needed.

We all want workers that appreciate the job and support the farm or ranch’s goals, no matter where they’re from. We know that skill can be found within a huge range of backgrounds. But, many farmers don’t realize how the law defines discrimination, and whether their hiring and management practices could hold up to the scrutiny. This is an opportunity. By learning how the law sees discrimination, farmers can avoid legal problems and spot better ways to ensure we are attracting the best workforce possible. Join us for a webinar that explains the legal mechanics of discrimination under federal law as well as Minnesota and Wisconsin law. We’ll also share lots of practical tips about how to adapt interview and management practices to meet the law’s standards. If you aren’t in Minnesota or Wisconsin, still attend- federal law applies to everyone.

¡Regístrese abajo para la Cumbre de Semillas Orgánicas de Washington y ayude a dar forma a la reunión! El evento se llevará a cabo en línea este año e incluye mesas redondas virtuales enfocadas en diferentes temas cada día según lo informado por los participantes. Nos reuniremos del 6 al 8 de diciembre de 2021 en la plataforma virtual Organic Seed Commons. Determinamos la agenda y los horarios de las reuniones más tarde.

In coordination with The Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable and Farm Market Expo Sessions.

This Hazard Communication Standard training program is intended for female workers and managers in the agricultural industry. This includes dairy farms and small farms that hire at-risk populations. The major focus of the program is on the identification of and the safe usage of chemicals and pesticides, along with respiratory protection.

La septima Conferencia del Agricultor Latino está por llegar. En este momento de distanciamiento social, nos uniremos a través de una serie de eventos virtuales. Cada año, la Conferencia del Agricultor Latino depende de su creciente red de socios para ayudar a crear una conferencia que es representativa de la agricultura latina. Extendemos un sincero agradecimiento a todos los agricultores, organizaciones asociados, y socios profesionales que ayudan a hacer esta conferencia una realidad. Los seminarios web de este año incluirán excursión de campo virtual, discusiones con los agricultores, y presentaciones de otros expertos sobre temas importantes.

Organic organizations have recognized the need for training providing baseline knowledge and common language around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion across the organic community. This presentation, delivered by Beth Schermerhorn and Asha Carter from Cambium Collective with the input of the steering committee and focus groups, will provide an overview of systemic racism in organic agriculture systems, data on current demographics surrounding organic farmers, consumers, and service providers, and existing policies contributing to or remediating discrepancies. Registration closes Monday, December 6th.

Food Supply Chain Innovators, featuring Michelle Ajamian, involved in Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative, Shagbark Seed & Mill, and the Artisan Grain Collaborative

Minnesota producers- Are you sure you know when you’re required to pay overtime and minimum wage? Are you classifying your workers as independent contractors or interns appropriately? What about payroll taxes? Get the straightforward guidance you need to create a resilient workforce strategy in this webinar. We’ll walk through the rules and regulations around all the basics. We’ll also help you understand where more complex issues are lurking and get to the right resources for more answers.

This hybrid course will introduce attendees to the key raw milk parameters that influence organic dairy product quality and shelf-life and how to control these parameters at the farm. In the self-paced portion of this course, attendees will learn about the four raw milk parameters that impact processed product quality, including somatic cells, total bacteria, sporeforming bacteria, and flavor and odor profiles.
In the live, instructor-led portion of the course, attendees will learn about controlling these parameters through on-farm management of equipment, teat and udder health, and more. The first 50 registrants will receive a hands-on kit to enhance learning outcomes in the self-paced course.

The Michigan State University Extension Field Crops Team will host the 2021 Integrated Crop and Pest Management Update on Monday, December 20, 2021, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. EST. Normally held at the MSU Livestock Pavilion, we held the meeting online in 2020 due to health considerations with the pandemic. Having received positive feedback from attendees about both in-person and online formats, we will be offering the meeting as a hybrid of the two formats this year as a test run. The audience will include farmers, agribusiness representatives, retail sales and service professionals, private crop consultants and representatives of ag-related agencies. Out-of-state participants are also invited to attend.

La septima Conferencia del Agricultor Latino está por llegar. En este momento de distanciamiento social, nos uniremos a través de una serie de eventos virtuales. Cada año, la Conferencia del Agricultor Latino depende de su creciente red de socios para ayudar a crear una conferencia que es representativa de la agricultura latina. Extendemos un sincero agradecimiento a todos los agricultores, organizaciones asociados, y socios profesionales que ayudan a hacer esta conferencia una realidad. Los seminarios web de este año incluirán excursión de campo virtual, discusiones con los agricultores, y presentaciones de otros expertos sobre temas importantes.

The Northern Michigan Small Farm Conference brings together farmers and gardeners from across Michigan to learn and connect. One ticket gets you access to the full suite of 2022’s conference, including:
pre-recorded conference sessions you can view at your own pace, both before and after the conference.
downloadable slide decks and transcripts (when possible), a five-day live conference from Feb 2–6, offering a chance to connect with fellow attendees and ask questions of session presenters. All live sessions will be recorded and posted for later viewing, additional resources from sponsors and vendors, all available from one site, one-year access to all the above materials so you can revisit the sessions and resources as needed throughout the year, access is per-computer/per-farm so more than one person can make use of the ticket.

La septima Conferencia del Agricultor Latino está por llegar. En este momento de distanciamiento social, nos uniremos a través de una serie de eventos virtuales. Cada año, la Conferencia del Agricultor Latino depende de su creciente red de socios para ayudar a crear una conferencia que es representativa de la agricultura latina. Extendemos un sincero agradecimiento a todos los agricultores, organizaciones asociados, y socios profesionales que ayudan a hacer esta conferencia una realidad. Los seminarios web de este año incluirán excursión de campo virtual, discusiones con los agricultores, y presentaciones de otros expertos sobre temas importantes.

After the 2021 conference ended, many attendees told us they loved the convenience of the virtual format but missed the hallway conversations, so we are working on a conference that has both!
The Saturday before our traditional weekend, we will host a virtual day of conference complete with workshops, a keynote address, our membership meeting, and a few fun, creative things that will help you engage from anywhere with an internet connection.
Our traditional weekend will look much like conferences in years past, but with a greater emphasis on networking, community building, and celebrating together.
Socio will again host our virtual programming and recordings, including the in-person workshops, so you can still access all the learning even if you cannot make the trip.

The 2022 Extension Risk Management Education National Conference will bring together public and private sector educators, crop insurance agents, lenders, and other agricultural professionals to share ongoing and emerging successful risk management education efforts that target agricultural producers and their families. Conference participants will learn about what is working to help producers effectively manage the financial, production, marketing, legal and human risks associated with their agribusinesses. This conference will be held in-person in Omaha.

A multi-region, multi-institution research and outreach team investigating the impact of COVID-19 on food and agricultural systems will host a free webinar those engaged in the food supply chain. This hour-long webinar is part of the Lessons from COVID-19: Positioning Regional Food Supply Chains for Future Pandemics, Natural Disasters and Human-made Crises project. The webinar will include a brief introduction of team members, a holistic project overview, survey tools used and example questions from the first survey, preliminary data from an environmental scan of available resources and insights from prior assessments of the impacts of COVID-19 on the Florida food system. Because this project is in its early phases, webinar participants will also learn how they, along with their stakeholders, can participate in the research through upcoming questionnaires. This webinar is the first of a 4-part series.