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Farmer Online Resources

Organizations | Online Resources by Category

Helpful Organizations

  • Rodale Institute, NewFarm
    NewFarm presents compelling success stories with expert resources for crop and livestock production, direct marketing, local food systems, policy campaigns and community building collaborations. 611 Siegriedale Rd, Kutztown, PA 19530, (610) 683-1416

Online Resources by Category

Farming | Insurance/Finances | Land/Soil | Marketing | Processing

Farming

  • Conservation Compliance: A 25-Year Legacy of Stewardship (5 MB PDF)
    Former USDA Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley explains how conservation compliance has helped save millions of wetland acres while keeping billions of tons of soil on farms by requiring farmers to implement conservation measures in return for federally funded farm support. This report, created February 2013, explains the benefits of Conservation Compliance, and urges Congress to include conservation initiatives in the 2013 farm bill.
  • Cover Crop Decision Tools
    A team of cover crop experts from the Midwest Cover Crop Council has created a web-based system of Cover Crop Decision Tools to help farmers select the best cover crops for their area. The online tools walk farmers through the process of choosing their region, soil drainage class and goals such as finding soil builders, nitrogen sources, weed fighters and forage harvest values. The tools deliver recommendations of various cover crop species and their optimal planting date windows based on 30-year average frost dates in the user’s county.

  • Crop Rotation on Organic Farms: A Planning Manual
    SARE Outreach announces a new planning resource for farmers seeking sound, science-based guidelines for managing crop rotations in organic farming. Download a free copy or order a $30 hardcopy by calling 301-374-9696 or order online www.sare.org/WebStore.

  • Driftwatch™ registry
    Certified organic growers in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois can register their land in the Driftwatch™ registry managed by Purdue University. The program uses Google Maps to identify organic fields so commercial applicators know which areas to avoid.
  • eOrganic
    eOrganic website provides scientific, experience, and certification based information on organic farming for farmers, extension agents, agricultural professionals, and the general public. eOrganic provides articles, videos, webinars, and an ask-an-expert service, all which are free, peer reviewed, and checked for compliance with organic certification regulations. Topics include dairy farming, soils, weeds, disease, and pest management, vegetable production, and organic certification and marketing.
  • Fact Sheet: Organic Farming Practices
    The     USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) has published a fact sheet explaining changes to the federal crop insurance program for organic farming practices. These changes include eliminating the 5% organic surcharge and changes to theTransitional yields* (T-Yield) offered to organic producers beginning with crop year 2014. RMA is also working toward having organic prices in crop year 2014 or 2015 for almonds, apples, barley, blueberries, oats, pears, additional stonefruits, table grapes and wheat.

    A transitional yield, in this instance, does not refer to the yields during the transition to certified organic production. For crop insurance purposes, a T-yield is an average yield for a county, determined by RMA in the collection of producer data, which may be used to substitute for low yields in a producer's yield history ('yield substitutions') or to ensure an overall minimum level of insurance coverage. The purpose of the T-Yield is to minimize the downward impact on insurance coverage that can occur after an unusually bad year, or series of years.

  • Fact Sheet: Organic Livestock Requirements
    The National Organic Program has created a fact sheet covering the standards for livestock, allowed and prohibited substances, pasture requirements, and benefits of paster-based management.
  • The On-Farm Food Safety Project website offers resources to help fruit and vegetable farmers ensure their produce is safe to eat. The website includes a an online tool to create a customized on-farm food safety plan.

  • Online Organic Grower Guides
    Online organic resources for growing apples, beans, carrots, grapes, and more from Cornell University. (Although these guides were written primarily for New York growers, the recommendations are applicable to growers in other humid regions.)

  • Organic Feed Mills and Suppliers
    A comprehensive list organized by state, provided by CROPP Cooperative.

  • Organic Livestock Feed Processing Basics
    MN Department of Agriculture FACT SHEET (4 page PDF)

  • Organic Seed Finder
    The centralized database offers a way for organic growers to find reliable sources for organic seed. Seed vendors pay a fee to post on the site, which provides free access to growers. The site was created to make it easier to find certified organic seeds and to expand overall organic production. Created by the Organic Seed Alliance and the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies.

  • Profitable Poultry: Raising Birds on Pasture
    16-page publication from SARE is available free online and in print.

  • Roadmap for Increased Cover Crop Adoption
    The National Wildlife Federation has released a report from a June 2012 meeting that brought together 36 of the leading experts in cover crops in the Midwest and Great Plains. These farmers, scientists, extension specialists, and policy experts met for two days to discuss what they saw as the biggest barriers to expanded cover crop adoption. The “Roadmap” they developed for addressing these barriers is the first step toward achieving the goal of 100 million acres of cover crops by 2025.

  • Rodale Institute and NewFarm "Transition to Organic" online course
    A 15-hour, multi-step program designed to help you understand the National Organic Standards

  • Transitioning to Organic Production
    Sustainable Ag. Network 32-page PDF
    Publication includes an intro to organic farming, 4 organic farmer profiles,
    the economics of organic production, how to begin transitioning, and more.

  • Transplant Production Decision Tool
    A new online tool can help vegetable growers in the Upper Midwest select the best system for transplant production on their farm. Producing transplants allows farmers to mitigate risk and get a jumpstart on the growing season. Transplants are germinated and grown in a controlled environment and then replanted in the field. This new online tool provides information about options, challenges and costs for every step of this process, from choosing a growing tray to ‘hardening’ the plants for field conditions.

