Stateline Farm Beginnings®
The 2008-2009 Session of Farm Beginnings is Now SOLD OUT!
You can read or download the information packet here.
Please email joanne@learngrowconnect.org to be added to the waitlist for 2009-2010. Or, join CRAFT and get first notification next year when enrollment begins.
Stateline Farm Beginnings® is a farmer-led training and support program designed to help people plan and launch sustainable farm businesses. Since 2005, graduates of the program have launched more than 20 new sustainable farms in our region!
Through Farm Beginnings®, you can:
- Tap the knowledge of some of the most innovative and skilled farmers operating in the Midwest.
- Develop lifelong friendships and networks with other beginning farmers.
- Learn critical farm management skills such as creative financing and innovative marketing strategies.
- Receive mentoring from a farmer engaged in a similar enterprise.
- See sustainable farming practices being used on real farms under a variety of conditions.
- Learn to view a farm as an interconnected system and learn how goals determine farming practices.
- Access opportunities for land and equipment use and/or rental.
- Craft a tailor-made farming/business plan.
Stateline Farm Beginnings® serves northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin. Click here for Central Illinois Farm Beginnings® (you will be taken to a separate site).
The one-year Stateline Farm Beginnings® program has three components:
- Winter course (October to March): ten business planning sessions from that focus on goal-setting and planning for profit.
- Training events: CRAFT monthly field day workshops (April to October) at sustainable farms around the region and discounts on workshops offered through our partner Michael Fields Agricultural Institute.
- Mentoring from a successful sustainable farmer in your field of interest. Mentoring arrangements are flexible, taking employment and family situations into account. Students may or may not be paid, depending on the agreement between the mentor and apprentice.
Stateline Farm Beginnings® is a collaboration of Angelic Organics Learning Center, the Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT), The Land Connection, the Land Stewardship Project, and other partners.
For more information, contact Parker Forsell, Program Director, at 815.389.8455 or craft@learngrowconnect.org.
All Farm Beginnings® material was developed by the Land Stewardship Project based on the experiences of their farmer members. It is used by permission under license. To learn more, visit www.landstewardshipproject.org. Stateline Farm Beginnings® adapts these original materials based on the experiences of its CRAFT member farmers.
