ATTRA - Voices from the Field

Today's episode explores community gardening and its relationship to sustainable agriculture.

Daniel Prial, sustainable agriculture specialist from NCAT's Northeast Regional Office in Keene, New Hampshire, has a conversation with folks from Antioch University New England's Community Gardens Connections program.

This episode looks at the importance of community gardening as part of the greater food system. Students from Antioch University New England's Environmental Studies Department, who are also coordinators of the Community Gardens Connections program, give advice on how to establish and maintain community gardens. They even touch on the role that farmers can play in community gardening initiatives.

In this podcast, we'll hear from doctoral candidate, Jess Gerrior, and from Emma Rohleder, Jess Barnes, and Rachel Brice, who are all students in Environmental Studies and also co-coordinators of the Community Gardens Connections program at Antioch University New England.

For more information on this topic, please you can contact Daniel Prial directly at [email protected].

ATTRA Resources:
Community Gardening

Other Resources
Community Gardens Connections website

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

COMING SOON!

The National Center for Appropriate Technology, in cooperation with USDA Rural Development, Montana State University, and Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE), is pleased to announce the 1st Annual Soil Health Innovations Conference. This national conference will be held at Montana State University on March 30 and 31, 2020.

The 2020 Soil Health Innovations Conference will bring together producers, industry professionals, educators, and s

In this episode, Martin Guerena, a sustainable agriculture specialist with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program, has a conversation with Tom Willey, one of the pioneers of organic agriculture in the Central Valley of California.

Martin works out of the NCAT Western Regional Office in Davis, California.

Tom – "farmer emeritus" at T and D Willey Farms, the operation he co-founded in Madera, California – discusses his entry into agriculture and the organic movement, the importance of finding mentors, what the past can teach us going forward, and some of the challenges he sees in the future of organic agriculture.

For more information on this topic, you can contact Martin Guerena directly at [email protected].

ATTRA Resources:
Organic Farming
A Conversation with Amigo Bob

Other Resources
T and D Willey Farms
Ecological Farming Association

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

COMING SOON!

The National Center for Appropriate Technology, in cooperation with USDA Rural Development, Montana State University, and Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE), is pleased to announce the 1st Annual Soil Health Innovations Conference. This national conference will be held at Montana State University on March 30 and 31, 2020.

The 2020 Soil Health Innovations Conference will bring together producers, industry professionals, educators, and students who are at the cutting edge of soil health across the country: On-farm practices, soil biology, carbon markets, and public policy. Join us for a far-reaching exploration of agriculture's sustainable future.

For more information and to register go to

Today's episode – Part 4 of our "Direct Marketing Meat" series – features a question-and-answer session with Dave and Jenny Scott. Linda Coffey asks questions submitted by listeners, and Dave and Jenny provide great answers. You will hear some innovative marketing ideas, as well as more information about production practices and nutrition.

Dave and Linda are livestock specialists with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program. Dave works out of NCAT's headquarters in Butte, Montana, and Linda is on the staff of NCAT's Southeast Regional Office in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Dave and Jenny are co-owners of Montana Highland Lamb near Whitehall, Montana.

Be sure to check out the first three parts of this series. In Part 1, Dave and Jenny talk about marketing meat and how they started and grew their business. Meat processing was the primary topic in Part 2. And, Part 3 focused on working with customers, assessing profitability, and deciding on the scale of the enterprise.

If you have a question, please do not hesitate to contact Dave or Linda directly at [email protected] and [email protected].

ATTRA Resources:
Direct Marketing Lamb: A Pathway
Putting a Hand on Them: How to Tell When Your Lamb is Finished (Publication)
Putting a Hand on Them: How to Tell When Your Lamb is Finished (Video)
Lamb Cut Guide for Direct Marketers
Creating an Excellent Relationship with Your Lamb Processor
The Lambulator: A Cut-Yield Calculator
ATTRA YouTube Channel, Livestock and Pasture
Working with Your Meat Processor

Other Resources
Montana Highland Lamb Facebook page

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

In this episode – part 3 of our "Direct Marketing Meat" series – Dave Scott and his wife, Jenny, join Linda Coffey to talk about aspects of working with customers, planning pricing, assessing profitability, and deciding on the scale of the enterprise.

