ATTRA - Voices from the Field

In this podcast, Justin Duncan, agriculture specialist at NCAT's Southwest Regional Office in San Antonio, Texas, has a conversation with Lois Kim, Vice President of Public Relations and On-Farm Research Coordinator for Plantation Produce Company (PPC) Farms in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

In this episode, you'll hear how PPC Farms is transitioning its 1,500-acre operation from conventional to organic farming. Lois talks about some of the new practices they have adopted, such as the use of cover crops, companion planting, crop rotation, and the many benefits these practices bring.

t's worth pointing out that there are melons that Lois refers to as "weeds" in the podcast. These are cucumis melo that self-selected in Texas cotton fields and are now found all across south and east Texas. They are affectionately known as "smell melons."

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

Related ATTRA Resources:
Farmscaping to Enhance Biological Control
Guide for Organic Crop Producers
Cover Crop Options for Hot and Humid Areas
Cover Crop (340) in Organic Systems
Nutrient Management Plan (590) for Organic Systems
Organic Crop Production Overview
Organic Specialty Crop Production In Texas: A Grower's Handbook
Tip Sheet: Crop Rotation in Organic Farming Systems
Companion Planting & Botanical Pesticides: Concepts & Resources

Other Resources:
Plantation Produce Company (PPC) Farms

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:

In this episode from NCAT's Southeast Regional Office in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Regional Director Margo Hale and Livestock Specialist Linda Coffey talk about Linda's recent trip to attend an international meeting about internal parasite management, and some of the lessons she learned there.

They then discuss what's happening on their farms in the fall: breeding season, and considerations about selecting and caring for the males; assessing male temperament and safety; and assessing the condition of the females. They also briefly discuss fall pasture management and stockpiling for winter.

E-mail Margo and Linda with feedback or questions or suggestions for future topics at [email protected] and [email protected]. Also see the link to the NCAT Southeast Regional Office website and Facebook page below.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Livestock (Animal Health and Nutrition topic area)
Sheep and Goats: Frequently Asked Questions
Managing Internal Parasites in Sheep and Goats
Managed Grazing Tutorial: Stockpiling module
Pasture, Rangeland and Grazing Management

Other Resources:
American Consortium for Small Ruminant Parasite Control
Dr. Faffa Malan – FAMACHA. South African Landbou video on the history of FAMACHA
Got a Mean Ram? You May be to Blame

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

In this podcast, Al Kurki, agriculture specialist at NCAT's Rocky Mountain West Regional Office in Butte, Montana, has a conversation with Rachel Jones, Executive Director of Farm to School of Park County. With a USDA Farm to School grant, Rachel turned one of the school's greenhouses into an aquaponics laboratory. Middle- and high-school students of Park County now raise trout and vegetables for food for their schools. In this episode, you'll hear about the challenges and triumphs using an aquaponics system in a school setting.

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

Related ATTRA Resources:
Aquaponics - Multitrophic Systems for Sustainable Food Production
Photovoltaic Applications in Aquaculture: A Primer

Other Resources:
Farm to School of Park County
Farm to School of Park County, 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

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

In this podcast Nina Prater, agriculture specialist at NCAT's Southeast Regional office in Fayetteville, Arkansas, has a conversation with her NCAT colleague Guy Ames, horticulture specialist and owner-operator of Ames Orchard and Nursery in Elkins, Arkansas. Guy has been farming in Arkansas since 1971, but became interested in heirloom apples in 1980.

In this episode, discover things you might not have known, such as, what qualifies as an heirloom. What's in a name? How do you decide what variety to grow? Guy and Nina also talks about the history of heirloom apples, some pros and cons, and the role heirloom apples can play in today's market and environment.

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

Related ATTRA Resources:
Apples: Organic Production Guide (in this ATTRA publication, Appendix 1, "Disease Resistant Apple Varieties," is a chart showing the relative disease resistance of more than 100 apple varieties, many of them "heirlooms.")

Other Resources:
North American Fruit Explorers
Changes in the Land, book by William Cronon
Old Southern Apples, book by Creighton Lee Calhoun
The Illustrated History of Apples in the United States and Canada

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

In this episode, NCAT's Tammy Howard has a conversation with her colleague, Adrian Card, about his 15-year career as an extension agent in Boulder County, an increasingly urban area of Colorado. Adrian talks about his experiences with developing useful tools and programming for farmers in the front range of Colorado.

Tammy Howard is an agriculture specialist at NCAT's Rocky Mountain West office in Butte, Montana. Adrian Card is the founder of the Colorado Building Farmers Program and co-founder of the Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association.

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

Related ATTRA Resources:
Getting Started in Farming Tutorial
Farm Employment Law: Know the Basics & Make Them Work for Your Farm
Farm Business Start-up Checksheet
ATTRA's Beginning Farmer web page

Other Resources:
Colorado Fruit and Vegetable Growers 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

In this podcast NCAT horticulture specialists Luke Freeman and Guy Ames discuss the joys and trials of growing grapes in the humid Southeast.

