What Will Help YOU Succeed?
Beginning vegetable farmer Kate Edwards once told us "Breaking into farming is hard and without support, impossible. Proven organizations like PFI are incredibly important. Having the support of PFI has enabled me to be a successful farmer."

Let your voice be heard, In order to provide effective programming, we need to hear from the beginning and aspiring farmers in our network.


We only ask you to do this every few years, and it is a critical part of our process for planning and improving what we do. Complete your survey before April 2 to enter into a drawing for one of five PFI totes, including PFI gear and a copy of "Building a Sustainable Business".
Labor4Learning Positions are now Listed
Are you considering a career in farming? Do you hope to get paid, on-farm training before you dive in on your own?  Our Labor4Learning program is designed for aspiring farmers seeking employment and additional training in farm management and production skills.

Experienced farmers participating in the Labor4Learning program in 2019 represent a wide range of enterprises and production practices for aspiring farmers to choose from.

Grinnell Heritage Farm is one of 16 trainer farms hiring in 2019 . Farmer Andy Dunham says,


"If I could give my younger self some advice, it would be to work for other farms for longer than I did. Many of my initial beginning farmer mistakes could have been avoided or much less costly."
Check out these resources for beginning farmers
We have recently updated our collection of business, financial, production, and technical assistance resources to help aspiring and beginning farmers further their business goals. You can access them by clicking on the icons below.
We will continue to build this list and add new resources as they are available. If you see any resources missing that you find helpful please share them with us. You can send them to Greg Padget at greg@practicalfarmers.org .
This session will is a crash course in the basics of starting a cover crop seed business. Mac Ehrhardt of Albert Lea Seed first discusses seed laws and intellectual property considerations, including licensing and plant variety protection. Dean Sponheim shares how he started a “one-stop shop” for cover crop seeding, including paperwork, contracting seed, equipment and logistics.
After starting, transplanting, watering, weeding, harvesting, washing, packing and working five hours at the farmers market, you’ve sold some tomatoes for $3 per pound. Did you make any money? Emily and Scott have both done extensive enterprise budgets for the crops on their farms. In this session, they share their enterprise budgets and the processes they used – in the field and on the computer – to find their bottom lines (and improve them!).
Are you a beginning farmer looking for farmland to start or expand your operation? Are you a landowner interested in selling or leasing your land to someone who shares your vision for the future? FindAFarmer.net was created by Practical Farmers of Iowa to help maintain family farms and vibrant rural communities by facilitating the transfer of land from one generation to the next.
UPCOMING PFI EVENTS
March 26:   Field Day -   Cover Crops
4 - 7 p.m. | Fort Dodge

March 27:   Field Day -   Cover Crops
4 - 7 p.m. | Prairie City

April 2:   Field Day -  Cover Crops
4 - 7 p.m. | Osage

April 3:   Field Day -   Cover Crops
4 - 7 p.m. | Orange City

April 4:   Field Day -  Cover Crops
4 - 7 p.m. | Epworth
April 4:   Shared Learning Call -   Small Grains 12 - 1 p.m.

April 11:   Play -   Map of My Kingdom Performance
7 - 8:30 p.m. | Okoboji

April 11:   Play -   Farmland Legacy Letter Workshop
11 a.m. - 1 p.m. | Milford

April 11:   Play -   Map of My Kingdom Performance
2 - 3:30 p.m. | Waterloo
PFI Beginning Farmer Programs
Labor4Learning 
Labor4Learning helps beginning farmers get paid on-the-job training with experienced farmers, and pays experienced farmers for their time and effort.

Saving Incentive Program
Savings Incentive Program is a 2 - year program that pairs beginning and aspiring farmers with experienced farmer mentors; provides targeted learning and peer networking opportunities; offers business planning support and guidance. All this while you save money and then we match is dollar for dollar up to $2,400, to use toward the purchase of a farm asset. 

Find A Farmer
Find A Farmer allows for a comfortable place to start anonymous conversations with land-seekers or landowners. Search for users in a particular area that fit your specifications and begin the discussion.

Find A Farmer is FREE and available for anyone with internet access! No membership is required.
 
Looking for more? Contact us today!
Greg Padget
Next Generation Director
(515) 232-5661
Steve Carlson 
Next Generation Coordinator
(515) 232-5661