ATTRA - Sustainable Agriculture

In this episode, NCAT Livestock Specialist Linda Coffey talks with Tessa McCormick, co-owner with her husband, Scott, of White River Creamery near Fayetteville, Arkansas, about the challenges and advantages of a Nigerian Dwarf Goats for their small ruminant dairy. 

In this series of podcasts, Thomas Schroeder, Sustainable Ag Specialist in the NCAT Southwest office sat down with Pedro Schambon, owner/operator of My Father’s Farm to talk about food safety and scaling up to wholesale markets. My Father’s Farm is a certified organic farm situated on 52 acres in Seguin, Texas, growing year round both in-field and in greenhouse settings.

Pedro talks in depth about the changes that they needed to make to their facilities, practices and overall approach to food safety, GAP and FSMA as they made the transition from CSA / Farmer’s Market grower to Wholesale producer. In this episode, he talks about changes the farm make in how it packs produce.

In this series of podcasts, Thomas Schroeder, Sustainable Ag Specialist in the NCAT Southwest office sat down with Pedro Schambon, owner/operator of My Father’s Farm to talk about food safety and scaling up to wholesale markets. My Father’s Farm is a certified organic farm situated on 52 acres in Seguin, Texas, growing year round both in-field and in greenhouse settings.

Pedro talks in depth about the changes that they needed to make to their facilities, practices and overall approach to food safety, GAP and FSMA as they made the transition from CSA / Farmer’s Market grower to Wholesale producer. In this episode, he addresses changes the farm made in how it harvests its crops and the value of GAP and FSMA audits in determining practices to make their produce safer.

In this series of podcasts, Thomas Schroeder, Sustainable Ag Specialist in the NCAT Southwest office sat down with Pedro Schambon, owner/operator of My Father’s Farm to talk about food safety and scaling up to wholesale markets. My Father’s Farm is a certified organic farm situated on 52 acres in Seguin, Texas, growing year round both in-field and in greenhouse settings.

Pedro talks in depth about the changes that they needed to make to their facilities, practices and overall approach to food safety, GAP and FSMA as they made the transition from CSA / Farmer’s Market grower to Wholesale producer. In this episode, he talks about changes the farm made to safely transport, package, and trace its produce as well as advice for new farmers

In this episode, Tammy Howard, an agronomy specialist with the National Center for Appropriate Technology, speaks at a USDA Risk Management Agency sponsored tour of Terrapin Farm near Whitefish, Montana. She discusses the uses of cover crops for various purposes, including fertility, weed management, and increasing biomass. She also discusses crop rotation and termination.

In this episode, Keith Berns of Green Cover Seeds in Nebraska talks about "Carbonomics," a big-picture view of soil health. He compares the economy of a country with what's going on in the soil. "The soil operates as an economy,” he says. “And when we can look at it that way, we will fundamentally understand it better."

Berns’ talk took place at the Columbia County, Pennsylvania, Conservation District’s 2 Soil Health Conference in Danville, Pennsylvania.

From time to time, we feature a popular question from ATTRA’s Ask an Ag Expert feature on ATTRA: Voices from the Field. In this episode we discuss the question "What Are the Benefits of Using Draft Horses on the Farm: and discuss an in-depth publication available at www.attra.ncat.org

In this episode, Internal GAP Auditor David Wise talks with Dylan Strike of Strike Farms near Bozeman, Montana, about strategies for keeping rodents out of fields.

Sometimes, you can find the benefits of sustainable agriculture in unexpected places.

In this episode, NCAT sustainable agriculture specialist Felicia Bell talks with Cammie Kitchens, Chief Executive Officer of Fondren Cove Assisted Living in Jackson, Mississippi. Fonden Cove helps people with mental health issues, and Cammie’s interest in sustainable agriculture began with an idea that being around farm animals could be therapeutic for clients. He also became an advocate of the role that that fresh, nutritious food can play in health.

Now Cammie operates a demonstration farm, CK Ag, and is looking to move forward with the role of sustainable agriculture in therapy with other farms as Fondren Cove expands.

In this episode, Dylan Strike of Strike Farms near Bozeman, Montana, talks with GAP internal auditor David Wise about the farm’s strategy for keeping wildlife and other unwanted animals off the farm.