By KEVIN WALKER
Michigan Correspondent EAST LANSING, Mich. — A 15-webinar series designed for beginning farmers will take place Wednesday evenings Jan. 17-April 25 – anyone wanting to register for a webinar may do so even if it has already taken place. The webinars, 30-60 minutes each, will address basic crop, livestock and marketing issues. Participants will get an overview of a variety of farming enterprises and topics, and have an opportunity through live, online chat to ask questions of Michigan State University and other agriculture experts. Each live webinar presentation begins at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a chat-based question and answer session with the presenter. A $5 fee will be charged for each webinar in the series, or $37.50 – half off – for the full 15-part series. Beginning farmer webinar series manager Jim Isleib said people who are hard-pressed for money may have the fee waived. “We don’t want anyone not take the course due to money issues,” Isleib, an MSU extension specialist, explained. The Beginning Farmer Series started in 2012 in northern Michigan as in-person meetings for people in northern Michigan. Isleib is based out of Munising in the Upper Peninsula, near Lake Superior. “Since then it’s grown into a wider region,” he explained. “It’s been very successful. We decided to expand it online. Most of the participants now are from Lower Michigan, and we also have people from out of state.” He said there have been as many as 20 webinars in a series. This year, “we have 15 webinars. A lot of times farming is something people have thought about and wanted to do. They might not even be doing it now. A lot of people are very new.” He added that people often inherit property and want to find something to do with the land. Isleib noted there are about 60 archived beginning farmer webinars available on the MSU website. The courses may be registered for at any time. If the session has already taken place, the student will get a link to the recorded program. The webinars will be delivered on the ZOOM Webinar platform – a high-speed Internet connection and connection information will be emailed to registered participants prior to each webinar. The webinars will be given by MSU extension specialists and other experts. Other extension webinars on tap include a series on Agricultural Solar Electric Investment Analysis. This six-part series will go into detail about the feasibility of solar installations on the farm. Each 60- minute webinar will be taught by Eric Romich of Ohio State University extension and John Hay of the University of Nebraska extension. Charles Gould of MSU extension will moderate. If interested, hurry to register, as the deadline is Jan. 24. The fee for the webinar series is $10 for each session, or $40 for all six. “We had a heck of a discussion last night with some very knowledgeable people,” Gould said last week after the first webinar. “It was a good discussion.” Unfortunately, due to the logistics of administering the class, he said he can’t extend the registration deadline past Jan. 24. Of other webinars geared towards the farming community, some are available after the presentation dates. See the web page listed below for details. MSU extension will also host an in-person meeting on Soybean Management and Research Technology (SMART) at different locations across the state. The results of the 2017 SMART on-farm research projects will be presented and participants will learn about other checkoff-funded research, as well as soybean cyst nematodes. Time will be made available for questions, comments and discussion. The Michigan soybean checkoff program is covering all costs; however, program management requests that people register by following the link on the web page provided below, or by calling 877-769-6424. Identify the location of the program desired, along with your name, telephone number and number of people attending. These meetings each start at 8:45 a.m. and end with a complimentary lunch: •Jan. 24, The Brentwood Restaurant, 178 Park Dr., Caro, MI 48723 •Feb. 6, The Trestle Stop Restaurant, 3366 M-40, Hamilton, MI 49419 •Feb. 7, Wagon Wheel American Grill, 7888 E. Grand River Ave., Portland, MI 48875 •Feb. 9, Dowagiac Conservation Club, 54551 M-51 North, Dowagiac, MI 49047 For more information about the webinars and SMART meetings, go online to http://msue.anr.msu.edu/events/beginning_farmer_webinar_series_2018 To access the archived Beginning Farmer webinars, go to http://msue.anr.msu.edu/program/info/beginning_farmer_webinar_series |