Dave and Linda are livestock specialists with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program. Dave works out of NCAT's headquarters in Butte, Montana, and Linda is on the staff of NCAT's Southeast Regional Office in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Dave and Jenny also are co-owners of Montana Highland Lamb near Whitehall, Montana. During the discussion, Dave and Jenny emphasize the challenges and rewards of their business and the importance of relationships – family, business partners, and clients.

Dave, Jenny, and Linda will be back next week with a different format – taking questions from listeners. You'll hear some innovative marketing ideas, as well as more information about both nutrition and production practices.

If you have a question for them, don't hesitate to contact Dave and Linda directly at [email protected] and [email protected].

ATTRA Resources:
Direct Marketing Meat with Dave and Jenny Scott. Part 1
Direct Marketing Meat with Dave and Jenny Scott. Part 2: Processing
The Lambulator
Working with Your Meat Processor (Podcast)
Working with Your Meat Processor (Publication)
Creating an Excellent Relationship with Your Processor
Intensive Grazing: One Farm's Setup
It's More than Getting the Wool Off
Putting a Hand on Them – How to Tell if your Lamb is Finished (Video)
Putting a Hand on Them - How to Tell if Your Lamb is Finished (Publication)
Direct Marketing Lamb: A Pathway
Lamb Cut Guide for Direct Marketers

Other Resources
Building a Sustainable Business, MISA/SARE
Montana Highland Lamb Facebook page

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.<

In this episode, we feature a conversation with Kurt Myllymaki, a Montana farmer and rancher who, with his family, raises crops and beef cattle on 10,000 acres of leased and deeded land in north central Montana near the town of Stanford.

He talks about the profound changes the operation is making, including diversifying cash crops raised on the farm and adding cover crops to reduce the use of summer fallow.

The interview was conducted in collaboration with Western SARE, and Stacie Cleary of Western SARE acted as this week's guest host. Al Kurki, a sustainable agriculture specialist with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program, introduces the conversation with some background on the Myllymaki operation.

He also has an important invitation for listeners at the end of the conversation to the upcoming Soil Health Innovations Conference cooperatively presented by NCAT, SARE, Montana State University, and USDA Rural Development.

You can get in touch directly with Al Kurki directly via email [email protected].

ATTRA Resources:
Soil Health Innovations Conference
Soils and Compost
Livestock and Pasture
Horticultural Crops
https://attra.ncat.org/topics/field-crops/

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

COMING SOON!

The National Center for Appropriate Technology, in cooperation with USDA Rural Development, Montana State University, and Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE), is pleased to announce the 1st Annual Soil Health Innovations Conference. This national conference will be held at Montana State University on March 30 and 31, 2020.

The 2020 Soil Health Innovations Conference will bring together producers,

In this episode, Nina Prater, an agriculture specialist in NCAT's Southeast Regional Office in Fayetteville, Arkansas, talks with Jay Randolph about prairie restoration. Jay is the Ben Geren Golf Course Superintendent and Sebastian County Park Administrator in Fort Smith, Arkansas. They discuss the prairie restoration work Jay has undertaken at the golf course since 2016. The conversation covers all the improvements Jay has seen at the park since starting this work, and the benefits any landowner can enjoy from re-establishing diverse prairie ecosystems.

For more information on this topic, contact Nina Prater via email at [email protected]

ATTRA Resources:
Converting Cropland to Perennial Grassland
Managing Soils for Water: How Five Principles of Soil Health Support Water Infiltration and Storage
Switchgrass as a Bioenergy Crop
Voices from the Field: Allen Williams and Adaptive Stewardship Management Grazing

Other Resources:
Thomas Nutall: A Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the Year 1819
The Prairie Ecologist
National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative
Missouri Prairie Foundation
Arkansas Game & Fish Commission Acres for Wildlife Program
Arkansas Monarch Conservation Partnership
Ben Geren Park

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website /

In this episode, Felicia Bell, sustainable agricultural specialist at NCAT's Gulf States Office in Jackson, Mississippi, interviews Wendell Paris about the history of food cooperatives in the South and his involvement in this movement, specifically in the Federation of Southern Cooperatives.

