Farmer Field Days, Workshops and Webinars

Meet up with other farmers and agricultural professionals on working farms to see organic systems in action! Share your successes and your challenges with peers and connect with useful resource providers. OAK's Farmer Education Events are on-farm and virtual learning opportunities offered monthly for farmers, ag professionals and local food system advocates. OAK welcomes farmers from all types and scales of farms - large and small scale, organic and conventional, urban and rural. 

Keep up-to-date with the details of every farmer-to-farmer learning event - subscribe to our Field Notes newsletter. View previous OAK virtual events on our OAK YouTube page for recordings, snapshots and lessons learned from host farmers. Explore Field Day summaries and resources for 2023 and 2022. Have suggestions for future farms, practices or topics to highlight? Let OAK know. 

 

Conservation, Connection and Capital: Bringing EQIP Support to Your Farm

Live Webinar -- April 24, 2024 -- 10-11 am ET

Tune in for this one-hour webinar to guide farmers through all they need to know to apply for and implement Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) support and funding. This free webinar will provide participants with sure-footed next steps and connections with people who can help, from identifying conservation concerns to completing a successful contract. Registrants receive access to a summary, follow-up resources and the event recording. Learn from OAK staff members, a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) specialist and experienced farmers Cortney Moses and Paul Dengel. Cortney and Paul will share their farm story of the EQIP application and funding process and its on-farm benefits for GoodThymes Organic Farm in Williamsburg, KY. This event is supported by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). 

 

  

Reduced Tillage, Cover Crops, and Crop Rotations on an Organic Vegetable Farm

Lazy Eight Stock Farm, Paint Lick KY -- June 4, 2024 -- 1-4 pm ET

Lazy Eight cultivation

Lazy Eight Stock Farm is a 420-acre Certified Organic farm located on the banks of the Paint Lick Creek in Madison and Garrard counties. Dedicated to farming practices that are rooted in biological systems, Bryce Baumann and his farm crew tend to more than 25 acres of certified organic vegetables using a standardized permanent bed system, intentional crop rotation, cover crops, minimal tillage and reduction of plastic mulch. Join this OAK Farmer Field Day to visit Lazy Eight’s fields in multiple successions of late spring crops, observe demonstrations of reduced tillage and vegetable intercropping, explore cultivation equipment, learn about field production of cut flowers, and view their ½-acre covered crop production*. Hear from Bryce, OAK staff and NRCS representatives how Lazy Eight is implementing conservation practices within their organic vegetable production that build soil health, increase conservation of the farm’s natural resources, improve their climate resilience, and earn financial assistance to serve the farm, their community and future generations. As a Kentucky farm enrolled in OAK's USDA supported Climate-Smart Project, Lazy Eight Stock Farm has committed to implementing climate-smart practices and assessing whole-farm sustainability. Learn more about OAK's project at https://www.oak-ky.org/climate-smart-project. *Weather-dependent activities include a glimpse into field production of cut flowers and a chance to view Lazy Eight's ½-acre covered crop production. Support for this project comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities under agreement number NR233A750004G092.

BONUS: Please consider joining us for our OAK Social, an informal post-event gathering in Berea immediately following the event. Details Coming Soon!

 

Register Here

 

Innovating Generational Farming Practices with Ecological Approaches and System Efficiencies

Foxfire Farm, Liberty KY -- June 18, 2024 -- 9 am - 12 pm ET

Developing farm systems for production and crop planning is part of most new vegetable farmers' journeys, and learning from experienced farmers - adopting or adapting their tried and true methods - can speed up the early years of new production and farm business operations. When Aaron Lange assumed a portion of his family farm in Casey County in 2021, he brought years of learning from his parents’ decades of organic farming. He combined his family farming experience with ecological farming methods from Susana Lein and innovative production systems from farmer-authors Jesse Frost, Ben Hartman and Daniel Mays. Join this OAK Field Day with Aaron Lange as he shares Foxfire Farm’s 2.5-acre certified organic vegetable fields, covered production, and greenhouse highlighting: Three-year crop rotations integrated with cover crops and grazing sheep; High tunnel and field production for year-round harvest; Reduced tillage using standardized beds, mulching, and soil-building techniques; and Harvest and packing efficiencies for reduced time and labor. Aaron will provide demonstrations and specific crop examples for harvest techniques, wash-pack systems, crop transitions and bed-flipping. He’ll also share his experience building and balancing multiple market channels, including community-supported agriculture (CSA), farmers' markets, retail outlets and deliveries. Grow Appalachia and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture provided support for this Field Day.

 
Register Here

 

Building a Small-Scale Family Farm One Year at a Time

Wolf Gap Gardens, Berea KY -- July 9, 2024 -- 9 am - 12 pm ET

Launching a small vegetable farm requires much more than keeping the crops healthy: recordkeeping, finances, marketing, ongoing learning, and countless decisions can overwhelm early farmers. Melinda and Maggie Wilder of Wolf Gap Gardens in Madison County make the process seem smooth and enjoyable. This mother-daughter team launched their certified organic* vegetable production in 2020 on 1/2-acre, adding infrastructure and evolving their crop and product offerings on a consistent and intentional scale. Join this Field Day to visit their DIY greenhouse and high tunnel with rainwater catchment, walk through their summer field crops and rotational cover crops, explore their post-harvest wash-pack area and cold storage, and hear their success stories of securing financial assistance, developing value-added products, and dividing their labor so it fits their individual skills and experience, as well as their off-farm lives. Maggie and Melinda will highlight the production tools they use on their human-powered farm, explain the crop fertility they implement with cover crops, nutrient management and reduced off-farm inputs, and share their whole-farm management and planning activities outside their vegetable production. *The Wilders will also share their farm certification process and experience with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and the Real Organic Project. Grow Appalachia and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture provided support for this Field Day.

 

And More to Come!

Farmer-Focused Field Days, Workshops and Webinars for our farming community

The Organic Association of Kentucky's (OAK) Field Days are on-farm and virtual learning opportunities for farmers, ag professionals and local food system advocates. OAK welcomes farmers from all types and scales of farms - large and small scale, organic and conventional, urban and rural.