 | Thursday, March 5 - Saturday, March 7, 2015 Danville, Indiana Event Link: Indiana Small Farms Conference Organized By: Purdue Agriculture The third Annual Indiana Small Farm Conference with pre-conference workshop activities taking place on Thursday, March 5th. With numerous networking activities, this conference provides small farmers with many opportunities to learn and interact with other farmers, producers, extension educators, researchers, and students. Chris' Presentations: Making Your Market Farm Work for You Thursday, March 5, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Your market farm should work for you, in addition to you working for your farm – and that requires you to take care of your vegetables and your business, as well as your life. Learn how you can put it all together, from the market farming fundamentals of weed control, irrigation, post-harvest handling, and marketing, to the management of your farming systems, employees, and finances. From big ideas down to practical examples, consultant, educator, and veteran farmer Chris Blanchard draws on 25 years of farming experience around the country at a wide variety scales to provide this engaging session that will help you understand and control the factors that lead to a profitable market farm that won’t drive you and your family crazy. Please note: this pre-conference workshop is offered at an additional charge beyond the standard conference registration. Capturing and Organizing Data for GAPs, Organic Certification, and other Endeavors Friday, March 6, 9:00 AM Paperwork can be the bane of the certified-organic, GAPs-audited, and financially-aware farmer. Learn how to capture information, get on top of your paperwork, and wow your inspector, auditor, and banker. Consultant and veteran farmer Chris Blanchard will provide an overview of the basic techniques he and his crew use to gather information and keep it organized for easy access with a minimum of effort. Evaluating Investments and Operational Changes Friday, March 6, 1:30 PM Want to purchase new equipment? Thinking of expanding your operation? This presentation will show you the tools you need to evaluate your options. You’ll get a down-to-earth approach to help you better understand the economic and other impacts of investments and operational changes, including a look at practical tools like partial budget analysis and investment analysis, as well as considerations for quality of life and business development. |
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Thursday, February 26, 2014 LaCrosse, Wisconsin Event Link: http://mosesorganic.org/events/organic-university/ Organized By: Mosesorganic.org Chris' Presentations: Your organic market farm should work for you, in addition to you working for your farm—and that requires taking care of your vegetables and your business, as well as your life. Learn how you can put it all together, from irrigation and weed control to employee management and organizing your life. With practical examples and big ideas from farms and businesses around the Midwest, this engaging session will help you understand and control the factors that lead to a profitable market farm that won’t drive you and your family crazy. Thursday, January 23, 2014 Vancouver, British Columbia Event Link: Register here. Organized By: UBC Farm Centre Chris' Presentations: Being a sustainable farmer is more than the farming methods you use, it also means ensuring you can stay in business regardless of your marketing outlet. Chris Blanchard of Rock Spring Farm and Flying Rutabaga Works will help you navigate pricing strategies to meet your customer needs and your farm's bottom line. This workshop will include methods for determining production costs and pricing across variation in your farm system including the differences between field production and season extension. Friday, January 10, 2014 St.Cloud, Minnesota Event Link: http://www.mda.state.mn.us/food/organic/conference.aspx Organized By: mda.state.mn.us Chris' Presentations: Join Chris for two great sessions about pricing and marketing at the nation's coldest organic farming conference! Buy My Rutabagas: Marketing Horticultural Crops to Food Stores - To market your produce to food stores, you need to understand the world of retail produce. Chris Blanchard will share Rock Spring Farm’s approach to marketing to produce buyers, including communication, branding, how to determine your price, and how stores determine their prices. (Saturday morning at 8:00am) What It's Worth: Pricing for Profits - Being a sustainable farmer is more than the farming methods you use, it also means ensuring you can stay in business regardless of your marketing outlet. Chris Blanchard of Flying Rutabaga Works and Rock Spring Farm will help you navigate pricing strategies to meet your customer needs and your farm's bottom line. (Saturday morning at 9:45am) Wednesday, April 24 2013 Online Event Link: Countryside Conservancy Organized By: Countryside Conservancy Chris' Presentations: A free webinar hosted by Countryside Conservancy. Being a sustainable farmer is more than the farming methods you use, it also means ensuring you can stay in business regardless of your marketing outlet. Chris Blanchard of Rock Spring Farm and Flying Rutabaga Works will help you navigate pricing strategies to meet your customer needs and your farm's bottom line. 6pm Central Time. Thursday, January 5, 2012 St. Joseph, Missouri Event Link: 2012 Great Plains Growers Conference Organized By: Great Plains Growers Chris' Presentations: Thursday full-day seminar: Post-Harvest Handling, Food Safety, and GAPs: Making It Work on a Real Farm - As the demand for local and organic food has exploded in the last five years, so has the expectation on the part of consumers and institutional buyers for clean produce that lasts on the shelf and in the refrigerator. At the same time, institutions have begun demanding food safety assurances, and now the Food Safety Modernization Act has opened the door for FDA regulation of the production and handling of fresh vegetables and produce. Join Rock Spring Farm's Chris Blanchard for a review of post-harvest handling practices, and the methods developed at Rock Spring Farm for meeting the documentation and record-keeping requirements of the GAPs audit process in a way that flows with the work on the farm, rather than existing as a separate set of tasks and requirements Buy My Rutabagas: Marketing Horticultural Crops for Retail Sales - To market your produce to food stores, you need to understand the world of retail produce. Chris Blanchard will share Rock Spring Farm’s approach to marketing to produce buyers, including communication, branding, how to determine your price, and how stores determine their prices. Ten Things to Think about about Getting Started in Market Farming - Getting started in market farming means more than just growing vegetables. It means taking on the responsibilities of owning a business, managing markets, grappling with philosophies, and managing a labor force. Join Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard for a look at ten things to think about as you prepare the ground for starting your market farm, or as you seek to expand your market farm into a significant income-generator for yourself and your family. Transplant Production Systems - Greenhouse-grown vegetable transplants are an important part of a successful vegetable farm, and the systems you use for everything from transplant trays and benches to the transplanter you use to set your crop in the field have a significant impact on the quality of your transplants and the cost of producing them. Join Rock Spring Farm’s Chris Blanchard for a review of transplant systems on farms throughout the Upper Midwest. Monday, December 5 - Tuesday, December 6, 2011 Sioux Falls, South Dakota Event Link: Sioux Falls Organic Agriculture Conference Organized By: South Dakota State University Chris' Presentations:
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