2025 California Small Farm Conference

Regenerative agriculture practices can build soil health and increase the resilience of farms to climate extremes. Access to equipment and information can be a barrier to entry for farmers who wish to experiment with new practices. This workshop is led by Sarah Light, Agronomy Farm Advisor at the University of California Cooperative Extension and Nick Andrews, Organic Vegetable Specialist and former Small Farms Specialist with Oregon State University Cooperative Extension. Sarah and Nick are both members of the Western Cover Crops Council. This workshop will include comprehensive information on practical equipment considerations for managing cover crops and reducing soil disturbance in annual cropping systems including vegetable and field crop production. Equipment information for cover crop establishment, interseeding, seed size considerations, cover crop termination and incorporation, furrow management, and more will be shared. In addition, the workshop will share practical resources and tools from the Western Cover Crops Council and the University of California Cooperative Extension that farmers can use to manage cover crops and adopt other soil health practices. There is no one-size-fits all for implementing regenerative practices in a Mediterranean climate with diverse cropping systems and short crop rotations. There will be plenty of time for discussion in this workshop and participants are encouraged to bring equipment successes, challenges, concerns, and questions related to regenerative agriculture to the workshop for discussion.

There is no one metric that can be used to quantify soil health. Instead, we rely on measurements from an array of indicators to paint a picture of what is going on in the soil. With all of the options available, how do you know which tests to use? Are the results accurate? How do you put those results into context and build strong soil health on your farm? In this workshop, we will explore the various lab analyses and in-field measurements of soil health and talk about their benefits, drawbacks, and usage for farmers and technical assistance providers.
UC Cooperative Extension and UC Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program staff will share our experiences with measuring soil health and working to develop an in-field soil health assessment for farmers in Northern California.

This virtual workshop will provide a big-picture overview of key management strategies to promote apple orchard health. We will start with a 30-minute presentation that covers soil, nutrient, and water management and Integrated Pest Management strategies for insect pests and diseases focusing on organic/agroecological approaches. This will include examples and helpful photos of visual symptoms of different issues. At the end of the presentation, I will share a quick poll with the audience to ask them to rank which aspects of orchard health they'd like to hear most about from experienced apple growers. I'll share the results with everyone so we can all see which topics are highest priority. For the remainder of the time, we'll hear from a panel of small-scale commercial apple growers to learn which strategies they use in their orchards to promote orchard health, what works best for them in their context, and why. This will help show attendees what these strategies look like in practice and how strategies can be tailored to different orchard situations. After panelists feel they have covered the attendees' identified priority topics, we'll open it up for Q&A to help attendees explore how to effectively apply these strategies in their own orchards.

Cultivos de cobertura son integrales para la salud del suelo. Existen muchas especies y estrategias de cultivos de cobertura a lo largo de cada temporada. El objetivo de este taller es familiarizarse con las diferentes especies y estrategias de cultivos de cobertura en diferentes estaciones. Un panel de agricultores con experiencia en el uso de diferentes cultivos de cobertura liderará la discusión. El taller comenzará con una breve explicación de los diferentes roles de los cultivos de cobertura y su relación con la salud del suelo, la ecología microbiana y la formación de materia orgánica del suelo. Luego, cada uno de los tres agricultores compartirá sus experiencias con una de las siguientes estrategias de cultivos de cobertura: alforfón como cultivo a corto plazo entre rotaciones en el verano, trébol intercalado en surcos de verduras como brócoli y col rizada, y mostaza intercalada con fresas o verduras en el invierno.

Los tres agricultores panelistas son: Emilia Santos Pérez, propietaria de Alfa y Omega Organic Farm; Guillermo Lázaro, propietario de ALD & Y Organic Farm y Margarita Castro, propietaria de My Organic Farm. El taller será moderado por Daniel Hoffman, especialista en agricultura sostenible del Centro Nacional de Tecnología Apropiada (NCAT). Daniel tiene una M.Sc. en Ciencias de Cultivos y Suelos de la Universidad Estatal de Michigan.

Wanting to start a farm, but unsure if it’ll be successful? Full of great ideas for your farm, but struggle to implement them? Or maybe just trying to strategize your farm’s future, but don’t know where to start? Writing a business plan can dramatically increase the success of implementing your ideas and goals. The AgPlan online business planning software has multiple templates to help you organize your business into a comprehensive business plan allowing you to highlight your unique operation. Templates include value added, agritourism, commodity, and a short-term operating plan. In this workshop, we will guide you in creating a business plan to incorporate your farm vision into your operation.