Agro-Ecology

These live webinars were recorded so that you could benefit from some wonderful conversations with professionals, and some of our own CT farmers, to have a better understanding of the ecology of your farm.  This series covers topics such as composting, how to implement no-till practices on the farm, and different methods to integrate these practices in a way that fits your farm’s operation.

Do-It-Yourself Farming

This video series visits different farms in CT that have completed small projects, looks at the different ways they have accomplished it, and shows various levels of Do-It-Yourself integrated into the work. The series focuses on such topics as Coolbot Installation, Season Extension Structures, Humane Animal Handling, and more. Each video is built around interviews with beginning farmers at their operations to showcase different design options. Viewers will gain an understanding of materials, cost-benefit analysis, structure considerations, uses, and best practices. Each topic has multiple videos in the series to explore how farmers approach projects to make it work best for their skill set and farm operation.

Farm Financial Statements

Our Farm Financial Statements video series were put together with Farm Credit East’s Director of Knowledge Exchange, Chris Laughton. In this series, Chris goes over three basic Financial Statements that every Farm Business should be aware of and can utilize to help them understand and grow their business. The four videos will give a basic intro, a look at balance sheets, income statement and cash flow budget. 

Livestock

Join us as we visit Muddy Roots Farm in Wallingford to see how they go about processing their small flock of chickens for market. This video shows the process from plucking to evisceration of their poultry and some of the methods and tools they use to make sure their process is efficient and sanitary.

Scaling Up

UConn Extension is enormously grateful to the farmers who shared their stories for this series of short videos. Our goal was to showcase a variety of ways that farmers in Connecticut have been able to get started and grow their farm business. In these stories you’ll learn about farmers that needed to find or restore farmland to expand production, build a loyal customer base for a new business, and develop their market for high quality products. See them talk about how they started and where they are now. As these videos were produced close to 10 years ago, it’s also helpful to look at these farms and see how they have progressed now!

To see more videos about how to set up your farm successfully, see our partner website, Farm Risk Management.

Transition to Organic

See how two Connecticut farms benefitted from accessing the free Transition to Organic Partnership Program through CT NOFA, and how it made the path to certification so much easier. We’ll here from a livestock farm and a vegetable/fruit production farm about what the best parts of the program were for their needs, and why they would suggest this program to other farmers. They’ll also talk about the process of getting certified and what are some things you should consider when seeking certification.

Understanding Your Soils

Soils are literally the foundation of farming. If your soils aren’t healthy, whatever you’re raising- livestock, hay, vegetables, fruit, etc. will show sign of depletion. This series is a collection of videos we put together to help you understand your soils from a basic level. There is a video on how to take a soil test, how different soils respond to heavy rainfall, and a visit to the UConn Soil Lab to understand the process of identifying the needs of our soils.