sutton023

This year is a little earlier than usual, to avoid conflicts with Easter and other scheduled events. Prices are currently held at the same extremely low price of $309; $279 early-bird registration before March 15. The overall organization will be similar to the last several years ( see the 2010 page here ; you can use that order form), but we are considering holding a few concurrent sessions in order to present more advanced and specialized material. I'll post the one-page flyer for this year later today, and we will continue updating details over the next few days. Expect more coverage this year on propagation details, establishment in drought/difficult conditions, and of course machine harvest.

This Saturday, February 18, our CEO and Chief Scientist Philip Rutter will be giving a talk at the 2012 annual conference of the Sustainable Farming Association of Minnesota . Badgersett will have an exhibit table as well. Philip's talk is currently slated for 2:30, and titled: "What's All This About Hazelnuts?" The short description of the talk is as follows: "In the past few years buzz and investment in hazelnuts for the Upper Midwest have increased dramatically. All of the interest originated from the investigations started at Badgersett Farm 30+ years ago; and all the crop genetics currently producing, also. Do hybrid bush hazelnuts have a future in sustainable farming practices in Minnesota? The talk will cover whole-system theory, practices, the current state of the art, last year's first machine harvest, and several different paths forward. Is this the first real perennial agricultural crop? Badgersett is now expanding plantings, and experimenting...

Through most of the '90s, Badgersett had interns most summers. Our experience with them varied, but we had many good experiences. We stopped offering internships following a couple of less-good years, and our realization that at the time we were not able to provide the interns with enough support in their learning. This year, we are happy to announce that we are once again ready to support interns. We'll prefer upperclassmen and graduates, but really the most important traits are openness to learning, enthusiasm, and ability to work. Please feel free to cross-post this opportunity and send it along to people you think might be particularly well suited to an experience here. Cheers, Brandon ----------------------------------------------------- Woody Perennial Agriculture Internship (room & board) Badgersett Research Corporation, the originator and developer of Woody Agriculture, is looking for 2-3 sensible, motivated, inquisitive individuals for a 13 week on-farm experience....

As you know, we're experimenting with incorporating livestock of several kinds into the nut crop practices. The goal being to find pathways that make economic sense, and to sort out at what scale which practices might make sense. Livestock require attention; 365 days a year; unless you are just buying feeder stock, selling them on, and not over wintering anything. In our case, we're still learning what makes sense, and therefore we do winter chickens, guineas, the sheep, and of course the horses. About a month ago we suddenly hit an urgent need to increase the protection of our sheep from the local coyotes. In fact the first livestock we acquired were dogs- specifically trained and intended to be livestock guard animals. We have two, who are well trained (now), roam free on the farm 24 hours a day, and who have been doing a fine job of keeping predators at a distance, from both sheep and poultry. There have been coyotes here from the outset; and while the dogs have been...