On Saturday May 9, the Kansas Rural Center will hold a “Women in Farming” workshop, which will focus on what women farmers and landowners need to know to make good business, financial and legal decisions. The women-only workshop will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the American Legion Building in Linn, Kansas, with a farm tour in the afternoon at the farm of Lucinda Stuenkel near Palmer, Kansas. Cost to attend is $15, which covers lunch and conference materials.

The morning portion of the workshops will feature presentations by Duane Hund, Kansas State University Extension Department of Agricultural Economics, who will focus on financial records and farm planning. Hund works with farms across the state to help plan and analyze farm enterprises and will offer recordkeeping information and resources to help manage the farm business. Mykel Taylor, also from the KSU Department of Agricultural Economics, will discuss leasing arrangements, leasing price trends, and land prices. Forrest Buhler of the Kansas Agriculture Mediation Services will discuss estate planning basics and what to prepare for in meeting with an attorney.

Following lunch, County Conservation District, farm credit, and other representatives, will be on hand to offer information about resources available to help women with decision making. The afternoon farm tour will take place at Lucinda Stuenkel’s farm near Linn starting about 2:30 p.m. Lucinda will focus on her experience as a farm widow taking on the farm management on her own, and the conservation practices including cover crops and no till she has adopted, and grass and cattle management lessons she has learned.

To register for the May 9 workshop in Linn, please click here.

Please register by Wednesday, May 6, in order to ensure an accurate lunch count.

The final workshop in KRC’s Women in Farming series will be Saturday July 11, 2015, in Emporia, Kansas. This workshop will focus on building soil health, utilizing cover crops, integrating crops and livestock; organic farming practices; and high tunnel production of specialty crop options. 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 featuring Gail’s cover crop and no till farming operation as well as new enterprises (poultry, small livestock and vegetable production). The farm tour will also include a visit to a native prairie with plant identification and pollinator discussion.

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.

The Kansas Rural Center (KRC) is hosting four “women only” workshops during the spring and summer of 2015. Co sponsors include the Kansas SARE and Kansas Center for Sustainable Agriculture and Alternative Crops. 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 and by the Kansas Rural Center.