CAFF’s Lighthouse Farm Network builds a community of farmers and other agricultural professionals who readily share information about farming systems that are profitable yet rely less on chemicals. Farmers and other ag professionals meet at breakfast meetings, lunch meetings or field days to share technical information about biologically-based farming practices.
Farmer Resources
Workshop Presentations
EcoFarm 2012: Organic Orchard Management and IPM (purchase audio of workshop here)
Richard Molinar Presentation
UC Pest Management Guidelines: Peach Leaf Curl
UC Pest Management Guidelines: Apples Codling Moth
Torrey Olsen – Gabriel Farm Presentation
Greg House – Coco Ranch Presentation
You can also find the audio recordings of these presentations on the EcoFarm Website: EcoFarm Conference 2012
“Planting Habitat on Farms: Design, Techniques, Issues” webinar recording. This presentation from November 2012 shows a diversity of projects, focusing on established practices and Sam Earnshaw’s lessons learned from 20 years of planting habitat on farms.
Websites
Farm Business and Market Place
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Catalog
University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Free Publications
California Agriculture Online
UCCE Santa Cruz County
New Farmer Hub | Northeast Beginning Farmers
eXtension
Small Farm Program – University of California
ATTRA – National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service
Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture
Ceres Certifications International
Central Coast CRAFT
California FarmLink
Center for Land-Based Learning — California Farm Academy
Video
Dry Farming in Sonoma County
Over 80 tutorials on tractor use and attachments:
http://www.youtube.com/user/EverythingAttachment
On-Farm tutorials on a wide variety of techniques and practices from tractor attachment use, cover cropping, weed control, no-till, and other subjects. Also recorded webinars on Integrated Pest Management, organic production/research, strategies for soil borne disease, and more.
http://www.youtube.com/user/eOrganic#g/u
Videos for small farmers in the Northeast US, covering topics ranging from marketing and profitability to specific production techniques.
http://www.youtube.com/user/cornellsmallfarms#g/u
ATTRA – National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service is managed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) and is funded under a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service. It provides information and other technical assistance to farmers, ranchers, Extension agents, educators, and others involved in sustainable agriculture in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NCATATTRA#g/u
A statewide network of University of California researchers and educators dedicated to the creation, development and application of knowledge in agricultural, natural and human resources.
http://www.youtube.com/user/UCANR#g/u
Contact List
Knowing who to call for information or how to find help can be daunting tasks for any farmer, and more so for a new-entry farmer or one with limited English skills. To help farmers, especially those with small operations, limited resources and limited English skills, a unique directory was compiled by UC Cooperative Extension advisors in the Central Coast. To help steer the farmer to the right help, the directory lists agriculture-related agencies and organizations by tasks a farmer might perform, or by topic groupings. There is also a cross-referenced alphabetical listing for all entries:
English:
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/1598/19972.pdf
Spanish:
http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/1598/19973.pdf
Newsletters & Articles
“CAFF Partners with Central Coast Farmers and Ag Groups to Share Conservation and Management Techniques” – download the article here.
“CAFF works with Central Coast Vineyards to Learn About Dry-Farming and Water Conservation”- download the article here.
“Creating Balance Between Wild and Cultivated Land” – download article here.
“California’s Water Supply: Learning to Conserve” – download article here.
“Farmer Spotlight on Conservation: Giving Back to the Dirt at Golden Bear Ranches” – download article here.
Since its publication in 1994, the Small Farm Handbook has been an essential resource for California’s small farmers and the agricultural professionals advising them – selling over 4300 copies. Now this invaluable reference has been updated and expanded for today’s small-scale producers.
http://sfp.ucdavis.edu/docs/publications.asp?view=6
(Free) This study is intended as an estimate or guide, which can be helpful in evaluating management decisions related to the installation (plant establishment) and maintenance of a hedgerow planting. Hedgerow plantings are ‘living fences’ of perennial trees, shrubs and/or grasses. Hedgerows serve a variety of purposes and may be designed to accommodate site-specific conditions.
http://www.awqa.org/pubs/CostEstimates/HedgerowPlanting.pdf
(Free) Weed control demands time, labor and expense for every farmer every year. Steel in the Field shows how today’s implements and techniques can control weeds while reducing—or eliminating—herbicides. In practical language, Steel in the Field presents what farmers and researchers have learned in the last 20 years about cutting weed-control costs through improved cultivation tools, cover crops and new cropping rotations.
http://www.sare.org/index.php/content/download/29730/413972/file/steel.pdf
(Free) This 20-page bulletin helps producers—and the educators who work with them—design farm-wide approaches to control pests. It lays out basic ecological principles for managing pests and suggests how to apply them to real farm situations—along with cutting-edge research examples and anecdotes from farmers using such strategies in their fields. Co-written by a team of research scientists.
http://www.sare.org/index.php/content/download/29704/413134/file/farmpest.pdf
A number of free farm planning (Excel spreadsheets) tools from Johnny’s Seeds
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/t-InteractiveTools.aspx
Farmer Profiles
Golden Bear Ranches
Workbooks and Innovative Fact Sheets
Chapters from the Organic Farming and Gardening program at the renowned Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, University of California, Santa Cruz
http://casfs.ucsc.edu/education/instructional-resources/downloadable-pdf-files
Dry Farming Vineyards in California Fact Sheet
Food Safety and Conservation on farms Fact Sheet
“How To” Slideshows & Webinars
A tractor workshop slideshow from Blue House Farm in Pescadero, organized by the Central Coast CRAFT group. (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training).
http://www.flickr.com//photos/65140913@N02/sets/72157627063303065/show/
Photos
View photos of the November 18th Hedgerow Tour here. Or view as a slide show.
View photos from our August 22nd Dry Farm workshop at Tablas Creek Winery here.
This project is funded by the USDA