The conversation touches on organic grape production; diseases and pests; trellising and pruning grapes; organic grape management; and cultivars of table grapes, wine grapes, and muscadines suited for organic production.

Luke and Guy both work as horticulture specialists with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program out of NCAT's Southeast Regional Office in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Luke shares research findings from the University of Arkansas high tunnel grape project, led by Dr. Elena Garcia, and Guy shares his personal experience growing grapes and muscadines on his home farm.

For more information on this topic, you can contact Luke Freeman and Guy Ames directly via email at [email protected] and [email protected].

Related ATTRA Resources:
High Tunnel Grapes Video Series
High Tunnel Grapes: Establishment
High Tunnel Fruit and Grape Production for Eastern Growers
High Tunnel Winter Growing Using Heat Recovery Ventilation
Soils and Sites for Organic Orchards and Vineyards
Tipsheet: Transitioning to Organic Management of Orchards
Greenhouse IPM: Sustainable Aphid Control
Greenhouse IPM: Sustainable Thrips Control
Greenhouse IPM: Sustainable Whitefly Control
Grapes: Organic Production

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:

In this episode, Colin Mitchell, a sustainable agriculture specialist with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program, discusses regenerative rangeland management with Travis and Mandy Krause of Parker Creek Ranch in D'hanis, Texas.

Travis and Mandy are taking part in NCAT's Soil for Water Project. Colin works out of NCAT's Southwest Regional Office in San Antonio, Texas.

Travis describes three of the regenerative practices they use on their ranch: holistic multipaddock grazing, pasture cropping, and contour subsoil ripping. He then discusses the changes they've seen from 2010-2019 in the ranch's soil and ecological health while using these practices. Mandy then passes off their two young sons to Travis so she can discuss the Southern SARE on-farm research grant they are conducting on the ranch. It focuses on the effects of contour subsoil ripping on rangeland health.

Related ATTRA Resources:
Building Healthy Pasture Soils
Managed Grazing in Riparian Areas
Multispecies Grazing: A Primer On Diversity
Paddock Design, Fencing, and Water Systems for Controlled Grazing
Pasture, Rangeland, and Grazing Management

Other Resources:
NCAT's Soil for Water Project
Southern SARE
Parker Creek Ranch Facebook page
Parker Creek Ranch website
Water for Every Farm: Yeoman's Keyline Plan by PA Yeoman
Mark Shepherd Managing Water on Your Farm Video
Holistic Management International

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:

In this episode, Lee Rinehart, an agriculture specialist with NCAT's ATTRA sustainable agriculture program, talks with Jill Pegnataro of GreenWave, a nonprofit focused on expanding opportunities for fisherman and farmers to start sustainable shellfish and aquatic plant farming enterprises. Jill works as a farm manager and instructor with GreenWave in New Haven, Connecticut.

Lee works out of NCAT's Northeast Regional Office in Keene, New Hampshire. Jill and Lee talk about how Jill got into vertical ocean farming, how vertical ocean farming works, the skills and resources some needs to begin ocean farming, and how to get started.

For more information on this topic, you can contact Lee Rinehart directly at [email protected]

Related ATTRA Resources:
Ecological Fisheries and Ocean Farming
Ocean Farming: A Conversation with Bren Smith
Silent Spring

Other Resources:
Ocean Approved Kelp Farming Manual
GreenWave website
GreenWave 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

Southeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

Northeast Regional Office: Website / Facebook

In this episode, airing on National Farmers Market week (August 4 -10), Tammy Howard, agriculture specialist at NCAT's Rocky Mountain West office in Butte, Montana, talks with Ben Feldman, interim director of the Farmers Market Coalition, a national organization representing farmers markets. Tammy and Ben discuss the important role that farmers markets play as business incubators and their economic impact in rural and urban communities. They also discuss some of the resources available to help farmers and farmers markets be successful.

For more information on this topic, you can contact Tammy Howard directly at [email protected]

ATTRA Resources:
Tips for Selling at Farmers Markets
Farmers Markets: Marketing and Business Guide
Low-Income Local Food Access – Podcast
Farmers Market Coalition 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

Today, we hear from Martin Guerena, agriculture specialist at NCAT's Western Regional Office in Davis, California, and Jo Ann Baumgartner, Executive Director of the Wild Farm Alliance. In this episode, they talk about birds on farms: are they friend or foe? Well, you might be surprised to know that birds can be very beneficial to your farm. In fact, birds are being used as agrosystem providers. Learn how you can integrate the benefits of birds into your farm.

Jo Ann is the author of many publications on the intersection between biodiversity conservation and agriculture, including beneficial birds.

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

Related ATTRA Resources:
Beneficial and Pest Birds: Vertebrate IPM Tip Sheet

Other Resources:
Wild Farm Alliance: Supporting Beneficial Birds and Managing Pest Birds

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