Program Updates
Enroll Now for Small Farms Online Course Season This Winter
Are you interested in improving your technical or business skills to benefit your farm dreams? Consider joining one of our online courses during live instruction this online course season.
Our growing team of online course instructors includes experienced farmers, extension educators, and agriculture service providers. Courses are offered on a user-friendly platform, which grants registrants permanent access to their course content including webinars, videos, and resources. In our ongoing commitment to equitable access to education, we have maintained tiered pricing for our courses based on household size and income. We also offer scholarships for eligible farmers in New York who face an entry barrier to farming.
Registration is now open for all courses, with live content starting in mid-January for our third block of courses:
Mondays: January 13 – February 17
It can be very difficult to navigate the process of getting grants or loans, especially if you did not come to farming with a background in finance. This course will cover the various aspects of seeking funding for a farm enterprise.
Tuesdays: January 14 – February 18
If you’ve been struggling to make your farm operation profitable without driving yourself into the ground, this financial planning course is for you. You will learn how to make financial decisions toward farm and family values and goals.
Indoor Specialty Mushroom Production
Tuesdays: January 14 – February 18
Mushrooms are an emerging niche crop and can easily be grown. This course trains new and experienced farmers in the background, techniques, marketing, and economics of farm-scale indoor commercial production.
Martes: 14 de enero – 18 de febrero
¿Tiene una idea para una empresa agrícola pero no está seguro de si es factible? Este curso le ayudará a explorar los mercados potenciales y la rentabilidad de sus ideas, retomando el punto donde lo dejó BF 101: Como Iniciar su Negocios Agrícola. (Si no tomo BF 101, no hay problema, aun así puede tomar BF 102).
Wednesdays: January 15 – February 19
Interested in incorporating goats for dairy, meat, or fiber? Goats can function as a profitable stand-alone enterprise or can be integrated into your existing farm structure to provide a variety of products and make use of marginal lands that would otherwise go unused.
Wednesdays: January 15 – February 19
Continue where Vegetable Production I leaves off – expand upon production from transplanting to harvest, including information on in-season fertility, integrated pest management, weed control options, harvesting strategies, and tips for marketing your products.
Exploring Markets and Profits
Thursdays: January 16 – February 20
Have an idea for a farm enterprise but not sure if it’s feasible? This course will help you explore the potential markets and profitability of your ideas, picking up where BF 101: Starting at Square One (not a prerequisite) left off.
Thursdays: January 16 – February 20
Have sheep or thinking about getting a flock? Producers of all experience levels will find something for them in this lively, wide-ranging course. There is no one right way to raise sheep — this course covers many of these different options.
The bulk of the course happens on your own time, with discussions, readings, and assignments in Teachable, our online course platform. To add to the experience, webinars will be woven into the interface of the course for a dedicated time slot each year to allow you to meet on a weekly basis to learn from presenters and ask questions in real-time. If you miss one, they are always recorded and posted for later viewing.
You can browse all of our course offerings on our website: https://smallfarmcourses.com/
Share Your Farm’s Experiences with Extreme Weather and Climate Change
We know that small farms in urban and rural places have been impacted by extreme weather events in the recent past. How have you adapted or plan to change your farming strategies to meet these challenges?
We are asking farmers to participate in our climate resilience survey to help us develop trainings and technical resources to help you adapt to climate variability. This survey asks questions about your current practices, as well as your awareness of climate-resilient farming strategies.
This is the first survey of its kind for New York State, and we especially want to hear from small farms and historically underserved farmers. The purpose of this research is to assess:
- the production systems, barriers, and future interests of participants
- the level of awareness and implementation of climate resilience farming practices of participants
- the awareness and concern that climate change and extreme weather may cause to the farming enterprises of participants
Our work on climate resilience at the Cornell Small Farms Program has grown and diversified over the years, and is now expanding further to meet the goals of the NY Connects: Climate Smart Farms and Forests Project Grant from New York State. Help us build a more climate-resilient small farm sector!
Participation in this survey is voluntary and should take about 15 minutes to complete. It is available in both English and Spanish. Your response will be kept confidential. Information gathered through this survey will be summarized across all responses before sharing. If you would be interested in entering a drawing for a free Small Farms online course, please follow the link at the end of the survey.
If you have questions, please contact María José Oviedo (mo488@cornell.edu) or Connor Youngerman (czy2@cornell.edu) from the Cornell Small Farms Program.