Mr. Paris is the Chairman of the Board for Panola Land Buyers Association and has been involved in the Federation of Southern Cooperatives since its inception, which took place during the Civil Rights movement. In this episode, he describes the connections between the Civil Rights movement and the beginning of the food cooperative model in the South.

For more information on this topic, you can contact Felicia Bell directly at [email protected].

ATTRA Resources:
Tips for Selling to: Aggregators/Grower Marketing Co-ops
Sustainable Agriculture: An Introduction
ATTRA's Beginning Farmer Tutorials

Other Resources:
Federation of Southern Cooperatives website
"Land Assistance Fund Feeds Farmers' Hopes" blog post from AMISTAD Research Center

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office: Facebook

Gulf States Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

COMING SOON!

The National Center for Appropriate Technology, in cooperation with USDA Rural Development, Montana State University, and Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (WSARE), is pleased to announce the 1st Annual Soil Health Innovations Conference. This national conference will be held at Montana State University on March 30 and 31, 2020.

This episode is the second of two featuring a conversation between Kara Kroeger, a sustainable agriculture specialist with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable-agriculture program, and Fred Provenza. Fred is a well-known author and expert on animal health, human health, plant health, and how they are related – as well as their role in the care of ecosystems.

Kara works out of NCAT's Southwest Regional Office in San Antonio, Texas. The conversation took place at the recent 2019 Regenerate Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, hosted by the Quivira Coalition, Holistic Management International, and the American Grassfed Association. There may be a bit of background noise, but the conversation is well worth it.

In the last episode, Kara and Fred talked in-depth about the importance of the quality and diversity of foods for animals and humans, and how important the relationships between particular foods are. Be sure to check out that part of the conversation if you haven't yet. Today's episode begins with pasture management and covers a wide range of practical and philosophical areas.

For more information on this topic, you can contact Kara Kroeger directly at [email protected].

ATTRA Resources:
A Talk with Fred Provenza, Part One
Soil Health Innovations Conference
Livestock and Pasture

Other Resources:
Quivira Coalition website
Holistic Management International website
The American Grassfed Association website
Behavioral Education for Human Animal Vegetation and Ecosystem Management website
Nourishment
The Art and Science of Shepherding
Is Grassfed Meat and Dairy Better for Human and Environmental Health?

Please call ATTRA with any and all of your sustainable agriculture questions at 1-800-346-9140 or e-mail us at [email protected]. Our two dozen specialists can help you with a vast array of topics, everything from farm planning to pest management, from produce to livestock, and soils to aquaculture.

You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find our other extensive, and free, sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at NCAT/ATTRA's website.

You also can stay in touch with NCAT at its Facebook page.

Keep up with NCAT/ATTRA's SIFT farm at its website.

Also check out NCAT's Regional Offices' websites and Facebook Pages!

Southwest Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Western Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Rocky Mountain West Regional Office:

This episode is the first of two featuring a conversation between Kara Kroeger, a sustainable agriculture specialist with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program, and Fred Provenza. Fred is a well-known author and expert on animal health, human health, plant health, and how they are related – as well as their role in the care of ecosystems.

Kara works out of NCAT's Southwest Regional Office in San Antonio, Texas. The conversation took place at the recent 2019 Regenerate Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, hosted by the Quivira Coalition, Holistic Management International, and the American Grassfed Association. There may be a bit of background noise here and there, but the conversation is worth it.

Kara and Fred talk in-depth about the importance of quality and diversity of foods for animals and humans, and how important the relationships between particular foods are.

Be sure to come back next week for the second part of the conversation, when the discussion begins with pasture management and covers a wide range of practical and philosophical areas. You'll be sure to enjoy it.

ATTRA Resources:
Livestock and Pasture

Other Resources:
Quivira Coalition website
Holistic Management International website
The American Grassfed Association website
Behavioral Education for Human Animal Vegetation and Ecosystem Management website
Nourishment
The Art and Science of Shepherding
Is Grassfed Meat and Dairy Better for Human and Environmental Health?

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You can get in touch with NCAT/ATTRA specialists and find access to our trusted, practical sustainable-agriculture publications, webinars, videos, and other resources at ATTRA.NCAT.ORG.