    The tool includes profiles of six vegetable farms in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, as well as photo galleries of infrastructure, equipment and crops. A one-page matrix summarizes the costs, skill level, benefits and drawbacks of various options for transplant equipment.

    The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture awarded a grant to the Iowa Organic Association to compile the online tool. Chris Blanchard, organic farmer and consultant (Flying Rutabaga Works), developed the Transplant Production Decision Tool.


Insurance / Finances

  • Crop Insurance Information
    Find out how to best utilize the federal crop insurance program for your organic operation.

  • Fact Sheet: Organic Farming Practices
    The     USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) has published a fact sheet explaining changes to the federal crop insurance program for organic farming practices. These changes include eliminating the 5% organic surcharge and changes to theTransitional yields* (T-Yield) offered to organic producers beginning with crop year 2014. RMA is also working toward having organic prices in crop year 2014 or 2015 for almonds, apples, barley, blueberries, oats, pears, additional stonefruits, table grapes and wheat.

  • Farm Employment FAQ Available Online
    Practical Farmers of Iowa offers "Farm Employment FAQ," to help Iowa farmers and farm workers better understand their rights and responsibilities as employers and employees. The resource functions as a starting point for farmers and workers to find answers to common questions and links to other resources. The goal of the FAQ is to help farmers gain more insight into how to comply with state and federal labor laws.
  • Prevented Planting Insurance Provisions
    This year's late spring in most parts of the upper Midwest has delayed planting to the point where crops could be planted well after the final planting date specified in a farmer's crop insurance policy. This fact sheet from the USDA Risk Management Agency explains a farmer's options when delayed planting occurs.

For additional finance and insurance resources, visit the Funds for Farmers.

Land / Soil

  • Conservation Compliance: A 25-Year Legacy of Stewardship (5 MB PDF)
    Former USDA Deputy Secretary Jim Moseley explains how conservation compliance has helped save millions of wetland acres while keeping billions of tons of soil on farms by requiring farmers to implement conservation measures in return for federally funded farm support. This report explains the benefits of Conservation Compliance, and urges Congress to include conservation initiatives in the 2013 farm bill.
  • Current and Future Prospects For Biodegradable Plastic Mulch in Certified Organic Production Systems
    Extension experts from Washington State University, the University of Tennessee and Texas Tech explain how biodegradable plastic mulches are made; how biodegradability is measured; current techniques on evaluating biodegradable mulches; and research and policy progress to date. The purpose is to inform agricultural professionals, farmers, and policy makers about the suitability of biodegradable plastic mulches for use in certified organic agriculture.

    In October 2012, the National Organic Standards Board recommended that biodegradable mulch be added to the National Organic Program's list of approved substances. NOP has stated it is working to include this on the approved synthetic list for crops, sometime in the next year.  The NOSB recommendation is:

    §205.601(b)(2) Mulches:
    (iii) Biodegradable biobased mulch films to be reviewed meet the following criteria:

    (A) Completely biodegradable as shown by:

    1. meeting the requirements of ASTM Standard D6400 or D6868 specifications, or of other international standard specifications with essentially identical criteria, i.e. EN 13432, EN 14995, ISO 17088; and
    2. Showing at least 90% biodegradation in soil absolute or relative to microcrystalline cellulose in less than two years, in soil, tested according to ISO 17556 or ASTM 5988;

    (B) Must be biobased with content determined using the ASTM D6866 method;
    (C) Must be produced without organisms or feedstock derived from excluded methods; and
    (D) Grower must take appropriate actions to ensure complete degradation.

    Biobased: organic material in which carbon is derived from a renewable resource via biologicalprocesses. Biobased materials include all plant and animal mass derived from carbon dioxide recently fixed via photosynthesis, per definition of a renewable resource (ASTM).

  • Healthy, Productive Soils: Checklist for Growers (4 MB PDF)
    This checklist from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) can help farmers increase crop production and profitability by managing for soil health. The 2-page PDF shows the benefits of various types of soil health management systems and covers the four basic principles for improving soil health:
    1. Keep the soil covered as much as possible.
    2. Disturb the soil as little as possible.
    3. Keep plants growing throughout the year to feed the soil.
    4. Diversify as much as possible using crop rotation and cover crops.

  • Farmers' Guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program
    A guide to the Conservation Stewardship Program from National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). It is available for download at their website.
  • Managed Grazing's Effects on Soil Quality and Structure
    A long-term southern Wisconsin cropping systems study shows that soils under managed grazing have a number of positive characteristics compared to soils under other cropping systems. The Wisconsin Integrated Cropping Systems Trial (WICST) provided data on three cash grain cropping systems and three forage systems. The study found some interesting differences between the systems in terms of erosion potential, earthworm counts, water stable aggregates, soil carbon, and the Soil Quality Index.

  • The Web Soil Survey
    Provides soil data and information produced by the National Cooperative Soil Survey. It is operated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and provides access to the largest natural resource information system in the world. NRCS has soil maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation's counties and anticipates having 100 percent in the near future. The site is updated and maintained online as the single authoritative source of soil survey information.

  • Unlock the Secrets in the Soil
    The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offers a series of fact sheets on soil managemen

Marketing

  • Project Produce has published a local food prospectus showing opportunities for scaled-up fruit and vegetable production in the Tri-State region (Wis., Ill., and Iowa), resulting from changes in the food market due to rising gas prices and decreased subsidization. The project, funded by a USDA Rural Business Opportunity Grant, is a joint venture of Southwestern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, East Central Intergovernmental Association in Iowa, and the Tri-County Economic Development Alliance in Illinois.

For additional marketing resources, visit the Farm Finances page of our website.

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