Spring Newsletter
The spring 2013 issue of the Kerr Center newsletter, Field Notes, is now online. A major workshop this spring brings soil health specialist Steve Diver back to the ranch to teach participants how to use their own farms' resources to increase fertility with compost, compost teas, and biochar. Will Lathrop has returned to the ranch as Cattle Manager, and the Oklahoma Beginning Farmer & Rancher Program is off and rolling in its second year. Keep up with the latest publications and online resources, with in-depth looks at the heirloom sweet potato trial report series, and seed and supply guides. Find out how you can become a Friend of the Kerr Center, and more! Read about all this and more!

Beginning Farmer & Rancher Program Course Materials
Presentations and handouts from both the livestock and horticulture tracks of the Oklahoma Beginning Farmer and Rancher classes are available free in electronic form anyone interested in getting a feel for the content of the course.  Materials are from the 2012 classes, and are being updated with each new session in 2013, including expanded slideshow and video offerings, including...

Video: How to Take a Soil Sample: Tools, Techniques and Tips
In this 15-minute segment, filmed on location at the Kerr Center, Horticulture Manager George Kuepper walks viewers through the basic process of taking a soil sample for analysis at a soil testing laboratory.

Slideshow: Starting Seeds and Transplanting
This presentation by former Horticulture Program Assistant Luke Freeman takes viewers from selecting containers and growth media through germination to transplanting into the field.

2011 Flour and Meal Corn Demonstration
Flour corn - the kind used to make flour and meal for tortillas, cornbread, muffins, tamales, grits, and the host of other basic American and ethnic foods - grows best in drier climates, and can mold in the warmer, moister climate of southeastern Oklahoma. This publication reports the results of a trial of four heirloom flour corn varieties: Virginia White Gourdseed, Hickory King, Santo Domingo Blue, and Texas Gourdseed.

2011 Organic No-Till Pumpkin Demonstration
This report details a demonstration planting of pumpkins grown organically in no-till conditions. Some of the varieties included were heirlooms. A comparison of warm-season cover crops is also included.

2012 Three Sisters Trial
This report recounts the 2012 season's effort to integrate the traditional Native American Three Sisters planting scheme - corn, beans, and squash - into the organic system design of the Cannon Horticulture Plots. The trialed varieties included flour corn (Texas Gourdseed), pole beans (Kentucky Wonder, Hidatsa Shield Figure, True Red Cranberry, Turkey Craw), winter squash (Waltham Butternut, Table Queen Acorn), and pumpkins (Seminole, Cinderella).

2012 Heirloom Variety Trial Report: Sweet Potatoes
In 2010 the Kerr Center received a 3-year USDA Specialty Crop Grant to investigate and demonstrate small-scale heirloom sweet potato growing. The 2010 work identified most of the production practices to be used in subsequent trials and demonstrations. The latest publication reports on follow-up work in 2012: more thorough, replicated variety trials.

Sweet Sorghum: Production and Processing
This perennial favorite on the Kerr Center publications list , first published in 1992, is now available in electronic format.

Native Pollinator Habitat Workshop Materials
Presentations and handouts from the May 17 workshop on native pollinator habitat.  These include guides to pollinator plants in Arkansas and Oklahoma and habitat assessment guides for on-farm use.

Resilient Farmer Workshop Materials
Handouts from the April 28 Resilient Farmer workshop.  These include a guide to compost sources in Oklahoma and Arkansas, and fact sheets about the soil food web.