WHAT IS WWW.FARMTENDER.US AND WHY?
I grew up on a farm but I disliked it intensely. I was away from farming for thirty years. I finally acquired some land in my early fifties with an eye toward figuring out how to integrate wildlife habitat with agriculture. Initially, out of ignorance, I rented to two conventional farmers. Then my brother introduced me to “Grass camp”—the Tallgrass Grazing School put on by the Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition, and I attended for several years. Grass camp led me to NoTill on the Plains, and I thought I finally had an answer for what was wrong with the way I grew up farming, and how to integrate habitat and agriculture.
I came back from one NoTilll conference and told the young farmer on my eastern farms that we were switching to soil health principles. He went through all five of the stages of grief before he became intrigued with soil health and began to take an interest. Now he is an advocate and an enthusiast.
But my west farms tenant farmer wasn’t interested, even though I made him the same offer as my east farms farmer—to pay for him to attend conferences, buy DVDs and educate himself. So, we parted ways.
It took me three years to find another farmer for that land. Everyone I called was either filled to capacity, or didn’t want to farm with soil health principles, even if I offered financial incentives.
I was sharing a ride to yet another NoTill conference with my friend from Grass camp, Karen Willey, who grazes cattle and sheep on her acreage, and as I recited my tale of woe, she remarked that she believed there were many farmers who were eager for more land, and used soil health principles. Unfortunately, none we knew of were located near me. And just identifying who the candidates were was a problem. We began to brainstorm different ways we might solve my problem, and also solve the problem of the farmers Karen believed were out there looking for land. We decided to form a company together to work on this problem.
My business career had been with a software services company, so it was natural that I began to think of ways that software might help.
I’ll spare you all the details. Developing software is never easy and this was no exception. Two years and two programmers later, plus a graphics artist, marketing specialist and online payment specialist, and www.farmtender.us finally launched in August, 2023.
We have tested FarmTender ® extensively for ease of use. It is incredibly easy to use. FarmTender ®allows farmers to do geographical searching around a location that they pick, to see if there are any land owners near them who want regenerative farmers, and allows landowners to search for nearby regenerative farmers. Searching is free, but to obtain details and initiate conversations, you need to register. Registration is quick and easy. The cost is low (it is designed mostly to exclude online robots who troll the internet for content to copy), and we are generous with coupon codes that waive the first year’s annual fee. Once registered, you
complete a short profile so that there is something for those who find you online to read, that tells them about your farming or landowning philosophy, and other pertinent information to allow them to initiate a conversation with you. Once a conversation is established, you can move it off FarmTender® and go from there! Really, that is all there is to it.
Each page has a red link for feedback, so you can let us know immediately what you think, or if you encounter any problems.
Our promotional PDF, included with this article, has links to two short videos that explain everything about FarmTender ®. In addition, we have a coupon code for Kansas Rural Center members, “KRCFarm” that will waive the first year’s annual fee.
Please be patient as it builds participants. It will take time for word to spread and for people to post their profiles. But FarmTender® represents the easiest and simplest way for regenerative people to find each other outside of word of mouth or conferences.
Give us a try! Use code “acresfarm” or a discount, and let us know what you think. Hopefully it won’t take you three years to find your regenerative match!
William Bradley - FarmTender