Project Overview
Annual Reports
Commodities
- Agronomic: grass (misc. perennial), hay
- Fruits: melons, apples, apricots, berries (other), berries (blueberries), berries (brambles), cherries, citrus, grapes, olives, peaches, pears, plums, berries (strawberries)
- Nuts: walnuts
- Vegetables: beans, beets, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucurbits, eggplant, garlic, greens (leafy), leeks, onions, parsnips, peas (culinary), peppers, radishes (culinary), sweet corn, tomatoes
- Additional Plants: herbs, native plants, ornamentals, trees
- Animals: bovine, poultry, goats, swine, sheep
Practices
- Animal Production: grazing - continuous, free-range, grazing management, grazing - multispecies, grazing - rotational, stocking rate, watering systems, feed/forage
- Crop Production: conservation tillage
- Education and Training: demonstration, farmer to farmer, networking, workshop
- Farm Business Management: whole farm planning, new enterprise development, budgets/cost and returns, marketing management, risk management, value added
- Natural Resources/Environment: habitat enhancement, hedgerows, wetlands, wildlife
- Pest Management: biological control, integrated pest management, mating disruption, mulching - vegetative
- Production Systems: organic agriculture, transitioning to organic
- Soil Management: organic matter, soil analysis, soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: leadership development, partnerships, employment opportunities, social networks, sustainability measures
Abstract:
The Sierra CRAFT project, in the foothills of Northern California, focused on training beginning and existing farmers and ranchers in sustainable production, marketing and business practices through farmer-to farmer training. Training occurred primarily through on-farm workshops where producers shared their expertise and results of their own on-farm testing of various practices. In addition, Sierra CRAFT has fostered networking among producers through these workshops, a business planning short course, as well as a farmer moderated listserv. In addition, a clearinghouse website, "Foothill Farming," became a critical source of information for farmers across the region.
Project objectives:
•Develop and implement a farmer-to-farmer network supported by a listserv to facilitate communication. Listserv is moderated by a Farmer-Coordinator.
•Gather and prioritize educational and on-farm research topics from regional producers for farm field day workshops. Workshops are hosted on area farms and coordinated by a Farmer-Coordinator.
•Provide eight to ten on-farm field days at area farms, including farms participating in collaborative on-farm research. Prepare research-based information sheets relevant to each field day.
•Implement farm business planning training for 10-18 producers.
•Provide beginning farming training to beginning farmers and ranchers and farm interns.