Past Events

Beginning Farmer Field Day: Pastured Poultry

• • Originally held: Oct 11, 2022 9am-3pm

  • Synopsis of the event:

    • Over thirty farmers and ag professionals joined HYFC President Liz Brownlee and her husband, Nate, for a full day field day at their farm. This was their ninth year raising animals and selling meat at Nightfall Farm, where they rotationally graze 150 laying hens, 1800 meat chickens, and 175 turkeys each year, plus sheep and pigs. The walking tour of the farm let us look at three different shelter options for pastured poultry, plus different types of fencing, waterers, feeders, and brooders. We saw firsthand how rotational grazing (and labor) works for these different systems, and then retreated to the shade for lunch and a talk from NRCS Grazing Specialist Robert Zupancic about establishing pasture for poultry.

    • Host / Co-hosts / Sponsors / Funders: This field day was hosted by Purdue Extension and co-hosted by HYFC, Partners IN Food and Farming, Urban Soil, and NRCS, with financial support from SARE. 

Beginning Farmer Field Day: Soil Health 

• • Originally held: Oct 4, 2022 9:30-4pm -

  • Synopsis of the event: Over twenty farmers and ag professionals spent the day focused on working with beginning farmers around soil health, including:

  • Classroom: We dove into crop rotations with cover crops and reduced tillage management strategies, and Urban Soil introduced us to a new planning tool to select cover crop species and termination methods in vegetable systems.

  • Farmer Presentation: Lauren McAllister, beginning farmer and manager of Bloomington’s People’s Market shared about her SARE Project – “No Waste Mushroom Cultivation… for small-scale and urban farmers."

  • Tour: We toured Maple Hill Farm and learned from Elliot Dale about his farm’s approach to soil health, and how their practices have evolved over time. We walked the farm, and saw (and felt!) how they bring a new piece of land into crop production with cover crops and rotational grazing. We saw their low-till methods of bed preparation and management, as well as their season extension strategies.

  • Host / Co-hosts / Sponsors / Funders: This field day was hosted by Purdue Extension and co-hosted by HYFC, Partners IN Food and Farming, Urban Soil, and NRCS, with financial support from SARE. 

Beginning Farmer Field Day: Farm Finances and Farm Viability

• • Originally held: Sept 7, 2022

  • Synopsis of the event:

    • • We spent a full day at Schoentrup Farms, gathering over thirty farmers and ag professionals to talk about money: how to know if you’re making any money, when to scale up, and what resources are out there for farmers who want to create financially viable businesses. Olivia and Paul Schoentrup led us on a tour of their 6-acre farm, where they raise chickens, cattle, and pigs on pasture. They’re working hard to show that a small farm like theirs can be genuinely profitable, so each stop focused on grazing practices as well as the financial pro’s and con’s of each animal group. 

  • Host / Co-hosts / Sponsors / Funders: This field day was hosted by Purdue Extension and co-hosted by HYFC, Partners IN Food and Farming, Urban Soil, and NRCS, with financial support from SARE. 

    • • Sponsored by FarmBelt Financial, an Indiana based agricultural lender dedicated to family farms. They regularly work with FSA loans, and they want to see beginning farmers thrive.