Oklahoma Beginning Farmer and Rancher Program
Course Topics
Kerr Center specialists will lead the Saturday workshops with guest teachers from OSU Extension. Kerr staff has expertise in agronomy, animal science, agricultural economics, horticulture, and natural resource management.
Planning for Success
- Enterprise development
- Business plans and budgets
- Recordkeeping
- Whole Farm/Ranch plan
- Goal setting
- Intro to marketing
Horticulture
The Kerr Center's certified organic Cannon Horticulture Plots will be the site of training. The system used there will be the model for course content. The farms of those participating in the course do not have to be certified organic.
- Planning
- Acquisition of supplies
- Ground Preparation
- Fertilization
- Compost/compost tea
- Biochar
- Vermicomposting
- Organic compliance
- Grazing vs. mowing
- Variety selection
- Irrigation
- Weed management
- Insect/disease management
- Harvest and post-harvest management
- Equipment maintenance
- Marketing
Livestock
The Kerr Center's livestock projects include cattle, meat goats, chickens and hogs. Information on how we raise these animals will form the basis of course content.
- Grazing/Forages
- Birthing
- Breeding
- Herd health
- Fencing—permanent and polywire
- Water systems
- Culling
- Genetics—animal selection
- Multi-species grazing
- Equipment
Ensuring your farm is sustainable
- Managing natural resources on the farm
- Pillars of sustainability
- Resilient production systems
- Water/Riparian area management
- Native pollinators/Wildlife/Agroforestry
More Information:
This project was supported by Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Competitive Grant no. 2011-49400-30525 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
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