Food & Farming Conference

Trying Times:Tools to Understand and Alleviate Farm Stress
Stress factors are on the rise for farmers – all kinds of farmers – who face financial instability, price and marketing uncertainties, farm transfer issues, production challenges, and more. You, or people you care about, might be struggling with stress, anxiety, fear, depression, burnout, feelings of indecision, or suicidal thoughts. In this session, we’ll acknowledge the facets and manifestations of farm stress and explore an NCR SARE-funded project MDA is leading that focuses on navigating conflict and difficult situations, supporting farm youth in stress, and preventing suicide. I'll also talk about a radio and podcast project called "TransFARMation" that we co-created with the Red River Farm Network.

Oat variety trial: increasing profitability for organic producers in the North Central Region
Choosing the right oat variety can have a major impact on revenue per acre as it will affect the both the productivity and marketability of the grain produced. Because chemicals are not used to control weed and pests in organic farming, the choice of variety constitutes an even more important farm management decision than for conventional farming systems. Although oat variety recommendations are available for conventional management system from several public variety testing programs, very limited information on variety performance under organic production system is available. As part of a SARE Partnership grant project, oat variety trials were performed at organic farms located in three states within the North Central Region during two growing seasons. The results will be presented.