Farm Beginnings Training
Farm Beginnings is Kansas Rural Center’s farmer-led training program to help guide beginning farmers and ranchers on their journey to establishing sustainable and economically sound farm and ranch businesses and achieve their goals. Our program is focused on being farmer led, community based, prioritizing racial equity, and emphasizing sustainable agriculture. Farm Beginnings is designed for new and prospective farmers who want to plan a profitable farm business. Students do not need to currently own or lease land, but some farming or production experience is helpful to get the most out of the class. KRC is a part of the Farm Beginnings Collaborative, and national network of organizations that offer Farm Beginnings trainings.
What’s in the class?
The Kansas Rural Center is excited to address that need and is happy to announce that enrollment is open for our very first “Farm Beginnings” training, which will run for eight weeks from January 15 – March 10.
The course will be centered around:
Whole Farm Business Planning
You’ll reflect on your past farm experience, set goals, and develop a business plan that you can use to build a strong foundation for your farm. Across the 8-week class, participants will:
Clarify their values and establish quality of life goals.
Learn about whole farm planning, marketing, and financing from experienced farmers and other technical experts.
Write a farm business plan.
Cohort Based
Learn alongside and network with other beginning farmers and ranchers from across Kansas.
Learn in a Hybrid Environment
Recognizing that your time is finite and costs are high, we want to remove barriers to participation while also helping you build networks by offering a hybrid curriculum. We’ll meet in person several times over the duration of the course, with all other lessons available virtually to save you time, gas, and stress.
On Farm Field Days
Visit successful and innovative agricultural producers in the region and learn from their on-farm successes, challenges, and adaptations to keep their businesses running strong.
Some of the primary challenges beginning farmers or ranchers face are accessing land or capital to start and expand their agricultural businesses, but a need that sometimes goes unaddressed is business planning and management training to help start that business and keep it running sustainably once it’s off the ground.
This course will take participants through analysis of their farm dreams and ways to manage their businesses to better make those dreams come true. Sessions each week will build business skills and at the end of the course farmers will present their business plan to the class and have it available for future planning or to take to lenders for financing. Though some classes will be conducted in-person, online attendance will be available for all sessions. The course cost is $300 and scholarships are available. We don’t want financial burden to prevent farmers from participating in our program, so please reach out to Ryan at ryangr@kansasruralcenter.org for scholarship options or any questions about the program.
Visit https://kansasruralcenter.org/farmbeginnings to check out the course schedule, learn more, and enroll.
We hope you’ll join us!
Article by: Ryan Goertzen-Regier, Program and Administrative Manager, Kansas Rural Center