By Del Ficke, Owner and Operator of Ficke Cattle Company This letter was originally published in The Future of Family Farms: Practical Farmers’ Legacy Letter Project To my future generations: In 1860, Johann Ficke made the trip from Germany to settle in the United States. Just nine years later, after first arriving in Wisconsin, he found a … Read More
Beginning Farmers
Access to Land: Farm Legacy Letters
By Teresa Opheim, Editor of The Future of Family Farms: Practical Farmers’ Legacy Letter Project About five years ago, a farmer stopped during a farm tour and confided that he worried that his son would not be able to continue farming. The farmer’s land-owning mother had just died, and her farmland was being divided among her children. … Read More
Access to Efficiency: Kolousek Family & Intensive Grazing
By Lura Roti, South Dakota Farmers Union Shadowing an engineer for a few days his sophomore year of college was all the exposure Scott Kolousek needed to realize he would be happier building a career on his family’s Wessington Springs cattle and crop farm. “That experience saved me a lot of time pursuing the wrong … Read More
Access to Capital: Red Dog Farm & Farm Credit
By Karyn Williams, owner of Red Dog Farm I didn’t grow up in a farming family. In fact, I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle. My great-grandparents were farmers, back in Missouri, during the Dust Bowl years. When they moved out west with my then-6-year-old grandmother, I suspect they wished for a non-farming life for their … Read More
Access to Capital: Farm Credit
By Jimmy Dula, NFU Intern In previous weeks, the Beginning Farm Forum’s has presented several ways that beginning farmers and ranchers can access capital, including the Farm Service Agency and crowdfunding. Today, we’re examining Farm Credit, a national organization made up of over 70, member-owned cooperative associations that provide financial services to farmers, ranchers and rural business across the U.S. Farm Credit … Read More
Access to Land: Christensen Farm Family & Succession Planning
By Lura Roti, South Dakota Farmers Union Ask Marlow Christensen and his three sons, Dale, Don and Doug, why they chose farming as a career and their responses are similar. “It’s all we’ve ever known,” explains Dale, who, like his younger brothers, joined the family operation full-time right out of high school. His brother, Don, … Read More
Access to Markets: LocalFood App
By Elise Rothman, Founder of LocalMotive Is there a proven strategy to boost demand and revenue for local food? And if so, can the local food shift be measured? LocalMotive, a Public Benefit Corp out of Manitou Springs, Colorado, thinks they may have the answers. In 2015, they piloted LocalFood, a mobile application (“app”) that uses … Read More
Access to Land: Boulder County Land Lease Program
By Jimmy Dula, NFU Intern, and Vanessa McCracken, Agricultural Resource Specialist for Boulder County Parks & Open Space Boulder County, whose most populous city is the eponymous Boulder, Colorado, is home to the University of Colorado Buffs, and is infamous for an expansive population of tree hugging, rock loving, spiritually centered citizens. In the 1970’s, an intergovernmental … Read More
Access to Land: Farming on County Property
By Jimmy Dula, NFU Intern As land values in many parts of the county continue to rise, and as urban development threatens rural landscapes, county governments have begun taking stewardship of farmland and its development rights in order to make the land available to farmers. Though programs vary in structure and funding, they share the … Read More
Access to Markets: Organic Q&A With Harrison Topp
By Jimmy Dula, NFU Intern Harrison Topp, NFU member and Director of Membership for Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, is the operator of Topp Fruits in Paonia, Colorado. Topp holistically manages the stone fruit orchard, giving special consideration to environmental stewardship and resource management. The orchard first received organic certification two years ago. In this Q&A, Harrison … Read More