Registration is now open for the Kansas Rural Center’s second “Women in Farming” Risk Management Education Workshop. The workshop will take place in Bird City on Saturday, March 28, 2015, from 10 am to 4 pm, and will focus on specialty crop production, with a particular emphasis on the unique opportunities and challenges for women farmers. The morning portion will be held at the Bird City Senior Center, 122 W. Bressler, Bird City, Kansas, 67731. The afternoon will include a tour of Y-Knot Farm and Ranch in Bird City. Cost to attend the workshop is $15, which covers conference materials and a lunch catered by Sweet Boutique Catering featuring locally sourced ingredients.

To register for the March 28 workshop in Bird City, please visit: http://kansasruralcenter.org/register-women-in-farming-3_28/.

The Kansas Rural Center (KRC) is hosting a series of four “women only” workshops during the spring and summer of 2015. All four of the workshops in KRC’s “Women in Farming” series will highlight the opportunities and the challenges women face as they implement new enterprises on existing farms, begin farming or take over family operations, or just try to adopt new practices and enterprises with their families. The workshops are funded by a grant from the USDA Risk Management Agency.

The morning portion of the March 28 workshop will include a presentation on food safety by Guy Windholz, Certified Food Safety Professional. Guy has been with KDA Food Safety and Lodging program for the past 15 years, doing food safety inspections for the greater part of northwest Kansas in recent years. Guy will offer an in-depth explanation on the importance of food safety, including keeping your customers safe and opening new and larger markets for your produce. He will cover various approaches to Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), from government regulatory requirements and KDA audits to applying GAP codes and standards to create your own common sense and self-regulatory approach to food safety.  

Dan Phelps, Activity Coordinator with the Kansas Rural Center, will talk about season extension, including high tunnel production, storage crops, and value-added. Season extension equals income extension, allowing farmers to continue generating income during the off-season and contributing to the economic viability of diversified farms. Additionally, products offered out-of season can fetch a premium price.

Representatives from Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), K-State Research and Extension - Rawlins County, and AgrAbility will provide information on the services their agencies provide, including services specific to women farmers and land owners. Information on crop insurance for specialty crops and whole farm revenue insurance will also be provided.

In the afternoon, Nina Isely will host a farm tour at Y-Knot Farm and Ranch, Bird City, KS. Y-Knot Farm and Ranch includes 960 acres of certified organic wheat, forage, and pasture, and their products include free-range eggs, grass-fed and grass-finished Belted Galloway beef, and produce from their gardens and high tunnel. Y-Knot Farm and Ranch are members of the High Plains Food Co-op, http://www.highplainsfood.org/.

Please visit http://kansasruralcenter.org/register-women-in-farming-3_28/ to register for the March 28 workshop in Bird City. In order to ensure an accurate lunch count, please register no later than Wednesday, March 25, 2015.

There are still a few spots open for the first workshop in KRC’s “Women in Farming” series, which will be held on Saturday, March 14, 2015, from 9 am to 3:30 pm, in Lawrence, Kansas. For more information on the Lawrence workshop, please visit http://kansasruralcenter.org/register-women-in-farming-workshop-lawrence/.

Additional workshops include:

Saturday, May 9, 2015, in Linn, Kansas. The morning portion of this workshop will take place at the Linn American Legion and will focus on business, financial, and legal risk management, featuring Duane Hund, Kansas State University, providing basic financial and business planning, and Mykel Taylor, Kansas State University, providing information on land price trends, leasing and tenant issues, and Forrest Buhler, Agricultural Mediation Services on legal issues. In the afternoon a farm tour of Lucinda Stuenkel’s farm near Palmer, Kansas, will focus on conservation practices including cover crops and no till, and cattle management for women.

Saturday July 11, 2015, in Emporia, Kansas. This workshop will focus on building soil health, utilizing cover crops, integrating crops and livestock into the operation, and organic farming practices. The morning portion of the workshop will take place at the Flint Hills Technical College in Emporia and an afternoon farm tour will be held at Gail Fuller’s farm outside of Emporia.

More details and registrations for these workshops will be available at http://kansasruralcenter.org/category/risk_management/ as they are known. For more information on the initiative contact Joanna Voigt at ?(866) 579-5469, or jvoigt@kansasruralcenter.org.

Since 1979, the Kansas Rural Center has promoted the long-term health of the land and its people through community-based research, education, and advocacy that advances economically viable, ecologically sound, and socially just food and farming systems. More information about the Kansas Rural Center and its work is available at www.kansasruralcenter.org.