Farm Success with Wholesale Accounts: Field Day and Dinner at The Village Ag Coop
Mon, Jul 08
|The Village Agricultural Cooperative
This field day learning experience at The Village Ag Coop in Rochester will cover important topics for those who want to scale up their sales: grading, packing, and record keeping. These skills will also help with obtaining loans and assistance through federal farm programs.
Time & Location
Jul 08, 2024, 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
The Village Agricultural Cooperative, 5020 70th Ave NE, Rochester, MN 55906, USA
About the event
This workshop will be an in-field demonstration of the requirements for selling to wholesale markets including, how to handle produce after harvest, how to grade produce for acceptable wholesale quality, how to pack following wholesale expectations and how to store and deliver the produce. We will also discuss the record-keeping skills that will help you succeed with wholesale accounts. These same record-keeping skills will also allow you to participate in federal farm assistance programs that can help fund storage facilities, conservation practices and infrastructure investments.
Our presenter, Ariel Pressman, has many years of experience operating his own farm where he sold to wholesale accounts. Currently, he is working with University of MN Extension to provide technical assistance to farmers to increase success in selling to wholesale accounts.
The host for this event is Valerie D, Land Access Coordinator with The Village, who is also a Go Farm Connect peer Connector. She will talk from her own experience about what is important to keep track of for managing your wholesale accounts and to qualify you for federal farm programs. Ariel and Valerie will be joined by USDA staff from the Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service who will explain disaster assistance, insurance, loans, cost share grants and other federal support available for farmers, including an explanation of the deadlines to apply for various programs.
Language interpretation is available. Please request that on the registration form.
Who Should Attend
All interested parties are invited to attend and learn, including beginning and prospective growers, family, friends, and cultural support professionals.
About Go Farm Connect
Are you lost in an alphabet soup of federal acronyms? Need help finding the right resources?
Navigating USDA programs can be overwhelming, confusing and intimidating. We get that! We've pulled together an experienced team of farmers to help you connect to the right programs. We offer FREE services that focus on different aspects of building a successful farm business. We can provide a Connector to be a personal guide, coach, and ally who shares your goal of running a successful farm operation.
Go Farm Connect is a farmer-led initiative to build relationships between historically underserved specialty crop farmers (beginning, women, veterans, BIPOC and new Americans) and federal farm agencies. Our Connectors are trained to help farms of all sizes and specialties in Minnesota and Wisconsin access agricultural assistance programs. The three-year project is led by Renewing The Countryside in partnership with the US Department of Agriculture, Farm Service Agency, and Natural Resources Conservation Service. Registration through this link is helpful so that USDA staff can be aware of what questions you might want answered. Go Farm Connect staff may take photos and videos at this event to promote programs and future events. Your RSVP gives your permission to be photographed. Please let a Connector know at the event if you want to be kept out of photos.